A political mechanism will be formed to review provincial boundaries set by the new constitution, before Prime Minister Oli embarks on his official visit to India next week, Nepal’s government has conveyed to the southern neighbour.
Prime Minister Oli, who had been saying that he will not visit India until it lifts its four-month-long blockade against Nepal, is now certain that New Delhi will roll out the red carpet for him.
Sources told Onlinekhabar that Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel, who met Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday, passed on Prime Minister Oli’s message to New Delhi.
A source close to the PM said the political mechanism would be formed before Oli’s visit, and informal discussions are on with Madheshi Morcha leaders as well to give the mechanism three months to prepare its report.
After Nepal’s politics was partially derailed from the four-point ‘roadmap’ presented by Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa, New Delhi was expecting a renewed pledge from the Oli government to resolve the Madheshi issue, and Oli decided to send his confidante Poudel to New Delhi, instead of Kamal Thapa, to do just that. Both New Delhi and the Nepal government have their work cut out because the blockade has ended at the local level itself.
New Delhi also finds it easier to deal with the situation in Nepal, now that the first amendment to the constitution has been passed. Only two of Morcha’s demands — one regarding representation in the Upper House, and the other related to redrawing of provincial boundaries — remain to be addressed. Citizenship-related issues are also there, but neither India nor the Madheshi parties have given it weight.
The Morcha and the government were already close to a deal on forming such a political mechanism, but the process had been derailed after Prime Minister Oli ‘lost his cool’ at a crucial meeting in Baluwatar. While the Morcha wants assurance that the mechanism will recommend two provinces in the Madhesh, the government is not willing to commit anything.
Will Morcha remain a ‘morcha’?
After cross-border trade resumed from Birgunj customs, which had been without business for over four months, Morcha stands divided. It would not be easy for the government to reach an agreement with a divided Morcha on the formation of the ‘political mechanism.’ A Morcha source says the alliance is now under pressure to reach some kind of a written agreement with the government, even just to send a message that something was achieved from the blockade. They know that if this does not happen, separatist forces could gain, and that would not benefit the country as well as the Madhesh.
