Opinion - Editorials

Nepal marches on

The agreement signed on June 16 by the top leaders of the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and Prachanda, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), on eight key issues is remarkable by any standards. Mr. Prachanda did not indulge in hyperbole when he told the media that "rebels waging war and the parties involved in parliamentary politics... have jointly created history." The ruling coalition has accepted the core Maoist demands: dissolution of the two Houses of Parliament, and drafting an interim constitution. The SPA's original stand was that these steps were unnecessary once it resolved to hold elections to a constituent assembly. Parliament, within days of being called back to life, set about the task of reducing the King to a virtual zero. It deprived him of control over the military; conferred on itself the right to decide on the succession to the crown; and abolished the concept of the `King-in-Parliament,' including his right to veto legislation. These steps were apparently not enough. With the eight-point accord, the Maoists have no reason at all to suspect the intentions of their partners. But the agreement is not one-sided. Those who waged all-out armed struggle against the state have committed themselves to a "competitive multi-party system of governance" and to the rule of law. They have matched the Government's decision to dissolve Parliament by agreeing to dissolve the "people's governments" they have set up. The decision to seek help from the United Nations "in the management of arms and armed personnel of both the sides" — the state forces and the People's Liberation Army — and to monitor the process so that elections to the constituent assembly can be conducted in "a free and fair manner" is sound under the circumstances. The larger political project undertaken is to transform the ceasefire between the Government and the Maoists into "a permanent peace" and to resolve the nation's problems through a negotiated settlement based on a "forward-looking restructuring of the state."

When Parliament set out on the revolutionary road, there was some concern that the judiciary might intervene on behalf of the King. More than a month on, it is clear that this peaceful revolution has unstoppable momentum, the capacity to move mountains. It is small wonder that a five-member committee has been given merely 15 days to draft an interim constitution; and that the time frame for the dissolution of Parliament and the local governments and for the constitution of an interim government including the Maoists is a mere month. A number of issues, major as well as minor, conceptual as well as practical, might need to be settled before the big moment — the final test of the eight-point agreement — arrives: free and fair elections to a constituent assembly. Thus far it has been a dream run for Nepal's popular revolution. India, which has wisely committed major resources to helping its neighbour meet its immediate economic challenges, must be with it all the way.

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