The Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist’s threat to boycott the proposed CA polls if it is held under ‘the existing status quo’ is deplorable, even if it is understandable given the party’s delicate position in the country’s body politic. It broke away from UCPN (Maoist) accusing the latter of surrendering to the ‘status quoist’ forces and abandoning its revolutionary zeal. Baidya’s party now finds itself in a quandary: does it endorse the upcoming CA polls, tacitly accepting that the path of peaceful politics followed by UCPN (Maoist) is the right one? Or does it boycott the polls, and try to justify its breaking away from UCPN (Maoist) on the ideological ground that parliamentary politics is not in the country’s interest? It seems to have chosen the latter path in refusing to be a party to election under the chief justice-led government. It has rather called for an all-party roundtable meeting and formation of a coalition government led by a political leader.
We are afraid the country has left that course far behind. There simply is no going back. Although one might disagree with the choice of a sitting Chief Justice as the executive head of the electoral government, the end goal is hard to dispute. As things stand, there really is no alternative to timely CA polls. Trying to justify its boycott of CA polls, CPN-Maoist has accused the CJ-led government of doing the bidding of foreign forces.
But it is unclear how the interest of any foreign force could be served if the country can hold free and fare polls. If anything, such an outcome will empower the country’s political actors to make vital decisions on their own, precluding the need for foreign players to meddle in the political process here. Underneath the rhetoric, the deep unease of CPN-Maoist is palpable. Its biggest fear is being sidelined from national politics. Its threats of election boycott thus sound a bit like North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s threat to use nuclear weapons to eliminate perceived threats from South Korea and the US. Beneath the hard rhetoric, Kum Jong-un, like Baidya, is crying out for a respectable place on the negotiation table.
Even if CPN-Maoist boycotts the poll, it is likely to have very little impact if other political forces accept it.
But Baidya and co are doing it all wrong. Rather than demanding that the whole process be reversed, CPN-Maoist should explore ways to join the election bandwagon. In this it is important that the other parties, chiefly the Big Four, give space to its genuine concerns. Beyond that, it is a political party’s right not to contest an election. But the fear that CPN-Maoist could try to disrupt CA polls of which it is not a part is also genuine. Yet even if CPN-Maoist takes this disruptive path, such a move is likely to have very little impact on the final outcome if most other political forces accept the polls, as seems likely. If anything, the boycott of a widely accepted democratic exercise will further marginalize the party in national politics.
Thus CPN-Maoist would be wise to accept the current election path and prepare to face the people. Any attempt to reverse the course of national politics could badly backfire, for CPN-Maoist as well as the country.
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