Speaker Nembang tried to drive a sense of urgency by detaining senior leaders from leaving Kathmandu, but so far the netas seem to be doing little but debating endlessly about the moral right of consensus politics.
But they keep harping on about a timely constitution. This week, CA and Parliamentary affairs Minister Narhari Acharya told the people of Chitwan that the government will ensure constitution within stipulated time, but did not specify how that is possible given the opposition’s obstruction of CA proceedings for over a month. Communication Minister Minendra Rijal delivered a similar platitude to people of Biratnagar, as did UML’s KP Oli at his residence in Bhaktapur.
Although there has been no positive development on threshing out contentious issues, NC and UML leaders seem confident that the government will be able to table and endorse a constitution within a set deadline. This may sound encouraging to a layperson who has no appetite for nuanced debates inside the CA, and those who just want normalcy restored to everyday life and economy. But those of us who have been covering blow by blow this political exercise since 2008 know, netas are either fooling themselves or insulting public intelligence.
In the run up to a winter showdown, the CA will become a battle ground of competing personal and partisan interests. But we should be more worried about its spillover effect on the streets.
For Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Baidya, being the silent partner to this exercise is an unattractive choice, since the erstwhile comrades are both struggling to maintain their political relevance with Baburam Bhattarai heading all negotiations inside the CA. After obstructing the parliament for over a month, Dahal finally returned to the political centre stage this week as the head of high level political mechanism. It will be interesting to see if Mohan Baidya also agrees to join the mechanism he once criticised Similarly, Madhes-based parties who have an underhand in the bargain for state restructuring will try to make the most of their three seats in the HLPC. They will be fighting to establish their political agendas, just as they will be battling to save their own regional vote banks. And with big parties preventing their leaders from forming a cross-party caucus, janajatis inside and outside the CA may look to take their cause to the streets.