NEPAL: Creeping Progress Being made in PLA Integration & Constitution Making

NEPAL: Creeping Progress Being made in PLA Integration & Constitution Making - Update No. 217

By Dr. S.Chandrasekharan

Against heavy odds, the Madhav Nepal Government has made some sort of progress both in dealing with the complex issue of integration/rehabilitation of the PLA combatants and in drafting the new constitution.

Maoist Agitation on Civil Supremacy:

The Maoists in their true style of brinkmanship withdrew the 4^th phase of agitation for civil supremacy which involved indefinite state wide strike for preservation of independence and nationalism in the last minute, supposedly on the request of the High Level Political Mechanism represented by the three major parties.

Maoist leader Top Bahadur Raymajhi again reversed the priorities and said that the President’s unconstitutional move of reinstating the Army Chief should be the top agenda of HLPM before “national independence and national joint government.” As expected the Maoists declared that they are on the “wait and see” mode before planning their fifth phase of agitation. Prachanda on the other hand said at Sindhuli on 24^th that the movement will continue until the “achievement of national independence.” Civil supremacy is only incidental!

It appears that everybody is conspiring to see the exit of Madhav Nepal’ Government and in this while the Maoists are leading, others including GPK and even some members of the UML are doing their best to undermine the Prime Minister.

Yet Madhav Nepal’s government continues to exist (over 200 days now) and doing its bit to complete the peace process that includes integration and rehabilitation of the PLA Combatants and in drafting the new constitution. Many hurdles still remain on these two issues and it looks doubtful whether the Maoists will allow the time table to be adhered to until they lead the government again or at least remove Madhav Nepal!

High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM)

The High Level Political Mechanism headed by G.P. Koirala, Prachanda and Khanal ( representing NC, UCPN-Maoists and UML) appears to be the “Super Politburo” ignoring or marginalising even the Prime Minister who is the executive head and who is the only person who can implement the decisions of the HLPM.

It is strange that Madhav Nepal has been excluded in this mechanism and it seems both G.P.K and Jalanath Khanal have been privy to the decision of the Maoists to ignore/marginalise the Prime Minister and act like a Super Government. The Committee is finalising its own working procedure, its own secretarial staff and a code of conduct- a sort of parallel government! What is more, G.P.K is said to have directly requested UNMIN’s representative Karen Landgren to cooperate with the government in drafting the new constitution and bring the peace process to a logical end! It is not clear what cooperation GP wants from UNMIN? Is it an invitation to the UN to intervene? On top of this, there is a media report of Prachanda requesting G.P. Koirala to take over the government or to hand it over to him.

The Special Committee on Monitoring, Rehabilitation and Integration of the Maoists Combatants:

As a first move, the Committee is planning to bring all the PLA combatants under their command. This is a wise move and should have been done long ago as leaving them under the PLA commanders all these days since the cease fire has done more harm than good. It should be remembered that the government is paying their salaries since the beginning.

The second step taken by the Committee is to have a nine-member secretariat, one coordinator, three representatives from the Army, Armed Police and the Army, one representative from the Maoists and four experts. The Maoists are asking for three representatives.

Action Plan prepared by Madhav Nepal involves first ascertaining the willingness of PLA combatants. It is now almost certain that some PLA combatants may have to be taken in the security forces. The UML is for taking about 3475 individuals- a number equivalent to the number of side arms surrendered by the Maoists. The Army under the new leadership does not seem to be opposed to the induction under certain conditions.

On 24^th Jan, the Army Chief Chatra Man Gurung accompanied by Gen. Gaurav Shamsher Rana called on the Prime Minister and told the latter that they will follow the directions of the Special committee but insisted that some basic criteria will have to be followed in induction.

It is still not clear whether the Committee will be able to complete the integration by April 30the as promised by Madhav Nepal.

Constitution Making.

The eleven committees formed to provide concept papers on restructuring have completed submitted their reports. There appears to be fundamental differences on the nature of the federal set up, the basic criteria to be followed in the division of the states and even fundamental ones like nature of the executive direct or elected and in the electoral system - direct and/or mixed proportional system etc. The dead line of May 28^th is too close. With such fundamental differences it is hoped the government is making contingency plans when the interim constitution automatically lapses.

Other Issues:

The Finance and Infrastructure Development committee approved the Secretary Level decision of Nepal India to set up the Pancheshwor Project Development Authority (PDA) in Mahendra Nagar. The Cabinet has approved the TOR. ( Terms of Reference).

The Maoists have stopped the work in the upper Karnali being done by a consortium of GMR-ITD a subsidiary of India GMR Energy though India is not a beneficiary of the project. The Maoists claim that the project is not in the interest of the country.

Anti India rhetoric continues. On 24^th Prachanda made a strange accusation that late King Birendra, the former Secretary of UML- Madan Bhandari and the Kanchanpur revolutionary fighter Bhim Dutta Pant were killed as they refused to bow before the “Bidhesi Prabhu”. He went on to add that Nepal’s nationalism is on the brink of danger due to Indians!