CK Lal And The "Six Post" Agreement

वामदेवमाथि कारबाही माग गर्ने उनकै पीए!

गृहमन्त्री गौतमले अतिविश्वास गरेका तिनै भण्डारी र ढकालले उनीमाथि अनुशासनको कारबाही गर्न माग गर्द पार्टी केन्द्रीय कार्यालय बल्खुमा ज्ञापनपत्र बुझाएका रहेछन् ।

देउवाले यसरी दिने भए सुशीललाई दनक
मस्यौदामा के–के सच्याउन माग गर्यो एमाओवादीले?
The conservative consolidation

Since the poor, the weak, the marginalized and the externalized sections of population have to invest all their energy in ensuring survival, catastrophes turn into opportunities for the elite to perpetuate themselves.

....... Little is known about the havoc that the August Earthquakes of 1833 left behind in its wake in Kathmandu. However, Mukhtiar Bhimsen Thapa began to lose his hold as the old guard of the royal court hit back upon him with full force. ....... Recall of Nepal-Bihar Earthquake of 1934 have faded but not altogether disappeared from public memory. Juddha Shamsher used the chance to entrench himself in Singha Durbar. Among other things, he commissioned the rebuilding of Dharahara—perhaps the only monument erected anywhere in the world by losers of a war to mark their defeat ...... In the grand-old tradition of his forebears and in-laws, King Mahendra feasted upon agonies of Madheshis as the central and eastern Tarai-Madhesh were repeatedly hit by floods and famines in the 1960s. Madheshis had always been outsiders in power struggles of Kathmandu court, Mahendra ensured that they shall remain so forever through the manufacture of Mahendramala chauvinism that standardized Gorkhali communalism as Nepali nationalism. ...... The Sixteen Point Stratagem—the Six Post for short—follows well established tradition of ruling elites using natural calamities to consolidate their control over reins of the state. The Draft Constitution doing the rounds these days seeks to present a blatantly extra-constitutional, patently illegal, demonstrably undesirable, perceptibly immoral and potentially dangerous document as the done deal—fait accompli—in order to show who really swivels the wheels of power in the republican order of the erstwhile kingdom. ....... In an interim order, the court ruled that the Six Post had violated explicit provisions of the Interim Constitution. Signatories of pact hit back at the court in turn and chose to ignore its strictures altogether. Apparently there is too much at stake to let niceties of constitutionalism come in the way of a sweet deal. ........ The essence of the Six Post lies buried in the middle of the verbose agreement which seeks to reelect the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker after the promulgation of the new constitution. ........

Had everything gone according to the grand design, there would have been a new Nepali Congress nominee in Shital Niwas. Balkhu Palace would have had its third republican premier at Baluwatar Complex. A Maoist would have been holding the gavel of the Speaker. The probability of a mannequin Madheshi duly dressed in starched Labeda-Suruwal being paraded as the Vice or Deputy was equally high, in which case the other post would have gone to yet another beneficiary of tokenism from the so-called civil society. The dealmakers had assumed that the possibility of their stratagem being questioned was next to nil during the exhaustion of post-quake monsoons.

.......... The technocratic elite of Kathmandu were salivating at the prospect of billions of dollars flowing into the capital city in the name of post-quake rescue, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. The nobility had plans of building weekend homes in districts surrounding the Valley from compensations that they expected to receive for abandoned houses in the countryside. ...... The military, the mandarins, the merchants comprising of banker-builder-broker and business nexus, the mendicants of the Hindutva variety and the mediators of the comfortable classes masquerading as the civil society—the pillars of the PEON that once kept the monarchy propped up—perhaps decided that the onset of floods in the plains and landslides in the hills precluded any chance of meaningful opposition to whatever they chose to thrust upon the country in the name of constitution.

All that they wanted to ensure through the statute was that the Six Posts shall never go to any Madheshi, Janjati or Dalit with a straight backbone.

....... The supposed debate over secularism is an even bigger farce. Any modern state can have only one religion—constitutionalism. ...... Nepal needs secularism to protect Hinduism from itself: What else can stop the Dalits, the so-called Shudras, and even the self-claimed high-caste women from deserting the faith en masse to escape from structural tyrannies of the Brahminical order? Freedom of faith is all very well, but only secularism forces religious zealots to continually reinvent themselves and do mundane things such as running free schools and charity hospitals rather than holding enumerable Koti Homs that consume enormous energy of the community, breeds fatalism, and feeds upon as well as produce what has been called the 'dung of the devil'—capitalism. Paradoxical as it may seem, only secularism can ensure the relevance of religiosity in the twenty-first century. .......... A rough demarcation is perhaps ready to divide the country in such a way that no Madheshi or Janjati will ever be able to govern a province without accepting to be mere proxy of the PEON in Kathmandu. With district boundaries remaining intact, Madheshis that form over one-third of national population shall have to learn to live with being an insignificant minority in the central parliament. ........

It's extremely unlikely that the Madhesh will succumb so easily all over again.

चार दल कस्सिए मस्यौदा परिमार्जन गर्न

‘जनताबाट प्राप्त सुझावलाई अधिकतम रूपमा समेटदै साउन मसान्तभित्रै संविधान जारी गर्ने विषयमा सहमति भएको छ,’ गच्छदारले भने, ‘मस्यौदामा कतिपय विषय छुटेका छन्, तिनलाई समेट्नुपर्छ । अहिलेको प्रक्रियासँग असन्तुष्ट र मस्यौदाको विरोध गरिरहेका दल तथा समूहसँग पनि छलफल गरी अधिकतम सहमतिको दस्ताबेजका रूपमा संविधान जारी गर्ने सहमति छ ।’ ...... एमालेभित्र प्रत्यक्ष निर्वाचित प्रधानमन्त्रीको पार्टीको अडान कार्यान्वयन गर्नुपर्ने आवाज उठेको छ । तर एमाले मूल नेतृत्व १६ बुँदेबाट पछि हटदा संविधान निर्माण लम्बिने भएकाले यसलाई अडानका रूपमा अघि बढाउने पक्षमा छैन । १६ बुँदेमा सुधारिएको संसदीय व्यवस्थामा सहमति जनाए पनि एमाओवादीले पनि प्रत्यक्ष कार्यकारीको मुद्दा फेरि ब्युँताएको छ । कांग्रेसका केही सभासदले समेत यसमा जोड दिए पनि मूल नेतृत्व सहमत छैन । ...... सीमांकनको सवालमा आइतबारको कांग्रेस–एमाओवादी बैठक सकारात्मक रहेको एमाओवादी उपाध्यक्ष नारायणकाजी श्रेष्ठले बताए । ‘सीमांकन टुंग्याउने विषयमा दुवै पार्टीको स्प्रिट सकारात्मक देखियो,’ उनले भने । यसमा

कांग्रेस संस्थापनको आफ्नै स्वार्थ छ । सीमांकनमा पनि अहिल्यै छलफल चलाउँदा संविधान निर्माण केही समय लम्बिने छ र प्रधानमन्त्री कोइराला आगामी असोज पहिलो साता हुने पार्टीको महाधिवेशनसम्म सरकार प्रमुखमै रहन चाहन्छन् । सीमांकन टुंग्याउन सके १६ बुँदेपछि आफू नेतृत्वको मोर्चा छाडेर गएका असन्तुष्ट दललाई फेरि ल्याउन सकिन्छ कि भन्ने एमाओवादी स्वार्थ छ ।

....... नागरिकता प्राप्तिका सम्बन्धमा एमाले मस्यौदामा उल्लेख प्रावधानकै अडानमा छ । तर एमालेभित्र धर्मनिरपेक्षता हटाएर धार्मिक स्वतन्त्रता राख्नुपर्ने मत जोडले उठेको छ । अध्यक्ष ओलीले नै गलत व्याख्याका कारण निरपेक्षता परेकाले अबको संविधानमा धार्मिक स्वतन्त्रता राखिने बताइसकेका छन् । ‘अन्य दल तयार भए धर्मनिरपेक्षताको स्थानमा धार्मिक स्वतन्त्रता राख्न एमाले तयार छ,’ एमाले उपाध्यक्ष भीम रावलले भने । कांग्रेसभित्र पनि कतिपय प्रभावशाली नेताहरू हिन्दु राज्यका पक्षमा उभिएका छन् । तर एमाओवादीले धर्मनिरपेक्षता नै राख्नुपर्ने अडान लिएको छ । ‘बरु राज्यको कुनै धर्म हुने छैन । राज्यले कुनै धर्मलाई प्रवद्र्धन गर्नेछैन । सबै नागरिक आआफ्नो आस्थाअनुरूपको धर्म मान्न स्वतन्त्र हुनेछन् । जबर्जस्ती धर्म परिवर्तन दण्डनीय हुनेछ’ भनेर यसको व्याख्या गर्न सकिन्छ । यी दुई विषय लेनदेनमा अहिल्यै टुंगिने सम्भावना छ । ....... यता कांग्रेस–एमालेभित्र पनि वडाध्यक्ष प्रत्यक्ष निर्वाचित हुनुपर्ने, निर्वाचन प्रणालीमा निश्चित प्रतिशत थ्रेसहोल्ड राखिनुपर्ने कुरा जबर्जस्ती उठेको छ ।