MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA |
Three hundred years ago, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai's ancestor Gajanan Bhattarai helped King Drabya Shah of Gorkha to lay the groundwork for the nation state that came to be known as Nepal. The monarchy is now gone. The republic that replaced it is torn by competing demands for autonomy within a proposed federal structure that Bhattarai is the co-architect of.
Privately, some Maoist leaders admit that their federalism formula is unworkable and they need a face-saving exit strategy. But they can't say so in public since the whole rationale for the war and their populist platform in the 2008 elections used identity politics for recruitment and votes. Bhattarai now needs all the negotiating acumen he is supposed to have to prevent the break up of a Nepal his ancestors helped forge.
The reason this issue has come up now is because of the murky, ambiguous and reckless four-point agreement that installed Bhattarai as prime minister. The Madhesi Front extracted its pound of flesh by not just grabbing half the portfolios for tainted netas from the past, but also getting the Maoists to agree to a fully-autonomous federal state with ethnically-defined provinces.
Then there are the clauses in the agreement that provide blanket amnesty for wartime atrocities by all sides, which has set off a chorus of outrage from human rights organisations.
The only silver lining we see in all this is that neither the Madhesi parties nor the Maoists probably intend to stick to their pact. this is nothing new, signed agreements have rarely been implemented in the past. Madhesi leaders just want to show their constituency in the Tarai that they are sticking to their principles and are not obsessed about getting into Singha Darbar. The Maoists, for their part, were willing to sign anything away as long as it got them to power.
An agreement on something as momentous as autonomous ethnic federal provinces that doesn't rope in the second and third largest parties in the house can only have been driven by political expediency. The field report by Rameswor Bohara on page 12-13 shows that Madhesi anger is now directed at the leaders they elected to go to Kathmandu who never bothered to address their grievances.
And the people of the Tarai seem to doubt that a single Madhes will ever deliver them prosperity. Academics and civil society leaders in Janakpur and Rajbiraj are convinced future provinces must encompass the plains, hills and mountains to be economically viable and politically sustainable. When will the sloganeering politicians listen to these voices?
That said, of all the alternatives for prime minister available two weeks ago to form a new government, Baburam Bhattarai presented the better option. The NC squandered its chance by foolishly putting up two candidates, and the UML had really nothing left to show for itself. The public rates Bhattarai's intelligence, diligence and honesty highly. He has started well with populist, yet popular, decisions. And he would have moved even faster on the peace process if the Baidya faction hadn't tried to put a spanner in the works.
However, having made it to the top job by aligning with a party with which it has little in common, Bhattarai risks being tainted by his proximity to crooks. He will need all the support he can get from his coalition partners, the opposition and the bureaucracy. And, watch your back, Doc.
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Many in the Madhes feel that a united federal Madhes will actually make them poorer