The Hindu : National : New model of democracy needed, says Nepal PM

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Wednesday, Sep 17, 2008
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New model of democracy needed, says Nepal PM

Special Correspondent

“ India too has stake in success of peace process”

New Delhi: In a breakfast meeting with editors and journalists at the end of the ‘official’ part of his first visit here as Prime Minister of Nepal on Tuesday, Mr. Prachanda described the historic transition which had taken place in his country as a “collective accomplishment” to which India too had contributed.

The main challenge facing the Constituent Assembly, he said, was to develop a new model of democracy with “scientific institutions” so that ordinary people “feel they are in control.” He said he was not in favour of a purely formal democracy. “Of course, human rights and elections all must be maintained, but the question is how to empower the oppressed classes and castes, how to develop mechanisms so that the majority of people can have control over the policy-making of the State.”

Similarly, the country would have to develop a “Nepali type of federalism.” If Nepal succeeded in developing new democratic institutions, “this could have a bigger impact even in the rest of South Asia when people see how the initiative of the masses is opened up.”

On the peace process and integration of former Maoist combatants in the Nepal Army, Mr. Prachanda said this needed to be seen from a broad ideological and strategic perspective. “Without this, we can’t understand the dynamics. This is not a question of manoeuvring and tactics but of a big transformation ... To lead a People’s War and then become the largest party in the CA, this is something new that has happened.” He said integration was a “delicate and sensitive problem” but that a basis for it had already been laid down.

The UN Mission in Nepal and other Western advisers insisted only their model of “Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration” (DDR) could work when they were unable to point to any successful example, he said. Instead, Nepal would “go beyond established models and establish our own modalities.”

India had helped in the peace process because the ‘12 point understanding’ between the Maoists and Nepal’s other parties was reached in Delhi, he said. “If we Nepalis fail, its repercussions will also be in India. So we have a collective responsibility to ensure success.”

Asked about his party’s links with the Indian naxalites, he said there are “ideological relations.” But when the Maoists in Nepal spoke of taking part in elections, their Indian counterparts spoke of a “rightist deviation,” he said. “When we won, they congratulated us but warned us not to take part in government. Now, of course, we are leading the government.” The historic transformation in Nepal could serve as a reference for revolutionaries and Maoists elsewhere, he said. “A serious debate has already begun in India and the world on our experience and in time you will see the results of this,” he said.

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