Kathmandu, April 15 (Inditop.com) After winning three battles against dictatorial regimes, the pen is finally losing its might over the sword in Nepal.
The fear was given credence Thursday as Nepal’s ruling party finally admitted that the nation’s top leaders were “hoodwinking” the people and the government would fail to consolidate the peace process by promulgating a new constitution by May 28.
Jhalanath Khanal, chief of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) that is leading the 22-party ruling alliance, Thursday finally admitted that it was impossible to write and enforce the new statute within the May deadline.
Khanal made the admission as a group of poets and writers visited his residence in Kathmandu Thursday to recite inspiring poems. It was part of a literary movement begun Wednesday to pressure the nation’s top political leaders into burying their differences and implementing the new constitution by May.
Though only 42 days are left for the deadline to end, the three major parties – the UML, its ally Nepali Congress (NC) and the opposition Maoist party remain locked in a bitter struggle for power.
The Maoists, whose government collapsed last year, say the new constitution should be enacted under a government led by them since they emerged as the biggest party in parliament after an election in 2008.
However, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has refused to resign despite Maoist pressure and stiff opposition from a section of his own party men.
The NC, following the death of its chief Girija Prasad Koirala, remains deadlocked in a fierce internal battle to choose a successor.
Though a 10-year war by the Maoists paved the way for sweeping changes in Nepal, the peace process after the guerrillas laid down arms has been floundering with the pen proving unequal to its new mandate.
The pen’s ebbing power was also seen in the capital symbolically Thursday.
A group of indigenous communities met Subhash Nembang, chairman of the constituent assem-bly that was elected in 2008 to write a new constitution.
The group asked the chairman to hand over pens to the assembly members in a move to keep up the pressure on the body to execute its task in time.
However, Nembang refused to accept the pens.
