Kathmandu, May 8
It was three days ago. At Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel’s office in Singhadurbar, leaders from the CPN-UML and the UCPN-Maoist were holding a discussion.
During the talks, Maoist leaders showed to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli a draft of an understanding, which, together with a nine-point deal, had given the Oli-led coalition a new lease of life, dealing a blow to an evolving coalition between the Nepali Congress and the Maoist party that threatened to topple it.
The Maoist party had proposed making the nine-point deal public but keeping the gentleman’s understanding a secret.
At the meeting, PM Oli took out a draft of the understanding, read it aloud and declared seething with rage: I will not bring a budget by making a written pledge. I will resign instead, here and now.
After Oli’s outburst, a Maoist leader said: At yesterday’s discussions, you people agreed on the (gentleman’s) understanding, didn’t you? Now you are saying we don’t recognise it. How can you do that?
In response, Prime Minister Oli took out his pocket diary where he had noted the four points mentioned in the understanding. And he showed a draft of the understanding that Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha had sent to leaders of his party, the CPN-UML. After Maoist leaders positively identified the deal, Oli said he was committed to it.
Even after expressing commitment to the four points, Oli refused to reach a written understanding. In the end, a written deal did not materialise.
A senior Maoist leader said citing the understanding: After the passage of the budget, Prachanda will become prime minister with support from the CPN-UML. We reached a gentleman’s understanding to this effect as PM Oli refused to sign a written deal to this effect. UML leaders, according to a source, are requesting the UCPN-Maoist not to publicise the gentleman’s understanding. That’s why Maoist leaders are hardly talking about it these days.
UML Vice-president Bamdev Gautam has also conceded that the two parties have reached a gentleman’s understanding to make Prachanda prime minister. He said Prachanda will become PM in due course of time, pointing that they do not have a specific deadline for the same.
Multiple sources say the two communist parties had readied a draft of an 11-point understanding during the May 5 discussions at the finance minister’s office. The two sides fine-tuned it later to a nine-point deal, which has tried to incorporate, among others, Maoists’ concerns about insurgency-era cases.
The understanding has proposed making Prachanda prime minister and forming a national consensus government under him. With Oli refusing to sign on the understanding, Maoist leaders fear that Oli may not keep his side of the bargain.
The nine-point UML-Maoist deal has saved the government for now. For Prachanda to become prime minister one month after the passage of the budget, Oli will have to show gentlemanly conduct.
Maoist leaders had presented a draft proposal to this effect after finding UML leaders like Oli positive.
As per the understanding, Oli must resign a month after the passage of the budget through the Parliament and propose Prachanda as prime minister, according to a source. It has proposed that the UML and the Maoists shall contest local elections by forging close coordination and move ahead by identifying common socioeconomic agendas.
In the failed 27-hour drama that was evolving with support from the NC in a bid to topple the Oli government, Prachanda had shown readiness to succeed Oli. But a group within the Maoist party managed to stop Prachanda. Now, the Maoist supremo is preparing to become PM with support from the UML.
For this to happen, implementation of the gentleman’s understanding is a must. Much depends on ‘gentlemanly’ conduct of Oli.
