Consensus no mean feat, says Bhattarai

11 Mar 2015, Kathmandu - Describing the current lapse of protests as “temporary ceasefire”, UCPN (Maoist) leader Baburam Bhattarai has said consensus among the political parties on the disputed issues of the new constitution would be hard to build in the near future.

Bhattarai, who is also the chairman of the Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee of the Constituent Assembly, said both Nepali Congress and CPN-UML had not been taking concrete

measures to make cross-party talks meaningful.

In a meeting with select journalists at his residence in Sanepa on Tuesday, Bhattarai charged that the ruling parties were not responding to their repeated calls for dialogue and consensus.

There have been talks of late but no substantial progress has been made, the PDCC chairman said. The senior leader of the main opposition party said that the Nepali Congress was not keen to forge consensus early owing to its upcoming general convention. Bhattarai said he was clueless about the UML’s “indifference” to dialogue for deciding the contentious issues of the new constitution.

He was of the view that the UML would be a loser if the current deadlock is prolonged till the NC convention in September. Refuting charges that he has hardened his position on negotiations, Bhattarai said he is never against consensus. But for the name of consensus, he could not “sacrifice the achievements of the People’s War and other political movements”.

On the previous message of the opposition front that it would unveil the second phase of agitation if there is no consensus by Tuesday, he said the parties would wait for some days in the hope of consensus with the ruling parties.

Bhattarai said the alliance would announce new protest programmes if there is no consensus by mid-March, adding that street agitation would never shut the door for dialogue.

He reiterated his statements that the problem was created after the incumbent leadership of the ruling NC and UML had failed to catch the spirit of the 12-point understanding and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, two cornerstones of the ongoing peace process.

Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Bhattarai both have said they now disown the agreement reached among the parties in the run up to the failed January 22 constitution promulgation deadline.

The duo maintains that there should be fresh negotiations on all the contentious issues. In an interview with Kantipur Television, Dahal said on Monday that his party had then agreed to move ahead by registering their note of dissent on the forms of government but it has now backtracked on the position.

Bhattarai said there should be fresh negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties on the basis of their respective proposals on the disputed agendas. The party had earlier agreed to go for six-seven federal states.

Dismissing rumours that Dahal is keen to secure the President’s post after promulgation of the new constitution, Bhattarai announced that the two leaders would not take top state positions before the next general election. All they wanted was a new constitution on the basis of past agreements.