Why roundtable?

In the context of Nepal, Round Table Conference (RTC) is the best idea to bring all the political forces in one place, sort out the problems and iron out the differences. In the absence of an elected body for such a long time, it is better to adopt RTC as a permanent institutionalized feature. But this best of ideas is having the worst of destinies as the political parleys between the supporters and opponents of the idea have unfolded.



In fact, the RTC is an idea that has been making rounds for over 60 years in Nepal. People talked about holding all-party conference even during King Tribhuwan’s time. King Mahendra adopted the idea by holding a national intellectual conference to serve the same purpose, which motivated the subsequent advocates of the proposal. Ironically, it turned out to be the Maoists, the diehard anti-monarchists, who made the RTC a strong agenda of their ten-year war. The war is over but the RTC continues to remain a pet agenda of the new-born Maoist group. [break]







When I heard the Maoists proposing a RTC among all political parties way back in the 1990s, following the launch of the armed rebellion against the state in 1996, I was fascinated. When King Gyanendra took over as the sole ruler of the country following the palace tragedy I had made a strong plea to accept the idea. In fact, it was a great opportunity for him to gain popularity without losing any power. I had made a simple logic.



If the king accepted to hold RTC participated by all political parties including the Maoists, the rebels would be obliged to lay down their arms and come to the table for discussions. That would have resulted in an immediate ceasefire and delivered peace to the people who were suffering from crossfire and concomitant atrocities. In other words, the people would have taken peace at the time of war as a gift from the new king and give all the credit to him for securing their life and property.



Moreover, the king could exercise great leverage in managing the RTC in his favor as many issues pertaining to the conference would have to be decided along the way. RTC could have brought the rebels to the political mainstream and the king could have kept the situation under control despite the rebel opposition to kingship. But he did not listen to a simple logic from a simple man. The net result of his adventure and intransigence led to people’s movement and ultimate abolition of monarchy. The cost of not heeding to RTC idea was too high.



Of late, a similar situation is developing around the RTC, which might extract an equally high price in coming days. CPN-Maoist in conjunction with 32 political parties asked for a RTC with the four-party High Level Political Committee. We were categorically told that the idea had been accepted at the joint parley of political leaders with the nitty-gritty yet to be sorted out. When they met again after two days to discuss how to hold the RTC, the talks floundered. The big leaders of the big parties charged that the five-point proposal relating to the RTC rejected the November 19 election date and called for dismissal of the Khil Raj Regmi-led government. Both the charges were untrue.



The proposal enumerated these subjects as “election date” and “government” up for discussion, along with many other important topics. The top leaders of the high-level committee appeared very arrogant, irritated and erratic in their later public pronouncements. They exuded intolerance and showed an emphatic determination for going ahead with election for new Constituent Assembly on the day already announced by the government. The opposition parties to the scheduled election have already announced that they would boycott and most probably disrupt the polls.



A ridiculous situation is arising under which the decision-makers do not have to bear the brunt of the opposition. It is the government that will have to face the consequences of public disturbance and disruptive activities of the Maoist and 32 parties. In the triangular positioning of the political actors, the polls opponents get angry at the high-level political syndicate but will hit out at the government in their quest to foil the polls.



On the other hand, the government has no hand in negotiations between the contending political parties. But it will have to deal with unpleasant consequences of those meetings. Is the Khil Raj government ready to face the consequences of the wrong decisions of the syndicate leaders? The syndicate leaders are responsible for rejection of RTC but are not to deal with its consequences. What kind of political decision-making are we witnessing? Our government is manned by somebody and the decision is taken by somebody else. We are bound to face more complex situations in coming days, which is not assuring either for new election or for stability.

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