Parties source of political mess

March 4, 2004
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Kathmandu: A state of confusion permeates Nepali society on the stage of the constitution and whether politics will be allowed to remain within the constitution. Partisan interests now conclude that the constitution is not functioning and that politics must now concentrate on constitutional change.

What or who is to bring about this change constitutionally adds to the confusion. The current constitution talks of change only through parliament. The parliament has been dissolved and must be reconstituted through elections.

The government promises elections and as Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa stresses in his public speeches, is already in the process of preparing for elections. The political parties who remain the prime actors and competitors in the elections consider the government unconstitutional. This again adds to the confusion.

Political sense can’t but conclude that these prime actors will ignore the elections. In a manner the parties’ have already begun preparing for elections if their public pronouncements have meaning.

In this sense the unity efforts rejuvenated in the congress and the RPP and the internal jostling witnessed at the leadership levels carry meaning.

Even the UML can’t remain away from this trend and Madhav Nepal’s roadmap becomes an agenda on its own.

What adds to the confusion is that their public postures is one ridiculing the possibility of the elections, castigating government on its constitutionality and diverting the public attention from the elections to the issue of the current constitution.

The King who remains the prime target in this constitutional issue confusingly becomes the only bastion of the current constitution unless the political parties stipulate this constitutional reality publicly. Unfortunately, the parties have backed themselves into a corner that must concede defeat if they do so. Here, again, lies the confusion.