Nepal, South Asia’s idyllic mountain, ‘republic’ faces the challenge of holding constitutional assembly elections on 10th April. The Nation flatters to deceive as each time Kathmandu plans elections, anti democracy forces succeed in subverting the same on sundry grounds. Even now threats are being held out of delay in holding polls due to assassinations or terrorist attacks in the country. A nitrogen bomb in a bus led to fire resulting in 7 deaths on Saturday. With over 14 active militant organizations in the Terai, the challenge of law and order is extremely grave.

The political crisis however appears to have been temporarily resolved. Nearly three and a half months after storming out of the interim government, four Maoist leaders were sworn-in as new ministers on 31 December. Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Dev Gurung, Matrika Yadav, Hishila Yami, Ramesh Lekhak, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and Pampha Bhushal were appointed as cabinet Ministers. During the swearing ceremony, the Prime Minister as well as Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai reaffirmed their support to elections and Bhattarai went even further to state that his party would quit the government if the Constituent Assembly elections were not held in April.

Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokhrel declared 10 April as the election date. Earlier the Constitution was amended to declare Nepal a Republic to be confirmed during the first sitting of the Elected Assembly and additional seats have been catered for proportional representation. The distribution of seats now is 335 under proportional representation, 240 first past the post 26 nominated to make a total of 601 seats. The International community and particularly India welcomed the Agreement.

With the Maoists rejoining the Ministry, the first stage of reconciliation in Nepal is over. The next phase is smooth conduct of elections. This time the Maoists seem to be more committed to elections, however there are major concerns from the Terai. The international community needs to maintain pressure to ensure that these go through.

The Government suffered a setback when Minister of Science and Technology Mahanta Thakur, who is also a senior Nepali Congress leader, and three parliamentarians representing constituencies in the Terai resigned on 19 December, complaining that the state has continued to remain indifferent to problems prevailing in the region. On the other hand four groups fighting for autonomy in the Terai formed a joint front, “Broader Madheshi Rashtriya Morcha” and announced protest programmes. This includes a faction of the Madheshi People’s Rights Forum led by Bhagya Nath Gupta and groups fighting for the cause of Dalits and other marginalized groups. The Samyukta Madhesi Morcha or the Joint Madhesi Front, with groups as the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRR) led by Upendra Yadav and the Sadbhavana Party led by Rajendra Mahato warned of a decisive Terai agitation if the government does not fulfil their demands by January 19 (2008).

On the law and order front there are many challenges in the Terai. Normal life in the area is disrupted. Rautahat district was severely affected with continuous series of strikes by one or the other party in an area which has divisive polity in multiple forms, Hill-Terai, MPRF- JTMM, Maoist-JTMM and so on. The Janatanrtik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM) carried out five blasts in Gaur on 13 December. However, no casualties were reported. Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel also revealed that the government has formally contacted the Goit and Jwala Singh factions of the JTMM. The Government created a Special Task Force, comprising of Nepal Police (NP) and Armed Police Force (APF) in Siraha district to control the violence in the Terai. The team comprises of a mix of police and armed police personnel and will act as a rapid reaction force in Siraha district which is plagued with crime and militancy.

The Terai has been facing a series of crisis and bandhs of which the Rautahat one is one of the worst. This put life to a halt in the area with immeasurable suffering to the common people. There is a need to bring this tactics of bandhs to a halt as it does not serve any major political purpose at the local level. The 22 point agreement is a fair document for resolution of the Madhes problem in Nepal. Thus it should be ensured that this is implemented in letter and spirit to raise the confidence of the MPRR led alliance to cooperate with the government in the peace process.

Another contentious issue is the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by seven parties provided for integration of the PLA with the Nepal Army. However there has been stiff resistance from the Army so far. With a large number of Maoists numbering almost 12,000 unaccounted for, the situation is likely to create a crisis of law and order in the days ahead. While approximately 4000 of these may be under age and would be under aegis of agencies as the UNICEF, there is a major lot which continues to be outside their purview. These are reportedly organized in youth leagues as the Young Communist League (YCL) by the CPN M. Thus there is increased concern about these personnel and their role in stability in the country.

Possible solutions to the present political impasse in Nepal are quite obvious yet there is lack of political will to implement the same. Some issues which need consideration are as follows:

• Speedy implementation of proposals in the CPA and the 23 Point Agreement concluded during December.
• Resolution of issues related to integration of the PLA and Nepal Army and renunciation of property by Maoists.
• Commitment of all political parties to accept rule of the law and control cadres from seeking release of known culprits through bandhs and street side protests.
• Firm backing by all political parties to police and other law and order agencies.
• Ban on all bandhs, strikes and road blocks particularly in the Terai.
• Active negotiations with all non violent groups to ameliorate grievances. Offer of talks with violent groups in case of renunciation of violence.
• Joint Indo-Nepal efforts to control the violence in the Terai. 

January 20, 2008

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