Three to go

A hasty,eleventh-hour deal between the three major political parties has staved off a major political crisis in Nepal. When the deadline of May 28 passed,again with no draft of a new constitution,what was left uncertain was the fate of the Constituent Assembly. The squabbling Maoists and the Nepali Congress,along with Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanals Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist Leninist,came together at a midnight meeting to amend the interim constitution and extend the term of the Constituent Assembly by three more months. The five-point deal also includes the drafting of a constitution within that period,formation of a new national government and completion of the peace process with the disarmament and integration of Maoist insurgents.

What happened on Sunday night was a replay of events that had taken place a year ago when Nepal faced a deadline and stared at a similar crisis. While the parties succeeded in wrenching the country from a constitutional vacuum,what is doubtful is how far this salvaging can go. The Constituent Assembly was formed in 2008 with a two-year mandate to draft the constitution and oversee the peace process. Can the Constituent Assembly finally pull it off in these three months? Already there is dissonance on the terms of agreement. While the opposition party,the Nepali Congress,has called for an immediate resignation of Khanal,the prime minister has said that he would do so only when an alternative is in place for the proposed national government. This underlines the potential pitfalls of what seems to be a very uneasy compromise.

India must stay engaged and keep persuading the political parties to move forward. Nepals quest for a new constitution and its peoples aspiration for a stable peace deal after years of political violence and uncertainty should reach its rightful conclusion.