editThe divide between the state and its people is a wee bit too obvious for comfort. Politics which is being conducted in the name of the people is engrossed in sharing the political spoils. The people are aware of this. The media is aware of this too since the media must function by informing the people of the spoils and the manner with which it is being shared. The problem is that the media is not concerned of the divide and the people are increasingly aware that this must be because the media has a stake in the sharing of the spoils. When the people will be allowed a share of the spoils is what matters. The fact is that the current dispensation will only allow this after the political sector has its stakes in the spoils. In other words, the filter down effect so decried that some 17000 lost lives in claiming a stake is very much, and even more, in place and that only the actors have changed. All this has been done in the name of the people and a constitution that is in the process of implementation. The time factor and the trillions that have been spent in appearing to do so is another matter altogether. The general consensus is that the state of the people has degenerated and so has the state of the state. Popular discontent finds little outlet in organized opposition though. Organized politics is a virtual monopoly of a political sector that is so engrossed in sharing the political spoils. Even the dangling of more political change round the corner makes no ripples. People wait helplessly for the implementation of a constitution through the elections and elections to the lower tiers will only be complete after the scheduled local level polls in a distinct pocket of the Tarai that is the third phase. Elections there are incumbent on constitutional amendments promised by successive government but deliberately made obscure by the system itself. In this sense, suspicion dawns on the sincerity of the current monopolists in implementing the constitution itself. Are the very actors promising change sensing the popular mood against them that they are seeking a way out? It is for this reason too that the people should be made aware that there can be no way out unless the people who are said to be a monopoly of the current political elites must demonstrate that they are not. For the leaders to say this is quite a contradiction itself. So when Prime Minister Deuba now goes ahead with his cabinet expansion, the people can only read that he has lost a valuable leverage to pursue his promised amendment in the House. This much the people can be aware of. The Rashtriya Janata Party continues to harp publicly that their Tarai constituency will question the very veracity of their longstanding amendment demands if they go to the people empty handed for the polls. Deuba is thus making it difficult either for the elections or for the RJP. The people are sane enough to glean this much from developments so far. The stalemate has existed enough to postpone the local elections to the third phase. But the system is not providing the answers to this. This much the people are aware of. But our politicians are not providing solution for the only logical question: What now? This popular question is strangely enough not even being echoed in the media. There is and there has been a constitutional impasse. It is the people who are being held hostage and we must go about our business as if things are normal. They are not.