With Dahal’s announcement, the ball is in the court of Nepali Congress (NC) and it has to make some concessions to revive consensus-based politics in the country. The failure to choose a prime minister even after seven rounds of voting in the parliament clearly calls for a politics of consensus, if the gains of Janaandolan II are to be institutionalized.
By withdrawing his candidacy, the Maoist chairman has shown flexibility and it has to be welcomed. Now, the NC’s prime ministerial candidate Ram Chandra Paudel too has to make concessions so that the country gets a new prime minister at the earliest. While we understand Paudel’s apprehension regarding the Maoists, which has made him demand that the Maoist party first detach itself from its arms and army before he quits the race, we still believe that it will be wise for him to withdraw from the race since two of the big parties, Maoists and UML, have already done so and it will be impossible for him to win the election without the support of at least one of these two parties.
However, we believe that Paudel’s concern about the Maoists’ arms and army should be taken seriously by all parties involved before moving on to another round of election so that there remains no confusions on the issue among any of the parties involved. Furthermore, the parties should expedite the process to rehabilitate and integrate the Maoists combatants in the society and or the security agencies as the term of United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) has been extended for the last time by just another four months. It would make a lot of sense for the political parties to deal with the issues pertaining to Maoist arms and armies before UNMIN’s term expires.
Since the UCPN (Maoist) is the largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), the NC, the second-largest party in the CA, should work with it to fulfill the people’s democratic aspirations. Having said that, the Maoists should also understand that it is important for them to settle the issue of their combatants and arms, something that they should have done a long time back as per a previous understanding. To save the country from further uncertainty, consensus and compromise should be the guiding principles of all parties if they do not wish to see the country being pushed into a quagmire.
Related story
Take 2
