DIWAKAR CHETTRI

The Big Three had agreed on a 5-point deal in order to avert the void on 28 May. But from the moment it was signed, it was a no-deal because it was never clear who was going to be responsible to implement it.

So, as we enter the final weeks of the extended CA term, the parties that sat on their hands refusing to budge an inch for the last ten weeks are now frantically engaged in a face-saving exercise.

Last month, when the Maoist party was threatened with a serious rift we said the internal three-way squabble within the largest party was holding the nation hostage. But soon, what began as an internal struggle for democratic space within the Maoists opened up a rash of fissiparous tendencies in every major party. As the politics failed, peace and constitution took a backseat. All this was reflected in the impunity and breakdown in law and order.

"In the last three years, all we have done is quarrel and look where we stand," says Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai, whose internal battle against his boss was the reason for the latest delay.

In an interview with Nepali Times, Bhattarai (whose party has fielded him as prime ministerial candidate in a consensus government) reiterates his belief that majoritarian rule will consign the country into protracted limbo.

Every media poll has shown that the people also know that a unity government is the only way forward. Political leaders all say in public they back consensus, but carry on back-stabbing each other in private.

But this time an intense exercise for a consensus government has begun even before the Khanal government has resigned. A new government with the Maoists, NC, UML, and Madhesi Front seems the only way to break the log-jam, and Bhattarai is the candidate towards whom most political leaders have the least objection (except perhaps his own boss, Pushpa Kamal Dahal).

So, what are they waiting for?

Anurag Acharya

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