"Forge consensus in four days"

Tired of waiting for top political leaders to resume constitution negotiations, the Constituent Assembly (CA) Chair Subhas Nembang has decided to hold the CA meeting early next week.

Nembang organised a meeting with Chief Whips of major political parties on Wednesday and informed them about his decision to hold the next CA meeting on 29 March.

Nembang has not held the CA meeting since 12 February, apparently paving the way for top political leaders to narrow down their differences on the contents of the new constitution.

However, the ruling NC-UML and the opposition Maoist-Madhesi parties have held only one formal meeting for the last two months. They have spent much of this time by blaming each other for the political stalemate.

In the first week of March, the NC-UML and the Maoist-Madhesi parties decided to forge a consensus through closed-door meetings of top leaders. However, top leaders have not sat in talks.

The UML Chair KP Oli is busy dealing with intra-party dispute over sharing of party posts and responsibilities while the UCPN (Maoist) Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal is on a visit to China. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala is sick and has been advised by doctors to take bed rest for a few days.

Annoyed by political leaders' indifferences towards constitution negotiations, Nembang has asked both the ruling and opposition coalitions to reach a consensus on the disputed issues of the new constitution before 29 March.

"He (Nembang) was disappointed with us for not justifying the CA adjournment," said the UCPN (Maoist) Chief Whip Giriraj Mani Pokharel. "As we all expressed our commitment to talks, he granted us four days for talks."

But, political negotiations are unlikely to resume before 29 March as UCPN (Maoist) Chair Dahal is returning to Kathmandu only that day.

Calling the next CA meeting would mean resuming the CA process to hold a vote on the disputed issues of the new constitution – something the Maoist-Madhesi parties are vehemently opposed to. The opposition parties are seeking a commitment from the ruling parties to write the new constitution only by a consensus and not through a vote.