Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays OnIssue 12, March 18, 2012 [Part - 1 to part -7]

Part I

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

The Nepalese politics had been at the crossroads several times before; once again it is at the crossroads, as the deadline for completing the peace process and the constitution writing is coming nearer everyday but the politicians have deadlocked on these tasks. It has been now clear more than ever before that politicians have been only after power but not completing the noble tasks of the peace process and the constitution writing. When Dr. Baburam Bhattarai became the fourth prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in November 2011, most of the Nepalis had anticipated that the transnational period would soon end and Nepal would have a new constitution and would go for general elections but after four months most of the contentious issues of a new constitutions remained as they were, and political leaders were not for stepping back from their stand on the issues. Political wrestling has continued. Dr. Baburam Bhattarai stays on.

Again we are back at the crossroads of the Nepalese politics, and don’t know which way the Nepalese politics would take. Chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-Nepal) Kamal Thapa has prophesized that either the Nepal Army or the Maoists would take over, according to the news posted on Nepalnews.com on March 12, 2012. This might be his wishful thinking but this prophecy might have a little chance to come true. Nepalis have been politically very sensitive. They would not allow any dictatorship; they would force the political leaders to sit down and complete the two noble tasks of the peace process and the constitution writing.

The question is whether it would be possible to complete the constitution writing within the given time of the deadline of May 27, 2012 or not. If the procedures of the constitution writing have to follow then the remaining two and a half months are not surely enough. Chairman of Constitutional Committee Nilamber Acharya has declared that a new constituent would not be completed by May 27, 2012 according to the news posted on ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 12, 2012. However, Chairman of Constituent Assembly Subash Nemwang has not given up the hope of completing the constitution writing within the remaining period. He has urged the politicians to cut short the procedures of the constitution-writing asking them to bypass the Article 70 of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 to make the timely promulgation of the constitution possible, as following the current timetable, promulgation of

the constitution by May 27 would be impossible even if the political parties build a consensus according to another news posted on ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 12, 2012. President of Nepali Congress (NC) Sushil Koirala most probably has a magic wand, as he has claimed that he could complete the peace process and the constitution writing within a week if his party is given the chance of heading a new government, the news on ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 12, 2012 says. If he has such a magic wand why not use it for forcing out Dr. Bhattarai from power and take the reign in his hands and complete these two noble tasks. If he could do such things his idol would be placed above all the martyrs and would be recognized as the Supreme Leader of Nepal of all times.  Rather than doing so he has asked the Maoists to pave the way for a national unity government giving his party the lead position. Would the Maoists do so? Certainly not, the Maoists have fought the ten-year war for grabbing the power, now they are in power and they have strengthened their grip on power consolidating the coalition of their UCPN-Maoist with UDMF (United Democratic Madheshi Front). Most probably, the Maoists would not listen to President of NC Koirala and let him use his magic wand for completing the peace process and the constitution writing within seven days as he has claimed. However, the Maoists might continue to rule the country even after the expiry of the deadline for making a new constitution following the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007.

President of NC Sushil Koirala has prophesized that the constitution writing would not be completed without his party leading the government according to the news posted on ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 12, 2012. He also has claimed that his party needs to lead the government for building a consensus on the reconciliation.  However, he did not bother to explain what the reconciliation meant. His party lawmakers have been opposing everything the Maoists do even the broadening of roads in Kathmandu stating the Maoists have been promoting anarchism and corruption in the country instead of resolving the political crises. He also has charged the Maoists with the failure in the army integration but the truth is the Maoist Prime Minister has already sent combatants to home vacating 13 cantonments so far. The strange thing is the man that could make prophesy of completing the peace process and the constitution writing by the government led by his party, could not see the current phenomena of sending the combatants home happening under his nose. It looks that the NC leaders would not allow the UCPN-Maoist and UDMF to move forward, and complete the peace process and the constitution writing without having a chance to lead a government in other words they want the change in the governance than completing the peace process and the constitution writing.

President of NC Koirala also has said that the Maoist leaders have engaged in the politics of bargaining. As a leader of one of the old political parties, Mr. Koirala needs to understand that every politician would take the opportunity of taking benefits from the current political situation. If the NC leaders have not been bargaining with other leaders why they continue to

stick to their stand on the system of governance, state restructuring and on the army integration causing the deadlock on completing the peace process and the constitution writing. Negotiation means giving and taking. The question is why the NC leaders don’t start off giving something to the UCPN-Maoist and UDMF at the same time taking other things from them. Another question is why the NC leaders don’t want to give anything to the UDMF leaders of even their just demand for including the Madheshis in the army, police and civil services in proportion to their population. Currently, jobholders in these three state machineries are skewed to Brahmins, Chhetris and Newars (Nevahs).

Mr. Koirala also has said that his party is not ready to follow unethical path to reach power and engage in unfair politics to form the government, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 12, 2012 quotes him. The truth is nobody turns over the power to Mr. Koirala; so, he needs to mobilize the majority votes in the parliament first to move the current government out of office by the no-confidence move and then form a new government by the majority votes in the current political situation. His party has the votes slightly more than one sixth of the total votes. So, he needs the support of almost all political parties except the Maoists to garner the majority in the parliament. In the current situation, even the CPN-UML leaders might not like to return the favor the NC leaders have given them supporting the man rejected by the voters in two constituents for running the country and making him even a strong leader again even though he had no people’s mandate for being the prime minister. He is Mr. Madhav Nepal that has stayed in power for 20 months doing nothing for completing the peace process and the constitution writing thanks to the strong support of Mr. Koirala’s party. UDMF leaders would not be surely in favor of the NC leading the government, as the NC leaders have not been for meeting the just demands of the Madheshis for having a piece of the pie of the governance they rightfully deserve in proportion to the population. So, Mr. Koirala whether he follows the unethical path to reach power or engage or not in unfair politics to form a new government, he would not be able to form a new government until all political parties except for the Maoist party support him for forming a new government. Certainly, if he manages to get the favor of the UCPN-Maoist leaders, he could form a new government without any troubles. Thus, Mr. Koirala has the choice of mobilizing the support of all political parties in the parliament or of the UCPN-Maoist for forming a new government. He has no other ways either ethical or unethical to get to power, whether he engages in unfair or fair politics for forming a government. However, both of these options are unlikely to happen soon.

He has urged the Maoists to implement the earlier peace agreements and has asked them to follow the path of peace according to the news posted on ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 12, 2012. If Mr. Koirala were wise enough to understand that enforcing any agreement was not the responsibility of one party only, he would have never said so; agreements are between two or more parties. Most of the recent agreements are reached among the four major power

centers such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF. Enforcement of any deals would not be possible without all parties involved in any deal sincerely acting to do so. Blaming one party or another for not conforming the previous deals only shows that Mr. Koirala himself has not complying with the previous deals. Certainly, he could have forced other parties to comply with all the past agreements if he himself has done so, and he has been sincere to the values and ideals of democracy and the rule of law. 

He has said that his party would never accept the ethnic-based federal system and added, "The new federal system will be formed on the basis of identity and power," ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 12, 2012 quotes Mr. Koirala. If Mr. Koirala has read the history of Nepal, the ethnic Nepalis have suffered from the repression for 240 years of the Shah rule including the 20-year reign of Mr. Koirala’s party. During this period, the rulers mostly the Brahmins and Chhetris have their monopoly on the use of the national resources for their luxurious lives leaving the majority of Nepalis in poverty and destitute. Now, the ethnic Nepalis simply want to get rid of such repression and develop their socio-economic conditions. It does not matter whether you name the federal states by the ethnic names or by any other names you have to give them the power to run their states as they need to otherwise the ethnic Nepalis would not live you in peace. The problem is that Mr. Koirala and his party don’t want the federal system. That is why they have been using any possible excuse to stop Nepal from being a federal state. That is one of the reasons why the previous agreements have not been enforced. So, if Mr. Koirala is sincere to enforce the previous agreements then he should agree on forming federal states giving full power to these states. Mr. Koirala saying, "The new federal system will be formed on the basis of identity and power," has failed in explaining what is identity and power. If the ethnicity is not an identity what is the identity Mr. Koirala means. What power means for him? Mr. Koirala needs to say whether it means the absolute power to him and his party. Now, the power is with the Nepalese people including all the ethnic Nepalis; so, the federal states should be in the hands of the people.

Senior leader of NC Sher Bahadur Deuba has suggested promulgating a revised version of the Constitution of Nepal of 1990 without monarchy but incorporating the clauses defining republic setup, federalism, secularism and presidency in case the new constitution couldn't be drafted within the May 28 deadline according to the news posted on the Reviewnepal.com on March 14, 2012. Mr. Deuba has no ability to manage dispute. So, it is not surprising to have such wild suggestions from Deuba for making a new constitution just cutting and pasting something to the Constitution of Nepal of 1990. Mr. Deuba had a dispute with President of NC Sushil Koirala over Mr. Koirala dissolving the district committees of the sister organizations of the NC. Most of the dissolved committee members were the supporters of Deuba. So, it was natural to have a dispute over the dismissal of his supporters with his rival Koirala but Mr. Deuba gave in to Koirala after making some noises for reinstatement of the

dissolved committees. Mr. Deuba became prime minister three times. He became prime minister for the first time thanks to the weakness of his predecessor Girija Prasad Koirala that could not manage the squabbling of rival leaders for power in his party and went to midterm polls that became disastrous to Girija Koirala. The second time, Mr. Deuba took the office of prime minister was after the royal massacre on June 1, 2001 because Girija Koirala as the prime minister could do nothing to stop such massacre and then could not hold any impartial investigation into the annihilation of the monarch and his family mercilessly, and gave in to the new Shah ruler. Consequently, Girija Koirala stepped out of the office and Mr. Deuba stepped in. Then, Mr. Deuba dissolved the elected parliament calling for general elections in November 2002 allegedly on the advice of the then-Shah ruler Gyanendra. Girija Koirala as the president of the NC fired Deuba from the party membership for not consulting him before dissolving the parliament. In fact, dissolving the parliament, Deuba paved the way for the then-ruler Gyanendra Shah to grab the power later on. When Deuba went to Gyanendra Shah recommending him to cancel the general elections in view of the ongoing conflict with the Maoists, Gyanendra Shah simply fired him calling him the incompetent. Deuba claimed that Gyanendra could not fire him because he was the elected prime minister but he could not stand on it for long. The third time Deuba became prime minister was when Gyanendra appointed him again to the office of prime minister only to fire him again later on. So, Deuba was not a man of principles; as a result he could suggest anything but Nepalis would not take him seriously. We don’t know how many followers he has in his party but the news has been in the Nepalese newspapers that his strong supporter Govinda Raj Joshi has left him for Sushil Koirala. By the way, the state anti-corruption agency called Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority has dragged Mr. Joshi to the law court for abuse of power during his term of office of minister for education. Gyanendra Shah imprisoned Deuba with charges of corruption until the people’s movement forced Gyanendra to step down. However, Deuba managed to get elected during the elections to the Constituent Assembly cum parliament in April 2008 unlike his rival Sushil Koirala that lost the elections.

In fact, Deuba was not the first person to propose reviving the Constitution of Nepal of 1990, late Girija Prasad Koirala had proposed reviving the Constitution of Nepal of 1990, later his daughter Sujata Koirala also had suggested reviving the Constitution of Nepal of 1990 rather than having a political wrangle for making a new constitution. Girija Prasad Koirala and his daughter Sujata Koirala wanted to revive the Constitution of Nepal of 1990 in its totality, means reviving the constitutional monarchy, too. Thus, we can see the real pictures of these NC guys not much different from of Chairman of RPP-Nepal Kamal Thapa that has been relentlessly advocating for the reinstatement of the monarchy that has been dead and has no chance of coming back to life again no matter who says what. Gyanendra was not for spending even a dime on his supporters. Kamal Thapa has already difficulty in holding

rallies, as he has a little money left he has grabbed from the state coffer when he was a home minister in the cabinet of Gyanendra. The few people we have seen shouting slogans in favor of Gyanendra wherever he visited were the people that had benefited from Gyanendra in power. They anticipated that the return of Gyanendra to power was still possible and if that happened they would benefit from it again.

We could understand Chairman of RPP-Nepal Kamal Thapa going for reviving the monarchy but it was hard to figure out the reasons for Girija and his daughter opting for bringing back the dead monarchy because one monarch after had treated the NC party as a foe rather than an ally that advocated for the constitutional monarchy. Most probably, the NC party had no courage to run the country without the shadow of the monarchy or had fear of the communists taking over the country or might be both. Girija had removed the provision for the constitutional monarchy from the statute of the NC only after the tremendous pressure the Maoists had put on him for declaring Nepal a republic, and joined the Maoists and others to declare Nepal a republic in 2008.

Talking to reporters at his residence in Kathmandu on Thursday morning, March 15, 2012, Nepali Congress (NC) senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba ruled out the possibility of federalism in the country, and said that elections should be conducted for fresh mandate if the constitution could not be promulgated by May 27 according to the news posted on Thehimalayantimes.com on March 15, 2012. If this news is correct then Mr. Deuba has been a half mad. Mr. Deuba is not different from the insane leaders of the Rastriya Janamorcha Party that have been launching a movement against the federalism. 

Another news on the Thehimalayantimes.com of March 15, 2012 says that the shutdown called by the Rastriya Janamorcha Party’s Mechi-Koshi against federalism has sparked protests (of supporters of federalism) today. Supporters of federalism and locals of major cities in Mechi and Koshi zones have fought back the strikers. However, the call of the shutdown has affected the regular life in the morning, federalists descended on the protesters in the daytime. In Dhankuta, supporters of Limbuwan and locals descended on the protesters on the road. At the call of Limbuwan supporters, some businesses opened and some vehicles plied. Federalists have done the same thing in other parts of eastern Nepal and stopped the protestors reappearing on the streets according to the news posted on the Thehimalayantimes.com.

After a meeting held in Kathmandu on March 15, 2012, UDMF leaders have said that UDMF would not accept any constitution without federalism because a constitution without

federalism would go against the aspirations of the people for federalism that has been the goal of the decade-long people’s war, popular April uprising of 2006 and Madhesh revolution, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 16, 2012 reports.

The news posted on Thehimalayantimes.com on March 16, 2012 says that seven political parties including Madhesi People’s Rights Forum-Nepal (MPRF-N) have warned that constitution sans federalism, and federalism sans identity, right to self-determination and autonomy won’t be acceptable. In a news conference held in Kathmandu, on Friday, March 16, 2012, MPRF-Nepal, Tamsaling Nepal, Nepal Rastriya Dal, Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch, Rastriya Janamukti Party, Nepa: Rastriya Party and Nepal Nagarik Party have given such warning, stating the top political parties have been acting against federalism with identity, working to reinstate the constitution of 1990 and conspiring to establish the unitary and centralized nation by pushing the country into shambles after dissolving the Constituent Assembly (CA).

In the face of the people’s aspirations for federalism, speaking against the federalism, Mr. Deuba has shown his mental instability. If he is really sane then he must have been incited by somebody to be so bold to say such nonsense in public. If Mr. Deuba were really sane, he would not make such an insensible statement even though he has a support from somebody for such thing, as he knew that none of the force could stop the Nepalis from making Nepal a federal state. The truth is anybody trying to do so would end up in a disaster.

Under the veil of opposing the federal states on the ethnic lines, Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal also has been going against the federalism. Mr. Khanal is not one of the unwise leaders but his belief in the disintegration of Nepal into pieces if it were divided into federal states makes him not much different from other half mad leaders of Rastriya Janamorcha Party and even from Mr. Deuba concerning the federalism. Mr. Khanal has been very smart to win the elections to his party chairman by hook or crook if we were to believe his rival Mr. KP Oli that has publicly charged Khanal with using 500 bogus votes to win the election to the Chairman of his party. Mr. Khanal has also managed to be in the office of prime minister for six months riding on the shoulder of Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda. Mr. Khanal has been very famous prime minister for doing nothing of not only the peace process and the constitution writing but also of other regular state affairs except of course for appointing his henchmen to the office of vice-chairs of various state-run universities during his term of office of prime minister for six months.

Even some of the so-called leaders of UCPN-Maoist have publicly said that the federal states on ethnic lines would not be good for the country. Certainly, these guys have rights to speak

up their ideas publicly following the democratic norms and values but the question is why the UCPN-Maoist that has waged ten-year people’s liberation war and has been advocating for ethnic-based federal states has not taken actions against the leaders that have gone against the ethnic-based federal states publicly. The suspicion is whether the UCPN-Maoist has the second thought on the ethnic-based federal states and the top leaders are shy to say so publicly, so they use the less significant leaders to tell the public that the UCPN-Maoist also has been not for the ethnic-based federal states. Would the UCPN-Maoist also follow the footprints of the NC and CPN-UML leaders that have been deadly against the ethnic-based federal states in particular and against the federalism in general? If it is so then every Nepali needs to be braced up for another conflict between the pro and against ethnic-based federalism.

to be continued in part II

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Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays On-Part IIIssue 13, March 25, 2012

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

“PM Bhattarai’s government could be extended till May 28 if he dared to take revolutionary steps to conclude peace process,” Senior CPN-UML leader and Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal told the reporters during the interaction held by Reporters Club here (Kathmandu), the news posted on ‘The Himalayan Times’ on March 12, 2012 says. Madhav Nepal talks as a kingmaker but not only he has no people’s mandate but also his party. Voters had rejected him not only at one constituency in Kathmandu but also in another constituency in his home district called Siraha. Even if he has the people’s mandate he could not make or break a government, as his CPN-UML is only the third largest party in the parliament. He had been a freak prime minister for about 20 months riding on the shoulders of the NC leaders but he could not be grateful to the NC leaders. In fact, Madhav Nepal could take the office of prime minister because of the faulty approach of Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda to the political problems because Prachanda made Madhav Nepal the chairman of the Constitutional Committee without ascertaining the result of making such a shady person as the chairman of such a responsible office. One of the sincere CPN-UML members of the Constituent Assembly was forced to quit the office for making room for Madhav Nepal to get

appointed to the member of the Constituent Assembly. Immediately after Prachanda quitting the office of prime minister, NC and CPN-UML elected Madhav Nepal to the office of Prime Minister insulting the people’s mandate and going against the people’s aspirations for good governance. As the then-Deputy Prime Minister, Madhav Nepal had been very smart to order his Minister for Agriculture CP Mainali in 1995 to upload Rs 20 million in his bank account from the budget of the Minister for Agriculture but the sincere minister publicly said that he refused to do so. Maybe, for that reason, CP Mainali had to leave the CPN-UML and form a small party of his own. Madhav Nepal applied for the office of prime minister stating he was the most qualified person when the then Gyanendra Shah as the head of state called for the applications from the eligible persons for the office of prime minister in 2004 but unfortunately somebody got the office of the prime minister not Madhav Nepal.  As the second prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in 2009, Madhav Nepal (Madhav’s family name is Nepal, too) has reversed almost all the most reasonable and good decisions made by the government of Prachanda. He grabbed everything possible to fill up his bank accounts even though he had recently said that he had not taken anything and let the state anti-corruption agency called Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) take a look at his assets. He is a smart guy so he would not leave any clues behind so he dared to challenge CIAA to investigate his assets but common folks would not believe in what he said. He is a man of tricks he plays every possible tricks on leaders to make him a most important person but he could not do so to the voters. He made a lot of money letting his Home Minister Bhim Rawal to hire 16,000 additional police to the Nepal Police. Anybody could imagine how many millions even billions of rupees required for buying the uniforms, boots and so for these 16,000 police. In Nepal, everybody knows that ministers and prime minister make huge money out of such a purchase. So, nobody would believe in what he said that he had not made any money out of it. He took the whole cabinet to the mountain called Kalapathar near the Mount Everest to hold a cabinet meeting on environment. His Minister for Forest and Environment said that the government did not spend even a dime but the private companies had paid for it. Nobody believes such announcement of such shady ministers in Nepal. Through his Defense Minister, Madhav Nepal promoted the army commander allegedly involved in the enforced disappearance of a number of people to the second-in-command of the Nepal Army, and he did not submit another Nepal Army major wanted by the Kavre District Court for killing a teenager going against the demand of national and international human rights organizations for surrendering these allegedly criminals to the Courts of law. Madhav Nepal did nothing to complete the peace process and the constitution writing during his 20-month term of office. However, he did manage to publish volumes of his speeches at the cost of the office of prime minister. His cabinet members were the most corrupt politicians of the past and present generations. Perhaps, a few people believe in what he says.

On Saturday, March 17, 2012, some members of the UCPN-Maoist led by Secretary to UCPN-Maoist CP Gajurel held a press conference at the Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu to publicly demand the ouster of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai from the office of prime minister saying the government led by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has been anti-national. Secretary Gajurel has said that Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda had promised to do away with the current government in a week but he did not do so even after a month has passed since he made such a promise and finally Prachanda said that he could not do so. So, Secretary Gajurel said that he held the press conference to give the prime minister an ultimatum to step down from the office within a week otherwise they would launch a street protest against the prime minister. However, Vice-chairman of UCPN-Maoist Mohan Vaidya Kiran and another Secretary to UCPN-Maoist Ram Bahadur Thopa Badal did not show up at the press conference indicating the possibility of they were not in favor of such drastic approach to the current government of another Vice-chairman of UCPN-Maoist Dr. Baburam Bhattarai or they were out of the Kathmandu Valley. At the same time, Vice-chairman Kiran said that he was not seeking the office of prime minister. He might be telling the truth because he quit the office of the member of the Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament for wholly engaging in the party affairs but he had been advocating for the current prime minister leaving the office. However, the reasons given for the prime minister quitting the office were not so convincing. He had said that Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai had started the army integration surrendering everything to the opposition parties, which was not convincing at all. You should not keep the Maoist combatants and their weapons, too if the combatants were to be integrated. Once, Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai said that the high offices of army were not the bottom line to the army integration. Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda also had said in the same line. Once Secretary Gajurel sarcastically said that if Prachanda had continued to be the Commander of the Maoists he would have received the position of major in the Nepal Army. That might be the reasons for delay in the full army integration, and the prime minister and the Maoist Chief had to negotiate with the leaders of other political parties particularly the NC and CPN-UML for the office of different level of Nepal Army ranks to the Maoists’ commanders. NC and CPN-UML leaders have reiterated to continue the army integration following the seven-point agreement they have signed with Maoist on November 1, 2011. That agreement does not say anything about the ranks of the Nepal Army the Maoists’ commanders would get. However, recently, President of NC Sushil Koirala said in public that he would accept the rank up to the position of colonel to the Maoists’ commanders while Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal in public, too said that he would accept only up to the major to the Maoists’ commanders. The Maoists are not for back tracking from their demand for the ranks of up to brigadier general. That might be one of the reasons for moving the peace process so slowly to the completion. Once Secretary CP Gajurel has said that the UCPN-Maoist has lost many things such as the revolutionary council, Maoists’ local

governments and Maoists’ people’s courts and so on but it has not gained anything. However, he has ignored or not realized that currently the Maoists have everything including the state power. Vice-chairman Mohan Vaidya Kiran and Secretary CP Gajurel were landed in the Indian jail when they attempted to fly to the Scandinavian countries in false passports from the southern Indian city called Chennai. They had a program on mobilizing resources and public opinions in the Scandinavian countries. Only after Prachanda became the first prime minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in 2008, the Indian government released them from the prison at the request of Prachanda. Answering the question of reporters how the Indian government had treated him, CP Gajurel said, “as the terrorist.” Demanding the resignation of the prime minister of his own party what really CP Gajurel as the secretary to the UCPN-Maoist wants to do with it is not so clear to the people that have no access to the UCPN-Maoist. Vice-chairman Kiran has said that he wants to form a government acceptable to all political parties even led by the NC but Gajurel has said that he is talking to the NC and the CPN-UML folks concerning the formation of a new government. These two guys Kiran and Gajurel would be better off to go to the parliament and table a no-confidence motion against Dr. Bhattarai and remove him from the office and make a new government rather than threatening the government to launch a street protest means giving troubles to common folks. Nepalis are not for supporting any street movements; so, Kiran and Gajurel need to respect the people’s sentiment and do something else to tear down the current government rather than resorting to the street protest going against the people’s will.

At the same time, speaking at the public interaction program in Kathmandu, the political advisor to Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has made it clear that the prime minister is not going to leave the office until a consensus is built on forming a new government or they table a no-confidence motion against him in the parliament and pass it. The Prime minister’s advisor also has criticized these guys for seeking the resignation of the prime minister of their own party have been irresponsible to the country and have demonstrated their immaturity in the politics; in addition, these guys calling the current government anti-national have said nothing but nonsense; seeking the prime minister’s resignation from the streets, they are pushing the country to the conflict. The last sentence makes amply clear that Dr. Bhattarai is ready to fight against these guys.

Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai has instructed his ministers and secretaries to ministries strictly following the rule of law on Sunday, March 18, 2012. Recently, some ministers have roughed up their staffs and staffs of the departments under them. These ministers would have immediately quit the offices after they have come to senses in the countries of the civilized system of governance but in Nepal they think that it is a business as usual.

‘The Himalayan Times’ of March 19, 2012 writes ‘A day after misbehaving with doctors and media persons at the emergency ward of Bir Hospital in a drunken state, Minister of State for Health Saroj Yadav became the talk of the town on March 19, 2012.’ Obviously, Minister of State for Health Yadav has behaved very roughly provoking the strong protest from the staffs of the hospital. The medical staffs have demanded the prime minister firing the minister for his misbehavior. However, the prime minister has stopped short of firing the minister because the minister is the part of his delicate coalition government. Most probably, the prime minister does not want to touch the member of the delicate coalition government to upset the balance. However, the medical staffs are not willing to leave the minister and the prime minister in peace for that matter until either the minister apologizes to them for the misbehavior publicly or the prime minister fires him from the job. Nepal Medical Association has urged the government to hold an investigation into the incident and take a strong legal action against the minister otherwise it would launch a protest. Health Professional Organization of Nepal, Nepal Health Workers’ Association, National Health Workers’ Association, All Nepal Health Progressive Health Workers’ Organization and Nepal Health Technical Association also have condemned the minister on his deplorable act and sought actions against him; the Federation of Nepali Journalists also has condemned Minister Yadav on his rowdy behavior toward the reporters, ‘The Himalayan Times’ writes. Certainly, Minister of State for Health Yadav has lost the legitimacy to stay on in the office but in Nepal most of the ministers are with the criminal background. So, it would not be surprise if the minister continues in his office with impunity.

Similarly, Minister for Irrigation Mahendra Prasad Yadav has misbehaved with the woman secretary to his ministry Mrs. Brinda Hada chiding her at the office provoking strong reaction from the women lawmakers to the rude behavior of the minister toward such a woman of the high office. Mrs. Hada is one of a few women Nepalese bureaucrats that have achieved such a highest office in the government. To insult such a highest woman officer in the Nepalese bureaucracy in front of all is certainly a public offense. Such a minister should not have any place in the government. Again the current political transitional period has much to do for making such rough politicians as the ministers able to get away from the offenses with impunity even if the public outcry were high against the offenses of such ministers. A meeting of women lawmakers held in Kathmandu on Monday, March 19, 2012 has concluded that the abusive language of the minister used to chide Secretary Hada is the worst sort of extremism and expressed serious objection to such use of abusive language, ‘The Himalayan Times’ of March 19, 2012 writes.

How much the commitment of Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai to follow the rule of law, and to end impunity would be realistic remains to be seen. Even though Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai is for enforcing the rule of law but it has not come true when he has to deal with

the ministers of other coalition partners and leaders of his own party that are not for following the rule of law but for committing any kinds of offenses with impunity. For example, the Supreme Court of Nepal has convicted UCPN-Maoist lawmaker Balkrishna Dhungel of murder, he is supposed to be serving the jail sentence following the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal but Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai not only has not been able to put him in a jail but also has been unable to get him fired from the office of the lawmaker.

Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has faced the opposition of anything he has done. For example, Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai has legalized the property transactions done by the revolutionary council of the Maoists. His Minister for Land Reform has submitted a proposal for making the decision on legalizing all the decisions made by the revolutionary council of the Maoists to the prime minister. The prime minister and the minister for land reform sat together and made a decision on legalizing all the decisions made by the revolutionary council of the Maoists provoking a strong opposition not only from the opposition parties but also from some factions of the UDMF: the coalition partner in the current government. This decision was called the cabinet decision even though only the prime minister and his minister for land reform were present in the cabinet meeting for making this decision. The decision has pleased only the Vaidya faction of the UCPN-Maoist. Vice-chairman of UCPN-Maoist Mohan Vaidya Kiran has been leading a strong faction of the UCPN-Maoist. The Nepalese media have labeled the faction of Vaidya as a hardliner. Vaidya’s lieutenant CP Gajurel has said that the only one good thing the current government has done is the legalizing the revolutionary council’s decisions on property transactions. One of the Nepalese lawyers has taken this case of legalizing property transactions to the Supreme Court of Nepal but the apex court has to make ruling on this case, yet. The opposition parties have come out strongly against the government’s decision on legalizing the property transactions done by the revolutionary council of the Maoists. Most of the land grabbed by the Maoists during the 10-year conflict belonged to the leaders of the opposition parties such as NC and CPN-UML. They have threatened to take the issue to the streets forcing the prime minister to go to the parliament and tell the parliament that he is not enforcing this decision. The prime minister must have shelved the decision but has not annulled it, yet. Another decision made by the prime minister on removing the statue of Tribhuvan from the Sahidgate in Kathmandu to a museum has provoked a strong protest from the opposition party particularly NC. Tribhuvan is the symbol of a killer, as he authorized the then-Rana prime minister to enforce the death sentences given to the four brave men such as Sukraraj Shastrai, Dharmabhakta Mathema, Dashratha Chand and Gangalal Shrestha. Ironically, the statues of these four martyrs are just below the statue of Tribhuvan. Some experts believe that the statue of Tribhuvan should not be above the martyrs, as it is insulting to the brave sons of the country. The opposition leaders particularly the NC leaders came out strongly against moving the statue of Tribhuvan out of the Sahidgate. Consequently, the decision also has been shelved. After the election of

Dr. Bhattarai to the office of prime minister in September 2011, his Minister for Energy Post Bahadur Bogati has proposed to build a 200MW thermal plant for generating power to mitigate the short supply of power but the opposition has come out against it again, and has not allowed the government of Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai build it. When Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda was a prime minister in 2008, he had proposed to build a thermal plant of the same capacity but one of the then-members of his coalition government the CPN-UML had strongly opposed it stating the power cost would be very high but the members of the CPN-UML opposing this power plant never had been wise enough to think of the economic losses Nepalis had been bearing due to the short supply of power. Nepalis had been losing millions if not billions of rupees worth of business opportunities due to the power outage every day. The government of Prime Minister Bhattarai has signed off a deal with the Chinese company called China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) on February 29, 2012 for financing and constructing the 750MW West Seti Hydropower Project again the opposition lawmakers particularly Gagan Thapa and Laxman Ghimire have opposed it but the government is committed to build the power project. However, the recent news in the Nepalese and international media have it that the Chinese company CTGC has written to the Government of Nepal stating the doubt enforcing the deal, stating the work on this project has to be suspended pending the outcome of the Nepalese Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resource holding an investigation into the possible irregularities in the deal. If the Nepalese parliamentarians are wise enough they would never oppose any power projects at any cost, as the power supply would create several times worth of more business opportunities than the cost of production of power. Unfortunately, Nepalis have elected the economically illiterate people to the parliament. As long as these guys would be in the parliament, Nepalis might need to live in darkness and lose billions of rupees worth of business opportunities. On March 19, 2012, ‘HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE’ reported, “The Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources is finding it hard to take a final decision on 750-MW West Seti Hydro Project. At the meeting, most of the members of the committee today tried to prove that they wanted implementation of the project and said their decision taken 10 days ago wasn’t meant to create hurdles. Constituent Assembly (parliament) member Laxman Ghimire dominated the meeting, giving the impression that he was chairing it. Sitting on the side of the chair of the meet Shanta Chaudhary, Ghimire took hold of the mike and tried to defend opinions of other lawmakers. Ghimire was against the government’s decision to let China Three Gorges Corporation develop West Seti and said the joint secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Arjun Karki, is presenting himself as a local agent of the company giving the suspicion of irregularities. However, some other members said, “Our decision to stop the work was wrong. We could have investigated the project without halting the regular work mentioned in the MoU signed three months ago,” said another member Dharma Raj BK.” Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has faced a strong opposition from the NC lawmakers to the widening

of the roads in Kathmandu. NC lawmaker Narahari Acharya went to stand in the way of bulldozer tearing down the houses built encroaching on the roads but the police took him under custody for a day to let the bulldozer do its work. However, the government has been continuing the widening of the roads thanks to the stamina of Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hridayesh Tripathi and Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai to continue the work in the face of the strong opposition from the NC lawmakers. Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has successfully reduced the number of Maoist combatants (People’s Liberation Army the Maoist called them) living in cantonments from 19,000 to 9,500 sending the combatants opting for voluntary retirement to home. These 9,500 combatants have wished for continuing their service in the Nepal Army. However, the four major power centers such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF have agreed in their seven-point deal singed off on November 01, 2011 on the number of combatants to be integrated is 6,500. UCPN-Maoist leaders are for integrating all of them to the Nepal Army but the opposition particularly the NC leaders have taken the stand on sticking to the number they have agreed on the seven-point deal. This has been one of the reasons for the delay in the army integration. Other reasons are the UCPN-Maoist wants the ranks of brigadier general to their combatants but President of NC Sushil Koirala has agreed on giving the rank of up to colonel but chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal is only up to major in the Nepal Army. Negotiations have been going on among them to come to an agreeable number of combatants sending to the Nepal Army and giving various ranks to their commanders in the Nepal Army.

The irony is that the rebellious faction of the UCPN-Maoist has set up a Joint National People’s Struggle Committee (JNPSC) to fight against the UCPN-Maoist establishment. Secretary to UCPN-Maoist CP Gajurel heads this committee. This committee held a press conference at the Radisson hotel in Kathmandu on Saturday, March 17, 2012 to announce its protest programs as the part of a campaign for a pro-people constitution and dignified integration of the Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 18, 2012 writes. At the press conference, hardliner Gajurel accused the UCPN-Maoist establishment of failing to implement the decisions taken at the last Central Committee meeting on a national unity government, organizational reshuffling and launching a movement for national independence. "The party needs to carry out protests as the peace process is in crisis, the PLA is being disarmed instead of having PLA combatants’ dignified integration and the government is making compromises in its national independence through anti-national agreements," Gajurel said. Gajurel informed the public at the press conference that the JNPSC was planning to hold talks with the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML: the main opposition parties to form a national government toppling the current government. He accused the top leaders of his party of not enforcing the decisions of the Central Committee and Standing Committee on the formation of a national consensus government. He said that the JNPSC would put pressure on the current government from the street, the parliament and

the party to quit, as its activities had been against the interests of the nation and the people. In a bid to topple the current government led by his own party Vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, Gajurel disclosed the five-point protest programs. The Maoist hardliner faction came up with the 20-point issues of the pro-people constitution, rights of self-decision, state organs, and the forms of governance to be incorporated in a new constitution. The JNPSC has not set the date for launching the protest but gave the current government a week to quit the office, ‘The Rising Nepal’ writes.

The Vaidya faction of UCPN-Maoist in cooperation with leaders of 12 small political parties including hardliners such as Matrika Yadav and Mani Thapa formed a Joint National People’s Revolution Committee Nepal (JNPRCN), and announced a joint protest program demanding the ouster of the current government. The newly formed JNPRCN announced its protest program to achieve its agenda of peace, people’s federal republic, nationality and people’s livelihood. At the press conference held in Kathmandu on March 23, 2012, Secretary to UCPN-Maoist CP Gajurel acting as the coordinator of the committee has announced that the first phase of the protests lasting until April 12, 2012 are for putting pressure on the government to complete the peace process and constitution writing process within the deadline. Stating the need for uniting all political parties and related bodies to promulgate a new constitution, he said, "Unity among the parties alone could guarantee peace, constitution, nationality and people’s livelihood," ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 24, 2012 writes. However, Secretary Gajurel unknowingly contradicts his speech with his deeds, as his current activities have been breaking away from the UCPN-Maoist. Secretary Gajurel said that the committee would expose unequal treaties, external interferences, inequitable agreements on water resources and corrupted and anti-nationalist personalities advocating the rights to self-determination, self-governance, and secularism. The eleven parties that joined hands with the Vaidya faction of UCPN-Maoist are CPN-Maoist, Newa Rastriya Party, Federal Democratic National Forum, Nepal Nagarik Party, Rastriya Janamukti Party, Tamsaling Rastriya Party, Janamukti Party Nepal, Tharu Mukti Sangram, Indigenous Nepal Federation, United Indigenous Nepal Federation and Smajbadi Jatiya Mahasangh. The program includes collection of signature in all 240 electoral constituencies, wall painting, and submitting memorandum to the Constituent Assembly members asking them to stand for the people’s federal, democratic and republic constitution among others. Similarly, the front will also conduct seminars in all election constituencies, stage torch rallies against anti-nationalism, corruption, price hike, black marketing, and criminal activities along with demonstration inside and outside of the Constituent Assembly, ‘The Himalayan Times’ of March 23, 2012 writes.

On March 17, 2012, HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE reports ‘A pretext to announce split’: “Commenting on Saturday’s development, politburo member close to Dahal (Prachanda),

Haribol Gajurel said the hardliners are seeking action from the party establishment so as to announce a split formally. He said the announcement that they would join hands with opponents to fight against their party leaders meant denouncing the party’s system. He also said they had already announced the Kupandole-based party office as their contact office. The government and party establishment are expected to react. He also said Dahal (Prachanda) had supported Bhattarai’s government because of their recommendation. Gajurel further said that the party had called its central committee meeting on Monday (March 19, 2012), which the hardliners would boycott. “We will discuss the latest developments in the CC meeting and come up with a decision,” he said adding that if they tried to register a no-confidence motion, the party would not keep mum.” In fact, Vice-chairman of UCPN-Maoist Vaidya rejected the call of Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda for a Central Committee meeting to discuss all the issues in question. 

Talking to a select group of reporters at his Lazimpat residence in Kathmandu on March 22, 2012, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda said that he did not want to run the risk of plunging the country into crisis forcing Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to step down, and his party would carry forward two programs simultaneously without announcing formal split of the party even though the party was virtually divided into two camps, ‘The Himalayan Times’ on its online news writes on March 22, 2012. Countering the claim of the Vaidya faction for making a decision on Prime Minister Bhattarai quitting the office in the Central Committee meeting of his party, Prachanda said that the latest Central Committee meeting had not made any decision on asking Bhattarai to step down, but instead had made a decision on forming a national unity government for which he has been making efforts. “Other parties have been rigid on forming a unity government. They could have taken such a tough stance, maybe, because they wanted to create rift in our party,” said Prachanda, ‘The Himalayan Times’ writes. Prachanda charged the Vaidya faction with supporting the people that have been sabotaging the peace process and constitution writing. “Fearing action of majority of CC members, they have announced not to attend the meeting, which is the only supreme body of the party where we discuss and find solutions to all the problems,” said Prachanda, ‘The Himalayan Times’ writes. “I am for concluding the peace process even by taking a chance otherwise the country will plunge into crisis; as soon as the peace process is concluded, the parties will feel the pressure to focus on drafting of the constitution,” Prachanda said, ‘The Himalayan Times’ quotes. “Our party will not leave the agenda of federalism on the basis of identity and the party has not changed its earlier stance that the number of federal states should be 14. However, we can consider slight changes if parties agree on federalism on the basis of identity,” said Prachanda, “If we give up the agenda of federalism on the basis of identity, the party will suffer. We are against referendum on federalism or a brief constitution. We don’t support the idea of a constitution without federalism as well,” according to the news on the online ‘The Himalayan Times’ of March 22, 2012.

Speaking at the meeting of the Constitutional Committee held at Singha Durbar on March 23, 2012, Chairman of UCPN- Maoist Prachanda acting as the Coordinator of Disputes Resolution Sub-committee has said that the report of the State Restructuring Commission (SRC) would be sent to the Constituent Assembly (CA) and to the Constitutional Committee simultaneously for discussion following a consensus on it. Chairman of Constitutional Committee Nilambar Acharya has suggested that the leaders should take initiatives to build a consensus on the disputed issues of a new constitution. At the meeting, Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Sub-committee Coordinator Prachanda requested leaders of other parties for moving the constitution drafting process forward, as the peace process was moving ahead but Nepali Congress and CPN-UML leaders insisted that the constitution making could not move ahead until the army integration process was completed, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 24, 2012 writes.

http://66.7.193.115/news-analysis-and-views/dr.-baburam-bhattarai-stays-on-part-ii

Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays On-Part III

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda has been the father figure in the Nepalese politics; so, everybody including the leaders of other political parties such as NC and CPN-UML look at him with the hope of managing the current unmanageable politics in Nepal. In fact, the current political situation has been blessing in disguise for flourishing democracy in Nepal, as it has been an exercise in democracy for political leaders of all parties. If a single party has the majority in the parliament, such a protracted exercise in the democratic norms and values would not have been possible. However, Prachanda should not give everything Nepalis took from the royalist establishment in the people’s movement of 2006 to the old establishment in the name of ‘give-and-take’ negotiations. Completing the peace process and the constitution writing will certainly set the hard foundation of democracy in Nepal making anybody coming power by force impossible. It also is true that everybody has been taking maximum benefits from the current political situation and the weak government.

Prachanda has to prove that he is not only capable of managing his party for keeping all dissidents under one umbrella but also he has to demonstrate that he could manage the current most unmanageable political situation. Once Prachanda has said in public that fighting a war is much more easier than managing the politics in democracy. It is true in the war the commander-in-chief orders and others simply execute the order whereas in

democracy he has only two tools such as persuasion and negotiation to use for bringing all politicians under one umbrella and leading them to agree on completing the peace process and the constitution writing. The art of persuasion he has practiced, and the patience he has demonstrated during the last several years have elevated him above all the politicians in Nepal. His willingness to negotiate with everybody for everything has resolved numerous contentious issues concerning a new constitution. Only the few contentions issues such as the state restructuring, system of governance and so on are left to be resolved. If he stands firmly on his boots he would certainly resolve such irresolvable issues, too.

Yes, in democracy, everybody has the rights to speak loud and demand anything in the world but everyone needs to follow the rule of law and follow the democratic norms and values if not anarchy will prevail. Making everybody follow the rule of law is the precondition for flourishing democracy. Every political system in the past collapsed because the rule of law was not universally practiced. Some privileged people stayed above the law and did not follow the rule of law. That was the reason why they have fallen from power. So, any leader should not allow anybody staying above the law.

Referring to the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal on the extension of term of the Constituent Assembly, Prachanda has once said in public that he will follow the verdict of the people rather than the ruling of any court of law. What he said about following ‘only the people’s verdict’ at the first impression looked like he was not for following the rule of law but some legal experts interpreted what he said was correct, as the Supreme Court of Nepal overstepped the prerogative of the parliament of its rights to amend any articles of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007. In fact, the parliament had only amended the article of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 making the provision for extending the term of the Constituent Assembly. So, according to the legal experts no matter what the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal has been, the parliament keeps its rights to amend any article of the Constitution and can amend it again extending the term of the Constituent Assembly. The ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal on ‘not extending the term of the CA not more than once’ would have been strong if it has quoted the article of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 and states ‘extending the term of the CA more than once’ would be unconstitutional following the quoted article. So, the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal on this matter has been arbitrary and discretional according to the legal experts, and has left room for the legal experts to interpret it, as they like. So, it is not a surprise what Prachanda has said concerning this matter.

Prachanda has brought the political situation to the current status from the most chaotic situation starting from the date of signing off the 12-point Understanding between the then CPN-Maoist and the Sven Party Alliance on November 22, 2005 to tear down the monarchy;

now, only a few steps he has to make to complete the peace process and the constitution writing but he has been facing the tremendous opposition not only from the opposition leaders in the parliament but also from the rebellious faction called the ‘Vaidya faction’ of his own party. However, he has been the master of turning the table to his advantage of any apparent disadvantages he has faced. So, sensible Nepalis believe that Prachanda would be successful to bring the rebels and the opposition under one umbrella again.

Recently, the rebellious Vaidya faction of UCPN-Maoist has brought together the broken pieces of communist parties and has agreed on going together to launch a program on bringing down the current government and writing a people’s constitution and so on. They formed a Joint National People’s Revolution Committee Nepal (JNPRCN) to launch their common program according to the news on ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 24, 2012. Prachanda has called the Vaidya faction of his party for discussing the matters of their concerns at the Central Committee meeting of the UCPN-Maoist but Vice-chairman of UCPN-Maoist Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’ did not agree on even calling a meeting of the Central Committee of the party not to mention discussing the matters at it. After the refusal of the Vaidya faction for sitting at the meeting of the Central committee of the party for discussing the matter of their concerns, Prachanda in turn has said that they would go their way and he would go on his way. This means the Vaidya faction of UCPN-Maoist would continue its program on tearing down the current government of Vice-chairman of UCPN-Maoist Dr. Baburam Bhattarai while Prachanda would follow the path of completing the peace process and the constitution writing while Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai stays on in power; thus, the two programs of the same party going parallel according to Prachanda but really head-on confrontation to each other. Prachanda has said that two parallel programs of the same party are possible. He gave the example of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union having two parallel programs. Prachanda needs to take into account that the Soviet Union and its communist party had been a failure. Whether Prachanda wants to follow the same path to the demise of his party or simply a small example to justify the current situation of his party remains to be seen.

Opening the Western Industrial Exhibition and third Baglung festival in Western Nepal on March 26, 2012, President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has urged the four political forces such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF to complete the historic tasks of the peace process and the constitution writing within the deadline, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 27, 2012 writes. He also has called for the political stability to achieve the economic development stating the leaders have failed to consolidate the political gains that have been made since the political revolutions of 1951 making the Nepalis need to continuously fight for regaining democracy; this time, too, Nepalis have demonstrated unprecedented love and sacrifice for the nation during the janaandolan II (People’s movement of 2006) for regaining

democracy and establishing a republican set-up, and called for implementing the seven-point deal reached among the four political forces about four months ago (November 01, 2011); so, all leaders need to unite to institutionalize the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal; Nepalis would never backtrack from it according to ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 27, 2012. 

Stating Nepalis are not for backtracking from the federal democratic setup in Nepal, the president has made it clear to the leaders particularly the NC leaders that have been deadly against the federalism shrouded in an veil of opposing the federal states based on the ethnic names that Nepalis would not agree on anything except for the federalism. So, Prachanda has the support of the president for making Nepal a federal democratic republic.

Speaking at the same Baglung function, stating the leaders have failed to consolidate the political gains made since the political revolutions of 1951 making the Nepalis need to continuously fight for regaining democracy, the president has made it clear that whatever Nepalis have gained in each revolution have also lost to the royalist establishment again and again. In 1951 Nepalis took everything from the Rana autocratic family rulers but again lost to the Shah rulers in 1960. For 30 years, the royalist establishment had grabbed everything from the people. They had everything but people suffered from hunger and disease, as they had nothing. Again Nepalis rose against the Shah establishment in 1990 but this time too the political leaders did not institutionalize the democracy that would have given the people rights to self-determination in their lives, and to prosper. Consequently, the Shah ruler grabbed the power in 2005 leaving Nepalis high and dry again. After the protected war against the royalist establishment, Nepalis again took everything from the royalists in 2006 kicking out the monarchy but the royalist establishment has continued the attempt on taking back whatever Nepalis have gained so far.

Speaking at the function held to open a building at the Chhaimale Village Development Area in the constituency no. 10 of Kathmandu from where he got elected to a lawmaker, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda has said that the country has no alternative to building a consensus on the peace process and the constitution writing; so, all political parties should be flexible to complete the peace process and constitution writing leaving their rigid stands aside, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 27, 2012 writes. "Let’s bear in mind that the new constitution will not be framed on the basis of what one individual party says, the current time is for give-and-take," Prachanda said. He also has said that he has focused all his attention on vacating the PLA cantonments after integrating them into various state security agencies. He is not for reaching a deal on the form of governance, election system and federalism now, as federalism is for the identity and capacity, federal states cannot exist without identity.

Following the give-and-take policy, Prachanda should not give whatever Nepalis have gained in the people’s movement of 2006 to the advocates of the old establishment. Nepalis have lost everything to the royalist establishment for centuries. Majority of Nepalis had nothing except for the labor that had been used for maintaining the luxurious lives of the ruling class for centuries. An oligarchy of the ruling class enjoyed everything denying anything to the people in general. They enjoyed monopoly on the natural and even human resources, army, police and civil administration. Their male child even at birth enjoyed the position of general in the army. 

After the people’s movement of 2006 and the Madhesh movement of 2008, Nepalis have discarded not only the oligarchy of the ruling class but also the root of this oligarchy: monarchy, too, and declared Nepal a federal democratic republic. However, the remnants of the royalist establishment have been making every possible effort on taking back the federalism from the people. Nepalis are not wiling to give it back to anyone. So, following the policy of ‘give-and-take’ Prachanda should be careful not to give away the federalism in negotiating with the neo-royalist establishment. In fact, what Prachanda can take from them is nothing, as everything has been in the hands of people. They simply want to get the things they have lost to the people in the people’s movements. So, federalism should be there for keeping everything the Nepalese people have taken from the royalist establishment. If they lose the federalism this time, another people’s movement would be more violent than the previous movement, and would destroy the remnants of the royalist establishment. What the Vaidya faction of UCPN-Maoist talking about another people’s revolt might come true in the vigorous manner than the previous people’s movements.

Nepalis of different faiths, ethnic groups, and people in general want to enjoy their fundamental rights to prosper. The ruling class of the previous regime did not share anything with the common folks making the people to live in destitute. They kept the rights to do everything denying any rights to the people. This time, Nepalis want to keep everything. They don’t want to lose the federalism and the people’s power they have taken from the ruling establishment. The neo-royalist establishment has been saying that the federalism should be following the capacity and identity. This might be only the pretext to deny the people the rights to self-development. Sensible Nepalis won’t agree on anything other than absolute federalism. 

If Prachanda wants to give in to the neo-royalist establishment in the name of federalism following the capacity and identity, he would not have the people’s support for it. First they have not defined the federalism based on the capacity and the identity; thus, it remains abstract for the common folks. How could anyone talk about the capacity of the people that have uprooted apparently the mighty monarchy? This might be the strategy of these neo-

royalist guys to trick the people again to their control. So, Prachanda should negotiate with the NC and CPN-UML without giving anything people have taken from the past royalist establishment. The people would keep whatever they have gained from their movements no matter what kind of war they would need to fight.

The law courts had served the interest of the royalist establishment in the past. Even now, these law courts have not been independent. Their rulings have been arbitrary. For example, the Supreme Court of Nepal has sent former minister Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta to jail for illegally amassing huge assets when he has been a minister overturning the ruling of the Special Court on acquitting Gupta, and has instructed the Judicial Council to take actions against the judges that have acquitted Gupta accepting the bogus evidences as real ones. The Special Court is set up for taking up the cases of abuse of authority and corruption.

The army and the police had been for protecting the royalist establishment in the past. They did not serve the people. Rather they had exploited the people extracting everything from them as much as possible. Even now, they are for protecting the interest of the establishment. So, Prachanda needs to make the provisions in a new constitution for making sure that these state agencies serve the interest of the people not giving anything to the neo-royalist establishment.

The new constitution should provide the people with every possible opportunity for their self-development. One of the opportunities is the federalism. Federal states should have every opportunity to develop their human and natural resources to the extent possible in the interest of the people residing there. Therefore, federalism is for ensuring the rights to self-development for Nepalis. Some people use the term ‘self-determination’ for the self-development. Nobody should confuse it with the rights to splitting the country. Some people try to oppose ‘self-determination’ stating it gives the rights to split away from the federalism. This explanation has been an excuse to oppose the federal states. Prachanda should never give in to the neo-royalists for this matter.

If Prachanda negotiates with the NC and CPN-UML giving too much to them, and even placing federalism in doubt then the Vaidya faction of UCPN-Maoist might have easy way to mobilize the people’s support for another movement. All the people belonging to ethic groups and people opting for strong federalism would certainly join the Vaidya group for a new movement that would be the decisive and final one. 

At the same time, the Constituent Assembly (CA) has started debate on the report on federal states the State Restructuring Commission (SRC) has proposed after Chairman Subash Newang has submitted it to the CA for debate. Participating in the debate, UCPN-Maoist lawmaker Hitman Shakya has urged to go for a federal system following the report of a CA

committee on the state restructuring rather than the SRC’s report, as it has created more disputable matters than resolving them; he has accused the political parties of deviating from their earlier stand on the federalism and now acting against it, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 27, 2012 writes. Another lawmaker this time of the NC Narahari Acharya has advocated for a federal system following the geography, population and identity of the people. CPN-UML lawmaker Shanker Pokharel also has accused the SRC of not building a consensus on the disputed issues of federalism, and taking into consideration of the earlier report of the parliamentary committee on the state restructuring consequently failing in resolving complex and disputed issues of federalism. Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Republican lawmaker Chandrika Prasad Yadav has criticized the SRC for ignoring ‘one-Madhesh One-Province’ agenda. Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Democratic lawmaker Sarwadeva Ojha has urged to take the SRC report positively, as it has only suggestions. The SRC submitted two separate reports. Majority of the members of the SRC has submitted the report proposing 11 federal states while three members of the commission empathetic to NC and CPN-UML have submitted a different report with the proposal for six states.

At the same time, the government of Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has been attempting to do something significant even though it has a short life, as it would end after the general election following the promulgation of a new constitution some time this year. The government is launching a National Volunteer Campaign on April 6, 2012. The government has set up a Directive Committee presided over by the Prime Minister to operate the Campaign. The committee comprises representatives of all political parties, all the ministers, vice-chairman and members of National Planning Commission (NPC), chief secretary to the government of Nepal, secretaries to all the ministers, three people working for the promotion of volunteer service, chief of University National Volunteer Service Directorate, and the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB)’s member secretary according to ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 25, 2012. Secretary to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers is to monitor Committee. Similarly, the government has set up an Executive Committee presided over by Chief Secretary to Government of Nepal Madhav Prasad Ghimire to assist the Directive Committee. The Executive Committee comprises secretaries to all the government ministries, representatives of the business community, non-governmental organizations, political parties and the civil society, and five nominated members on its behalf, and Nepal Army senior officers, Nepal Police Chief, Armed Police Force Chief, Chief of National Investigation Department, Tribhuvan University’s Registrar, and HSEB Member Secretary. The Joint-Secretary to the Office of Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers is to monitor it.

Similarly, at the district-level, respective Chief District Officer presides over a Coordination Committee at each district. Respective Local Development Officer presides over an Economic Resources Mobilization Committee at each district. 

The objective of the Campaign is to garner the people’s support for the overall development of the country through volunteerism, encouraging the people interested in voluntarism to use their skills, talents and knowledge for the welfare of the nation, and promoting the interested organizations to invest in the social sector.

Sanitation, reconstruction, construction of school buildings, community buildings, irrigation canals and health posts, tree transplantations and roadways constructions are among the 12 projects stated in the Campaign.

At the same time, the government has announced to launch the ‘One Village One Pond’ campaign across the country under the irrigation component of the National Volunteer Campaign. Deputy Director General of Department of Irrigation announced this campaign at the Dr. Harka Gurung Room of the NPC Secretariat at Singha Durbar on March 24, 2012. The estimated beneficiaries are some 2,375,000 families with the provision of irrigation facilities to 26.4 million hectares farmland.

Political party leaders and various people welcomed the National Volunteer Campaign. Speaking at an event on March 24, 2012, Nepali Congress leaders such as Nabindra Raj Joshi and Suprabha Ghimire, UCPN-Maoist leader Jhakku Subedi, President of Nepal Olympic Committee Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, President of Nepal Students Union Ranjit Karna, President of All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary, Himal Sharma and comedian Madan Krishna Shrestha greeted the campaign warmly and promised their support for the campaign from their respective quarters, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 25, 2012 writes.

The National Volunteer Campaign mentioned in the newspaper has not been clear enough to comment on it but Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai should be careful not to coerce anybody to work as a volunteer enacting rules and regulations or even a law.

In the past, the Rana autocratic family rulers had enforced the forced labor called ‘jhara’. They forced every Nepalis to contribute free labor for building infrastructures for the travel of the Rana rulers, and for any other purposes they wanted to use the forced labor.

Then, the Panchayat Monarch Mahendra launched a campaign called ‘back to village’ in the late 1960s. He made a law coercing the state employees to contribute 15 days of their labor per year to building village infrastructures. They had to go to any village of their choice and physically work there. Most of the state employees in Kathmandu choose to go to the village

around the town in the winter and work there. Literally state employees showed up en mass in villages. They really picked up shovels and picks and went to dig wherever, the village chiefs called ‘Pradhan Panchas’ of villages wanted them. These village chiefs were not prepared to properly use such high-class manpower ready for working physically at their villages. The so-called volunteers dug footpaths, fishponds and so on but later on none of them were properly used. Most of the coerced labor but called voluntary labor wasted, as the village chiefs were not prepared to use such labor properly, as they had no plans and programs.

Later on, the government reduced the number of voluntary labor contribution from 15 to three days. Then, most of the state employees relaxed and rather than physically working they talked to the village chiefs and became advisors. Finally, some of the smart state employees suggested the village chiefs to accept money for three days of labor at the market prices so that they could use local laborers that could work better in the field than the officers that had never worked in the field with their hands. That was a good advice. The village chiefs accepted the money from the state employees coming to work as volunteers in their villages and gave them the certificates of working for three days.

 Accepting money for the so-called voluntary labor and giving certificates of working in the villages became unwritten laws for both the village chiefs and the state employees. Village chiefs collected hundreds of thousands of rupees from the state employees for providing them with the certificates of working for three days in the villages. Then, some state employees simply sent junior staffs with money to village to collect certificates for them. Nobody knew how the village chiefs used the money, as they did not need to keep the records of the money they received from the state volunteers coerced to work in villages. Obviously, the ‘back to village’ campaign made some village chiefs rich but the villages remained as they were.

The Government of Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai should not repeat this kind of mistakes in the name of doing something good for the country.

To be continued.

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Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays On-Part IVIssue 15, April 08, 2012

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

On Saturday, March 31, 2012, members of the alliance called United Democratic Madheshi Front (UDMF) have held a mass rally in Kathmandu to put emphasis on their demand for the federalism and a Madhesh province. They have made it clear that they would fight to the finish for meeting their demand. On April 2, 2012, President of NC Sushil Koirala has made it clear that no possibility of forming ‘one-Madhesh one-Province’, and demanded the Madheshi leaders stop demanding it and asked them for playing a creative role in institutionalizing the democratic system in the country. At the same time, a small political party called Rastriya Janamorcha Party has been protesting against the federalism, and has been shutting down the regular businesses of the common folks in Terai areas in protest.

On February 28, 2008, the Government of Nepal headed by the then-interim Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala signed off an “Eight-Point Agreement Between The Government of Nepal and the United Democratic Madheshi Front (UDMF)”. The second Article of the agreement is reproduced as follow.

2.    Nepal shall be the federal democratic republican state accepting the people’s aspiration for the federal republican structure, and meeting the aspirations of the Madheshi people for the autonomous Madhesh province, and the people of other regions for their autonomous provinces. The federal structure shall be based on the clear delineation of power between the center and the provinces. Provinces shall be fully autonomous and with power. Keeping intact the sovereignty, unity and integrity of Nepal, the Constituent Assembly shall allocate the power, and set the structure of provinces, and keep the record of the center and the provinces. 

President of NC Sushil Koirala should know this Article 2 of the Eight-point Agreement the then-government and the UDMF had reached. Before his death, Girija Prasad Koirala also was the president of NC. So, Junior Koirala, Sushil cannot say that he does not know this agreement. Sushil is the fan of enforcing the previous agreements reached among different parties; so, he has been calling the UCPN-Maoist for following the previous agreements. However, the irony is that he does not want to follow the agreement his predecessor had signed with the UDMF.

Why the NC leaders don’t want to enforce the eight-point agreement the government has reached with the UDMF can be answered logically only as we cannot reached the minds of the NC leaders what they have in their minds concerning the formation of a Madhesh province.

Most of the NC leaders are the large landholders in the Terai, hills and even the mountains. We will talk about only the Terai areas in this article. Once, the Terai areas were the forestland prevalent with malaria. Spending a night in the Terai meant a death for the hill people. Only the indigenous people called Tharus could live there, as they are immune from the malaria. After the spraying of insecticide widely in the Terai areas and controlling the malaria, the old establishment cleared off the forestland and made it agricultural land, and took the control of these areas. Most of the farmers today living in the Terai areas became the bread earners for the people perhaps including the Koirala families of the old establishment. If these guys of the old establishment give in to the demand of the UDMF for the Madhesh province, these guys fear of losing the control over their agricultural land. This might be the strong motive of the NC guys for acting against the Madhesh province and federalism.

Whether the NC leaders have realized or not their stand on no to the Madheshis’ demand for ‘one-Madhesh province’ has severely undermined the support of the Madheshi people for their NC party. As a result, they had suffered losses in the elections held in April 2008 to the Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament. Most of the current leaders of the NC have the mindset of the Rana autocratic family rulers and then of the Panchayat rulers that had made the people literally serving the rulers only. Current President of NC Sushil Koirala has been in politics since the Rana period. He has even forgotten to marry and build his own family because of running after his Koirala brothers for snatching the power from the Rana rulers at the cost of the genuine fighters for democracy and the democratic system of governance. Senior leader of NC Sher Bahadur Deuba has lost his regular voice while getting beaten by the Panchayati police for fighting to extract the power from them. Khum Bahadur Khadka is another NC leader that kills anybody voicing against him. So, Mr. Khadka wants even to continue the old regime to rule the people. These NC guys were just for taking the power from the Ranas and then from the Panchayat rulers, and running the country as the Ranas and Panchayat rulers had run the country. In other words they did not want to change the system of governance. So, they have been living in this mindset and they believe in they can do it again. Perhaps for that reasons they have not realized that they have already lost their grip among the Madheshi people due to their vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Most of the influential NC Madheshi leaders and cadres have left the NC for one or another Madheshi political party. For example, Mahanta Thakur, Bijaya Gacchedhar, and Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta were the NC influential leaders. They left the NC for the Madheshi political parties. When Mahanta Thakur submitted his resignation to the NC party, the then-President of NC Girija Prasad Koirala had told him not to lose Thakur’s 46-year political career in the NC for the newly formed Madheshi party but Thakur left the NC and had never publicly regretted for this. Then, they launched the Madheshi Movement demanding for the rights to self-determination, and got it in 2008. Certainly, these Madheshi leaders are not for giving away

the rights to self-determination they have achieved in the Madheshi Movement of 2008. So, if the NC leaders stuck to their stand on ‘no to one-Madheshi Province and federal states following the identity of the ethnic people’, then, the Madheshi and the ethnic peopleWould again take the issue to the streets. Another fact is whether the NC guys like or not the time has come for the Madheshi people to run the administration if these NC guys are really for the democratic system of governance, as the population of the Madhesh is soon going to be more than 50% of the total population. The NC has already lost its grip to the Madheshi parties.

Now, the question is why the small party such as Rastriya Janamorcha Party has been going on against the federalism. Again the answer to this question is only logical thinking. This party has two directly elected representatives in the parliament of 601 representatives elected in April 2008, a few more by the proportional representation means proportional to the votes the party has received. Nepalese voters had cast two votes one for the candidate another for the party in the elections held on April 10, 2008. The party has not many followers but its leaders have been going against the current political development in Nepal using the violent tools of shutting down the regular businesses of other people for protesting against the federalism. Such tools go against the law but all political parties have been using them for their political gains. One of the leaders of the Rastriya Janamorcha has repeatedly talked to the anchor of the morning program called ‘antar sambad’ of the state-run ‘Radio Nepal’ and has repeatedly talked about the wrongs of the federalism. These guys either don’t understand what the federalism is or they just don’t want federalism at any cost, as most of the state power will go to the people at the provinces. They might have been thinking that they would be able to mobilize the public opinions in their favor protesting against federalism or they have been acting for the NC leaders or they are large landowners so they want to keep their large landholdings intact. They don’t want to shed their power coming out of the landholdings. They are the remnants of the old regime, as the NC is. Whether they like or not they wouldn’t be able to stand against the will of the ethnic and Madheshi people to have the federal states in one or another name. Currently, cadres of Rastriya Janamorcha have been making use of the transitional weak government to shut down the regular businesses of the common folks for protesting against the federalism. Common folks might rise up against them if they continue to do such illegal things. Even the so-called mighty NC leaders wouldn’t be able to go against the force of the people’s will for making Nepal a federal democratic republic. The uncompromising position President of NC Sushil Koirala has taken on ‘no to the Madheshi province and to the federal states following the ethnic identity’ provokes another movement.  In fact, President of NC Sushil Koirala has no people’s mandate for saying anything concerning the people. He is only the president of NC elected by the few hundred NC cadres. In addition, the voters in the elections to the Constituent

Assembly-cum-parliament in 2008 rejected him, and he s a carpetbagger as the leaders of the Rastriya Janamorcha.

Now, the question is why the Madheshi people want federalism and one Madhesh province even though indigenous people called Tharus don’t want a single Madhesh province. The main reason is they want to develop the land they plow; they don’t like to follow the order of other people. For centuries, they have been plowing the land for the masters of the old establishment. These landholders took away everything possible from the peasants and live lavishly on these resources in Kathmandu. These master landholders did the same thing to the people of different ethnic groups, too. Now, the people of different ethnic groups and Madheshi want to be the masters of their own destiny. That is the reason for demanding the federal states with full power for them to decide what they want to do for their self-development. Madheshi and ethnic people have already tasted the rights to self-determination. So, no matter what the NC leaders do, they would not be able to take back the rights the people have already enjoyed.

Indigenous people Tharus don’t want a single Madhesh province, as they fear that someone else rather than themselves would rule them. They are for having a province for themselves. They don’t want to be the part of the one Madhesh province. So, Tharus too have been not for ‘one-Madhesh one-province’. Tharus would be in minority in a ‘one-Madhesh one province’, and their voice would not be listened to; that is what they fear of. Tharus deserve to have their own province to develop their land they want. They have plowed the land of their masters for centuries but could not paid off the debt that their forefathers had taken. They remained the perpetual indebted people until Nepal became a federal democratic republic in 2008, and the centuries old symbol of tyranny: monarchy gone forever.

However, the remnant of the monarchy such as President of NC Sushil Koirala has remained shrouded in the democratic political party. NC and its leaders repeatedly claim that they are the democrats and their party is democratic and vow to fight for democracy but their speeches and deeds have been just the opposite. If they are democrats why do they need to fear of giving power to the people accepting the federal states following the ethnic identity? As we have already said that they are not for giving the power to the people but for following the system of governance of the old regime. So, some of the NC leaders including Khum Bahadur Khadka are for a monarchical rule. Senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba is for reviving the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 with some cuts and pastes in other words to revive the old system of governance. Thus, they want to crush the people’s rights to self-determination. They believe anybody fighting for the people’s voice is their enemy number one.

Now, how has federalism come to exist? On January 01, 2007, the Seven-party Alliance with the then-CPN-Maoist currently UCPN-Maoist promulgated the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 dissolving the parliament and setting up a new 302-member parliament with 83 members of the CPN-Maoist, and proportionally increasing the number of parliamentarians of other political parties in proportion to the number of new comers of the CPN-Maoist. This Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 made the provisions for holding elections to a Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament that would decide the fate of the monarchy but not with the federal states and federalism. So, the then-leader of Madheshi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) Upendra Yadav burnt down a copy of the Interim Constitution in Kathmandu on the very day of its promulgation in protest against not making the provisions for the federal states and federalism. That incident had sowed the seed of the Madhesh Movement that was for the federalism and federal states. All the Madheshi political parties came closer and formed United Democratic Madheshi Front (UDMF) to fight for a Madhesh province and federalism. UDMF not only fought against the Interim Government headed by NC President Girija Prasad Koirala but also against other political parties that came in the way of its movement. After months of the Madhesh Movement, Interim Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala gave in to the demand of the UDMF and made an eight-point agreement. Then, the interim parliament amended the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 making the provisions for federalism and federal provinces including the Madhesh province. UDMF went ahead demanding one-Madhesh one-province.

Madheshi political parties disintegrated into several parties to suit the interest of the individual leader but UDMF remained intact. The total strength of the UDMF is 83 in the 601-member Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament. UDMF (83) became the fourth largest party after UCPN-Maoist (240), NC (114) and CPN-UML (104) in the parliament. However, Madheshi parties such as Madheshi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF), Terai Madhesh Democratic Party and Nepal Sadbhavana party split into a number of parties in the line of highly ambitious leaders. MPRF with 53 representatives in the parliament was the largest Madheshi party but split first into MPRF-Nepal of Upendra Yadav, MPRF-Democratic of Bijaya Gacchedhar. Then, MPRF-Democratic has split into MPRF-Democratic of Bijaya Gacchedhar and MPRF-Republican of Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta. All the three MPRFs have almost equally shared the 53 representatives. Upendra Yadav was a Maoist. He left his mother party to form a new party called MPRF. Other NC members such as Gacchedhar and Gupta, too left their mother party NC and joined the MPRF of Yadav when the MPRF became stronger and influential. Some political analysts believed that Yadav made a great mistake taking the NC leaders in his party, as these NC leaders were carpetbaggers and became the cause of the disintegration of the MPRF. Currently, Upendra Yadav has been holding his MPRF aloof. So, he did not show up in the mass rally held by UDMF on Saturday, March 31, 2012 for putting pressure on the political leaders for accepting

federalism and federal provinces with one-Madhesh one-province for Madheshis. Similarly, Terai Madhesh Democratic Party (TMDP) also split into two. Nepal Sadbhavana Party split into a number of parties in the same names; I even lost the count. The main reason for breaking the Madheshi political parties into smaller parties was to have a share in the juicy pie of power in the government.

NC leader Sushil Koirala has been politically and morally ambiguous. He has been for grabbing the power rather than settling the issues of federalism and federal states and promulgating a new constitution thus institutionalizing Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. President of NC Sushil Koirala has said that his party now takes the turn of forming a national unity government to complete the peace process and the constitution writing within the deadline of May 27, 2012, as one government after another of the UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML has failed to resolve the national problems and the ongoing peace and statute writing tasks, and he hoped that the Maoists would support his party’s government if the Maoists were positive and honest; he also has made it clear that the bottom line of his NC party is a federalism and the NC would never compromise with any forces on anything less than the federal democratic system, and the NC would never accept the ethnic-based-federal system and one-Madhesh one-province system demanded by the Madheshi parties ‘The Rising Nepal’ of Aril 04, 2012 writes. President of NC Koirala has questioned the integrity of the UCPN-Maoist while taking the support of the CPN-UML for his party’s government as granted. He also has taken the stand on never accepting the ‘one-Madhesh one-province’ heading off the reasonable demand of the Madheshi people and the ethnic people for their federal provinces.

Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda in turn has said that the ongoing peace process and constitution writing would be completed without compromises with anyone, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of April 04, 2012 writes. According to the literal meanings of this piece of news, Prachanda is neither for compromising with President of NC Sushil Koirala nor with Vice-chairman Mohan Vaidya Kiran but compromise on what, Prachanda did not specify. He has adopted the policy of ‘give-and-take’ in other words he is wiling to give if he gets something in return. Chairman Prachanda also has said that the protests launched by Vice-chairman Mohan Vaidya faction of his party does not make sense, as their activities would not adversely influence the peace process and constitution writing. However, the dissenting faction has started its campaign but remains to be seen how far their activities would affect the process of the peace and the constitution writing remains to be seen.

Another interesting piece of news in the Nepalese and India media is: the opposition party CPN-UML warned on Tuesday, April 03, 2012, of toppling the current government if the army integration is not completed by the mid-April. The news has quoted former Home

Minister Bhim Rawal belonging to the CPN-UML, "We would topple the Maoist-led coalition government if the army integration process doesn't completed by mid-April." Rawal also has said that another major opposition party NC holds the similar views. The irony is that the Rawal’s party is only the third largest party holding 104 seats in the 601-member parliament. However, Rawal dares to talk as the majority party in the parliament. This is the trait of not only CPN-UML leaders but also the NC leaders, too but President of NC Sushil Koirala at least calls the UCPN-Maoist for the support for the government of his party. These leaders should be honest to the fact that as long as the coalition of the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF remains intact no body can topple the current government.

According to the news posted on ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 16, 2012, the CPN-UML leaders gave the government of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai a week to complete the peace process otherwise they would launch a movement; they have decided it at the meeting of the parliamentary party (PP) of the CPN-UML held at Singh Durbar on Thursday, March 15, 2012. They also have objected the proposal presented at the Army Integration Special Committee by Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai for integration of the combatants stating the proposal does not follow the seven-point agreement the four major parties signed off on November 01, 2012.

In response to the criticism of the CPN-UML leaders that the prime minister was backtracking from the integration process, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai accused on Monday, April 02, 2012 the CPN-UML leaders of obstructing the peace process by standing in the way of the army integration that were already agreed upon according to the news posted on nepalnews.com. “The PM is committed to complete the peace process as soon as possible, but the army integration Special Committee has not been able to move forward due to the unnecessary stance of CPN-UML representatives on the committee," Prime Minister's personal aide Bishwodeep Pandey said in a press note, nepalnews.com quotes. General secretary Ishwor Pokharel and central leader Bhim Rawal represent the CPN-UML on the Special Committee.

Speaking to a delegation of Reporters Club at his office on Monday, April 02, 2012, Vice president Paramananda Jha said "nobody believes the constitution will be ready by May 27" and suggested the political parties to start discussion on the alternatives, nepalnews.com writes. Vice-president Jha also has said that the 601 CA members are not responsible for the delay in drafting the constitution but just ten leaders of the three major parties are. The Vice-president has said that the term of the Constituent Assembly could not be extended anymore; if they failed to promulgate the constitution during the remaining period of the term of the Constituent Assembly, they needed to look for an alternative. Vice-president Jha also ruled out the possibility of the President taking over the state power in his hand in case of failure of

promulgating a new constitution on May 27, 2012 and if the term of the Constituent Assembly were to end thereafter. 

A group of Constituent Assembly members held a sit-in rally at the entrance to the hall where the Constitution Committee (CC) was holding a meeting in Singha Durbar on the Monday morning, April 02, 2012 demanding timely promulgation of a new constitution. They allowed the members of the CC to go in but refused to let them go out before the meeting ended forcing them to stay on in the meeting. However, the CC in its meeting could not settle the disputed issues of the constitution. The CC has started off the debate on the report of the State Restructuring Commission (SRC) the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly had forwarded to it after the CA members completed the debate on it.

We have another leader that has no people’s mandate but shouts at the government and decisively says that the peace process and the constitution writing would be completed in time but sometimes not, too. This man is so-called leader of CPN-UML Madhav Nepal that had lost the elections to the Constitution Assembly not only at one constituency but also another constituency. Speaking at a function of journalists held in Kathmandu on April 06, 2012, Madhav Nepal has said that the ultimate deadline for completing the peace process and the constitution writing is May 27, 2012 following the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal on this matter but the constitution writing would not move forward an inch without vacating the Maoists cantonments, ‘The Himalayan Times’ writes quoting the state-news agency RSS on April 06, 2012. However, Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has blamed the CPN-UML for blocking the completion of the peace process and vacating the cantonments.

On behalf of the parliament, Speaker of parliament Subash Nemwang and on behalf of the government, Attorney General Mukti Pradhan separately registered an appeal for reviewing the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal of November 25, 2011 on not extending the term of the Constituent Assembly for the next time allowing the last extension for the maximum of six months thereafter the Constituent Assembly will be automatically dissolved, ‘gorkhapatra’ of December wrote. The registrar of the Supreme Court of Nepal rejected to register even the appeals of both the Speaker and the Prime Minister.

Hearing on the appeals of the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the parliament for reviewing the decision of the registrar of the Supreme Court of Nepal on not registering the appeals of the Prime Minster and the Speaker of the parliament for reviewing the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal made on November 25, 2011 on extending the term of the Constituent Assembly for the last time for not exceeding six months, the Supreme Court of Nepal upheld the decision of the registrar on March 29, 2012. Following the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal, the term of the Constituent Assembly ends on May 27, 2012. If all the procedures

prescribed in the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 are to follow the remaining time for completing a new constitution is not enough, so, the parliament is considering to amend the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 for cutting off certain procedures for writing a new constitution to make completing a new constitution during the remaining time possible.

To be continued

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Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays On-Part VIssue 16, April 15, 2012

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Obviously, leaders of UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML have been talking too much but doing too little to complete the peace process. Apparently, not having any more patience to the disgusting performances of the leaders of the major political parties, Chairman of Constituent Assembly Subhas Nemwang has said that these leaders would spend a whole day without coming to any conclusion on discussing who would speak first if you ask them to speak simultaneously. In addition, these leaders have lost the track of what they have been speaking in public. However, one thing they have done is ‘turning over and taking over’ of the Maoist cantonments on April 10, 2012 making a significant progress in the peace process paving the way for completing a new constitution.

Nepalis have been anxiously waiting for the political leaders completing the writing of a new constitution and then promulgating it. The parliament has extended the term of the Constituent Assembly a number of times extending its initially elected life of two years to now four years but the leaders have lost the track of what they have been doing during the years. The Constituent Assembly is for writing a new constitution and then promulgating it. Most probably, they have completed the writing of a new constitution except for the need for coming to a common understanding on major issues such as state restructuring, system of governance and the election system if we believe in their public statements. However, according to Chairman of Constituent Assembly Subhas Nemwang, they also spend a lot of time on doing nothing but arguing at the meetings. At each meeting, they enjoy having the Nepalese heavy lunch called ‘masu bhat’ means meat and rice: the most favorite dish of Nepalis but it also is the most expensive one. ‘Masu’ is the meat of a castrated goat. One kilogram of it currently costs Rs 600 ($7.5 at the exchange rate of Rs 80 per one US dollar),

and the rice cost Rs 90 per kilogram. A dish of ‘masu bhat’ costs Rs 800 (US$10) if they buy it from a catering company.  A lowest paid daily laborer earns not more than Rs 300 to 500 a day in Kathmandu today but in farms they earn much less than that. So, a ‘masu bhat’ dish is beyond the reach of the majority of the Nepalis, as more than 80% of Nepalis working at farms earn terribly low means of living. Most of Nepalis eat such a lavish dish only in the greatest Hindu festival called Dashain once a year. These leaders have been enjoying such a lavish dish each time they sit for a meeting. That might be the reason for getting these leaders so fattened: not good for their health.

Being very nervous of the writing of a new constitution not moving ahead, and the country is running out of time very fast for completing the writing of a new constitution, and the deadline for completing a new constitution is coming nearer and nearer every day, Chairman of Constituent Assembly responsible for completing the writing of a new constitution and promulgating it by May 27, 2012 Subhas Nemwang has said at a program held in Dhulikhel on Saturday, April 7, 2012 that if leaders of the major political parties were asked to speak at once, they would spend the whole time on discussing who would speak first, ‘HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE’ writes on April 7, 2012. Obviously, Chairman Nemwang has been very concerned with the political leaders of the major parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML that they have been less interested in completing the peace process and the constitution writing but they have been fighting for anything they would gain in a short time.

The meeting of the top leaders of ruling UCPN-Maoist and opposition NC and CPN-UML held in Kathmandu on Sunday, March 11, 2012, has ended inconclusively as usual to the army integration and disputed issues of a constitution, ‘The Rising Nepal’, of March 12, 2012 writes. After the three-hour long meeting at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction in Singhadurbar, leaders informing the reporters repeated that they discussed all the issues pertinent to peace and constitution. "We decided to hold another meeting after the meeting of the Special Committee and Dispute Resolution Sub-Committee (of the Constitutional Committee). The Sub-committee’s meeting is scheduled for tomorrow and the special committee’s meeting will be held the day after tomorrow (on Tuesday)," Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal said after the meeting according to the news ‘The Rising Nepal’ has carried on March 12, 2012.

Speaking at a rally in Taulihawa, President of NC Sushil Koirala today said that his party would table a no-confidence motion in the parliament against the government if it failed to conclude the peace process by mid-April, ‘HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE’ writes on April 08, 2012. “We are ready to wait till mid-April for the government and the Maoist party to complete the remaining tasks of the peace process. But if they fail to do so by then, we will resort to a no-confidence motion,” said Koirala speaking at a gathering of party cadres in

Taulihawa. Parties have made a number of agreements with the Maoists ever since the peace process began but the former rebels are not abiding by those agreements, Koirala alleged. “It is now time that Maoists implement past agreements,” Koirala said, “If they fail, the seven-point pact would be the last deal we ever made with them.” The NC chief vowed to complete the peace process and the constitution writing within the deadline according to ‘HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE’.

President of NC Koirala contradicts his own words stating he would complete the peace process and constitution writing. Everybody knows that the constitution writing would not be completed within the deadline if these political leaders did not build a consensus on the state restructuring, governance system and the election system. If President of NC Koirala engages in the business of toppling a government then most probably the peace process and the constitution would be never completed. Such an unelected leader is not accountable to the people; so, he goes on talking anything that does not make sense to the people.

Speaking to reporters in Itahari, Minister Rajendra Mahato has today said those who were earlier plotting to promulgate a constitution without federalism are now dwelling on how not to promulgate a constitution at all, ‘HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE’ writes on April 08, 2012. The Madheshi leader warned of burning a constitution if a constitution without federalism were promulgated; his party would burn copies of it throughout the country. “Only a federal constitution based on identity of the people and their capacity will be acceptable to our party,” ‘HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE’ quotes Minister Mahato. The Minister has said that ‘some forces’ (hinting the president of NC Sushil Koirala and Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal) have been going around saying that they are strong supporters of federalism but the way their actions speak otherwise. Concerning the media quote of Minister Mahato few months ago that his party would cut the fingers of those against federalism, Minister Mahato clarified that his remarks were taken literally, and said, “Our party does not believe in crime.”

Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has been strengthening his government giving the possibility of tearing down the current government a remote chance. Consequently, the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF have been so well cemented, breaking the bond of the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF might be beyond the capacity of the NC and CPN-UML for the coming months. In fact, the current government might stay on until May 27, 2012: the last deadline for the promulgation of a new constitution, might even beyond this day for holding general elections after the promulgation of a new constitution; the government might stays on even if a new constitution is not promulgated on May 27, 2012 if the coalition of the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF holds on. 

Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has administered the oath of office of ministers and secrecy to two members of the Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Republican (MPRF-R) thus cementing the coalition of the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF on Monday, April 9, 2012. Raj Kishor Yadav is appointed to the Minister for Information and Communication and Iqbal Ahmed to Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives. Both of them belong to the MPRF-R. The position of Minister for Information and Communication was vacated by former Chairman of MPRF-R Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta after the Supreme Court of Nepal convicted him of corruption and sent him to jail; and the position of Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives became vacant after the prime minister fired Minister for Agriculture Nandan Kumar Dutta on the recommendation of the MPRF-R.

President of NC Sushil Koirala has been telling the public that he is not going to compromise on anything less than the democratic system in a new constitution. Democracy is a vague term. So, we assume that President of NC Koirala must be talking about not stepping back from the stand his party has been taking on six north-south federal states. If this is the case, the country is not going to have a new constitution at all because judging from the stand of the Madheshi political leaders on the federalism, the Madheshi people in turn would never accept the six north-south states rather would be ready to fight to the finish. The strong stand of President of NC Koirala on north-south six states would provoke another Madhesh and ethnic movement. Most probably, President of NC Koirala wants to derail the current government and grab the power if possible even at the cost of completing the writing of a new constitution. He has said in one of the public speech that his party is going to submit a no-confidence motion against the current government in the parliament. Presenting a no-confidence motion against any government is the prerogative of any political party in the parliamentary system but it needs a majority in the parliament to pass such a motion. The problem is that not only the NC and its president Koirala have no majority in the parliament but also even the combined force of the NC and CPN-UML does not have sufficient votes to topple the current government. So, these guys need the support of the Madheshi parties in another word the UDMF for forming a new government. Leaders of the UDMF would hardly go along with the NC and the CPN-UML leaders if the UDMF leaders were to stick to their demand for the federalism and federal states, as the NC and CPN-UML guys have clearly been against both the federalism and the federal states the Madheshi leaders want.

However, speaking at an interaction held by the Reporters’ Club in Kathmandu on April 10, 2012, the recently appointed Information and Communications Minister Raj Kishor Yadav has said that his party (Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Republican: one of the members of the UDMF) is ready to accept an alternative to ‘one-Madhesh, one-province’ system if the parties (probably means the NC and CPN-UML) forward a scientific and logical view against the proposal, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of April 11, 2012 reports. ‘The Rising Nepal’ quotes the

minister, "The one-Madhesh, one-province demand is logical in the current situation." The country would not witness a lasting peace without addressing the agenda of Madhesh, he claimed, ‘The Rising Nepal’ writes. The minister’s change of mind on the ‘one-Madhesh one-province’ system is a very good indication of the Madheshi guys are willing to backtrack on their stand on one-Madhesh province.

Recently, both the NC and CPN-UML guys are making an attempt on atoning for recognizing the demand of the Madheshi people for federalism and one-Madhesh province telling the Madheshi people that they are not against the Madheshi community. For example, Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal has launched a call-in program to talk to the people in various districts from Kathmandu. In his telephone calls to various cadres and people in the Terai districts, he has repeatedly said that his party and he are not against the Madheshi community but he did not bother to prove his statement backtracking on the stand he has taken not agreeing on the federalism and the federal states the Madheshi community has wanted. So, hardly anybody would believe him that his party is for meeting the demands of the Madheshi people for federalism and federal states. Similarly, the NC leaders have held a number of rallies of the Madheshi community courting their support for them.

CPN-UML leaders have given repeated warning of tearing down the current government if the government does not complete the peace process by certain time they set. The irony is that the same guys have been obstructing the peace process according to Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. However, the peace process has been moving ahead. AISC teams have been in the field to ascertain the number of combatants willing to take either voluntary retirement or the professional-enhancement package or integration with the Nepal Army, as the NC and CPN-UML don’t want to integrate combatants even a single one more than 6,500 agreed on the seven-point deal. If the NC and CPN-UML have accepted all the 9,000 plus combatants willing to join the Nepal Army, the army integration would have been completed way back. So, all these political leaders involved in the peace process have wasted time on discussing nothing but satisfying their ego. So, Chairman Nemwang is one hundred percent correct in saying that these political guys would not mind wasting time on arguing a trifle matter when the national need is a new constitution.

Concerning the army integration, the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) teams reaching at various cantonments have a doubt about completing the regrouping of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) combatants by April 12, 2012 into the groups of combatants opting for voluntary retirement or taking professional enhancement package or remaining for joining the Nepal Army, as they have faced serious problems of getting cooperation from the combatants at some cantonments, and at other cantonments, the commanders are preparing for going to Kathmandu, and at some other cantonments, combatants chanted slogans against

the prime minister and the leadership of the UCPN-Maoist, ‘HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE’ reports on April 8, 2012.

Speaking to the reporters in Itahari, General Secretary of UCPN-Maoist Ram Bahadur Thapa has said that even after the army integration, Nepal would not have a lasting peace, as the constitution promulgated before or on May 27, 2012 would not be people-centered, whatever has been happening now goes against the people, the cadres of his party should be mentally prepared for another people’s war according to the news posted on ‘HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE’ on April 08, 2012. General Secretary of UCPN-Maoist Ram Bahadur Thapa was in Itahari to attend the district-level meeting of the Vaidya faction, and to conduct the training of the cadres of this faction. General Secretary Thapa also has said that the way the Maoist fighters are going to admit to the Nepali Army is very insulting to them, as only 3,000 fighters would be integrated into Nepali Army in future even though political parties had agreed on integrating 6,500 fighters, even this number of 3,000 would be further reduced to 500 because only they would be qualified for integration if the criteria of the Nepal Army were followed. So, he put emphasis on the need for the en mass integration of fighters and for forming a separate Army Directorate. 

General Secretary of UCPN-Maoist Ram Bahadur Thapa is the hardliner and belongs to the Vaidya faction of the UCPN-Maoist. The hardliner Vaidya faction of UCPN-Maoist and the UCPN-Maoist establishment have been running separate programs to suit their ideology. They have been saying that the practice of running parallel programs by two factions of the same party has been from the time of Karl Marx to the time of Mao Zedong. So, it is not a new phenomenon what is happening in the UCPN-Maoist. Some experts believe that this practice has helped the UCPN-Maoist to keep it in one piece, and the cadres have a choice of joining either faction of the party. As such, the UCPN-Maoist might garner more support than when it splits into two and goes different directions even might be fighting against each other. However, they have already started off fighting against each other on the streets. Supporters of the Vaidya faction burned down Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda, and Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai in effigies in Kathmandu; the Prachanda-Bhattarai faction has accused the hardliners of trying to foil the peace process and the constitution writing according to the nepalnews.com news.

In an all-party meeting held at the office of Prime Minister in Singhadurbar, Kathmandu on Monday, April 09, 2012, political parties agreed in principle to amend the Article 70 of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 enable them to promulgate a new constitution by May 27, 2012.

The Article 70 of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 reads as follow.

“Article 70. Procedure for passage of constitution bill: (1) The Constituent Assembly shall, in passing a constitution bill submitted to it, pass such bill by way of voting on the preamble and every article of the bill.

(2) In a voting referred to in Clause (1), the bill shall be passed by consensus of a meeting attended by at least two-thirds of all the then members of the Constituent Assembly.

(3) Failing a consensus on the preamble or any article of the constitution bill pursuant to Clause (2), the parliamentary party leaders of the political parties represented in the Constituent Assembly shall hold mutual consultations in order to reach consensus on such matter.

(4) The holding of consultations pursuant to Clause (3) shall be completed no later than a maximum of fifteen days after the date of failure to reach consensus.

(5) No later than seven days after the holding of consultations, if any, pursuant to Clause (4), the preamble or any article of such bill shall be again put to vote.

(6) Failing the consensus referred to in Clause (2) notwithstanding the voting held pursuant to clause (5), the preamble or the article in respect whereof consensus could not be reached shall be again put to vote; and if, in such voting, the preamble or article is passed by a two-thirds majority of a meeting attended by at least two-thirds of all the then members of the Constituent Assembly, such preamble or article shall be deemed to have been passed.

(7) For the purpose of this Article, if, in a voting on the preamble or any article of the constitution bill introduced in the Constituent Assembly, none of the members does vote against the preamble or any article of such bill, the consensus shall be deemed to have been reached.”

Now, the Cabinet needs a proposal for making an amendment to the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007, and submits it to the Parliamentary Business Advisory Board for its approval and then to the full House of the Constituent Assembly (CA) for endorsement. Thereafter, the CA needs to revise its calendar of writing a new constitution to promulgate a new constitution before or on May 27, 2012.

On April 10, 2012, the AISC has decided to turn over the management of the UCPN-Maoist cantonments to the Nepal Army obviously due to the uncontrollable situation arisen at various cantonments when the AISC reached there to regroup the combatants choosing anyone of the options available: voluntary retirement, professional enhancement, and integration into the Nepal Army. The decision on turning over the Maoist cantonments and the weapons to the Nepal Army is taken in presence of the leaders of the UCPN-Maoist, NC,

CPN-UML and UDMF at Singhadurbar in Kathmandu. Obviously, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist and Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai are alarmed by the behavior of the combatants when the teams of the AISC have reached various cantonments on April 08, 2012 for regrouping the remaining 9,000 plus combatants for reducing them to 6,500 for integrating into the Nepal Army. Leaders of UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF have signed off a four-party seven-point deal on November 01, 2011 agreeing on integrating 6,500 UCPN-Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army. Regrouping means giving the combatants the choice of anyone of the three options such as voluntary retirement, professional enhancement, and integration into the Nepal Army. Combatants opting for voluntary retirement would receive Rs 500,000 to Rs 800,000 depending on their rank in the People’s Liberation Army. Combatants choosing the professional enhancement would receive Rs 900,000 worth of the package of vocational schooling. The Vaidya faction of the UCPN-Maoist has instructed the combatants not to give in to the decision of the UCPN-Maoist establishment on regrouping. Consequently, the combatants taking the order of the Vaidya faction of the UCPN-Maoist have become prepared for fighting against the regrouping. In fact, they have started off fighting with the combatants taking the order from the UCPN-Maoist establishment. As a result, the UCPN-Maoist establishment has lost the control of the cantonments. So, the UCPN-Maoist establishment means the Prachanda-Bhattarai faction of the UCPN-Maoist has hurriedly called in the Nepal Army to manage the cantonments. The Vaidya faction of the UCPN-Maoist has protested the way the cantonments are turned over to the Nepal Army. Some of them belonging to the Vaidya factions has dubbed it as a total surrender of the People’s Liberation Army to the Nepal Army; other members have called the cadres to be prepared for another people’s war. General Secretary of UCPN-Maoist Ram Bahadur Thapa has expressed a doubt about the integration of 6,500 combatants. He has said that the Nepal Army would take 3,000 at the most; this number would reduce to 500 if the criteria of the Nepal Army were followed. He has said that it is not an integration but recruitment. Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda has been unnerved and has said that his party has taken the decision on turning over the cantonments to the Nepal Army to put an end to all kinds of conspiracies against the peace process and constitution writing; the decision is a risky one but his party has taken it for the peace. The Nepal Army personnel have moved in the cantonments. Happy combatants have welcomed the Nepal Army personnel to their cantonments but others have been hostile. Other groups of combatants have simply packed up their belongings and set off for their homes on whatever means of transport available.

On Thursday, April 12, 2012, the Government of India has welcomed the turning over of the control of Maoist fighters and their weapons to the Nepal Army and hoped that "the Nepali-led and Nepali-driven political processes would be taken to their logical end within the time-frame". "We welcome the agreement reached on April 10 in the constitutionally mandated Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) on taking forward the process of integration and

rehabilitation of the former Maoist combatants in consonance with the past agreements," external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said in New Delhi. "We congratulate the Nepalese leadership for the wisdom, and spirit of consensus displayed by them to complete the remaining tasks," he said. "We hope the Nepali-led and Nepali-driven political processes would be taken to their logical end within the time-frame agreed by the political parties, ushering Nepal into a new era of peace and democracy," said the spokesperson. Following the decision of the all-party Special Committee (SC) accountable for the Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of Maoist combatants, the Nepal Army (NA) Tuesday (April 10, 2012) took control of the Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA) cantonments, combatants and the weapons stored in containers inside the camps, the Indian news agency IANS reports.

After the passing on the Maoist cantonments and the weapons to the Nepal Army, Nepalese politicians have developed confidence in completing the writing of a new constitution by May 27, 2012. On Friday, April 12, 2012, President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has said that now all the political parties need to build an integrated Nepal giving the country a new constitution. Chairman of Constituent Assembly (CA) Subhash Nemwang has said that the political parties should now focus on constitution writing to promulgate a new constitution within May 27, 2012, as the army integration has been accomplished. Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hridayesh Tripathi on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 has said that the peace process and constitution-writing would complete surely by May 27, 2012: the day the term of the Constituent Assembly expires; the latest developments in the peace process have given the reason for being optimistic. Minister for Education Dinanath Sharma has said that the UCPN-Maoist has completed the peace process and the drafting of a pro-people constitution follows after the New Year (April 13). Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal has said that the peace process has already moved ahead and it would not backtrack; so, a constitution will be promulgated on time and the political transitional period would soon end. Madheshi leaders have urged the large political parties now to concentrate on drafting a new constitution, as the peace process has been now at a last stage. UDMF is an alliance of the Madhesh-centric parties. They also have urged the NC and CPN-UML, and other parties in the opposition to ensure federalism with ethnic identity.

Addressing the nation on TVs on Thursday, April 12, 2012, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has said that with the turning over of the cantonments to the Nepal Army, the peace process has moved ahead, so, the promulgation of a new constitution would be on target. He has said that the two parallel armies have turned into a single army and urged both the PLA and the Nepal Army work in a discipline manner. “Peace and constitution is only the means to end the poverty, unemployment and discrimination,” the prime minister said. Prime Minister Bhattarai has assured Nepalis of a new inclusive constitution refuting the media

reports that the political parties have been preparation for promulgating a new constitution without federalism. He also has assured the Madheshi community of enforcing the four-point deal the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF reached before forming the current government; to this end, the government has formulated a new inclusive bill. Concerning the problem of unemployment the prime minister has said that his government has planned to provide every Nepali with at least 100 days of employment a year.

To be continued…

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Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays On-Part VIIssue 17, April 22, 2012

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

After the almost completion of the army integration, leaders of four major power centers have been sitting at one meeting after another to sort out of the problems of not building a consensus on a new constitution. Most probably they will build a consensus on a new constitution soon but the president has recently said in public that he is not going to sign off a new constitution if it makes the provision for dividing the country provoking a strong reaction from the leader of an ethnic party. At the same time, former monarch received a warning from a political leader of the possibility of sending him to a jail.

On April 14, 2012, the nepalnews.com reported that Former President of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) Raj Kumar Lekhi has taken serious exception to President Ram Baran Yadav's recent statement that he would not put his seal of assent on a constitution that would lead to the country's disintegration. He said, "It is clear that the President has indirectly spoken against federalism. Some responsible parties had been provoking him to make such a provocative statement by crossing the constitutional boundary. Now, he is doing something that puts the political parties in a difficult situation."

On April 13, 2012, speaking at the opening function of the Kalimata Temple at Kanpur VDC-1 in Timal area in Banepa, President Dr Ram Baran Yadav has said that he would not sign a constitution if the constitution has the slightest hint of division of the country stating the responsibility of the Head of State is to issue a constitution, ‘The Himalayan Times’ of April 13, 2012 writes quoting the state-run news agency RSS.

In fact, backtracking on the democratic norms and values, the president had crossed the constitutional boundary in 2008 not following the recommendation of the then-prime minister but directly writing a letter to the then army chief stating him to stay on in his job even though the prime minister had fired him. The then-Prime Minister Prachanda had fired the then Chief of Army Staff Rukmangad Katuwal for his political statements but President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav on the recommendation of the team of the political leaders headed by Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal wrote a letter to Katuwal stating him to stay on the job provoking a strong protest from the prime minister that quit the office in protest paving the way for the unscrupulous politicians to play the politics in making the man rejected by voters in two constituents a next prime minister. Thus, the so-called democrats that have put a claim for defending the democracy undermined the democratic values of only elected persons having the mandate of the people are eligible for the office of prime minister. 

Now, President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has again prepared for crossing the constitutional boundary stating he would not sign off a new constitution if the constitution were to divide the country. As a matter of fact, not only the president but also every citizen has to protect the sovereignty of the country. The president is more responsible for protecting the country than any common folks. So, it is natural that the president makes such a statement but the question is how he would find a constitution prepared by the elected members of the Constituent Assembly a divisive one, and refuses to put his seal of assent on it.

One thing we can assume is that the president might be referring to the stand of the NC and CPN-UML on not allowing the federalism and the federal states in the names of ethnicity. The NC and CPN-UML guys have been hyping on the ethnic-based federalism would lead the country to division; so they would never agree on it. That is the point the president must have picked up or one of the hardliners that take the stand on not making Nepal a federal democratic republic or against the federal states or want to continue the central government taking care of everything has written the president’s speech that contains the most irrational statement of not signing off a new constitution that has a slightest hint of division of the country. Most of the hardliners in the NC take this stand. Another hardliner is Chitra Bahadur KC leader of the so-called Janamorcha party. Mr. KC has been not only speaking out against federalism but also has been taking the issue to the streets shutting down the business of other people illegally.  President Yadav must have borrowed the word ‘division’ from these NC and CPN-UML guys, and Mr. KC or he must be influenced by them and develop the mind-set of the NC and CPN-UML guys and so must have said that he would not allow such a constitution to prevail. This is how Mr. President might have defined the ‘division of Nepal.’

The ethnic communities and other politically reasonably thinking people agree that federalism is the only way of keeping Nepal intact in other words in one piece. Federalism is

only for decentralization and the federal states are for giving the locals the rights to self-development nothing more and nothing less. It would not certainly lead the country to division rather cement it further. It will give the rights to self-development to the Nepalis in general and the ethnic communities in particular the 240-year monarchical rule had denied them. Recently, the president himself said in public that the monarchical rule had been responsible for the poverty in the country. The president knows that Nepalis have tolerated the political, economical and social injustices inflicted on them for 240 years; the current generation of Nepalis will not anymore tolerate such injustices. Nepalis in general simply want to redress these injustices having the federal states and federalism for self-determination. Nobody needs to take it otherwise.

Some people might ask a question then why the NC and CPN-UML guys have been against the federal states and federalism, and have incited the president to say that he would not sign off a constitution with a slightest hint of division. They have already proved that they simply want power nothing else putting the unelected man in the office of prime minister severely undermining the democratic values of the elected office is only for the elected person. The irony is that the NC and CPN-UML guys continue to say they are not compromising democracy. In reality, they have damaged the features of democracy doing whatever possible simply for grabbing power. They also want to keep the strong central powerful government to maintain the status quo means denying the political, economical, and social justices to the people. In other words they want to monopolize the state power. They would surely lose their supremacy if they accept the federal states and federalism. They also might lose their large land holdings and their capacity of keeping the people at the mercy of landlords.

The president is by blood a Madheshi but mentally might be one of the NC and CPN-UML guys. As a person grew up in the Madhesh, President Yadav must have seen how the Madheshis had plowed the land owned by the then rulers but lost the rewards for their labors to the lavish life styles of the rulers. These farmers are not anymore for plowing the land for the absentee landlords that have grabbed the land by virtue of being the parts of the then rulers. So, Madheshis want a state for themselves, and make them the masters of their destiny in the land they toil. This is what we understand federalism and federal states means. If the president is sincere to his people that have elected him to the highest office he would never say that he would not sign off a constitution with the provisions for such divisions, as federal states and federalism are not only the demands of the ethnic communities but also of the Madheshi community, too. Hundreds of brave Madheshi sons and daughters sacrificed their lives for dividing the country into federal states and federalism. Now, the president wants to waste the sacrifices of the blood of so many brave Madheshis stating he wouldn’t give them what they have been already on the half way to receive it.

Whether the people in general and the Madheshis in particular would pardon the president for his stand on not accepting the federalism and federal states or not remains to be seen. If you are one of the believers in federal states and federalism for the development of Nepal, you will believe that nobody will pardon the president for such unwanted irrational stand on the federalism and federal states. In case, the president stuck to his stand on not accepting the federalism and federal states then the people would certainly rise up against it and the fate of the president would be uncertain in this case. Probably, the most generous people would simply impeach him but not so generous people might take him to the gallows for not behaving as a ceremonial president following the Interim constitution of Nepal of 2007 but taking orders from the NC and CPN-UML guys.

At a regular meeting with Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on Thursday, April 19, 2012, President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has congratulated the prime minister on his success in pushing the peace process forward, and asked the prime minister to form a national unity government for smoothly promulgating a new constitution on time. The president needs to make it clear whether a national unity government is the government President of NC Sushil Koirala has been demanding to form under the leadership of his parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel or a government as claimed by Chairman Prachanda and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. Mr. Koirala himself did not dare to claim the office of prime minister, as he was not elected to the parliament. Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda and his deputy and current Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai have been for forming a national unity government and inviting the NC leaders to join the Bhattarai government. No matter which government the president has asked the prime minister to form, in both cases, the ceremonial president is interfering in the business of the political parties and once again the president is backtracking on the democratic values.

Could the president be another Gyanendra in other words a dictator? Nepalis have been politically well awakened. In addition, the time is not of the mid twenty century but of the second decade of the 21st century. Trying to be a dictatorial, the president will dig a grave for himself and for his fellow activists, too. The president will set the country again to political chaos causing violence. This is certainly against the people’s aspirations for a lasting peace and the rule of law. The president is supposed to protect the constitution but not signing off a new constitution crafted by the elected people’s representatives he would break the rule of law and violate the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007. That is enough for the people voicing for the rule of law to fight against the president’s irrational action of not signing off a new constitution. As such, if anybody were to take absolute power then s/he would put her/his life at risk, and put the country on a chaotic path.

Opening the eighth convention of Nepal Buddhijivi Parishad in Lalitpur on Saturday, April 14, 2012, senior leader of CPN-UML and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that former King Gyanendra has been "conspiring against loktantra (democracy)" and warned that he would be arrested and jailed if he were to continue such activities; the CPN-UML leader has warned that the security of the former King Gyanendra would be withdrawn, too; it was not clear what provoked the former prime minister to make such remarks against the former monarch, but Gyanendra had said in his New Year day (April 13 according to the official calendar of Nepal) message that the people of the country aspire for a "democratic constitution," nepalnews.com writes on April 15, 2012.

Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai also had accused dethroned King Gyanendra of conspiring against the peace process but the prime minister had not specify how Gyanendra had been conspiring against the peace process. However, the prime minister stopped short of stating taking any actions against Gyanendra.

Speaking to a group of reporters at his official residence Baluwatar on Saturday, March 03, 2012, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has said that ex-King Gyanendra is hatching conspiracy against peace process and constitution "from behind the curtain" and that his 'activism' is not a good sign at a time when the country's political transition is nearing to end; the Gyanendra's recent statement that democracy and nationality were at stake smacked of conspiracy, and the recent blast in Kathmandu were part of a 'conspiracy' to push the country into conflict and derail the peace process and the constitution-making; the democratic and communist forces should unite to thwart the conspiracy, nepalnews.com writes. Gyanendra’s brief conversation with the local media persons in Sunsari before opening a Hindu religious function on Thursday, March 01, 2012 implied that democracy and national existence were in dangers according to the nepalnews.com news.

Recently, Gyanendra has increased his public appearances attending religious functions in Biratnagar in the east and Dhannagadi in the west in March 2012 drawing pro-monarchy supporters and loyalists. A small group of his supporters shouted slogans asking him for coming back to the politics and saving the country in Biratnagar. Such things have been regular occurrences wherever he has visited. However, in the west, his supporters have gone around in motorbikes in the show of strength and the support for Gyanendra. He also had made a high-profile visit to India in February 2012. Gyanendra also has said that the law and order situation have been deteriorating in the country.

The government has scaled down the security of Gyanendra replacing the Nepal Army with the Armed Police Force personnel. The Nepal Army has pulled out its twenty-five officials deployed under the command of Major for the security of former King Gyanendra Shah from the Nagarjuna Palace following the government's decision made six months ago; instead the

government has deployed fifty Armed Police Force (APF) under the command of a Deputy Superintendent for the security of Gyanendra according to the news posted on the nepalnews.com on Saturday, April 14, 2012.

With the pullout of the army men from the security of Gyanendra, the government has effectively severed the direct link of Gyanendra with the Nepal Army. He might have indirect connections through his relatives and well-wishers serving in the Nepal Army but such connections will be loose ones that would not threaten the mobilization of the army by Gyanendra to make a comeback to power.

The question is whether Gyanendra could make a comeback. Some political experts believe that the possibility of he making a comeback is as good as a corpse coming back to life. However, nothing is impossible. So, the possibility is there for Gyanendra to make a comeback but he himself makes it impossible for not spending even a penny on his supporters. He wants his supporters bring him his throne back on a platter but such nothing is not going to happen. Anybody willing to have the support needs to spend something on his or her supporters, too.

Some people believe that his father Mahendra had stashed away a large amount of people’s money in Swiss banks. Gyanendra himself has a number of large business companies and even cash, too but Gyanendra is a stingy person. He does not spend a single penny on his supporters. One of the diehard monarchists Kamal Thapa has been running out of money for marching the people on the streets or holding a rally in support of the monarchy. Recently, Kamal Thapa could hardly bring even a few people to the streets with banners and placards or hold a rally in Kathmandu or anywhere else. A few people rallying behind Gyanendra have been doing so in anticipation of Gyanendra making a comeback and then they would enjoy having some benefits. Support of such people would not last long. Even the support of Kamal Thapa for the monarchy has been fading away.

However, Gyanendra could still count on support of some singers, artists, intelligentsia and politicians other than Kamal Thapa if Gyanendra willing to spend some of his money on them he could effectively revive the support of these guys. For example, in one of his TV interviews, Kumar Basnet had said that he was a monarchist; one of the NC leaders Khum Bahadur Khadka met with Gyanendra at the temple to Lord Pashupati in Kathmandu even after Gyanendra was dethroned. Even now, the NC has many leaders and even cadres empathetic to Gyanendra. Some of the NC leaders left the party in protest against the party deleting the provision for a constitutional monarchy from its statute.

If Gyanendra indulges in illegal activities and incites his supporters to violence then he should land in a jail without delay. His father had killed a number of NC cadres for

demanding the reinstatement of democracy in 1960s. Similarly, Gyanendra had shot some of the demonstrators that had demanded reinstatement of democracy in 2006. Some of them died, many of them injured. One of them died recently. For example, Shyam Mali a 42-year-old man injured in the People’s Movement II of 2006, died on Tuesday morning, April 17, 2012; Mali, a permanent resident of Dhapakhel-2, Lalitpur had been shot while taking part in a mass protest against former king Gyanendra-led royal regime, nepalnews.com writes. So, the government must immediately put Gyanendra in a jail if he has been trying to hijack democracy and make a comeback.

Gyanendra is now a common folk; so, he enjoys the fundamental human rights as every citizen enjoys. As a citizen, he has the rights to be concerned with the political situation and the sovereignty of the country; and he also enjoys the freedom of expression but he should not simply watch and listen to his supporters shouting him to make a comeback and save the nation. Nobody knows whether Gyanendra has incited them to shout such slogans or these slogans are spontaneous expression of support for Gyanenddra. In both cases, he needs to stop them from shouting such illegal slogans but not doing so he has violated the law and has been subject to punishment by law. The government and even Madhav Nepal for that matter could take legal actions against Gyanendra and demand the Court to put him to a jail for that matter following the rule of law rather than threatening him to put into a jail.

What right Madhav Nepal has to publicly accuse Gyanendra of "conspiring against loktantra (democracy)" and then threaten him to put in a jail? Mr. Madhav Nepal needs to take this issue to the Court and prove that Gyanendra has been conspiring against democracy and demand the Court to put Gyanendra in a jail otherwise Madhav’s public comments on putting Gyanendra in a jail causes the contempt for reputation of Gyanendra; for which Gyanendra could file a case of tarnishing his reputation in the Court and demand the Court for redressing the contempt for his reputation. 

Similarly, Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai also needs to prove whatever accusations he has made against Gyanendra in public and take administrative actions or take the case to the Court for punishing Gyanendra for his illegal activities.

However, the Nepalese leaders have the hangover of the past rulers staying above the law. Anybody staying above the law should be made the thing of past; now we are living in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal; everybody no matter whether s/he is a prime minister or a leader of a political party needs to follow the rule of law. Charging anybody of felony without proof is certainly the violence of law and subject to punishment.

In the real democratic countries, people with criminal background are barred even from serving at schools, barber shops, manicure and pedicure shops for the security of the

customers but in Nepal we have so many allegedly criminals and even convicted criminals have been serving in the army, police, in the parliament and so many in the political parties, too, as the new rulers of Nepal hold on to the mindset of the past rulers staying above the rule of law. For example, Speaker Subhas Nemwang has been unable even to suspend Lawmaker Balkrishna Dhungel representing the UCPN-Maoist convicted of a murder, former Prime Minister Madhav Nepal promoted the army officer allegedly involved in enforced disappearance to the second-in-command of the Nepal Army, Madhav Nepal and his Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari in 2009 refused to turn over Major Niranjan Basnet indicted for torturing and killing a minor Maina Sunuwar in 2004 to the Kavre District Court for pursuing the criminal case against him despite the repeated demands of the national and international human rights organizations to do so. Leaders of the so-called Democratic Party NC have always demanded the return of the properties seized by the then Maoists during the conflict period stating they have illegally seized the properties and should be returned to the rightful owners. It sounds these NC guys are for the rule of law but they have never demanded the government put the convicted lawmaker to a jail and never demanded former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar not to promote the allegedly criminal to the second-in-command of the Nepal Army and never spoken out for turning over Major Basnet to the Kavre District Court. Even Gyanendra would have been in a jail rather than in the cozy Nagarjun Palace if the successive governments headed by late Girija Prasad Koirala and other leaders of UPCN-Maoist and CPN-UML after the People’s Movement II in 2006 had followed the rule of law. We need to change this mindset of the politicians and rulers and people in general and follow the rule of law putting criminals in jails no matter whether s/he is Gyanendra or Balkrishna Dhungel.

To be continued.

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Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays On-Part VIIIssue 18, April 29, 2012

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

The exodus of a large number of combatants than anticipated from among the remaining combatants opting for integration into the Nepal Army has eased the peace process. Leaders have been doing their best to come to a common understanding on the disputed issues of a new constitution making Nepalis in general optimistic about the possibility of promulgating a new constitution by May 27, 2012. However, President of NC has been drumming up the

forming of a so-called unity government led by his parliamentary party leader causing Nepalis to be concerned with the possibility of derailing the proclamation of a new constitution due to the power struggle among the political parties.

The number of combatants opting for integration into the Nepal Army could hardly exceed 5,000 after most of them opted for voluntary retirement; more than 80 per cent of former combatants at the Seventh Division of People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Kailali are returning home after choosing voluntary retirement; a total number of 738 out of 1,026 PLA combatants in Lokesh Smriti Brigade, Gorunge and Lisnegram Smriti Brigade, Badaipur of the Seventh Division has opted for voluntary retirement instead of integrating into the Nepal Army; the number of combatants at the Seventh Division was reduced to 1,026 from 3,131 reached after the first phase of regrouping, this is the report on the regrouping of combatants, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of April 18, 2012 has reported. In fact, the number of combatants opting for joining the Nepal Army has reduced to 3,000.

Why the combatants originally so enthusiastic about joining the Nepal Army have chosen to go for voluntary retirement rather than joining the Nepal Army. Most probably, they did not see any future well-being for them joining the Nepal Army. They had fought ten-year people’s war that culminated into the death of the monarchy and the birth of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. They believe that they are the ones that have fought for bringing down the monarchy. They have been proud of being the members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The greatest pain they have felt must be the ending of the PLA.

The PLA members have marched to occupy the capital of Nepal. They have in fact directly or indirectly won the 72 districts out of the 75 districts of the country limiting the power of the then rulers to the Kathmandu Valley by 2006. After their party: the then-CPN-Maoist had signed off the 12-point understanding with the then-Seven-party Alliance in New Delhi, India on November 22, 2005, most probably on the command of their party boss, some of them took part in the People’s Movement II of 2006 holding green twigs identifying them as coming out of the forest. The People’s Movement II forced the then dynastic king to bow down to the people’s demand of reinstating the dissolved parliament on April 23, 2006. Thus, they have been the last instruments to tear down the monarchy. Naturally, they feel like the heroes of the people’s liberation war. They have anticipated a great reward for taking Nepal to the federal democratic republic in the 21st century.

However, they ultimately have found that they are the most neglected warriors. They need to meet the standards of the Nepal Army undergoing training for being the part of the Nepal Army. So, that might be the last straw on their ego in other words one of the main humiliations they felt. In addition, most of them get the positions in the Nepal Army well

below the positions they have held. Certainly, that is another humiliation to them.

Most of the PLA members lacked academic qualifications. Most of them came from the laboring farm families hoping to improve their lot fighting against the landlords and the evil rulers. So, they became the Maoist fighters. They were poorly trained but they had the courage and determination to achieve their goals and the goal of the Maoists. They did achieve their goals and that of the Maoists. They upgraded their fighting skills undergoing training while staying on at the cantonments up until they left the cantonments. In fact, the cantonments had become their army barracks and the homes for the last few years they had been in cantonments. Some of them took the SLC (School Leaving Examinations). More than thousands PLA members have passed the SLC. Thus, they have even improved their academic background.

Most of the PLA members have anticipated that they would have en masse entry into the Nepal Army. The Maoist leadership had tried their best to take the PLA members en mass to the Nepal Army dragging the peace process in limbo for the last four years and putting the promulgation of a new constitution in question. However, they have realized that it would not be possible to get the PLA members en mass to the Nepal Army without meeting the entry standards of the Nepal Army. So, Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai agreed on setting up a special directorate at the Nepal Army for taking the PLA members in the directorate following the standards set by the Nepal Army for anybody opting to join it. The Nepal Army standards require certain academic qualifications, trainings and years of services to be eligible for various level positions in the Nepal Army. As already said most of the PLA members lack the academic qualifications, they might have a number of years of services at the PLA, they might be good commanders but they don’t have official trainings; so, en mass entry of the PLA members has not been possible.

During the last regrouping of the combatants into the combatants opting for joining the Nepal Army, taking voluntary retirement, or professional enhancement package, most of the combatants lacking the qualifications, trainings and years of service required for the entry into the Nepal Army at the same levels they have been serving at the PLA would need to accept the positions lower than what they have today, have opted for voluntary retirement. They have the options of either take the voluntary retirement or take the professional enhancement package or join the directorate at the Nepal Army at the much lower status. At the last regrouping, the combatants’ dream of joining the Nepal Army has shattered by the choice given by their party bosses either to choose the retirement or professional enhancement package or follow the Nepal Army standards for joining the special directorate at the Nepal Army. Most of the combatants have felt that their party has betrayed them.

Section commander at Surkhet-based PLA Sixth Division Manraj Devkota was once for joining the Nepali Army through the army integration process, at the last regrouping time, he chose voluntary retirement saying his party leadership had betrayed them in the name of integration; he opted for voluntary retirement thinking the Nepali Army would humiliate him, ‘The Himalayan Times’ of April 17, 2012 writes. “Our contribution to the party and country went in vain after the party leadership abandoned its stance in negotiation with other parties,” Devkota said adding, “Leaders got the power because of us, but they have forgotten us completely.” 

At the latest regrouping of the combatants started off on April 08, 2012, the rival groups of combatants were ready to fight against each other; at some cantonments they started off fighting against each other. The combatants polarized into two groups: one group for accepting the order of the UCPN-Maoist establishment, another group taking the order from the Vaidya faction of UCPN-Maoist. Deputy Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Mohan Vaidya Kiran and his faction have been provoking the combatants saying the UCPN-Maoist establishment means Prachanda-Bhattarai axis has betrayed the combatants and accepted the integration of the combatants to the Nepal Army to the extent of their humiliation.

The combatants belonging to the Prachanda-Bhattarai axis quietly accepted their destiny whereas the combatants following the order of the Vaidya group became belligerent and ready to fight. The situation at every cantonment became the war-like. The Prachanda-Bhattarai axis quickly called in the Nepal Army in alarm to manage the cantonments. Taking the order from Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, the personnel of the Nepal Army quietly took over the management of cantonments. Now, the commanders of the PLA could not take the order from one group or another of the UCPN-Maoist.

In order to boost the morale of the former PLA members, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda has said that the PLA members are integrated into the Nepal Army not the former royal Nepal Army. So, the combined army is the national Nepal Army. Now, PLA members could be proud of being the part of the national army.

However, the PLA members joining the Nepal have to take the bridging course and the bridging trainings to meet the standards of the Nepal Army for joining it. Not willing to meet the humiliating standards set for them to integrate into the Nepal Army, most of the proud PLA members quit the cantonments with the money they received for the voluntary retirement. The result is only a few thousands PLA members remained to join the Nepal Army.

Originally, the number of combatants were almost 30,000 thousands; most probably, the

Maoists have inflated the number. In the video of Chairman Prachanda speaking to the cadres in Chitwon the Nepal Army had leaked to the public, Prachanda said that the number of the PLA was in fact only 3,000 but his party had succeeded to inflate it to the 30,000 causing a great uproar in the Nepalese media, in the political and intelligentsia circles.

Following the letters sent by the Maoists and the then Government of Nepal to the UN requesting for monitoring the PLA members and their weapons, and the Nepal Army and their weapons, the UN sent UNMIN to Nepal to verify the PLA members and their weapons and put the PLA members and store their weapons at various cantonments, and equal number of the Nepal Army and their arms, too following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement the government and the Maoist had signed off in 2006. During the verification, the UNMIN disqualified a number of PLA members stating they were underage. Finally, the UNMIN arrived at the total number of PLA to slightly more than 19,000.

Since then more than 19,000 PLA members have been staying in various cantonments. European and American governments have provided the Government of Nepal with funding to support the PLA members. Such funding has been made under the peace fund provided to Nepal.

Then, the UCPN-Maoist and UDMF reached a four-point deal in September 2011, and formed a majority government headed by Prime Minster Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. In the deal, the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF had reached, they agreed to take Madheshi youths in the Nepal Army, and complete the peace process vacating the PLA cantonments. The government had made an attempt to recruit fresh soldiers from the Madheshi community in a large number but the prevailing laws did not permit the government to do so. Someone took the issue of recruiting soldiers from the Madheshi youths to the Supreme Court of Nepal. Hearing on the issue, the Supreme Court stopped the government from the fresh recruit of soldier from the Madheshi community.

NC and CPN-UML opted to stay in the opposition demanding the Bhattarai government vacating the cantonments and transferring the weapons stored in the cantonments to the government before moving on the writing of a new constitution ahead. The opposition said that promulgation of a new constitution with the PLA members still in cantonments would be unacceptable to the opposition at any cost. They did not join the coalition government of the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF disagreeing the UDMF’s demand for the bulk recruitment of soldiers from among the Madheshi youths.

Then, on November 01, 2011, the UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML, and UDMF entered into a new seven-point deal agreeing on the Nepal Army taking 6,500 PLA members. The number of the PLA members to integrate into the Nepal Army had been a bone of contention during

the last four years. The opposition gradually scaling up and the UCPN-Maoist scaling down the number of the PLA members they want to integrate into the Nepal Army finally reached the magic number of 6,500. They also agreed on the amount of the money to be provided to the combatants taking voluntary retirement, the professional enhancement packages and the standards of the Nepal Army for taking in the PLA members.

Then, a number of teams of the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) presided over by the prime minister went to the cantonments and offered the three choices such as voluntary retirement, professional enhancement packages, and joining the Nepal Army. About 10,000 combatants chose the voluntary retirement and collected the retirement bonus and went home. Thus, the number of PLA members opting for joining the Nepal Army remained slightly more than 9,000: more than the opposition and the UCPN-Maoist agreed on.

The UCPN-Maoist tried to convince the opposition NC and CPN-UML to take the 9,000 plus combatants to the Nepal Army but the opposition stubbornly stuck to the previously agreed number 6,500 ultimately requiring to the second regrouping of the combatants. The second regrouping gave the result of only 3,000 combatants willing to join the Nepal Army. Most of the combatants left the cantonments after the Nepal Army took over the cantonments. Thus, the PLA army disappeared.

What alternative the UCPN-Maoist has to make its PLA members get the respectable entry into the Nepal Army. Practically, the UCPN-Maoist has no alternative to accepting the Nepal Army standards set for the PLA members to join it. Not to accept the Nepal Army standards means not to follow the Nepal Army laws. So, the UCPN-Maoist establishment has to force its army to follow the standards if they are joining the Nepal Army.

Leaders of UCPN-Maoist, NC CPN-UML and UDMF have been sitting at meetings days and sometimes nights, too to resolve the contested issues of a new constitution. Now, the opposition particularly the leaders of NC and CPN-UML have no excuses of not moving the writing of a new constitution forward after the PLA has been dissolved and cantonments have been vacated. These opposition leaders have been against completing the writing of a new constitution until the PLA goes off. However, coming out of every meeting they held, these leaders told the reporters that they had been close to resolve the disputed issues, and they hoped that they would certainly agreed on those issues at the next meeting. Nepalis in general did not have an idea what they had been talking about. They spent a number of days meeting at various resort hotels not to be disturbed by the hanging-around reporters that had been hungry for the good news of agreeing on the disputed issues. The time for completing a new constitution has been running out everyday. Upcoming May 27 is the last day for

promulgating a new constitution thereafter the Constituent Assembly elected for making a new constitution dissolves automatically.

Now, President of NC Sushil Koirala has been drumming up that his party should have an opportunity of forming a new government before promulgating a new constitution. What is the justification for making a new government of his party before promulgating a new constitution? Mr. Koirala has never explained it to the public. His party holds a second position with only 114 members in the 601-member parliament. Some of his colleagues had even threatened to move a no-confidence motion against the Bhattarai government if it did not complete the PLA integration into the Nepal Army. Now, the PLA has been no more. Now, it is time for all to make a new constitution but Mr. Koirala has put forward another condition for promulgating a new constitution.

If the political leaders are sincere to completing a new constitution, they need to build a consensus on all the contested issues. In case such a consensus is not possible they need to take the issue to the Constitution Assembly for voting and completing a new constitution for promulgating before or on May 27, 2012. Demanding to form a new government as a condition for completing a new constitution will not lead the nation to a logical completion of the peace process and to a new Nepal but to back-to-square one and political chaos. If this is what President of NC Sushil Koirala has in his mind then logical-thinking Nepalis would never forgive him and for his party for that matter.

Whether the NC wants to join the Bhattarai government or not is up to the president Koirala and his colleagues that make the decision but they have to be serious about completing a new constitution. Even if the NC wants to form a new government and promulgate a new constitution and wants to be in power for holding general elections for a new parliament and a government after the promulgation of a new constitution then the NC needs to garner a majority in the parliament to remove Dr. Bhattarai from the office put Ram Chandra Poudel or Sher Bahadur Deuba whoever Koirala wants in the office.

The NC did not join the almost all-party government led by Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda in 2008 rather opposed every major decision the government made and ultimately made the Prachanda government a failure. Then, the NC put Madhav Nepal not elected in two constituencies in the office of prime minister forming a joint government of NC, CPN-UML and UDMF, and undermining the democratic value of the high public office of prime minister is only for an elected person. Madhav Nepal remained in the office for 20 months doing nothing to complete the peace process and the constitution writing but promoting the allegedly criminals to the highest offices of the Nepal Army. Then, the UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML formed a new government but the NC did not join it, ultimately making it a failure, too.

Now, the army integration is completed; no more two armies; no more possibility of the UCPN-Maoist going to elections with their armed forces. Then, what does the president of NC Sushil Koirala want putting forward a condition of tearing down the government that has completed the army integration and moving to completing a new constitution, and forming a government of his party? Mr. Koirala would make a great favor to the nation if he lets the current government to remain in the office until the promulgation of a new constitution, and let the country have a new constitution by May 27, 2012. Then, Mr. Koirala might either form a new government or go to the people asking for votes for his party.

The international community is for completing a new constitution as soon as possible and taking Nepal to elections for a new set of parliament and a government. US, European Union, Japan, UN and India have welcomed the completing of the army integration and ending the PLA. India in particular wants to see a new constitution promulgated in Nepal on schedule. “Sources said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to visit Nepal within a timeframe of three weeks, but only one condition — full assurance of the promulgation of the constitution within the stipulated May 27 deadline”, HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE writes on April 20, 2012.

A press release of the office of the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General on Sunday, April 15, 2012 mentioned that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the role of political parties, the Government, and the Nepal Army, as well as Maoist commanders and combatants in the efficient transfer of weapons and maintaining security in cantonments, urged all political parties to maintain the momentum and consensus to bring the peace process and the drafting of the new constitution to a successful and timely conclusion, and reaffirmed the continued support of the United Nations for the Nepal's peace process, Nepalnews.com writes.

Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda and US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O Blake talked over telephone on maters relating to the peace process and the constitution making on Friday, April 13, 2012 nepalnews.com writes on April 14, 2012 quoting the state news agency RSS. During the telephone conversation, Assistant Secretary of State Blake lauded the role played by the UCPN-Maoist in concluding the peace process nepalnews.com quotes the Prachanda’s press aide Santosh Poudel. Blake also expressed the confidence that Chairman Prachanda would play a more important role in the promulgation of a democratic constitution following the people’s aspirations.

To be continued.

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