There is every reason for Nepalis to feel this way. They were first promised that the parties would arrive at a consensus post-Dashain last year. That never happened. Since then, many similar promises were made and conveniently forgotten. To top it all, instead of seeking an apology and explaining to the public why they were not able to write the constitution within the given two-year mandate, they bickered like spoilt kids until the last minute before finally deciding to extend the CA tenure by a year. But since then, instead of getting down to the task of drafting the constitution, they have once again shamelessly locked horns.
The Maoists have not been able to narrow down on the number of combatants to be integrated in the country’s security forces nor has this government shown any signs of making way for a national unity government. Though these were the main points of contention between the two sides, the debate has now shifted to who should lead the next government. While the Maoists have decided that their chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, is the prime ministerial candidate from their party, the other parties are not willing to accept him as the premier. The Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML may have their own reasons for not accepting Dahal as the prime minister, but what we feel is that it is the Maoist party’s prerogative to decide their prime ministerial candidate. Meanwhile, Dahal too needs to do some serious work to build his image as a leader who cares for his country and not only his party. He can take the first step in that direction by agreeing on a workable solution to settle the issue of Maoist combatants once and for all.
The people are slowly running out of patience. There is so much disenchantment among the people against the political parties that they have even stopped bothering about what they say or promise. But this may just be the lull before the storm. If this situation continues for some more time, considering the Nepali behavior of suddenly reacting en masse, it might not be surprising to see the leaders of many a revolutions being revolted against. We hope our leaders would understand this sooner rather than later.
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