| by Dr.
S.Chandrasekharan
( October 19,
2012, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Having realised that the political
parties are incapable of coming to an understanding on the future course of
action despite unending meetings, President Yadav appears to have taken the
initiative to end the current political impasse. He has called for a crucial
meeting today at 9.AM at his residence of the four major parties, the UCPN (M),
the Nepali Congress, the UML and the Madhesi forum as well as over 20 other
parties represented in the dissolved assembly to discuss the future course of
action.
Earlier in the
meeting of 30th September, he expressed his dissatisfaction over their failure
of the political leaders to strike a deal on the future course of action and
remarked that the "country could no longer be held hostage." He also
added that if the parties cannot strike an agreement they should tell him how
and when he should make the move to put an end to the current uncertainty. He
had pointed out earlier that the government cannot be run on a care taker basis
for long. The government cannot be run by ordinances alone.
The political
parties gave themselves a dead line of October 16th and promised to come to
some definite understanding, but nothing came out of the meetings. The parties
could not even come to an agreement whether the future course of action should
be through elections or through the resurrection of the "dead" constituent
assembly. While Deuba of the Nepali Congress, Ex. Speaker Nembang and even Vice
President Jha were strongly in favour of revival of the CA, all others
particularly Dahal of the UCPN (M) were swinging from revival to fresh
elections almost on a daily basis.
This controversy
of revival vs. fresh elections was finally put to rest when President Yadav on
16th October made it clear that the dissolved parliament cannot be resurrected
at any cost!
The same day he
also called the Prime minister to clear any misunderstanding the PM may have
had with President’s utterances. PM Bhattarai had also forgotten that he is
only a caretaker Prime Minister and cannot make major decisions in the absence
of a regular parliament. Bhattarai’s remarks that President should restrict
himself only to ceremonial functions were ill advised and positively offensive
little realising that the President is the only constitutional head left in the
country to take decisions. Little noticed but equally offensive was the
position of the ruling party UCPN (M) that they cannot accept a Nepali Congress
leader to lead the elections as that would result in having Nepali Congress
representatives both as Prime Minister and the President! This was in bad taste
as at no time has the President shown any special consideration for the Nepali
Congress - the party where he had spent all his political life earlier.
Even if it is
decided to go for fresh elections, there are many issues that need to be
solved. The first is the leadership of the government. It should be apparent
that the Maoists will not let go the position of the Prime ministership until
the elections are completed. It is also equally clear that the next biggest
party- the Nepali Congress will not allow fresh elections unless it is allowed
to lead the government. Perhaps a compromise could be found in having in some
neutral person like a retired supreme court judge or a well-respected
bureaucrat or public person to head the government. This suggestion has already
come from one of the current ministers of the coalition- Rajendra Mahato.
There are other
issues too on fresh elections like amendment to the interim constitution,
amendment to electoral laws, number of seats to the assembly, date, electoral
system ( first to post or proportionate or a mix of both) and the duration. At
any rate, elections cannot be held before April next year.
At last and
finally, the integration process is over and this is a major development and an
achievement. All the 28 PLA camps have been closed. In all 1388 combatants have
been accepted at the recruit level and another 75 at the officer’s level. All
of them have been given 53 days leave and then to report for training on 21st
November. It looks that it may bot be necessary now to have a special
directorate to accommodate the PLA combatants. Credit for completing the
integration goes to the Maoists and particularly to Dahal and PM Bhattarai,
adhering for once to their promise!
 Having realised that the political parties are incap...){kind=link}