BIKRAM RAI HEAVY RIDE: A mahout takes his elephant on an early morning walk near the Rapti River even as Sauraha is shrouded in thick fog.

Elephants have excellent memory and they never forget. Nepali leaders, on the other hand, are notorious for their forgetfulness and the ease with which they backtrack on promises.

Procrastination and postponement have become a way of Nepali politics, and the people tuned off long ago. The leaders had promised the people who elected them that they would have a deal to break the deadlock before the Dasain deadline. It didn't happen. Then they said they would use the festival season for 'mind fresh', and come up with a consensus. That did not happen either. Now they are promising a deal 'by Tihar'.

The reason there is no deal is that no one really wants a deal. This elastic transition benefits everyone: the Baburam Bhattarai-led Maoist-Madhesi coalition is perfectly happy to extend its tenure so it can self-enrich itself on a grand scale from state coffers, rigor mortis seems to have set in on the Nepali Congress and UML which have become parties singularly lacking in new ideas, Pushpa Kamal Dahal is terrified of facing the electorate which is why he wants a CA reincarnation by hook or by crook, the rump Maoists also want a stab at prime ministership but don't really care how they get there, and the Madhesi parties are comfortable being sought-after kingmakers.

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