Hurry up

Political leaders like every other Nepali were busy with the Dashain festivities but now they must get back to business with a sense of urgency as the time to conclude the peace process and write the constitution is running out of hand. We have already reached near the half way mark of the latest extended term of the constituent assembly (CA), which expires on Nov 30, and much remains to be done in the next one-and-a-half month.



The political parties must start inter-and intra-party deliberations on issues of national importance immediately especially because another big festival, Tihar, is round the corner when the country again goes to sleep mode for a number of days.



There are still a lot of things to be tackled on both the peace and the constitution-writing fronts but, as has been argued in this space umpteen times, the key lies in sealing the fate of Maoist combatants. On this front, the political leadership must now lose no time in coming to an agreement on the numbers to be integrated into the security forces, the rehabilitation package for those who do not opt for integration, among others.



And coming to a settlement on these issues is directly related to the degree of flexibility that the UCPN (Maoist) is able to show. Considering the sustained resistance from the hardliner faction of the Maoist party, we expect the duo of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister (PM) Baburam Bhattarai to take some difficult but brave decisions and give an inkling of hope to the Nepali people that they will finally be able to come out of the dark tunnel that they have been living in since the past few years and see the light of hope.



PM Bhattarai has promised to conclude the peace process in 45 days after he became the premier on August 28. But the PM from whom Nepalis had expected much let them down when he backtracked from his pledge and said on his arrival from New York after participating in the UN General Assembly that the 45 days timeframe would only begin after the political parties reached a consensus.



If PM Bhattarai does not want to do further damage to his reputation, he must start tackling the twin jobs of seeing the peace process through and drafting a ‘democratic’ constitution in earnest. Else, even his genuine gestures such as riding in a homemade Mustang and spending time with trafficked girls and senior citizens during the main day of the Dashain festival will be seen as nothing more than populist moves.

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