Election Ploy

The idea is to continue the monopoly. Mainstream parties stuck in the dubious issue of constitutional amendment in the face of Tarai opposition now dangle the election bait in order to skirt the stalemate. The UML very much part of the stalemate as also the monopoly has deployed its workers even in the Tarai ostensibly to pump up opposition to the amendment proposal already tabled in legislature. Government is adamant that they intend to put the proposals to vote. The UML insist that they will oppose it. In course of the stalemate, work is underway to narrow the differences. Some in roads appear to have been made in the Tarai parties who have been sounding conciliatory tones of late. The UML are saying that the opposition to the amendments is to the proposal tabled and that they are not in opposition to any amendment that seeks the participation of those among the mainstream. Government parties, the Maoist Center and the Congress say that the proposal tabled is the very same that the UML had okayed when partnering the Congress in government. All three however are trading charges that the other is not acting civilly and are reneging on their previous public standpoints. Such turnarounds are not new to our monopolists nor are such stalemates. Their expertise lie in the spate of compromises that emerge from such stalemates and the continuity such provide to the monopoly of a system that allows them to gorge on the spoils of state. So, now, if the emerging confederation appears the hitch for the moment given disagreements on the number of states, where and how, attention has suddenly turned to the absence of elected local bodies for nearly two decades now. The hitch is that if disagreement continues, schedules designed to conduct three levels of elections in our new confederacy under the constitution that is finding itself difficult to implement will find itself exhausted in time, time meaning the deadline up to some fourteen months hence. This is when the constitutional deadline will expire. And, so, detraction has to be hatched. This is the election. Since the local bodies under the new constitution are different from the existing one which is carried over from the previous constitution, sections within the monopoly would prefer elections to local bodies under the old dispensation pending agreement on the new bodies on the plea of the absence of the local bodies for too long. This would divert public attention from the search for options to the constitution and field the mainstream parties to the field from where several movements have rendered their entry difficult. As it is, the UML particularly is finding this entry easy by opposing the constitution amendments; the Tarai parties retain the initiative in their home region while the Maoists and the Congress must seek Tarai sympathies for reentry. Yes, until options emerge on the streets, the mainstream will divert the disenchanted population on the plea of local elections.