Kathmandu distress

Nepals crisis looks debilitating,but it could mask an opportunity for its democratic project

Nepals crisis looks debilitating,but it could mask an opportunity for its democratic project

Kathmandus current political crisis does not come as a surprise. But this is the Nepalese peoples biggest setback in their pursuit of a fully functioning democracy since the constituent assembly CA was elected in 2008 and the country declared a republic. Nepal appears,therefore,not only to have returned to square one,but also to have taken its politics back in time with a vengeance. On Sunday,Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai dissolved the CA and called for fresh elections in November,immediately setting off protests that questioned his authority to do the latter,let alone to continue in office in the absence of the legislative body that gave him legitimacy. President Ram Baran Yadav has now declared Bhattarai a caretaker PM. With the armed forces and police on high alert,this unprecedented constitutional breakdown could prove debilitating for a nascent democratic project that never took off.

The blame will fall on politicians,even if no single party can be pronounced more guilty than the others. The last four years have seen four prime ministers between two parties and repeated extensions to the CA,which was meant to give the country its new constitution in 2010. Nepals uncertainty is also born of the interim constitutions lack of foresight about what to do if the CA failed. The widest faultline is the question of Nepals federal nature. The Maoists and ethnic minority parties want provinces drawn on the basis of ethnicity and identity a demand staunchly opposed by the Nepali Congress,the CPN-UML and others who fear the countrys break up. The political crisis is thus compounded by a growing social divide.

Yet,the CA has not been a complete failure. For instance,it did manage to resolve the problem of rehabilitating thousands of former Maoist rebels. India must keep a close watch and encourage the parties in Kathmandu to talk towards re-building consensus. While New Delhi has cautiously reacted to the developments,it should remember that aloofness may not be the best policy,especially when it had helped in the process of getting Nepals parties together in the first place. In fact,in this crisis could lie the opportunity of making the constitution-making process more transparent and democratic.