The final stage of the peace process is constitution writing. One cannot be finished without the other. The new constitution is a national responsibility, and a document representing the rights of sovereign citizens. It’s the foundation on which the state functions and the people get to interact with the government.
Unfortunately, constitution writing is taking too long. The so-called senior leaders of the ‘big parties’ are involved in blaming each other and trying to internationalise their dispute. In addition, the Maoists who were a part of the peace process from the 12-point agreement of November 2005 onwards have split again. This has further weakened the ‘progressive’ and ‘transformation’ agenda of the party. To be sure, this was already proven by the poor performance of the party in the last election, and the downhill slide continues.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other leaders summoned members of the diplomatic community this week and told them that the constitution could not be written by 22 January and blamed the ruling NC-UML for it. Two weeks previously, the top leaders of the NC and UML had also called the ambassadors and blamed the Maoists for the delay in writing the constitution. Both sides should have first told the Nepali people about the delay in the constitution, not go around briefing the international community. Just goes to show the anti-democratic and anti-national character of the big parties.
All this has cast uncertainty over the constitution and also raised the risk of the country going back to violence because of the threats of the split from Baidya of the Biplav faction. Such a development would wreck the peace process and the efforts to write a new constitution.
The prime minister and the leaders of the ‘big’ parties seem to be oblivious to all these failures, and do not have the moral fortitude to take some responsibility for it. Dahal is waging a tit-for-tat with Koirala, and the government has suffered psychological blow from the fear of violence after the further breakup of the Baidya group. All this will have an important bearing on the people’s desire to see a new constitution. The inability of the leaders to address this concern is a demonstration of gross incompetence.