Negative intentions

It is unfortunate that the proceedings of the interim parliament (IP) have remained obstructed for a month in a row. MPs from the various political parties, including the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, and the NC-D, have vowed that they will not allow the parliamentary business to resume until the demands of the Tarai are addressed first. The Maoist MPs tried the same tack for several days but for different reasons. However, CPN-Maoist central member C P Gajurel said on Tuesday that his party would now not disrupt the House. Dinanath Sharma, chief whip of the Maoist parliamentary party, earlier tried to explain that their obstruction had been not over the issue of republic but for demanding a poll date for the constituent assembly (CA), judicial inquiry into the Gaur carnage, proper management of the Maoist cantonments, and corrections in the constituency delimitation commission (CDC). The Maoist MPs from the Tarai region, however, have not gone along with the Madhesi MPs of the other major parties. When MPs even from Prime Minister Koirala’s party are at it, who’s to blame whom?

Though belatedly, Koirala has given a hopeful sign by saying that he will take the initiative to end the impasse by discussing the issue with the eight political parties. The Maoist disruption was not desirable, either, but at least, one knew that its MPs behaved the way they did on party’s orders. But the parties like the NC, the CPN-UML, and the NC-D owe it to the public to explain whether their Madhesi MPs have in theory been defying the party whips. If they have taken a path of defiance, is it not the duty of the respective party leaderships to take disciplinary action? If they are toeing their parties’ tacit line, the leaderships of the parties may be seen to be hunting with the hounds and running with the hares. The public is likely to receive wrong signals from these ironies — the utter lack of party discipline or suspicion of the entire show being stage-managed. On Wednesday, too, the attempt to resume the House business fell flat, leading to its adjournment until May 24.

Blocking the House business, particularly so long, is not a healthy practice. Those Tarai MPs’ demands include a new commission to replace the CDC, which has already submitted its report, and a fully proportional representation system in the CA polls. The intrinsic merits of their demands may be debatable, but most of those MPs who are currently styling themselves as the champions of the Tarai people were conspicuously silent when the delimitation commission work was in full swing. This gives their present activism a ring of mystery. As for the Maoists’ demands, they can be resolved through talks. The in-house agitators should understand that if they continued to push their demands through an obstructionist strategy, tomorrow other MPs who are against, say, a fully proportional representation system, might follow suit. Where will all this lead the country to? The IP is the outcome of Jana Andolan II. If everybody is to hold the parliament hostage to their demands, the CA polls may well and sadly be sidelined.

Source: The Himalayan Times, May 17, 2007