Nepal gets a new PM after long power vacuum

Nepal gets a new PM after long power vacuum
Nepal has witnessed leadership vacuum for seven months hampering country’s stalled peace process. However, on February 04, 2011 it got a new Prime Minister named Jhala Nath Khanal, the chief of a moderate communist party, Unified Marxist Leninist (UML). He was elevated to the post after 16 rounds of voting. Mr Khanal, 60, is a veteran politician who was involved in the pro-democracy protests against the monarchy in 1990 and again in 2006.The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) backed him last moment. He will have to face the challenges of some 19,000 Maoist combatants and drawing up a new constitution. Political analysts comment that the new coalition threatens to cause a left-leaning polarization and an escalation of ambitions of the Maoists. The previous government was backed by the moderate Nepali Congress party and several ethnic parties. They hardly responded to Maoist demands such as radical land reforms, subservience of the judiciary to the legislature, and a constitutional provision of banning "antinationalist’" political parties.
It is known to us that Nepal has been gripped by power struggle since 2008 when a special assembly was elected. Mr. Acharya, the lawyer, terms that surprise coalition announcement unnatural. “It was just an expression of anger and frustration of the Maoists. After being unable to gather support for getting elected himself, Maoist chairman Prachanda wanted to teach India a lesson by elevating someone not favored by India to power,” Prachanda admitted while addressing the parliament on February 03 that he had decided to withdraw his own candidacy and support Khanal to prove that Nepal can make its own decisions, a clear reference to Indian influence in Nepal’s politics. Khanal's UML party leadership is dominated by liberal communists who do not want to promote the Maoist agenda. So, Khanal will have to face the twin challenges of tempering the liberals in his own party and continuing to get support of the Maoist party. Narayan Wagle, editor-in-chief of Nagarik, a leading Nepali daily commented “The success of the new government will depend on whether the Maoists use Mr. Khanal as their puppet," he wrote, "or help him complete the peace process and constitution writing.” Whereas President Ram Baran Yadav expressed his reaction by thanking the Maoists for helping end the political stalemate and hoped that the ultra-left extremists in India too would realize that democratic path is the best.
The 63-year-old leader, who recalled the difficult period Nepal had undergone in the past, sought the support of the international community, particularly India and also said that his country needs the "blessings of the Indian people to go through the process."I also hope that the peace process will speed up and we will soon have a new Constitution," he said, while expressing his happiness over the election of a prime minister. Under Nepalese law, a candidate must get a simple majority of votes polled in the parliament to become the Prime Minister, in this case at least 301 of the 599 votes polled. The deal reached with the Maoist ensured that Khanal crossed the hurdle easily by securing 368 of the 597 votes cast. Of Khanal’s 368 votes in favor of his candidacy, some 350 votes came from the Constituent Assembly (CA) members belonging to the two aligned communist parties and remaining votes from the left-leaning smaller parties. Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) led by Upendra Yadav with 25 votes abstained from voting despite its long-term association with the UCPN (Maoist) which amounted to a lost opportunity for this party but it is expected to backup Khanal-led government and formally become a coalition partner, giving the coalition an honorable close to 400-seat strength in the 601-seat parliament of Nepal.
Nepali Congress (NC) candidate Ram Chandra Poudel received 122 notes and Bijay Kumar Gachchhdar of MJF-Madhesi Front 67 seats, for a total of just under 200 for the two opposing candidates. Of the 44 votes not cast owing to abstentions and boycotts, at least two-thirds of this number, including most of 25 members from Upendra Yadav’s MJF would finally get aligned with government coalition, while others would support NC in the opposition. These figures show roughly two thirds/one third split of the total 601 CA votes divided up between left-wing and right-wing parties. After traveling a topsy- turvy parth probably Nepal’s democracy has arrived but the wise course for Khanal coalition and left-party alliance would be to come up with concrete proposals that focuses on the economy and improves public facilities in areas where government failure has been most visible and persistent. The main pillar of success for new government will be to establish a different identity in terms of how the government relates to the rest of the society which generally has been antagonistic and adversarial. The general population feels harassed by such experiences almost every day. If the Khanal government succeeds in making even a little success in making the government machinery work for the people, it will be considered as an achievement of his government. So, he should be cautious enough in dealing with the whole affair.
Nepal experiences acute shortage of drinking water particularly by the Valley residents. It suffers from power shortage as well. He will have to try very cleverly to address these issues. In the short-term, there are very few options to addressing these problems. For power shortage, other than urging India to sell more electricity to Nepal at a concessional rate and even accessing Bhutan facilities for power purchase, there are no other options. His government will face another problem to deal with its business with India. The Khanal government and its supporters, especially the Maoists, must give India the benefit of doubt, that it wants Nepal to be peaceful and prosperous and, of course, to remain democratic. If the Khanal Government can secure India’s confidence that it commits to be mindful of India’s interests in carrying out its business, his government will not get embroiled with acute problems.
Nepal has been without a functioning government since last June, when former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal announced his resignation. The CPN-UML was involved in the coalition which formed that government. A caretaker government with limited constitutional powers has been running the country since then, delaying the drafting of a new constitution and the conclusion of the peace process that ended the country's civil war. Nepal's fragile peace process began in 2005 after the Maoists ended their armed revolt and entered mainstream politics. A 2006 peace deal ended the war between the Maoists and the then royal government, in which more than 16,000 people were killed. The Maoists won parliamentary elections in 2008 and the 239-year old monarchy was later abolished.
It is hoped that Khanal’s new administration will be able to move forward on the two key issues that have held up the country's long-running peace process. He will have to decide whether more than 19,000 former Maoists fighters to be included in the regular armed forces and the completion of a new democratic constitution. In his oath taking ceremony he has already announced the fate of the Maoist fighters which has been a major unresolved issue. Probably Nepal is advancing towards progress and stability under Khanal’s leadership.