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“If We Can Agree On Common Political Agenda, We Can Also Agree On Common Economic Agenda”
BHARAT MOHAN ADHIKARY
BHARAT MOHAN ADHIKARY , deputy leader of CPN-UML Parliamentary Party and standing committee member, has been in politics for a long time. Brother of former prime minister and communist leader late Manmohan Adhikary, he has also served as deputy prime minister and finance minister in the past. Adhikary spoke to KESHAB POUDEL on various issues regarding the contemporary politics. Excerpts:
How do your see the recent peace agreement signed between the government of seven party alliance and the Maoists?
The agreement is historic as it is in accordance with the mandate of People’s Movement II. The mandate of people includes holding the free and fair elections for Constituent Assembly, bringing permanent peace and settling dispute through negotiations. I evaluate it as a highly important document bringing the peace in the country ending decade long violent rebellion against the state. Bowing down to the demand of people, King Gyanendra took the first step by restoring the dissolved House of Representatives. The second important step was the declaration of House of Representatives, which declared that the people are sovereign to decide and they are supreme.
If the House of Representatives declaration had made people sovereign, what do you say about the article of the present constitution that already states that people are sovereign?
Of course, the Constitution of the Kingdom of 1990 had such provision but the Declaration finally made the people as supreme and nobody can challenge the sovereign rights of the people.
You mean to day that the declaration has more legitimacy than constitution?
Declaration was announced with fresh mandate of people while the Constitution of 1990 had failed to do so explicitly.
How do you visualize the situation in future following the permanent agreement?
Maoist rebels will now lay down the weapons and live in cantonments. This was one of the main demands of the Popular Uprising of 2006. After Maoist cadres enter into the cantonments and lay down their arms, the phase of peace process will begin.
Are you sure the Maoists will abide by the agreement given their present activities?
They don’t have other option. Since the United Nations will take care of the matters related to the observation of Maoist weapons and cantonment, it is impossible for Maoists to break the lock and hold the arms again.
When will all the formalities be complete?
The House of Representatives will announce the interim constitution by November 21, 2006 . After the announcement of new interim constitution, new interim parliament and interim government with the participation of Maoists will be constituted by December 1. The new interim government will announce the date for the elections of Constituent Assembly. The country is in the right track and there is no hurdle to hold the elections for CA. It is the mandate of people who supported our efforts to restore peace in the country. The peace process had a long history. From signing 12-points agreement to five point agreement, CPN-UML has played important role every time. Even our leaders visited Indian cities of Lucknow and Siliguri to talk with Maoist leaders. This is joint work of all the parties involved in the negotiations. We have shown that all the eight parties can resolve their problems on their own. They don’t need others’ help.
If you have done it yourself, how do you see the role of CPIM leader Sitaram Yechuri and other leaders of Indian political parties? Even the Maoist leader Prachanda publicly thanked positive role played by India . What do you say?
As a close and friendly neighbor, India supported us initially to break the deadlock. Being a largest democratic country in the world, it is natural for Indians to support efforts to strength democracy in Nepal . Of course, India ’s good wishes were there but ultimately it was the Nepalese leaders who solved the problems.
What will be the challenges in future?
The challenge for the future is implementation of the agreement in its true spirit. The agreement paves the way for peace process but we need to implement it cautiously. The implementation is always difficult task. If we fail to implement it, the country will have to face very dire consequences. At a time when some are skeptic about holding the elections for CA and restoring law and order in the country, this agreement gives hope for the people.
Just after signing an initial agreement, some regional based political parties and ethnic groups criticized the agreement saying that it failed to address their problems. How do you see their reaction?
There is something missing like the issues of ethnic community. It will be addressed at the time of issuing the interim constitution. We are pursuing the idea of proportional representative system for holding the elections for CA. Our argument is that only through the proportional representation, can we address the issues raised by ethnic groups. We need to address all the criticism raised by different communities. We will correct whatever was missing on the peace agreement.
What about the differences between your party and Maoists regarding the leader of new interim government? Does it mean that your party wants new leadership replacing Girija Prasad Koirala?
At a time when we are on the process to make history, the issues like changing prime minister are non-issues. What our general secretary Madhav Nepal said was that the decision has not been taken yet regarding who will lead the next government. Former prime minister Sher Bahadurji and Lilamaniji are also saying similar things. According to them, the proposal has not come in any meeting of eight parties. Only after the constitution of interim parliament, it will be appropriate to discuss the new prime minister. It is the right of new interim parliament to choose its leader. Do we want to grasp the privileges of members of new interim parliament? Since the interim parliament will exercise all sovereign rights till holding the elections for CA, it is the privilege of interim parliament to choose its leader and form the government. It is, therefore, childish argument.
What about the remarks made by your general secretary Nepal ?
General Secretary Nepal merely said that they did not discuss probable name to lead the next government. If Prachandaji’s party has made certain decisions, he is free to say but he cannot involve us in his decisions. At a time when there require unity among the major political parties, this kind of debate will create unnecessary misunderstanding. We have certain mechanism in seven parties under which we can decide the next leadership. To show that he is close to Nepali Congress, Prachandaji should not raise such issues. Even after such a bitter experience, we have yet to learn our mistakes. Prachandaji also suffered difficulties in the last 12 years and we have also made many mistakes in the past. We must realize our mistakes.
If it is non-issue, why your leaders are arguing on it?
I was shocked to know that. When will we learn political culture? All of us are behaving like student leaders. We must realize now that we are leading the country not a campus.
How hopeful are you that the interim constitution will be announced on November 26?
We have been working to finalize the draft of interim constitution. I am hopeful that it will be announced on schedule. After the announcement of interim constitution, an interim parliament will be constituted.
At a time when the country is heading to hold the elections for Constituent Assembly, why are you in such a hurry to formulate law regarding the citizenship?
Since the citizenship is the major problem of terai, it must be resolved before holding the elections for CA. There is a major problem of citizenship in terai. Before the elections, it must be resolved. There are many backlogs as large number of people living in terai are yet to get citizenship.
What will your party do about the two Notes of Dissent?
Our party still strongly holds the view that the referendum is the only legitimate way to decide the fate of the monarchy. Nepalese people should be given the right to exercise their sovereign rights. Whatever other parties say, we still stick to our stand and we will take it to people. So far as the issue of proportional representation is concerned, we believe that only through the proportional representation, can we make the elections for CA inclusive.
How do you justify changing the cut off year from 1962 to 1990 in distributing the citizenship?
We want to resolve the problems of citizenship forever. We have chosen the date 1990 as cut off year because that was the date of successful popular uprising. All Nepalese should get the citizenship. There must not be any discrimination. Frankly speaking, we try to be more liberal regarding the issue of citizenship. If it can be resolved forever, we must not hesitate to accept the new cut off date.
What mechanism will you develop to identify genuine Nepalese?
All of us know that Nepal is a small country and we are sensitive towards our own identity. We will make provisions so that no foreigners can get citizenship. We are making this provision of providing citizenship not for foreigners but for genuine Nepalis living in southern terai. In resolving the problems of million of people, we have to tolerate entry of a couple of thousands foreigners.
Even if you agree to change the cut off date in such a manner that everyone gets the citizenship, people in terai expressed resentment over it. How do you look at it?
There is always a tendency to oppose any move in the name of politics. Of course, if there is something wrong in the agreement, we will address it but opposition for the sake of opposition has no meaning.
Politics has been the main agenda for quite a long time. What should be economic agenda for Nepal ?
After the peace agreement, Nepal entered into a new phase in its history. Now we must draw a long term economic package to solve the economic problems. Our country is backward and younger people are coming in search for job, we must develop our economy to provide jobs to all. Economic should be our first priority now. If we can agree on common political agenda, we can also agree on common economic agenda.
Do you think Nepal ’s economy will pick up?
In the last few years we have learnt many things about our economic policy. We have adopted liberal economy back in 1990 but it failed to address the problems of common people. Similarly, there was state-controlled economy throughout Panchayat period, it also failed. These two lessons have taught us that we must follow mixed economy.
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