The country was only just recuperating from the devastation of the April earthquake and the blockade and the general strike that is nearing 100 days have worsened the situation.
Those who used to queue up at fuel stations few weeks ago are now struggling to get logs and firewood at depots in the capital city or they might be bargaining/bartering for petrol, diesel or gas cylinders.
Trade of fuels and other essentials in the black market has now become rampant in and outside the capital city because Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) last week officially asked the public not to line-up for fuel.
The latest catchphrase is "When this crisis is going to end," or "Is this further worsening?" and the sad thing is that nobody – neither the leaders involved in the negotiation nor the political observers – can give the answer people desperately want to hear.
Public perception
Anxious about the ongoing stalemate, Professor Sanjeev Uprety has, for the last couple of weeks, been randomly interviewing people – both from Madhesi as well as Hilly communities – in the streets in Kathmandu.
Uprety believes that the public should be aware of the objectives of such actions resulting in this type of crisis in the country, so he started asking people what they thought about the ongoing agitation and the position taken by the ruling parties.
"Ninety percent of people are in confusion. The Madhesi people didn't know what exactly the demands of the agitating parties are," Uprety told The Week.
Similar is the case of people from the hilly regions. "They are confused where the government and the ruling parties are doing at the cost of this suffering," he said.
He found that many people believed India blockaded Nepal with a plan to create a single Madhesh province of the entire southern belts, while others thought that the southern neighbor wanted to have control on Nepal's natural resources in the long run.
Public have started to question if the government leadership and the concerned authorities feel the urgency to end the crisis and ensure basic services to the public at this time of difficulties.
Dismayed by the government inaction toward curbing black marketing on essential goods, Uprety terms it unfortunate on the part of the government.
"It seems like the government is just ignoring it even as authorities are aware about unscrupulous people milking the public for essential goods and basic services," he said.
Notwithstanding the internal divisions and disputes, Uprety believes all sides should stand together against India's blockade that isn't justified under any context.
Multiple complications mar talks
Even those who didn't care about political negotiations in the past have this time around become desperate to know what has been transpiring in the talks table in the recent days.
Public desperation has now increased as the crisis is going to prolong and exacerbate if the talks between the ruling parties and the agitating side don't yield positive results.
Leader of Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) Lalbabu Raut, who frequently participated in inter party negotiations, said that lack of clear views of ruling coalition on addressing the Madhesh issue is the major stumbling block that has hindered negotiations from yielding any result.
"Different leaders from the ruling parties hold differing views about the Madhesh movement. And they are not clear about it when they sit for talks," said Raut. Leaders from ruling parties never clearly say that "these are the things that we can do and these are the issues that we can't address".
He believed that participation of radical leaders from the ruling parties didn't help create a situation favorable for finding a common ground.
In the recent days Raut is taken by surprise when he finds Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli taking a relatively flexible approach toward negotiation with the Madhesh-based parties while CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, who used to take moderate stance toward Madhesh in the past, has been making radical statements. Many Madhesi leaders construe it as the ruling party's factional non-cooperation for Oli in managing this crisis.
Non-cooperation among the big parties
Many believe the largest party Nepali Congress (NC) can play an important role in forging agreement between the ruling and Madhesi parties if leaders from the main opposition party take serious initiatives.
Of late, leaders from Madhesi parties have positive perception toward the NC that is believed to have broken its ties with the CPN-UML, with a view to take Madhesh-based parties into confidence. However, the NC hasn't made any serious effort toward ending the stalemate.
Leaders involved in negotiations believed that the NC leaders are not interested in settling the disputes and ending the crisis because the party's loss in all the recent elections for prime minister, president, vice-president, speaker and deputy speaker has badly bruised its ego.
The ruling coalition bagged all these five top posts despite that Madhesh-based parties standing in favor of the NC.
Madhesi parties returned to the parliament to vote for NC President Sushil Koirala in prime ministerial election even though they had been boycotting the House procedures for months previously.
"NC is not taking serious initiatives toward ending this deadlock probably because it is hurt after being isolated in the recent elections in the parliament," said Raut.
Too late?
The agitating Madhesi parties have their own complications.
While prolonging and intensifying general strike to the extent of blocking border points and stopping supply of essential goods, they have reached the point of no return.
"We can't relax our protests without achieving something tangible. We have to continue both the protests and negotiations simultaneously," he said.
In the meantime, the cabinet decision on Thursday indicates that the relation with India isn't going to improve anytime soon, and with it the flow of supplies from the southern neighbor isn't going to get better.
The cabinet meeting decided to explore other alternatives to manage supply system and take initiatives to end mismanagement in the
distribution.
It is high time that the ruling side felt the urgency to address the major cause of the problem at the political level and the agitating side realized their responsibility toward the public. Otherwise, the ongoing crisis might have severe long term repercussions for the country's economy.
twitter: @thiralalbhusal
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