Is media responsible for the current national mood of doom and gloom? Is it again spreading cynicism about the democratic process?

Partly. Take the Battle of the Bajes being waged on the front pages about who is a bigger criminal. The media just can't have enough of it.

To be sure, Prime Minister Koirala and Chairman Dahal are both pots that think the kettle is blacker. They are the ones feeding this media frenzy because both want to distract the people from real issues. Short-attention-span media, of course, laps it all up.

Behind the scenes and away from the media glare, midlevel political players in parliament are working diligently on a framework agreement on identity and representation. The State Affairs Committee achieved a breakthrough on Wednesday, tackling the critical issue of an electoral system for assembly polls.

There has been mass campaigning for a full-representational system. But there are fears this will open up a pandora's box of demands and counter-demands among ever-smaller groups and sub-groups which would ultimately use up the little time remaining to prepare for elections.

The alternative is a 'mixed system' already accepted in the interim constitution and to make it fully representative so as to be acceptable to janajatis and adibasis, women, madhesis, dalits, and others. Half the seats in the assembly would be through the proportional representation system, and this is where the State Affairs Committee has come up with the formula in the Constituent Assembly Election Bill which the government submitted for ratification on Thursday.

The other half, the first-past-the-post system, would be left as is, with the expectation that in the evolved political system the parties would be diligent enough for the sake of sheer survival to select candidates acceptable to various communities.

We would still have hoped that the government had talked to the stakeholders on a parallel track to feed into the drafting of the bill. That would have convinced them not to resort to street agitation, and since this wasn't done we must wait and see if there is another round of bandas next week.

This compromise won't make everyone happy, but it won't shortchange anyone either. All sides, political and communitarian, must realise the draft bill is the best deal possible. If there is agreement, the Election Commission can at last move ahead with preparations for November.

We can either stay entangled in identity politics or we can start untying the knots. Let's hope good sense prevails, and it is the latter.