By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : Saved from a dire constitutional crisis last month by the opposition Maoist party but now at loggerheads with it once more, Nepal’s government faces a fresh hurdle next month when it again needs help to pass the new budget.
With a fresh quarrel erupting between Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and the former guerrillas after the premier refused to resign by Wednesday, the ruling party might find itself in yet another difficult position.
As Finance Minister Surendra Pandey wished to announce the new budget July 9, the prime minister has to ensure that parliament will not be obstructed by the Maoists who had done so last year.
Unable to pass the budget, the government was driven to the brink of a financial collapse in 2009 and had to appease the Maoists who lifted the blockade to allow the procedure.
In its one year of rule, the coalition government of Madhav Kumar Nepal has run into at least three major crises due to its continued hostility with the Maoists, the largest party in parliament. Though each time the former rebels capitulated, the battle is growing increasingly more acrimonious.
In the past, the Maoists, who are demanding that the current government be dissolved to make way for a new one under their leadership, imposed a blockade of parliament and a series of general strikes.
They also threatened not to allow the government to extend the term of parliament, which would have plunged Nepal into a grave constitutional crisis from May 28.
Though the former insurgents were the first to yield each time, now there is a bitter feeling of betrayal among the Maoists.
The Maoists say they had a gentlemen’s agreement with the prime minister that in return for saving the government from dissolution last month he would resign by Wednesday. But the prime minister says the Maoists are misrepresenting his promise that he would step down when there was an agreement among all parties on the peace process.
The standing committee of the Maoists will meet Thursday to decide the party’s next course of action.
Unless the ruling alliance reaches an agreement with the Maoists it is unlikely that the new constitution will be ready even by next year.
The statute was to have been promulgated May 28 but was not ready due to the protracted squabbling between the major parties.