The current course of politics is qualitatively better than what we had for the last 13 months. What is the big change? Consider this: Till thirteen months the Maoists rejected to accept Madhav Kumar Nepal as a Prime Minister. It’s not a question of Nepal—it was never a question about the person. It was about rejecting the decision of the majority in the parliament, which only reflects, at least in theory, the expression of sovereign people. When Maoists said “puppet” government, they also meant, by extension, “puppet” parliament.
The big change now is that Maoists have come back to the parliament and have accepted it as the only legitimate place to change the government, something that they had for long. Look, they are already busy testing water—whether their leader is electable or whether they should support someone else and break this coalition.
I am not sure how many of us did take note of the talks between NC and Maoist leaders at the NC headquarters at Sanepa last Saturday. That was important both for the reasons of symbolism and substance.
First, the symbolism: It was for the first time that Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was visiting NC headquarters, as were other Maoist leaders in the delegation.
Only about one and half months ago, on May 27 to be precise, NC acting president Sushil Koirala and other NC leaders had visited the Maoist headquarters at Paris Dada, Koteshwar. That was also the first time the NC leaders were at the Maoist office. When everyone praised the office and some of them suggested that there should be a house warming, Maoist Chairman had said, “If we didn’t have faith in the democratic system we would not have invested so much in establishing this office, but you all always suspect our commitment to multiparty system.”
Now the substance: The conversation between the NC and the Maoist leaders at the NC headquarters on Saturday was much more revealing.
In the meeting, NC General Secretary, Bimalendra Nidhi, solicited support from the Maoists for his party’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Ram Chandra Poudel and said his party expected cooperation to the NC-led government from the Maoist party.
Puspha Kamal Dahal smiled at the proposal and said, “Bimalendraji, you are talking as if the NC already has the support of majority in the parliament. If you manage to form government, we will play a role of a responsible opposition, but if we manage to form a government, you should also be ready to do the same.”
Dahal also congratulated Poudel for being unanimously elected as the NC’s prime ministerial candidate and said his party’s relationship with him, should he become the prime minister, would be qualitatively different that with Madav Kumar Nepal.
Dahal, and the Maoist delegation was courteous throughout the dialogue and said sensible things, things that parties talks only in mature democracies.
One might argue that it was just another Maoist sop and conclude that I am being too naive and jumping to conclusion.
Maybe.
I am aware of the Maoist’s fickleness and inconsistencies and how they can take a U-turn in a day or how they see things just from tactical point of view.
But it’s also possible that they are learning the limit of their power and of their ambition. And they are changing, if unwillingly and slowly. To rubbish this possibility could be a grave mistake.
Actually, I believe that Basantapur Peace rally, which forced the Maoist leadership to call off their indefinite strike, was the turning point for the Maoists. In a special editorial, published in this newspaper, after the Basantapur Peace rally, this is what I had written: “May 7, 2010 will go down as an important date in Nepal´s political history. It will mark the beginning of the long but slow transformation of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) into a truly civilian and democratic party.”
Basantapur was a final blow to the Maoists ambition for an urban uprising or a capture of state through force. But where Maoists have arrived today is a culmination of realizations of many things-- realization that they were being too adventurist, that they underestimated the power balance in the country, that they misread the geopolitics, and many more things that have sunk in their subconscious during the last four years.
Resignation of Madhav Kumar Nepal and the current election to the post of prime minister has given them a pretext to come back to a democratic process. Nervous they may appear, but gradually they will accept the democratic framework since they have realized that alternative is not possible, and slowly they will begin to play by the rule.
A comprehensive agreement on all contentious issues, among all the political parties, followed by a consensus government would definitely have been the best alternative. But that would have required Maoists to compromise too far and too soon. Let’s accept, no political party ever wants to lose face even if it realizes its mistakes and the need to retreat. It wants to do so subtly and gradually.
I believe that the Maoists are doing just that. If that’s true, it will also help kick start negotiations on concluding peace process and writing constitution, irrespective of which party leads the government and its composition. Let’s wait for a few more months to know if that is indeed true.
ameetdhakal@gmail.com
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