Nepal: Political Parties continue to be in disarray. Update-25
by Dr. S. Chandrasekharan
Taking advantage of the disarray amongst the political parties, the
King continues to consolidate his hold on the government and the
administration while the Maoists, confident of the government and the
political parties being compelled to come round to their point of view,
are making preparatory moves for the peace talks and at the same time
continuing to put pressure on the security forces and the administrative
machinery of the government.
In the present crisis Nepal, there are three major Actors- firstly the
King and his pliant government, second- the political parties and third
the Maoists. While the King and the Maoists are following a clear agenda,
the political parties are still struggling to come to terms with the post
October 4 scenario after the royal proclamation which made them
irrelevant.
The King tightens his grip over the administration: Media reports
indicate that the King granted an audience to the entire cabinet on 7th
and reminded them of the five tasks given to the new government. It is
also said that the King expressed his displeasure towards some ministers
for speaking carelessly on topics on which they had no knowledge or
competence. The cabinet soon after, appointed Minister for Information and
Communications, Ramesh Nath Pandey as the government’s spokesperson to
disseminate information relating to the government.
In an earlier update 24 of 25th November, we had reported
that the cabinet took the extraordinary step to amend the regulations
relating to the carrying out of different official tasks and endorsing a
system by which all tasks are first presented before the King for his
prior approval.
Another ordinance was promulgated on November 27th by the
Council of ministers empowering the King to increase royal household
expenditure and facilities by himself, a situation that was prevalent
before 1990. Before this ordinance, the cabinet was responsible for
recommending expenditure relating to the royal household which then was
included in the budget. The present ordinance is said to reactivate the
1974 Act with a major change -that it no longer requires a committee to
make recommendations to increase the royal expenditures.
A more significant development though in the infant stage is the
revival of pro monarchy students’ groups reminiscent of Panchayat days
when such students with official support were running riot and specially
targeting pro-democracy students. The Nepal Nationalists Students Union (NNSU)
organised its first public programme in Kathmandu on 1st
December. The organisers announced that the students’ union will be
expanded nation wide at the district, zonal and regional levels. In the
function organised at Kathmandu, the speakers emphasised that monarchy is
an integral part of the country and that with the King having shouldered
the responsibility in this hour of crisis in Nepal, the students should
become conscious and get together to bring the nation out from current
critical situation.
The political parties on the other hand are unable to come together to
work out a common agenda and though there are no takers each one is
offering a different solution. The Nepali Congress of G.P.Koirala is
still harping on the demand of the reinstatement of the dissolved House of
Representatives as the only way to resolve the current crisis. In the
first public meeting organised by the party after the royal take over, he
said that monarchy will be in danger if the King " attempts to swim
against the current." He appealed to all other parties to forge a
broad democratic alliance. His appeal has so far been ignored. On another
occasion on November 28, at Birgunj, Koirala hinted that his party may
even consider going for a republic if the King failed to rectify the
errors he committed in dissolving the National assembly. Other members of
the party have also started criticising the monarchy with the lead given
by Koirala. Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat said on the same day that "future of
monarchy would be highly uncertain if the monarch did not behave as
envisioned in the constitution."
Not to be outdone, the breakaway group of Nepali Congress (democratic)
orgainsed a placard carrying rally in Kathmandu on December 6 and the main
demand was "reinstatement of Deuba government."
The UML of Madhav Nepal also threatened to start a "united
movement" if the King does not rectify the constitutional errors and
keeps ignoring the political parties. Needless to say that the UML lost
the most with the royal proclamation. With the Nepali Congress vertically
split, the UML would have romped home if elections had been held in
November as scheduled. An impressive rally was organised by the UML on 6th
December at Kathmandu and another at Pokhara. Adopting a middle position
Madhav Nepal while not agreeing with the demands of the Maoists for a
constituent assembly said that the present crisis could be solved by
progressive reforms in the Constitution. He did not spell out what changes
he had in mind. He was probably referring to Article 127 of the
Constitution on which the royal proclamation of October 4 was based, as he
said that monarchy and active politics cannot go together.
The problem of the political parties is that they are sandwiched
between the "devil and the deep sea." There is realisation that
Nepal is going through a very critical stage, with the Maoists dominating
and consolidating their hold in the country side and in areas in and
around Kathmandu. They are also aware that if they do nothing, the
monarchy will continue to assert itself to pre 1990 situation thus
dissipating all the gains the parties had made. But they need to put their
acts together. They do make regular statements that the parties will have
to have a common programme, but nothing happens on the ground.
G.P. Koirala in one of his rare statements observed that the current
political scenario was much akin to the one prevailing at the time when B
P.Koirala returned from political exile from India in 1976. Then what did
the Nepali Congress do? In a referendum that followed that gave people a
choice between party less and multi party system of government,
B.P.Koirala turned down in disdain the offer of other political groups to
lobby for the multi party together and instead decided to go it alone. The
result- the multi party group lost by about five percent and it took
another decade and much blood shed before multiparty democracy was
introduced. It is GP who should learn from the events following 1976.
The Maoists on the other hand are keeping up the pressure. The
students’ wing of the Maoists- the All Nepal National Independent
Students Union -Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) has gone for an indefinite strike
in the valley commencing from 8th December. In anticipation of
the strike, all the schools in the valley have been closed. The students
have threatened to strike all over Nepal from next week. Among other
things one main demand is the removal of "terrorist tag" on
their union.
In another "brazen" incident, two gun wielding Maoists
entered the meeting hall, in Kathmandu where a programme organised by the
journalists to discuss the threatened strike by the Maoists students was
going on, blackened the face of the Joint Secretary, Education of the
government and threatened him by pointing the guns before leaving the
scene- all in the presence of fifty and odd journalists! In another
incident the central office of the Tribhuvan University was bombed in the
early hours of 29th November.
Prachanda the leader of the Maoists issued a statement that the party
has formed a high level dialogue committee to hold peace talks with the
government. The statement continued that the committee is being formed
"for a peaceful, positive and progressive political outlet . . . to
hold talks with the government, provided a conducive environment is
ensured." He has however not given up the three major demands namely-
round table conference, formation of an interim government and election to
the constituent assembly. Another important development was his
undertaking that Maoists will target infrastructures linked to people’s
welfare henceforth.
