NEPAL: Prachanda Arrives in New Delhi: Update No. 172

NEPAL: Prachanda Arrives in New Delhi: Update No. 172

By Dr. S.Chandrasekharan

Prime Minister Prachanda arrived in New Delhi on 14 September with a 44-member entourage that included the foreign minister Upendra Yadav, Water resources minister Bishnu Paudel, Minister for commerce and supplies- Rajendra Mahatao and the Information Minister, Krishna Bahadur Mahara. He was received at the airport by Minister of State Shakeel Ahmed and the Foreign Secretary. Though Protocol wise, the reception was correct, as a close neighbour, strategically important and this being the first official visit, a more senior reception team from the Indian side could have been managed.

Prachanda will be meeting the Prime Minister of India today, the foreign minister and the President and he will also be visiting Bangalore to see the IT Hub city.

Earlier before his departure he said that he would discuss with India, the border dispute, inundation problems caused by Koshi and other Indian built river structures downstream, Koshi High Dam and also the Sun Koshi-Kamala diversion project proposed by Nepal. He had also said that “unequal treaties” (Indo Nepal Treaty) should be replaced with new ones and others should be reviewed in the best interest of both countries.

While the Prachanda indicated before his departure that he would be carrying a draft treaty to replace the present Indo- Nepal Treaty, the central secretariat of CPN (M) directed the Prime minister not to sign any treaty during the upcoming visit. It looks that the party still decides policies collectively and the hardliners within the party cannot be ignored for the present.

The Central secretariat of the party also asked C.P.Gajurel to continue as foreign affairs chief and senior leader Mohan Baidya to head the organisational wing. The PLA will now be headed by Nand Kishore Pun (Pasang) and Post Bahadur Bogati will oversee the parliamentary affairs.

Government Policy and Programme Unveiled:

President Ram Baran Yadav on September 10 read out the full details of the Government’s policies and programmes for the next eighteen months. The ninety point- 24 page booklet mainly focussed on infrastructure development, economic reforms, social security and maintenance of law and order.

The programme was discussed for three days by the Constituent Assembly and there were 17 amendments by 15 political parties including the Nepali Congress. The bill was passed after rejecting all the amendments by a majority in the constituent assembly on 14^th September.

The Nepali Congress had suggested a 22-point amendment and objected to the use of the terms like “cultural revolution” bringing to one’s mind the cultural revolution that caused immense havoc in China in Mao’s days, “People’s war,” “PLA”etc. The party was also against the use of the terms like “collective and cooperative cultivation of land.” It also called for the dissolution of parallel government structure ( this will not happen and certainly not until the next elections) and disbanding of YCL. (Again, something the Maoists will never give up though there will be “periodic promises”)

G.P. Koirala had also made a point that the main duty of the government (government or the constitutional assembly?) to write the constitution and that the government has no right to make any treaty or agreement of long-lasting effect as it is no more than a care taker’s government. The attempt of the Maoists on the other hand, appears to be to go for radical reforms and restructuring to suit their agenda so that they can go to the people with their “achievements” in the next elections after the new constitution, no matter whether the present government is an interim one or not!

The chief points of the programme are

• High level scientific land reforms commission to bring about socio economic transformation of the society. Barren land to be distributed to landless squatters, freed labour and Kamaiyas. All activities of NGOs to be managed through one door policy by improving the social welfare council activities.

• Launching special programmes to create employment within the country to stop the trend of people going outside the country for employment.

• 10 GW of hydro electric power to be generated within 10 years to achieve the goal of double digit growth. ( Kathmandu is reeling under 35 hours of load shedding each week!)- 2009- 2018 will be the decade of energy development.

• Private Sector to be involved in fast track highway linking the capital to Terai. ( This should have done long ago but for some inexplicable reason was never taken up seriously)

• Survey on Lhasa-Kathmandu, Pokhara-Lumbini-Chitwan railway to be started soon.

• Local bodies to be run on political consensus till the polls. ( One clear indication that the Maoists will not be prepared to give up their hold and parallel administration on the rural areas until the next polls)

• Nine new commissions to be formed besides those already agreed to. These will include 1. National Labour Commission. 2. Truth & Reconciliation Commission. 3. Commission to find cases of disappearance. 4. High level scientific land reforms commission to resolve land related problems. 5. Commission to resolve the problem of landless squatters. 6. Inclusive Commission to make all state organs inclusive. 7. State restructuring Commission to suggest ways to prepare a future federal structure for the government. 8. Administrative restructuring commission to suggest ways to prepare for a future federal structure for the government. 9. National Muslims Commission- to revolve the problems of minority Muslim community and uplift their status.

• Establishment of a high-level Co-operative Board under the chairmanship of the Prime minister. ( It is likely that this mechanism will be used for collective cooperation in agriculture and similar fields.)

• Legal space to be given for women, indigenous and ethnic communities, minorities, Madhesis and Muslim people in the State mechanism. This perhaps is part of the task of the National Inclusive commission.

The policies spelt out read more like an election manifesto and are too ambitious to be done within eighteen months when the focus should be to ensure that no hurdles are created for writing the constitution within the stipulated time.

There was an intriguing statement of the Defence Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa (Badal) on the integration of the PLA at Itahari on 10 September. He said “People have voted in favour of Maoist party to form a government and concurrently the Nepal Army has vowed to follow the government directions” and he hoped that the integration will be much smoother. Does it mean that the integration will be done en masse? This will be a serious development.