With the opposition baying for Baburam Bhattarai’s
resignation, Nepal’s ruling Maoist chief Prachanda on Friday warned that
the country will plunge into catastrophe if the Prime Minister quits
before resolving the vexed Constitution-drafting issue. “It is
completely wrong on the part of the opposition parties Nepali Congress
and CPN-UML to ask the Prime Minister to step down before agreeing on
the key issue of the Constitution,” Prachanda told the news agency.
“Political consensus is essential among the parties at this moment as
there is no representative body in the country after the dissolution of
the Constituent Assembly,” he said. The 601-member Assembly, which had
been extended four times since 2008, was dissolved on May 27 after
parties failed to reach consensus on whether to adopt federal structure
based on single ethnic identity or multi-ethnic identity. Bhattarai has
called fresh elections on November 22, after years of deadlock over the
issue of a new Constitution. Prachanda, also former prime minister,
warned today that the country will plunge into catastrophe if Bhattarai
resigns, leaving a power vacuum. There is no alternative to building
consensus among parties other than holding fresh elections for the
Constituent Assembly or promulgating the Constitution through any other
means, he said. “Bhattarai and our party are prepared to quit the
government after forging consensus among political parties,” Prachanda
promised. “First of all it is important to forge consensus on the
contentious issue of the Constitution.” Prachanda offered a package
deal under which the Maoist government would quit through an agreement
among political parties.
Save Dissent to Save Democracy THE rising instances of physical violence and threats against political opponents and the inability to accept dissent must raise huge concerns amongst all of us who see democracy as perhaps the really stellar achievement since Independence. AAP’s attack on BJP headquarters and acts of arson committed under the very noses of their elite leadership; the attacks on Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Gujarat in the last two days; the recent manhandling of the caretaker of journalist Siddharth Varadarajan’s house by some garden variety thugs; and the violence and threats meted out regularly to their political opponents by political parties is surely deplorable and condemnable. This is a fatally flawed trend which will destroy the very foundations of our democratic institutions if not pushed back with all the strength and condemnation that the civil society can mobilise. Replaying the past To begin with, it must be clarified that we should ...
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