Vehicles plying the capital´s streets came to a standstill and people had to rush to their destinations on foot. [break]But the country´s destiny took a new turn late Wednesday night when the four major political forces - UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN (UML) and Sanyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha - struck a deal to form a technocratic government more than nine months after the unceremonious dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.
Even as people out on the streets had to go through an unwarranted disruption of their daily routines, newly-appointed Chairman of the Council Regmi took charge at Singha Durbar Thursday afternoon and vowed to hold elections to the new CA in a free and fair manner.
PHOTO: CHANDRA SHEKAR KARKI
CPN-Maoist is not the only party that protested the CJ´s appointment. Twenty-one other fringe parties in the erstwhile parliament, sections of the NC and CPN-UML, a small part of civil society and a section of the legal fraternity have protested the CJ-led government, arguing that it was against the principle of separation of powers. There is no doubt that the appointment of CJ Regmi as chairman of the election government has raised concerns about the overall inter-relations between the judiciary and the executive at a time when there is no legislature. But the formation of the CJ-led government had become a necessity to bail the country out of the current impasse.
With the major parties refusing to budge from their respective stances and with Baburam Bhattarai remaining a stumbling block to any consensus, a solution had to be sought out. The appointment of a sitting CJ as head of the government is definitely not an ideal solution, but it has undoubtedly provided the country and the people some respite from the uncertainties prevailing for so many months. It is yet to be seen how the technocratic government will perform in the days ahead and whether it will be able to conduct the CA elections by mid-June, but the appointment of a Supreme Court justice with a clean image has no doubt come as a big respite from the outgoing Bhattarai government, which has gained notoriety as one of the most controversial in Nepal´s history as it not only rode rough-shod over existing legal provisions (as proved by the Supreme Court´s repeated interventions) but also took the country into deeper crisis.
However, as we say, better late than never, and Bhattarai´s decision to pave the way for a CJ-led government is no doubt a welcome step.
PHOTO: CHANDRA SHEKAR KARKI
Facebook and Twitter pages are filled with postings against the latest political development, but the majority of the population, which does not have access to social media, has something else on its mind. Their only hope is that they will have the opportunity to work, enhance their livelihoods and press ahead with their lives. The uncertain political future, however, had dampened their spirits and their hopes of getting a new constitution guaranteeing their say in the overall governance system had begun to wane.
The latest political developments have ignited fresh hope among the general public, the hope of yet another opportunity to choose representatives who would raise their concerns at the national level. With the advent of republicanism and the subsequent election of the CA, the people had high hopes that the day had finally come to draft their own constitution.
That, however, turned into a futile exercise. It´s not that it did not bear any fruit. The discussions within and outside the CA did manage to highlight voices that had never been heard before, the voices of marginalized communities that had been deprived of participation in national development. The grievances of marginalized groups - Women, Madhesis, Janajatis, Dalits and Muslims and those living in remote regions - have finally caught the attention of an uni-cultural society ruled by a few elite groups. Much-needed deliberations on providing space to these marginalized groups have just begun and are yet to gain momentum.
The country´s major political forces showed time and again during the CA deliberations that they are not ready to give up the power base that they so happily enjoyed for generations. And that is the reason the CA failed to find a consensus on the modalities of federalism that would have guaranteed the formation of provincees not only to decentralize power now centered in the capital but also to recognize the identities of the marginalized groups.
This is the most essential issue that needs to be dealt with in the coming days as Nepal is on the verge of a major overhaul. The uni-cultural society with the hegemony of a few elite groups has to come to an end and that end has finally begun. To carry this beginning to a logical end, the people need to be allowed to choose. Letting the people decide their own future is an ultimate objective of any democratic system and it would not be possible without providing them an opportunity to vote.
No decision remains unchallenged. And this latest decision to appoint the sitting CJ as head of the executive is not without controversy. All those who are against it need to understand that the country and the people cannot continue to live with uncertainty for too long. The country is in transition and in crisis. If the major forces in the country, who together garnered far more than two-thirds of the vote in the erstwhile parliament, have come to an agreement, it should be taken as a positive step.
It would have been ideal had the four forces taken all the political parties into confidence, but now that the majority of the forces have struck the deal, opposing parties like the CPN-M and the smaller ones should be ready to go to the polls and try to garner the people´s support instead of jeopardizing the long-awaited understanding. At the end of the day, the general public wants a peaceful environment to do their work and live their lives to the fullest.
Now that the CJ-led government is at the helm at Singha Durbar and has vowed to hold the CA elections in a free and fair manner, all the parties and other forces should make all out efforts to make this government´s task easy and go to the sovereign people in elections to garner their support instead of taking to petty street protests and bandas that only put people off.
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