It’s not just the future of the 84-year-old prime minister of Nepal that is at stake, but also the Maoist transformation into a democratic political party. The 18-month peace process looks more uncertain than ever. India conveyed its disappointment over the government’s failure to conduct polls to the constituent assembly (CA), a strategy it believed was the best way to secure legitimacy for the peace process. G.P. Koirala’s leadership — an ad hoc arrangement — is being questioned by his own party leaders and coalition partners, especially after the November polls were deferred.

It is clearly India’s failure as well, in believing that elections will take place in November at any cost. It chose to ignore that both Koirala and the Maoists are reluctant to go to the polls for different reasons. Koirala wants to prolong his rule, and Maoists want to show to the nation and the world outside that they “alone dictate Nepal’s future political agenda”. Demanding that monarchy be scrapped right away and be replaced by 100 per cent proportional representation, with the full knowledge that this would upset the November election schedule, only shows that either the Maoists are not prepared for the polls, or want it purely on their terms. And both these demands go against the earlier agreement which clearly stated that the fate of the monarchy would be decided by the first meeting of the CA, and that Nepal would follow a mixed model of election system. When elections were called off on October 5, the Election Commission had already dispatched returning officers to the constituencies, and spent nearly a billion rupees in pre-poll preparations.

... contd.