Will explanatory declaration be binding on the MCC, as it had refused to change?
Caught between the hard rock and the deep blue sea, the coalition partners are looking for a face-saving way to wriggle out of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) controversy that has now spilled into the streets. With a Monday deadline given by the MCC to either say yes or no to the agreement, the government tabled the compact for discussion in the House of Representatives on Sunday, following a tacit understanding that it would have the support of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-MC) and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Socialist (CPN-US). The two coalition parties have said that they would approve the MCC compact in the parliament by making an explanatory declaration on some of the 'contentious' clauses. The declaration, among others, will clarify that the MCC compact is not part of the Indo-Pacific strategy, that it is purely a development grant and that Nepal's law would prevail should it come in conflict with that of the MCC compact deal. But the question is, will the declaration be binding on the MCC, as it had already made it clear in the past that the MCC clauses could not be changed.
If the communist parties in the coalition were to approve the MCC deal in the parliament somehow, why the double standards on the issue? It's been nearly five years since the agreement was signed, and every major political party had pushed for its approval, not just the Nepali Congress, which signed the deal when Sher Bahadur Deuba was the Prime Minister and Prachanda of the MC was a coalition partner. KP Sharma Oli of the CPN-UML had also tried registering it in the parliament for approval, but could not do so due to fissure in the then Nepal Communist Party.
The violent street protests against the MCC deal, spearheaded by the CPN-MC and CPN-US, were unwarranted, especially given their anti-US slogans. Issues that could have been settled within the four walls of a room have now brought China into the picture, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs commenting not once but twice in a span of less than a week on the MCC compact. The Vice-minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China even had a virtual meeting with Madhav Nepal of the CPN-US on Wednesday at a time when the communist and non-communist forces were polarised over the MCC deal. The last thing we want is interference in our internal affairs from either the US or China or any other power.
Now that the MCC agreement has been tabled for discussion, the parties should decide wisely in the best interest of the nation and stop engaging in antics for public consumption. There has been so much debate on the issue in the media in recent times that the true nature of all leaders has been exposed.
Whichever way the parliament votes, Prachanda, Nepal, Deuba and Oli will have to do a lot of explaining to the people as to why they allowed their parties to vote one way or the other or abstain from the voting process. Worse still, we can anticipate trouble. Apart from the fringe communist parties and the double standards of some parties, there are plenty of other troublemakers wanting to create mayhem in the streets of the capital to take undue advantage of the fluid situation.
Highway obstruction
Most of the times, major highways are blocked by cadres of the political parties or other groups to get their demands fulfilled by the government. When a highway is obstructed, hundreds of thousands of passengers who need to reach their destinations on time are stranded on the roads, sometimes without food and water. Agitating groups think that the government would be compelled to fulfill their demands by blocking the highways.
In order to clear highway obstructions, the government has now issued the "Procedure of Security Operation to Clear Obstruction on the Highways". The procedure empowers the local administration and security bodies to take strict action against any person or group involved in obstructing traffic on the highways. The local administration can mobilise the security personnel to remove such obstructions.
What if a major political party obstructs the highways for a political cause? There already is a law in dealing with highway obstruction. Everybody should understand that the highways serve as the lifeline of the country, and it will have an adverse impact on the national economy and daily life of the people if they are blocked even for an hour.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 28 2022, of The Himalayan Times.