CC members from two major political parties -- Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML -- believe that the subcommittee is still in existence and they are for giving it continuity. But Chief Whip of UCPN (Maoist) Dev Gurung argues that the subcommittee has already been terminated and rules out any possibility of giving continuity to the subcommittee. [break]
The subcommittee, which is headed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and includes key leaders of the major political parties, proved to be instrumental in settling some of the disputes though it is yet to resolve a couple of thorny issues such as the system of governance.
While former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal from the CPN-UML and NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel are among members of the subcommittee, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, CA Chairman Subas Nembang and Deputy Speaker Purna Kumari Subedi, among other lawyers-turned lawmakers, also used to participate in the subcommittee meetings as invitee members.
Ramesh Lekhak of the NC and Agni Kharel of CPN-UML argued that there is no point terminating the subcommittee as the political parties are yet to resolve some of the thorniest issues.
"As per the regulations, the subcommittee is still in existence and it is a relatively better place for resolving the remaining issues," Kharel told Republica. "On top of that, the subcommittee is also mandated to resolve issues related to federalism after the State Restructuring Commission submits its report to the CC; so we need to give continuity to the body."
He said the regulations and the CA calendar of events authorize it to settle the unresolved issues. "There is no problem in reactivating the subcommittee but I don´t understand why the coordinator [Dahal] is not convening its meetings," said Kharel.
Also, Lekhak believes that the constitution writing process will run into further complications if the subcommittee is dissolved.
But, Gurung doesn´t buy the other two lawmakers´ argument. He said the subcommittee was already terminated and argued that the subcommittee itself is not a solution. He claimed that the subcommittee was terminated on December 30 [2011].
"Since the statute drafting is a process of compromise among the major political forces, it gives result only if the parties are ready for give and take," Gurung, a key leader of the Maoist hardline faction, told Republica. "But in our context all the political parties are not ready for that and the problem lies there."
He said the major issues need to be settled at the political level but the subcommittee, according to him, is not fit for that. "The subcommittee can´t incorporate all the top leaders from the major political parties. So, the issues should be resolved at the political level even if it is outside the CC," Gurung explained.
But leaders from non-Maoist parties construe Gurung´s statement as objection to the flexibility shown by Dahal at the subcommittee. Maoist hardliners have been criticizing Dahal saying that he compromised on various key issues in constitution writing at the subcommittee in contravention of the party´s stated policy.
Earlier the Maoist hardliners had compelled Dahal to quit as head of the high-level taskforce formed to resolve the disputes in constitution writing.
From the list of over 200 disputes in constitution writing, the high-level taskforce brought them down to 78 and later the Dahal-headed subcommittee brought them down to 32. The subcommittee settled other 18 of the 32 issues but the CC has yet to endorse them.
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