BIKASH DWARE
It is appalling that the Constituent Assembly has not held its first meeting fifty days after the elections.Just as the rows over proportional representation candidates settled, parties now can’t decide who, among the president and the head of the government, is supposed to summon the lawmakers to work.
The debate over who should call the first CA meeting is a meaningless exercise, but now the difference of interpretation has taken a legal turn for the worse. Two opposing writ petitions were filed at the Supreme Court for and against President Ram Baran Yadav and Interim Election Council Chairman Khil Raj Regmi’s ‘rights’.
The Supreme Court’s decision this week to seek help of ‘amicus curiae’ (friends of the court) to foster debate on the matter, instead of swiftly issuing an order, has added further uncertainty.
But it doesn’t mean that the CA cannot convene without the court’s decision. After all the SC hasn’t issued any interim order to put entire proceedings of the CA on hold. And according to a clearly stated provision in the Interim Constitution, it is Chairman Regmi’s duty to initiate the second CA.
As far as President Ram Baran Yadav’s request to amend the constitution to allow him to convene the meeting is concerned, it is for parties to decide whether or not they are in favour of this. If the two major parties Congress and UML cannot agree, it would be best to go back to the letter of the law. But, to end the deadlock, President Yadav himself needs to pass an ordinance the government sent him about the swearing in of the newly elected CA members.
After four wasted years of the first CA, it seems the second CA will have a disappointing and much delayed start. The political bickering in the last fifty days has given out a negative message to the people who turned up with so much hope on election day. It is unfortunate that our politicians have taken the growing cynicism lightly and not done more to find solutions quicker.
The parties can do this by making sure the CA takes a formal shape as quickly as possible. After that they should expedite constitution-writing, which they promised to finish within a year of the polls. And as the head of the largest party, it is Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala’s job to form a government to bring the country back on its wheels.