By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : Three popular Nepali actors began to mourn the “death” of Nepal’s fledgling constitution even as a politician threatened to go on an indefinite hungerstrike.
Kedar Ghimire and Sitaram Kattel, popularly known as Magne Bura and Dhurmus, two comic characters from a popular satirical teleserial, “Meri Bassai”, that pokes fun at the foibles of politicians and society, shaved off their hair and donned white clothes, part of the ritual followed by men in Nepal after a death in the family.
A third, Kunjana Ghimire, who too plays a popular character, Suntali, in the same serial, discarded her ornaments and wore white to signify a state of mourning.
“It is now certain that Nepal will not get its new constitution,” Ghimire said. “The death knell of our hopes has been rung. So we are performing the last rites of the constituent assembly.”
Abhishek Pratap Shah, the youngest lawmaker in the constituent assembly, said he would go on an indefinite hungerstrike from Friday midnight if the parties failed to reach an agreement by then.
The 601-member house, formed after an unprecedented election in 2008, was mandated to write a new constitution and promulgate it by Friday May 28.
However, due to protracted wrangling for power between the ruling parties and the opposition Maoists, the statute failed a series of deadlines and will now not be ready by Friday midnight.
The consequence will be a dire constitutional crisis as Nepal’s parliament and the government will be automatically dissolved by Friday midnight.
Though chaos stares Nepal in the face, its top leaders failed to reach an agreement even Wednesday.
A meeting between the three parties failed to reach an understanding to extend the constitutional deadline.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, whose refusal to quit despite mounting public pressure has driven the country to the verge of a constitutional disaster, said the parties still needed to do further “homework” and adjourned the meeting.
Though the top leaders will meet again in the evening, going by their past track record, it is doubtful if a consensus will be reached by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, significantly, the Indian ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood met the embattled prime minister Wednesday.
Though there was no official comment on what transpired at the meeting, India’s position on the situation is going to be crucial in the next 48 hours.
It is believed that Nepal has been hanging on to his position due to support from the neighbouring country, which is keen to keep the Maoists out of power because of the growing Maoist insurgency in its own backyard.
Nepal’s Maoists, a former guerrilla party who gave up violence four years ago, have been growing increasingly hostile towards New Delhi, accusing it of having contributed to the fall of their short-lived government in a bid to control the political scenario in Nepal.