Peace process in peril?

KATHMANDU, July 13: The failure of the big three parties - UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML - to forge a national consensus is likely to throw the tasks of promulgating a new constitution and concluding the peace process into uncertainty.



Analysts argue that with the failure to arrive at consensus on basic issues of the peace process and constitution drafting, the parties lost yet another opportunity to give momentum to an already stagnant peace process. [break]



Since one of the three big parties will most probably stay outside any majority government the tasks of constitution drafting and the peace process are sure end up on the back burner, they say.



Maoist leader Dev Gurung, who is closely involved in the peace process, argued that recent political developments towards forming another majority government are likely to put the peace process in peril. "It began the day the politics of consensus was violated by forming a majority NC-UML alliance government last year," Gurung said.



Gurung argued that formation of a majority government at this point will only widen the rift between the Maoists and non-Maoists. “The resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had given us an opportunity to correct that mistake through the formation of a national consensus government,” he said. “But that seems less likely now."




He argued that failure of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led majority government to expedite the peace process and constitution drafting was testimony to that fact. Cooperation of the big three parties is a must to secure a two-third majority in the Constituent Assembly--something mandatory for promulgating a new constitution.



Pradip Gyawali, chief of the CPN-UML publicity department, admitted that the peace process will have a bumpy road ahead should there be a majority government in place.



"Though a given party can help expedite the peace process while staying outside the government, practically speaking, there will be more challenges for the peace process under a majority government," he said.



Jitendra Sonar, joint general secretary of Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), asked one not to be pessimistic, though.



“If the government to be formed does its work responsibly and the party choosing to stay in the opposition plays a constructive role, there can be consensus on key issues of the peace process even under a majority government,” argued Sonar.



Similar is the view of NC leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat.



“It is not that formation of a new government will put the entire peace process in peril,” he said. “The issues of government formation on one hand and the peace process and constitution drafting on the other are two different things altogether.”



Dr Mahat said though these two issues will affect each other it is wrong to argue that formation of a majority government would make it impossible to promulgate a new constitution. “This is just an attempt by the Maoists to prove themselves an indispensable force,” he said.



koshraj@myrepublica.com



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