Way out at last

The parliament has finally resumed its business after a deadlock of more than 15 days. Outgoing Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has submitted his resignation in the parliament paving way for the election of a new prime minister. And the speaker has announced election for a new prime minister on Saturday. The stalemate has been broken and the road ahead seems more certain but, make no mistake, this is not the end of our political challenges.



Nepal’s political progression is typically like an arduous trek in the high mountains—the first thing that you see after reaching a supposed summit is a bigger mountain beyond it. We may have broken the impasse for now and cleared the road for formation of a new government but a bigger challenge awaits us: Writing the constitution. We can form a government that commands a majority, keeping the Maoists out of the loop, but writing the constitution will require a consensus among at least the four major political forces – the Maoists, NC, UML and the Madhesi parties.



At the moment, the trust among the political parties and within them is at the lowest. The UML and Maoists can hardly see eye to eye; NC and Maoists share some sentiments as the major players of the peace process but their confidence in each other remains shattered for long. The parties also suffer from internal hemorrhage—the UML is deeply divided on the current political development and the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum just managed to pull off from the brink of a vertical split in the party. All these suggest that a mountain of work needs to be done on the political front.



Thankfully, the parties have expressed commitment to take the peace process forward and to write the constitution on time. Outgoing Prime Minister Dahal, toward the end of his long speech in the parliament on Friday, called for a new understanding among the major political forces. Coincidentally, President of the Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala has also voiced for unity and consensus among the major political parties to move forward and even called for setting up a high-level mechanism [of the top leaders] to stir the country through this transition. We welcome these calls and urge the leaders to take initiatives, make compromises if necessary, to chart out a common political course. Failure to do so in time may further widen the current drift that will be in no one’s interest, certainly not in the interest of the country.

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