MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA IN THE DARK: Nepali Congress CA members Radheshyam Adhikari and Nilambar Acharya wait out a power cut in the House on Tuesday. Acharya was elected to head the CA's powerful constitutional committee last week.

The Maoists are not allowing the CA to function because they say they want to ensure 'civilian supremacy'. The UML-led coalition is determined to resist what it considers a Maoist gameplan to establish totalitarian rule. The NC seems to be driven by only one agenda: ensuring that the daughter of the party boss gets to head the next government.

Part of the reason for all this posturing is that all three parties are trying to manage their internal rifts and contradictions. They have no one to blame but themselves, as they have boxed themselves in by radicalising their own cadre.

The tragedy, of course, is that as a result governance has come to a complete halt, the budget hasn't been passed, the legislature is stalled, and the peace process and constitution-making are in limbo.

No matter how hard they try to hide their intentions, it's the politics of brinkmanship where the aim is to wipe out rivals. Moderation has no place in this game where those who shout the loudest are the only ones heard. Any compromise formula runs the risk of being labelled a surrender. This is a no-win situation.

But the triumvirate of the three big parties know this, which is why all is not lost. Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal both detest Girija Prasad Koirala, but they distrust each other even more. However, all three know that their political legacies, their reputations and all they have worked for is at stake. They have the necessary two-thirds majority in the legislature to complete the constitution-drafting process, and there is no other option but to work together.

The Maoists may be the largest party in the CA, but its majority has little meaning if Dahal can't win back the NC's trust. The trouble is he has double-crossed everyone so often he is finding it difficult to get people to take him seriously. Nepal is the head of government, but his party lacks the numbers to claim respect and leadership.
That leaves Koirala, who seems to have lost the will to take the initiative and pull the country out of its present morass. He is now so obsessed with perpetuating his dynasty he is compromising the long-term interest of his own party and the nation.

Just as the new constitution can't be written without the Maoists being a part of a new government, it also needs the NC back in government. Working out the mechanism and the numbers is the critical aspect.

Since the country has already started winding down for Dasain, our leaders must use the holidays to thrash out a formula for an all-party government with a clear strategy to rescue the country from this potentially deadly deadlock.

The formation of a UML-led government was necessary to fill the vacuum when Dahal decided to resign on point of principle. That point has now been made. It's time for his party to join the national government as its decisive stockholder.