Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has gone down a dangerously confrontational path in telling NC leaders this week that the PLA combatants will not leave their cantonments unless the NC relents to the Maoist demand for an executive presidency.
Constitution writing and the peace process are interdependent as both of them are part of a larger political process. But it is also true that the parties had agreed to treat them independently and to conclude the peace process and then move on to completing the work on the constitution. On May 28, 2011, just hours before the term of the Constituent Assembly expired, the UCPN (M), NC and UML had agreed to complete the peace process in the next three months and prepare the first draft of the constitution.
When they again signed the seven-point agreement on November 29, 2011, they agreed that the major tasks of the peace process would be completed in the next one month and a government of national consensus then formed. But except for categorization of the PLA combatants, almost all the other agreements related to the peace process remain unimplemented, including the return of properties seized by Maoist cadres.
And it is still uncertain when the combatants who have opted for voluntary retirement would leave the cantonments and when 6,500 other combatants will finally be integrated into the Nepal Army. Several Maoist leaders close to Chairman Dahal have publicly said that they want to renegotiate the terms of the seven-point deal.
All this amply indicates that the peace process has run into serious trouble as the Maoist leadership, and especially Maoist Chairman Dahal, seems determined still to use the combatants in the cantonments to blackmail the other parties. Constitution writing is a complex process of negotiations and the parties must reach an agreement on future constitutional arrangements through dialogue or through a vote in the Constituent Assembly.
But the Maoist party and its chairman want to use the threat of the gun to browbeat the other parties into submission. If guns were to prevail over dialogue and negotiations among the parties, there was no need to elect the CA. We urge the Maoist leadership to drop its blackmail, fulfill its commitments regarding the peace process and return to the CA to meet its responsibility toward constitution writing.
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