Breaking the logjam

Senior leaders of the three major parties - UCPN (M), NC and CPN-UML- have initiated the latest round of dialogue to diffuse the current tension and break the political logjam. Dialogue is, of course, better than open confrontation in the streets and a blame-game through the media. But dialogue for dialogue’s sake is not going to break the stalemate, nor is it going to contribute to problem-solving. There have been several rounds of dialogue among the major political parties since the Maoists quit the government some eight months ago. Some of those talks took place in foreign lands, even as far away as Singapore, and after each of those talks the leaders expressed confidence that they would be able to break the impasse— some of them even talked of imminent agreement.



But each time the talks faltered. It just wasn’t meant to succeed. During the last talks, the parties focused only on peripheral issues and avoided the key agenda of interest to them. Let’s be brutally honest: The Maoists have one and only one agenda— they want to get back into power first. And the coalition partners are unwilling to talk of government change because they argue that they have the required numbers in parliament to remain in government. Unless both sides agree to hold honest and frank discussions on issues that matter to all of them, the dialogues are going to get us nowhere no matter how many times the leaders meet in future.



It’s time all the parties and their leaders started with a clean slate. The ruling parties are right to argue that they have the required numbers in parliament to remain in power, but it’s also equally true that they don’t have the required strength in the CA to write a constitution so long as they leave the Maoists out of the loop. And they must acknowledge that writing the constitution is the main priority of the country. The Maoists for their part must accept that they have even more of a part to play to bring politics back on track.



The best way to start the process is to try to jointly answer the following questions: How will the constitution be written in the next 171 days? What is the modality and schedule for integration/rehabilitation of the PLA combatants? How will the Maoists implement their past commitments to the peace process, including refraining from violence and extortions, returning seized property and sticking to the timeline for implementation? Once the Maoists and the other parties reach an agreement on each of these questions and the Maoists start to implement them in earnest, the ruling parties must also agree on a roadmap to form a national government, under Maoist leadership.

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