Nepal: Constitution Making and Constitutional Crisis- Update No. 220

NEPAL: Constitution Making and Constitutional Crisis: Options: Update No.220

By Dr. S.Chandrasekharan.

It looks almost certain that the new Constitution will not be in place by May 28 as stipulated in Article 64 of the Interim Constitution.

In such an event, what happens to the government and all the infrastructure of the government that derive their powers from the interim constitution. A constitutional crisis is thus looming large.

Two persons hold the key to resolve this crisis. One is the President who will have to take over the state for the interim period until fresh elections are held again for an interim constitution. The cycle will then have to be repeated for a fresh constitution within a stipulated period. The second alternative for the President is to extend the interim constitution by another six months by an ordinance though the legal validity for such an action is questionable.

The second way would be for the parliament formed now under the interim constitution to amend article 64 of the constitution. For this a two thirds majority will be needed and this cannot be done unless Prachanda helps.

Prachanda has already made it clear that his party "will in no way help the government." In a mass meeting at Kathmandu on 6^th April, Prachanda made some points which are very interesting since those related to India and the Nepal Army. He said

* A new constitution and conclusion of peace process will still be possible. But for that, the present government should be dissolved and a national unity government is formed. He did not add, but it is known to everybody that such a national unity government will have to be led by his party.

* His Party has no enmity to Nepal Army as projected by some leaders of the ruling parties. He urged the rank and file of the Nepal Army to safeguard national sovereignty and help to make the peace and constitution making process successful. This is the first time that Prachanda has appealed to the Army directly and everyone knows that the whole crisis was created by Prachanda himself by issuing a "sack order" to the Army Chief. Strangely Gen. Katuwal now retired, stated in one of his interactions later that the Army will have to come out of the barracks if there is any violence consequent on the May 28 deadline being missed!

* His Party is not anti Indian. They only want replacement of old treaties and agreements. He also said that he was aware of the multi dimensional and age old people to people relationship between India and Nepal. His aim appears to be to get India out of the constitutional crisis that is looming and consequent repercussions!

Baburam Bhattarai in one of the subsequent meetings declared that his party is willing to sponsor any other leader of his party to head the new unity government if other parties object to Prachanda heading the government.

It looks that the Maoists are desperate to find a solution to the constitutional crisis and are perhaps aware that they more than anyone else they will be the ones to be most adversely affected.

In this process, they have separately initiated a "dialogue" with the second largest party- the Nepali Congress. On 27^th March senior leaders of both parties- Deuba, Paudel, Sushil Koirala and K. P. Situala ( the last one known for his closeness to the Maoists) of the Nepali Congress and Prachanda, Mohan Baidya, Narayan Kaji and Bhattarai of the Maoists met to resolve the contentious issues and timely drafting of the constitution to take the ongoing peace process to a logical conclusion. But it was soon discovered that there are many fundamental issues relating to the constitution that will have to be resolved. The key contentious issues continued to be on the form of governance, elections system, structure of legislation, the federal structure, inter relationship of the judiciary etc- issues that cannot be resolved within a short time that is available.

The calculation of the Maoists was that if an understanding is reached on the key issues with the second largest party-the present government could be dissolved and perhaps the new constitution or at least the outline of it could be managed under its leadership before the deadline.

But Sushil Koirala, the acting Chairman of the Nepali Congress threw cold water on these ideas when he declared as recently as 11^th of April that there will not be any change in the government.

Jhalanath Khanal, the Chairman of the other major party the UML said on the same day that prior to the promulgation of the new constitution issues relating to the integration of Maoist combatants, dissolution of the YCL of the Maoists and the return of seized properties of the Maoists will have to be looked into.

PLA integration is not getting to be easy either and the pace is very slow. It was only as recently as 29^th March, that the Special committee for PLA integration directed its technical unit to come up with a package for those to be rehabilitated and those who seek voluntary retirement.

Meanwhile, steps are being taken for fresh recruitment in the Nepal Army which is a clear violation of the peace agreement! The Maoists are likely to react very strongly.