| After Happy Festivals
The deserted look of the capital during the Dashain-Tihar-Chath festivals this year bore testimony to the grand psychological upliftment of the country following the success of the People's Movement-2. Despite reports from across the country of eccentricities by some Maoist cadres, lots of people from the Valley went to their villages to celebrate the festivals. More importantly, they stayed there for a good one month!
That positivism is now strengthened by a more comprehensive agreement that the seven political parties and Maoist signed at around 00:30 hours of November 8. With this, the possibility of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly by the end of June 2007 seems real.
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People in front of Maoist office at Kupondole, Lalitpur protesting coercion to provide food and lodging to Maoist cadres coming from outside valley to attend Maoist mass meeting scheduled for November 10. After the november 8 agreement, the scheduled mass meeting was postponed |
The vacant position of the Chief Election Commissioner is filled up and two other members in the Commission are appointed.
November 8 agreement has resolved all the most tricky issues including managing Maoist and government arms and fate of the monarchy. It also has fixed deadline for finalising the interim constitution, the formation of interim government and 330 member interim parliament and decided to set up the Truth Commission. Seperate peace accord is also to be signed.
Equally importantly, the November 8 accord has, by fixing equal number of seats in interim parliament for both Maoists and CPM-UML, subtly incorporated a mechanism to pre-empt any possibility of Maoist-UML coalition in the run up for the Constituent Assembly elections.
Though the often publicised difference between the Nepali Congress and the other parties (including the Maoists) on the issue of monarchy was not so difficult to narrow down as the Nepali Congress too has adopted a neutral status since last year regarding monarchy and the Maoist leaders had, in numerous interviews given to various Nepali and foreign media, clearly stated that they were ready to accept the verdict of the Nepali people expressed through a secret ballot, the arms issue was much tricky one.
It is very difficult for the Maoists to lay down all their arms immediately. If they do so, the Maoists fear, there would be a great risk on the lives of the Maoist cadres, particularly in the villages. If they don't lay down the arms, no other political party would dream of winning any seat in the Constituent Assembly elections. One solution considered was staggered reduction in the rebel arms. According to sources, the pre-Tihar meeting of the leaders was postponed within minutes as the Maoist leadership needed more time to consult with the commanders of the Maoist army. Exhibiting his honesty and urgency, Maoist chief Prachanda immediately set out on a tour outside Kathmandu to consult with the commanders. And he seemed to have succeeded in his objective. But the highhandedness shown by Maoists cadres continued right up to the November 8 accord, this time in Kathmandu valley itself. This was strongly opposed by the people (see photo). This has not helped much to remove the doubts from the minds of the people and political forces about the Maoists' intentions. Some say the Maoists are rehearsing the role they want to play once they are in power.
By acepting to lock up Maoist arms in return for locking up the same number of arms of the Nepal government, Prachanda has shown his earnest wish to hammer a settlement to the issues. But it is yet to be seen if his party cadres, particularly in the military wing of it, will be equally enthusiastic about it.
In the other recent development, the government extended the tenure of the high level commission set up to investigate into the atrocities of the royal regime during the People's Movement-2. The commission sent a questionnaire to the king to clarify his role in the suppression of the movement, but the king did not furnish any reply. More recently, a separate committee to investigate the excesses of the Royal Commission for Corruption Control has been formed.
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