Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai says government is ready to make 'all kinds of sacrifices', willing to step down once there is an agreement
Hours before the expiry of the date for fresh Nepali Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai threw the ball in the opposition's court, saying that the onus of forging consensus lies with the parties.
Bhattarai reiterated that his government was ready to make "all kinds of sacrifices" for national consensus. In a nationally televised address yesterday evening, Bhattarai said the government is ready to step down once there is a political agreement.
Bhattarai also appealed to the parties to strike consensus for ending the impasse, clearing legal and constitutional hurdles for elections and for the formation of a national unity government. He reiterated that his government was committed to ending the impasse. He, however, did not commit to any timeline and did not spell out the specifics on what kind of efforts he would make in garnering political consensus.
"The government is ready to leave any time if there is political agreement in the country," Bhattarai said. In his 18-minute speech, he did not mention the term "resignation", which the opposition parties maintain is a precondition to any agreement for a larger political consensus.
Defiant, the prime minister instead blamed the opposition parties for the failure to hold elections on November 22, the day Bhattarai had marked for the polls, and claimed that his government was committed to holding elections within the month of Baisakh (April-May).
In a speech that was widely viewed as "self-centric", he used "I", "me", and "mine" 27 times, while he maintained that history would "provide justice and the Nepali people will judge the efforts I made" as the chief executive to achieve peace, constitution, good governance and prosperity.
Immediately after his speech ended at 6.41pm, even ruling party leaders took exception to Bhattarai's statements, which were viewed as inflexible and repetitive, while they said Bhattarai blew his own trumpet. They seemed particularly disappointed at the fact that Bhattarai made little attempt to reach out to the opposition and that only two days after President Ram Baran Yadav promulgated the budget ordinance. The underlying spirit was that with the budget approval, Bhattarai would now be flexible in reaching out to the leaders across the aisle.
What is also at stake is the relations between Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and President Yadav, who had been reportedly assured by the Maoist party chief that he would make sure that Bhattarai demonstrates a greater political flexibility in resolving the impasse.
"The prime minister should have delivered a reconciliatory speech because consensus among the parties is the need of the hour. There was nothing new in his speech today," said a Maoist minister who refused to be named. "Chairman Dahal was not happy with the prime minister's choice of words and his failure to give any credit to the party."
Bhattarai termed the progress on the integration of former Maoist combatants as "the most significant achievement of the ongoing era".
He noted the expansion of the roads in Kathmandu, the Kathmandu-Tarai fast track construction and formation of the investment board, among others, as tangible tasks that the government carried out despite not being allowed to unveil its policies and programmes. Sarvendra Nath Sukla, the General Secretary of the Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party, a coalition partner, said Bhattarai's address was full of "self-praise".
"The prime minister should have adopted a more accommodative approach and then gone on to request all sides to demonstrate flexibility," he said.
Addressing the nation after completing a year in office on August 28, Bhattarai had accused "status quoist forces and traditional state mechanisms" of obstructing progress in the peace and constitution processes. Still, he had hailed the ruling coalition partner, Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha, and other parties in the government for their role to effect out agendas of progressive change.
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