July 2006
Political

During the press meet after the Baluwatar agreement, Prachanda presented himself as a eloquent leader and won praise from various quarters, though some of his remarks sparked off other controversies.

During the press meet after the Baluwatar agreement, Prachanda presented himself as a eloquent leader and won praise from various quarters, though some of his remarks sparked off other controversies.

With the Maoists calling an end to their underground life and gradually joining the political mainstream, Nepal 's political scenario is going through a transformation. This was speeded up especially after Maoist chief Prachanda officially appeared live before the public for the first time following his meeting with the top leaders of the seven political parties at the official residence of the Prime Minister at Baluwatar on the evening of June 16.

While the Baluwatar meeting came out with 25 point understanding, a fierce debate started within the seven parties as to the sanctity of the process. They questioned how the decisions were made without prior consultation within and among the parties about the issues decided. The grumbling was mainly against the decision to dissolve the House of Representatives (HoR). The party rank and file also complained of a lack of clarity in the understanding about the management of rebel arms. In return for the dissolution of the HoR, the Maoists have agreed to dissolve all their people's governments. Meanwhile, the HoR was kept dormant for about two weeks and reconvened now for oath taking under the Parliament’s Declaration and for the presentation of the budget for the coming fiscal year. But the Maoists are also arguing that the present government should not present the budget. They say that presenting the budget in the same traditional manner with the same provisions is not going to help solve problems. Everything should be done with a futuristic orientation and that is possible only when the Maoists join the interim government, they maintain.

During the press meet after the Baluwatar agreement, Prachanda presented himself as an eloquent leader and won praise from various quarters, though some of his remarks sparked off other controversies. He alleged that the Nepali army since the Sugauli Treaty with the British has done nothing except killing and raping Nepali people, called for reducing the size of the army from present about 90,000 to about 20,000 and proposed to create a people's militia. After about a week of silence, when there was no government reaction about Prachanda's remarks, the army issued a statement refuting the Maoist leader's allegations and offering counter-argument. Then the leaders of different political parties started giving their own individual statements for and against the army.

Perhaps more important development, however, was a tussle between the Maoists and other Communist factions. The latter were clearly afraid that their cadres were now going to be attracted to the Maoists. To diffuse the crisis, Prachanda and his colleague Dr. Baburam Bhattarai rushed to the capital shortening their party strengthening campaign in the far-west of the country and met all the top leaders of the other parties on the left and right as well as diplomatic missions. During his latest Kathmandu sojourn, giving a television interview, Prachanda corrected his remarks about the army and said it was targeted to only a few Generals, not at the entire army, in which according to him, there are a lot of sons of the common people.

Another issue of opposition about the Baluwatar meet was related to the formation of an interim constitution drafting committee. Women rights activists and the CPN-UML were particularly dissatisfied for the lack of their representation in the committee. Later it was decided to include them as well.

Before the summit meeting with the Maoists, PM Koirala created a controversy by stating that he was in favour of retaining a ceremonial king. He later corrected himself and said that he was in favour of retaining a ceremonial king till the Constituent Assembly (CA) is formed and let the CA decide about the future of monarchy.

Meanwhile, Krishna Jung Rayamajhi, Chairman of the commission set up to probe into the atrocities over the opposition during the royal regime, said that his team may call even the king to depose before the commission if need be. Home Minister Sitaula too said that the government was ready to take action against anyone as recommended by the commission. The latest news is that the commission has started taking statements of those named by the people who suffered the atrocities. In this regard, the statements of some ministers of royal government and police officers have been recorded.

Public furor is mounting also because most of the points of the proclamations of the HoR are not being implemented till now. Though steps are being taken to reform the royal palace service it is not likely to be brought under civil service soon. However, the cabinet's operation procedure is amended by reducing the king's powers further and thus making the PM more powerful. Interestingly, the 25 point understanding does not mention anything on the HoR proclamations. It seems, the Maoists are not ready to give any recognition to what the HoR is doing and they are letting it be just to let the seven parties and Koirala satisfy their egos of restoring the House. In return, the Maoists want their ego to be satisfied as well by dissolving the House and holding a round table conference of all the political forces before fixing a date for the Constituent Assembly polls. The seven parties are not ready to let the Maoists join the government till the issue of managing the rebels' arms is sorted out. In a regard, a new proposal of Maoists has circulated that both the Nepal Army and Maoist Army can be put under a single central command comprised of Nepal Army Generals and Maoist military leaders.

Thus, till this point of controversy is sorted out, the date for the Constituent Assembly polls is difficult to be fixed. This delay is clearly going against the Maoists and in favour of those who want to maintain the status quo of before the April revolution. Political analysts think that the earlier the Constituent Assembly election is held the more likely are Maoists to win more votes and vice versa. However, some analysts also view that as the Maoists leaders too want the king to remain the head of state, though a figurative only, they are deliberately delaying things for this purpose as hastening things would create unmanageable turmoil.