English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

Contradiction and dualityIt is believed that the dynamic interplay of unified opposites results inongoing and inevitable change for relationship partners. Maoists, sinceseveral years, have been able to play with contradictions among themainstream parliamentary parties (mainly Nepali Congress and UML) byresponding positively to one at the cost of negating the other temporarilyand vice versa. Playing dual role, the parties were successful in negatingone at the cost of the other and switching back and forth at other times.This resulted in changed relations among powerful parties in a dramaticway with ups and downs leading ultimately to the government changesat several occasions during the decade long armed conflict in Nepal.Maoists were even using intra-party contradictions to replace one leaderby another within the governing party (example of the formation ofDeuba-led government by replacing his own party leader- G.P. Koirala)as party leaders were trying to use Maoists as a tool to change powerstructure within the party. Maoists were able to use such moments andchanges in their favour as well as negotiate with the parties. However,they were not effective in trying to persuade parties for radical changesdue to powerful presence and ownership of the Monarchy over the statemachinery (particularly the army) and overall decision making (exampleof three failed peace talks over the issue of election to the CA). At somepoints, playing with such contradictions was useful to bring changes in therelationships leading to peaceful negotiation (results of the Twelve PointUnderstanding between the Seven Party Alliance and Maoists in 2005).This game of playing with contradictions and consensus based politicalnegotiations in dealing with contradictions ended after the results ofelection to the CA in April 2008 in general (where the Maoists emerged asthe largest party with 40% seats in the CA) and election of the President(Maoists losing to combined opposition candidate) by the CA in particular.The Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) were badly defeated with theirsenior leaders losing the election. Following the defeat in the election tothe CA, the Nepali Congress government led by G.P. Koirala reluctantlyhanded over the power to the Maoists after four months (in July 2008)of political maneuvering and only after Maoists agreeing to amend theInterim Constitution to replace consensus politics (2/3 majority) by simplemajority government provision. This was a turning point in the Nepalipeace process where the parties finally ended the consensus-basedpolitical culture developed after Twelve Point Understanding in 2005.Despite general consideration that contradictions in Nepali society orpolitical front have been transforming, it does not happen automatically.In some cases, contradictions also result in disabling progress towards294