In the face of it, the decision seems to be minor one, taken just to address the “conflict-era” complications regarding the land deals or that is at least what Maoists want us to believe. Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal once publicly said that the protest was a storm in a teacup and even Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said it was unnecessary and was based on misunderstanding.
But the parties in the opposition have taken a firm stance, and for a legitimate reason. The Maoist had raised the issue of providing some sort of legitimacy to the actions taken by the “people’s government” and Maoist kangaroo courts in the past. But each time the parties strongly protested the proposal, blocking them from turning into formal agreements, including the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). It is therefore, only hypocritical of the Maoist leadership to say that it hadn’t anticipated such a strong protest by the opposition parties against the decision.
The timing of the decision couldn’t have been worse. The government took the decision at a time when the peace process remains largely stalled for the last two months, the Maoist party is busy reversing the agreements on constitution writing it had earlier reached in the CA subcommittee and has begun issuing threats that it would aim at state capture through a revolt if the parties didn’t agree to a directly-elected presidential system in the future constitution.
All these added to the political parties’ suspicion of the intentions of the Maoist party and helped them rally around the issue, something that the Maoists have termed as “ganging up” against them.
Since the cabinet decision had no constitutional or legal ground the Supreme Court has already shot down the cabinet decision and issued stay order to the cabinet against its implementation. In a mature democracy, the government would have accepted a moral defeat and immediately revoked the decision. But Prime Minister Bhattarai announced that the government would put on hold the cabinet decision that has already been stayed by the court, provoking further ire from the opposition parties.
The cabinet decision is an unwanted distraction, the government must, therefore, revoke it without any further delay so that parties can once again focus on the twin tasks of peace process and constitution writing.
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