Bangladesh-Nepal

Mission Yechuri to Nepal

Senior leader of India’s Marxist Party, Communist Party of India- Marxist, Sitaram Yechuri, paid a three-day visit to Kathmandu at the behest of Nepal’s President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav and Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal .

Four years back he was in the Nepalese capital to help bridge the gulf between the Nepali Maoists and mainline parties notably Nepali Congress.   He was instrumental in the signing of what is now known as 12-point Delhi pact which formed the basis of the current peace process.

His latest visit coincided with fresh hurdles in the process of finalising the country’s statute and the peace process under new strain.

Reflecting the ground realities, Yechuri said, on his arrival in the first week of March that every moment in Nepal was “crucial” and voiced concern that time was running out. It is a reference to the May 28, 2010 deadline set for promulgation of new Nepal Constitution. His remarks also highlighted that the Indian visitor was duly conscious of the hurdles as he looked to replicate his mission during Nepal’s second Jana Andolan (People’s Movement) to help political parties forge consensus.

The greatest challenge facing Nepali polity today is belligerent mood in the Nepali Maoist camp.  Unified Communist Party of Nepal (UCPN-M) is holding anti-government demonstrations. And the agitation has entered the fifth stage.

During lengthy meetings with both the President and Prime Minister, Yechury took up the issue of Nepal’s fragile peace process, discussed the progress in the task of Constitution writing and the latest political developments. The Indian Marxist ideologue also met with Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) Chairman Jhalanath Khanal.

Last time when he was in Kathmandu, his CPI-M was an ally of India’s ruling party, Congress and was extending outside support to the Manmohan Singh government. This time around, CPI-M is an adversary of the Congress with both parties getting ready for an electoral battle in West Bengal, which is no longer the Fortress it used to be for the comrades.

So much so, the Yechuri visit shows that both sides to the divide value his advice. What advice or message he had delivered remains wrapped in an enigma. The basic thrust of his mission is however very clear and that is that the present stalemate is to no one’s benefit. And that all political parties must sink differences and work together in the transition period in the larger interests of the Himalayan Nation.

Yechury said that he doesn’t want to see any outside forces interfering in Nepal. But his own visit clearly indicates that India’s role in Nepal importance.

In his statement on his arrival, the Indian Communist leader remarked that in a nascent democracy, situation as the one that Nepal was facing was not “unnatural.”

‘Nepal has nascent democracy in which many hiccups can develop, which is not unnatural’, Yechuri said. There can be no denying at least upto a point but the question  is the flipside of Nepali Maoist’s agitation which has mostly brought to a grinding halt the wheels of Nepal’s economic forward march. Equally, while democracy is the right path for Nepal, it cannot be held hostage to the wishes of one party making unreasonable demands.   

Yechuri has pledged his CPI-M party’s help in the formation of a national government in Nepal which will also include the former Maoist guerrillas. He also advocated integration of the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into society.

Thus lending “moral support” to the UCPN-M is a primary task of the CPI-M. But this moral support must come with a clear signal to the Maoists that there has to an end to the current political stalemate. Without such strong signal being sent out, it is not clear how there can be a reasonable dialogue on constitution making and the peace process.

There is growing doubt about the ability and in fact even willingness of political parties to meet the May deadline for the new Constitution. The constitutional committee, that is to draft the statute, was to have begun work on the first draft last month and ended it by March 5. The draft is not yet in sight. Of the eleven Parliamentary committees that were to have submitted their reports to provide the base for the draft, only one was able to meet its February 4 deadline.

Yechury has repeated his 2006 message to the then seven-party alliance with a caveat. In essence that message was that Maoists in Nepal have a very strong political influence and that their inclusion in government will help in consolidation of the democratic process.

He told his Nepali interlocutors to work on a solution acceptable to all to break the political impasse.  Apparently a tall order but not difficult to hammered out in a spirit of accommodation. Politics of consensus is what Nepal’s political future demands from its leaders, young and old alike. .

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