Nepal parties in talks to pull country out of crisis

All sides seem keen to extricate the nation from its current crisis. As such, they have decided not to bring up issues that have been resolved in the past – such as the government, the judiciary and the electoral system. 

The discussions are focused on the core issue of disagreement, over which the Constituent Assembly was dissolved: the number and names of states. The idea appears to be that if all parties are able to reach an agreement on the number of states, the precise delineation of boundaries and names can be left up to the parliament, which will get elected once the negotiations are done. 

But before elections are held, the CA will be reinstated and the constitution promulgated.

There are those who argue that reinstating the CA is a bad idea because it reinforces the domination of the major political parties and does not take into account the various demands that have recently arisen. This is true. 

But there is also a case to be made for reinstatement of the CA. The above roadmap outlined by the parties, if agreed upon, will succeed in salvaging all the accomplishments of the dissolved assembly. It will also avoid the tremendous costs involved in electing a new CA. 

Besides, if a new CA is elected, there is also a possibility that all the hard-won agreements so far will unravel and that all resolved issues will once again come up for negotiation. This will make it exceedingly hard to write a new constitution. For these reasons, there is merit in the argument that a short-term revival of the assembly, on condition that key differences between parties are resolved, is a good step forward.

In the course of negotiations, however, the parties have to be careful about the inclusion of Janajati and Madhesi groups. It should be remembered that a key reason why the CA was dissolved was because these groups felt their demands were not being addressed until the last minute, and so it became difficult to reach an agreement with them. 

A deeper, more sustained consultation with these groups could perhaps have avoided the dissolution of the assembly. The idea of postponing the delineation of boundaries and names of states is a sensitive one. The Madhesi and Janajati indigenous groups have rejected this idea in the past. If the roadmap outlined by the larger parties is to work this time, there has to be buy-in from the major indigenous outfits.