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

Contradiction and dualitydeprived of state privileges since several years. However, there arecontinuous contradictions on giving such special privileges to certainsection of the society while others are being marginalised (such as recentprotests by Kshetri Samaj Nepal) against introduction of such policiestargeted only to some groups. Similarly, certain contradictions, such as onaddressing ethnic, gender inequalities or social exclusion issues are notdiscussed openly by the political forces. They think that it might backfireon their own interest in future. Or they may not be willing to share poweror existing privileges. In this situation, such contradictions, which mayresult in positive changes, are kept hidden or suppressed deliberately.Some kind of general consensus (also duality in what they say and do) canalso be seen among political parties as all of them feel threatened of theirown existence in future due to expected changes.The situation dealing with contradictions is somewhat delicate in the postconflicttransition. The leadership is not held responsible and accountableto forge national consensus on national issues incorporating views of thecitizens. In the absence of lack of internal democracy within the partiesand no mechanism among any of the parties to enable constituenciesto assert themselves against the party machinery or make the electedrepresentatives accountable to these constituencies (Mikesell 1999), thisstate of affairs itself presents major contradiction and duality in the postconflictstate building in Nepal. In this context, Maoist strategy is shapedby a tension between purity and pragmatism. Although they stick tocertain established principles, they have long been willing to shift courseif they identify strategic weaknesses (ICG 2007) while mainstream politicalparties favour the status quo in conflict resolution. The recent visit toNepal of UN Under-secretary General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoeunderscores the increased confusion and heightened suspicions amongNepali political parties vis-à-vis UNMIN (Prasai 2010). The following aresome of the potential contradictions and dualities prevalent in the postconflictstate building.4.1 Legality in questionContradiction and duality exist among the major political parties onwhat is legal and illegal in terms of people’s resistance against thestate or existing rule of law. The Maoists’ way of legitimising workingclass’sresistance to existing legal framework is termed as illegal by themainstream parliamentary forces. The Maoists, however, characterise thestruggles of the peasants, working class, disadvantaged and proletariat296