Dahal to stay as oarsman of statute drafting panel

• Statute Writing

KATHMANDU- Despite opposition from the hardline faction of party Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya, the UCPN (Maoist) has decided to let Party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal stay on as coordinator of the sub-committee under the Constitutional Committee (CC) of Constituent Assembly.

Earlier on Tuesday, Chairman Dahal had proposed Vice Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha as the new head of the sub-committee citing his tight schedule.

According to a Maoist leader, the party decided to send Dahal to the committee following requests from top leaders of other parties, including former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.  A meeting of Maoist office bearers held at the party headquarters in Parisdanda decided to give continuance to Dahal’s leadership of the subcommittee, after leaders of other political parties protested the decision to change the coordinator saying

that contentious issues cannot be settled without the top leader’s participation in the sub-committee.

Mainly Nepali Congress and CPN-UML were insisting on Dahal’s continuation in the committee. They also rejected Shrestha’s leadership of the committee.  The CC formed the sub-committee on Feb 28 to to resolve the contentious issues of the new constitution under Dahal’s leadership with members including Ram Chandra Poudel, Madhav Kumar Nepal from CPN-UML and Laxman Lal Karna from Madhes-based parties.

 Earlier, the Baidya faction as well as the Baburam Bhattarai faction had slammed Dahal for assuming the same post without any official decision. NC and UML leaders are reiterating that the structure of the CC sub-committee should not be changed as it will be tough to settle contentious issues of constitution writing sans top leaders’ participation.

During the meeting of top leaders held on Wednesday morning, Dahal reasoned that it would be difficult to allocate time for the regular meeting of sub-committee as he had to engage in the peace process and government formation. 

The subcommittee formed to narrow the contentious issues that have surfaced in the constitution writing process has made significant progress, bringing the number of debated issues to 30 from 80.  Under Dahal’s leadership, the constitution writing process was building momentum over the past few months. However, the hardline faction of the Maoists is not happy with the progress, claiming that Dahal is getting more flexible in the constitution writing process.

Meanwhile, a meeting of top leaders of major political parties held on Wednesday agreed to incorporate the issues of Dalit and Muslim communities in the new constitution and forge consensus on contentious issues. Lawmaker Biswendra Paswan, who hurled his chair out of the meeting hall of the CC a few days back, said they have asked the top leader to assure that issues of Dalits and Muslims will be guaranteed in the new constitution.