Congratulations

There is a great sense of relief in the air -- relief that the seven-month stalemate has been broken at long last and there is now a freshly elected government. The Maoist party may have acted in self-interest-- well, every political party does-- in deciding in haste to withdraw its own candidate and vote for UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal. But in doing so it saved the country from yet another round of indecisive election that people have begun to loathe and were getting exasperated with.



Everyone had expected the Maoists to support Khanal in the second round but no one thought, perhaps not even Khanal himself, that they would support him in the very first round. That was a surprising and shrewd move on the part of the Maoists.



It was only logical that the Maoists voted for Khanal when they saw no chance of their own candidate, party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, being elected. It´s an alliance of ideology, alliance of convenience and alliance of a sense of victimization that Khanal and Dahal share. Though some people fear that a long-term, left alliance may dominate the political landscape it´s unlikely the country will move in that direction. Instead, this alliance may be a good thing for the peace process and constitution writing. Dahal will now have an excuse to avoid the so-called revolt that he never wanted to launch in the first place, and as the architect of this coalition, he also has reason to act responsibly.



The onus of taking the peace process forward now lies squarely with Dahal. Since he will no longer have to worry about being seen by his cadres and the public as making compromises for the sake of power or being forced into anything by the government, he can now take ´bold decisions´ to conclude the peace process and expedite constitution writing.



That, however, does not mean that other parties, especially the NC, don´t have a responsibility of their own or do not have to make compromises too. Peace and constitution will not be possible if any of the major parties acts with vengeance, something that has been a problem in the past. When Dahal led the government after the CA election, the NC stayed out of it and did not cooperate.



The script was replayed when Madhav Kumar Nepal became prime minister and the Maoists stayed in opposition. It´s up to the parties to decide whether they want to join the government or stay out, but they have no choice but to cooperate and work for peace and constitution. Coordinating all these parties and persuading them to work together will be an Everest-sized challenge for Khanal. But it is during difficult times that the qualities of leadership are tested, and we wish to congratulate Khanal for being elected prime minister and extend him our best wishes.

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