Men, Matters & Memories -- Fiddling in Nepal

M L Kotru  

The rub now is that the Chief Justice of the country, Mr. Khil Raj Regmi who was inducted as interim Prime Minister to conduct the poll to the new assembly, is digging in, claiming that only he has the power to call the inaugural session of the new house, a right which President Ram Baran Yadav believes is his and his alone.

Bangladesh, for the present at least, appears to have put the just concluded controversial polls behind it. Or, so Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would have you believe. Her arch rival, Begum Zia of the Jammat-e-Islami-backed BNP, a former Prime Minister and the leader of the principal Opposition party, will have none of that. She had boycotted the poll, leaving the other Begum a clear field, to make a clean sweep of it.

The sum total of the exercise is continuing violence, deaths on the streets and an air of instability in a volatile country. Begum Zia will settle for nothing short of a repoll under a caretaker government which the Awami Party leader and the Prime Minister is unwilling to accept. So Bangladesh is plodding on, the future not particularly certain.

And up north of us, in the former Nepalese kingdom, politicians are unable to sort things out or unwilling, perhaps, to respect the popular verdict given by the people in the recent elections. Normally, after the elections which saw the once mighty Marxist leader Prachanda cut to size by the people, his party reduced from the commanding heights of a year or so ago, to a poor fourth in terms of seats won in the fresh poll.

And even if Prachanda were to accept his party's discomfiture with more grace than he has shown, the Nepalese electorate's prayers would still remain unanswered. Their monumental patience after electing the constituent assembly to give the country a post-monarchy Constitution, and the long wait there-after, that ended without the assembly framing the document, tedious years of negotiations ending with the election now of a new Assembly.

The outcome of the second round may have produced unpredictable results like the Marxists' downfall but it has finally been accepted by all, including Prachanda.  

The rub now is that the Chief Justice of the country, Mr Khil Raj Regmi who was inducted as interim Prime Minister to conduct the poll to the new assembly, is digging in, claiming that only he has the power to call the inaugural session of the new house, a right which President Ram Baran Yadav believes is his and his alone. Regmi, for a incumbent Chief Justice, had indeed acted oddly on taking over as the interim Prime Minister; he refused to resign as the Chief Justice which means he heads both the judiciary and the executive. Yadav's plea to Regmi to follow democratic norms and let him summon the new House has apparently fallen on deaf ears.

Regmi's logic has it that if G.P. Koirala as Prime Minister on May 28, 2008 had the authority to summon the former Constituent assembly so did he. The "learned" Chief Justice forgets that Koirala had three simultaneous responsibilities - as head of the State (after the king's deposition i. e. between April 2006 and July 2008), head of the powerful Nepali Congress and the Prime Minister. This was part of a general agreement among all the political parties including the Marxists then.

Regmi is taking advantage of the fact that he continues to be the Chief Justice as well. According to keen observers of the Nepali scene, including top Nepalese analysts, while the tussle between the President and the Interim Prime Minister is for real there are other factors as well contributing to the mess. According to Yubaraj Ghimre, a most perceptive Nepalese journalist, the other developments are equally disturbing and contributing to the continuance of the unfinished constitution- making process. Altogether, he says, 28 out of 30 parties have submitted their lists of legislators under the proportional representation system. This has triggered factional feuds in all major parties.

The United Communist Party of Nepal-Marxists (UPCM-M) is showing signs of yet another split, with its chief, Prachanda, cornered by his ambitious colleague and former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who wants the leader to take responsibility for the party's electoral set-back and quit. The pro-monarchy Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, the fourth largest, has already suffered a split over the nomination of legislators.

The differences between the UCPN-M and the Maoists' possible split may impact the peace and constitution-making process. Between chairman Prachanda and former Prime Minister Bhattarai the former is widely considered to be in command of his party which should normally have augured well for the future. But then it needed a lot of effort on the part of many domestic and foreign forces to persuade Prachanda to join the Constituent Assembly.

As the messy situation continues, allegations, some very serious, are flying thick and fast among the political parties with Prachanda's party being directly accused of a four billion rupees scam, money supposedly paid to Maoist guerrillas as salary and allowance provided by the State before their integration with the Army. The charge can well bring Prachanda himself into the net of suspicion.

As a face-saver, as Yubaraj Ghimre has noted, the Nepali Congress and the second largest party CPN-UML have agreed to a probe by a House committee rather than the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority which had got into action before the two major political parties intervened to opt for a House committee probe.

How one wishes Prachanda, already in reduced circumstances, will show similar magnanimity to other political parties and set the ball rolling for Constitution- making. Meanwhile, the three biggest parties and three from Madhesia, most of Indian origin, are said to have agreed on a high level political machinery to assist and coordinate with the government on day to day basis in matters of governance and constitution-making.

This would obviously be an extra-constitutional body with no accountability. Not surprisingly Prachanda is said to be keenly interested in heading the body. As one of the principal architects and also the only survivor of the days that saw an end being put to the 10-year-old Maoist insurgency, Prachanda has obviously a key-role to play in constitution-making. He must, just the same, live with the thought that his party has received a severe drubbing in the elections to the Constituent assembly.

Then you have that other controversy : who will summon the new assembly to meet, the President or the interim Prime Ministry who continues to wear his other cap, that of the Chief Justice of Nepal. If Regmi means well by his country he should quietly ask President Yadav to do the honours. As it is he has done his image as the Chief Justice no good by insisting on retaining it even as he has been the interim Prime Minister for many, many long months.

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Courtesy: M L Kotru and The Daily Excelsior: 3rd January, 2024