Second, the leadership row in Nepali Congress (NC) between Sher Bahadur Deuba and Sushil Koirala surfaced at the HLPM meeting too with Deuba walking out of the meeting after Koirala signed a statement along with Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal. Koirala and Deuba are at loggerheads with each claiming that they are the rightful successor to GPK. While Koirala maintains that he should naturally lead the party as he is NC’s incumbent acting president, Deuba is making the same claim arguing that when his party – NC (Democratic) – was united with the mother party some two years ago, he was second in position in the party hierarchy. Third, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who is an invitee member of the mechanism, was not invited to the meeting as a result of which Nepal is reportedly not keen on attending any HLPM meeting in the future.
These developments do not bode well for the peace process or the task of drafting the statute. One thing is clear: Unless and until the three parties represented in HLPM sort out both inter- and inter-party differences, the twin tasks of concluding the peace process and constitution-drafting is impossible. Additionally, we do not have the luxury of time. Already, most people have stopped believing that the peace process would be concluded and the statute promulgated by the Constituent Assembly’s stipulated deadline of May 28, and such wrangling within and between key parties does nothing but provide credence to such skepticism.
When GPK passed away, leaders from across all political spectrums had pledged that they would pay tribute to the tall leader by keeping aside their differences and do whatever is necessary to promulgate the statute on time. Just a week later, they shouldn’t start behaving in a manner that makes their promises look hollow. For the common men and women, it is irrelevant as to who replaces GPK both in NC and HLPM. What is important to them is that the peace process is concluded and the constitution promulgated in time so that the nation will come out from the vicious cycle of uncertainty. It is high time our top leaders started conducting themselves in a manner that fulfills these aspirations of the country’s citizens.
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