Editorial
There is the RPP. There are the two ‘fringe; Lefts, the Majjdoor Kisan Party and the Samyukta Jana Morcha. And there is one independent Member of Parliament. These are all single individuals. Outside of K.P. Oli’s runted NCP/UML which is, for now, the official opposition party, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has the formidable task of carrying everybody in his cabinet. Perhaps the more important challenge is in keeping them there. Less than five years after the constitution was promulgated and elections held, the country is in reorganization mode which means prevailing organizations have not sufficed to sustain the politics that the constitution aspired to embalm. Much delayed party conventions are to be held in the coming six months threatening to change the current composition of party leadership and Deuba’s cabinet is to seek to sustain the change. Not surprisingly the pangs of involving everybody in this task from government must mean that representation in the cabinet satisfies all and, more importantly, keeps them satisfied until after the reorganization process concludes.
What is important to note is that this reorganization activity is designed to stall the search for organizational options outside the current mainstream. Past decades and a half of republican politics have so made naked the darkest side of politics that prevailing politics and party have all been blemished. The idea is to give the parties a new face-lift for elections so that voter attention may not be diverted elsewhere. The Left is out to tarnish each other with the blame of misconduct and anti-national activities so far. The Congress would want fresh faces to blame the previous leadership for current woes. There is also talk of generational graduation, Especially the RPP has this undercurrent and much would depend on how convincingly honorific the older generation are respected with.
As much as these reorganization efforts may be genuine, as also the alternatives being placed in the political market by ‘option’ parties, it is unlikely that they will suffice. While the realization gradually dawns that the error is in the constitution and the constitution-making process adopted by the political sector, pointing out the errors alone will not suffice in correcting or replacing the course. The answer is in politically accepting the mistakes of political overreach instigated by foreign prompting and allowing the national political process to assert itself. In this, the monarchy, previously swept under the carpet and currently gradually emerging on the sidelines must assume center stage since it is in this institution that the capacity to peacefully reintegrate the nation resides. While this is coming to focus, the system has yet to evolve the strength to accept it outright.
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