Finally a PM

Nepal has a new prime minister,and a renewed cycle of worries. The relatively speedy election of Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai is indeed welcome,given that it took seven months and 16 attempts for Bhattarais predecessor,Jhalanath Khanal,to become prime minister seven months of a governance vacuum. But the mechanics of Nepals politics that brought about Khanals resignation earlier this month,which had also helped him become prime minister in the first place,remain apparently just as acutely unworkable. Bhattarais election is the result of a compromise,externally,between the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) and the United Madheshi Democratic Front (UMDF),and,internally,between the new prime ministers faction and Maoist chief Prachanda. Bhattarais tenure will depend on the give-and-take between the UCPN-M,the UMDF and the smaller left parties which voted for him. Moreover,he will have to constantly watch his back,keeping Prachanda in good humour even as he tries to work with the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Nepali Congress.

Factions within the major parties Khanal,very close to Prachanda,was forced out by his own CPN-UML have,of late,overwhelmed the long undermined political momentum that had emerged from the historic transformation five years ago. Of Nepals two imperatives the promulgation of the new constitution and the completion of the peace process neither is close to being home and dry. Bhattarai has promised giving them top priority,but those are the very tasks every prime minister (Bhattarai is the fourth in three years) has ignominiously failed in. The four-point agreement between the UCPN-M and the UMDF may have pre-empted a rational,considered conclusion of the peace by proclaiming the withdrawal of all human rights cases against Madheshi activists and Maoists,eclipsing major provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006.

Nevertheless,difficult as things and discredited as political parties in Nepal are,the road ahead is not impossible. Nepal can only move forward,from whatever has been achieved so far,and thats an optimistic thought. It has a new prime minister,and now Kathmandu must regain its focus.