7/31/2019 Nepali Parties in Blame

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Nepali parties in blame-game

Even as Nepali citizens woke up on Monday morning to a new uncertain future with the Constituent

Assembly dissolved and the constitution not written, political parties traded accusations and failed to

arrive at a common road map. The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) blamed

reactionaries' for stalling a federal constitution. The Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal

(Unified Marxist Leninist) said that they saw the CA dissolution as Maoist conspiracy to capture

state power'.

Organising a press conference, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda' said that his party

had tried to save the CA till the very end, and had even contemplated imposing an emergency to

extend the CA's tenure. But ultimately, he argued, The only democratic option was going for

elections. We went by the Supreme Court verdict which had suggested fresh polls as an alternative if

the constitution was not written.

Mr Prachanda said that the core problem was NC and UML did not understand the essence of

federalism' and were scared' of it. How can we write a constitution which does not address theaspirations of a large segment of our population? I did not compromise on the issues of ethnic

minorities and oppressed in the country. He added the Maoists would fight polls on the plank of

identity based federalism among other issues, and predicted a two-thirds majority for the party.

Categorically rejecting any chance of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai resigning, the Maoist

chairman, however, said he was confident of a deal. The other parties will be angry for a few days,

but ultimately there is no alternative to an agreement. They will join a national unity government

NC, UML and smaller Right-wing fringe parties met on Monday and condemned the government for

unconstitutionally' declaring elections.

The parties called for the PM's immediate resignation, and said that in the absence of parliament, the

government had no legitimacy or constitutional basis. Co-chairman of the Rashtriya Janashakti

Party, Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, told The Hindu , I see it as the third attempt by the Maoists to

capture state power. The first was during the army chief episode; the second during the May 2010

strike; and this is according to Bhattarai's road map of taking over power by crushing state

institutions. An NC leader, on the condition of anonymity, said that they hoped the President would

step in and counter the government and the party's current efforts were centred on creating an

environment for it. The deepening political battle, and a possibility of confrontation between existing

institutions, has thrown into question the prospects of a timely election.

One of Nepal's senior-most bureaucrats toldThe Hindu

, The interim constitution did not envisagesuch a situation. There is no platform left to amend it either. Everything has to happen according to

political consensus even to get to the election stage. Otherwise, there will be legal challenges.

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