Govide Chor le Girija ko Chakadi Garna Lagyo feri Mantri Padkauna ka lagi.
Shame on you Pataki Mora
Is election to Constituent Assembly possible?
GP Koirala, being very honest and simple, could not understand all these conspiracies and fell into a grand design. After the House of Representatives was restored, the government forgot the mandate of the movement and started to work off-track putting the country in ad hoc phase in the name of consensus of political parties
By Govinda Raj Joshi
The question whether the election of the constituent assembly will be held on time is rising even when the provision has been made in the directive principle of the interim constitution 2007 that the election will be held by mid June. Though time is running out, no symptom of the election process can be seen. Top leaders of some political parties are now trying to blame the prime minister that the responsibility falls on him if the election does not take place on time. Who is responsible for not holding the election is not the primary question today. But why leaders of eight political parties did not give priority to implement the roadmap of seven political parties which was mandated by the People’s Revolution II is.
The roadmap of seven political parties was clear - restoration of the dissolved House of Representatives, holding peace talks and settlement with the Maoists, forming interim government and holding the election of the constituent assembly. So only after the elections of the constituent assembly can all other major political and social problems facing the country be solved and give the country a way for safe-landing. The constituent assembly being the real representative of the people has the right to decide what kind of political system the country needs, how other social and ethnic problems faced by the country can be solved and so on. When the Peoples Movement II was successful, the King not only declared the House of Representative restored but also committed to abide by the roadmap of the seven political parties. Then GP Koirala was appointed prime minister as a consensus candidate of all political parties. But when the new government was formed, the seven parties stopped working according to the roadmap .They themselves declared the parliament supreme and started to work in the name of the consensus of seven political parties. The conspiracy started from the day of the announcement of the restoration of the parliament. GP Koirala, being very honest and simple, could not understand all these conspiracies and fell into a grand design. After the House of Representatives was restored, the government forgot the mandate of the movement and started to work off-track putting the country in ad hoc phase in the name of consensus of political parties. In the beginning everything was done in the name of the consensus of seven political parties and later on it was done in the name of consensus of eight political parties. Thus, even after the restoration of House of Representatives and formation of the government, the country started to be run unconstitutionally with the decision of the parliament in the name of the consensus of eight political parties. The movement was launched to usher in a permanent democratic political system. But after the 14-point resolution passed by the parliament in May, the country entered into the interim phase. I was surprised why the government formed under the leadership of seasoned politician GP Koirala started to work to make the country volatile and preferred to work in an interim manner. He was convinced to dismantle all permanent systems and compelled the country to enter into interim phase. Amid these conspiratorial moves, the elected House of parliament was dissolved and an ad hoc body, which we call interim legislative parliament, was established. Again the constitution of 1990 was replaced by the new interim constitution 2007. The parliament was declared supreme and other organs of the state were made subservient to the parliament. The system of check and balance was completely destroyed. Some power centers might have advised (the PM) to do so. But who advised him is a matter of question even today. It has been said that the parliament is supreme now. According to the interim constitution 2007, all the functions of the government and parliament will be carried out in consensus of the eight supreme leaders. Clearly, this does not mean that the parliament is supreme. We started to make ad hoc decisions from the parliament having no constitutional and legal base. Thus we completely ignored the supremacy of the people, supremacy of the parliament and supremacy of the government. After GP Koirala was appointed prime minister, he did not get good advice. It is because of the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office was not made functional. His private secretariat is not up to date. All orthodox people gathered there. Even the responsibility in the Congress party was given to the same category of people. They did not work for the sake of party, people and democracy. The incident that recently occurred when agitating businessmen were denied access to prime minister in Baluwatar is one example of its inefficiency. Congress, the ruling party, has become functionless and the country is running in such a situation.
Secondly, Maoists did not understand the real political situation of the country. They feel that their political ideology is the best one. They think that all other seven political parties having faced with no alternative to restore democracy in Nepal had surrendered before them. This is not the fact. They have to understand that Nepali Congress and Maoists have totally different ideology. Their speech in the parliament does not represent the reality of the country. They have to understand that when they had committed to participate in the competitive politics and left the armed revolution, only then did they enter into understanding with the seven party alliance. After the restoration of the parliament, they did not help create the environment for the election of the constituent assembly, arms management and permanent peace. The arms show in Rautahat and many other parts of the country proves that they have not submitted all their arms in the cantonments. As the date of the constituent assembly is nearing, threats to the people are also increasing. So in this situation, how can the election of the constituent assembly be held in free and peaceful manner? At this juncture, the agitation in Terai and ethnic community’s unrest are going ahead, the government doesn’t seem serious about the problem. In spite of having dialogue with the agitating people, if the government chooses to cross their movements, that will be a disaster for the country.
It seems that no political party has given priority to the election. We didn't pay attention to create the environment for the election. A lot of time was spent on arms management and peace agreement. The election should have been held way back in September/October. Why it was delayed cannot be understood. Are not all eight political parties responsible for that? Even now, captured properties have not been returned. People displaced by the 12-year-long conflict have not been able to return to their homes. Thus, there is no environment of election of the constituent assembly. When no candidate can go to the people and no voter can fearlessly cast his/her vote for the party whom he/she prefers, how can we say that the election of the constituent assembly can be held in its proper time? So the leaders of eight political parties are just waiting and watching to see who will bell the cat so that one can shift the responsibility of not holding the election of constitutional assembly to others.
(The writer is a member of parliament and a member of Central Working Committee of Nepali Congress and can be reached at grjoshi15@gmail.com
