National 2 (Spotlight Weekly)

Disturbing Drift

The main stream political parties lack seriousness of purpose while the rebels continue their violent spree, indicating a long spell of uncertainty ahead

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

As the Maoist insurgents went ahead with their three-day Nepal Bandh† (November 11-13), no mainstream political party chose to react. While the government itself did little to soothe the distressed public caught in the middle of violent intimidation, the political parties claiming to represent the people have virtually deserted them.

As people's confidence was badly shaken following the bomb blast in different parts of town and killing of people in day light at the heart of the capital, the Bandh called by Maoist -- as usual -- paralyzed normal life in the country. Unlike the first day, people gradually came out in street on the second and third day but main markets, education establishments and transport facilities remained affected.

Kathmandu street during bandh : Paralyzed

The announcement of Bandh is nothing new to Nepalese public. The Maoists had organized five-day Bandh in June 2002 and then main opposition party CPN-UML had organized three-day Bandh in May 2001. The culture of Bandh was introduced by the present so-called mainstream parties to press their demands. Despite its negligible importance in national politics, it is today a widely accepted instrument of showing strength. Except affecting the tourism and daily economic activities, these Bandhs fail to generate any kind of reaction.

With the elected government replaced by royal appointees and the constitution gone off track, the obvious - and only - option before the political parties should have been a unified call for early general elections. Having authorized the Sher Bahadur Deuba government to postpone the elections for security reasons, however, the major parties seem disillusioned.

The political parties have missed the bus many times since the dismissal of the Deuba government. While they showed immaturity by cheering Deuba's departure, the parties failed to come up with a consensus candidate to replace him as requested by the palace. If the political parties don't like the way King Gyanendra appointed Lokendra Bahadur Chand as premier, they have no one but themselves to blame.

Despite their professed efforts to build all-party consensus, the six parties represented in the dissolved House of Representatives stand starkly divided. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Nepal Sadbhavana Party have supported the government, as their senior leaders serve as premier and deputy premier, respectively. The two ultra leftist parties, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party and United Peoples Front, hold little political significance beyond adding to the numerical strength of the "coalition".

This leaves the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) as the major forces opposed to the royal move. The Nepali Congress led by Girija Prasad Koirala is infuriated by the palace's intervention, but has failed to give the direction the country needs at this crucial juncture. Breaking with the official party line, some leading members have called for the election of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. Others are demanding the reinstatement of the House of Representatives.

The UML rules out the option of reinstatement of the House out, probably because it fears the divided Congress could reunite and replace it as the largest party. The signals from the UML leaders, too, are at best mixed.

The Deuba-led Nepali Congress is in a pitiful state itself. With two of its prominent central leaders, Khum Bahadur Khadka and Jaya Prakash Gupta, in the custody of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on corruption charges, the party is fuming. Deuba is insisting that the restoration of his government is the only way out of the impasse.

The Chand government, for its part, has failed to inspire. Even a month after its formation - which, to be fair, was interrupted by the Dashain and Tihar holidays - the government has not moved a step as far as two of its primary objectives are concerned - holding peace talks with the rebels and announcing dates for fresh elections.

The rebels are taking full advantage of the political uncertainty, as they always have. They had announced this week's Bandh to disrupt the November 13 elections. They later designated it as protest against the royal move. To intimidate and terrorize the people into "observing" their shutdown, the rebels set off a number of bomb blasts, including a few in the valley itself. Two days before their strike, suspected Maoists shot dead Deepak Pokharel, a security officer attached to the US Embassy in Kathmandu.

"This is a terrible phase of political uncertainty. On one hand, the Maoists are going madder by the day with an increase in violence. On the other, the political parties never seem to stop their squabbles, while the confused government is sitting idle," says a political analyst. "If the constitution is not brought back on track, the country would have to go through a long and disastrous spell of uncertainty, especially given the tendency of the political parties to adopt confrontational mood against the monarchy."

According to the analyst, all the forces believing in constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy must come together and fight the extremists. "Early elections could be the solution to this problem. But first the political parties will have to make up their mind on how they want to behave and where they want to take the country," he says.

Given their track record, it seems highly unlikely that political parties will reach any sort of consensus to rescue the nation out of the present quagmire.