The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), the party the stalwarts of the discredited Panchayat system hastily put together to show their unified presence in the multiparty era, has once again proved that it lacks both spine and party culture. Its central committee on Dec. 29-30 decided on a vital national issue of whether to participate in the Feb. 8 civic polls or not in a way which no party worth the name would. Torn between the faction led by those in government like home minister Kamal Thapa and the just expelled vice chairman Padma Sundar Lawoti insisting on participation and others supporting boycott, party chairman Pashupati Shumsher Rana went along with a compromise formula that has made him and his party a laughing-stock. The leadership put the decision-making ball of embarrassment in the court of the district committees, depending on the local political and security situation. Hence, the party may fight the polls in some municipalities and abstain in the rest.

Any decision on a issue that is crucial to shaping the country’s future should have been a matter of principle for a party that has long been claiming to provide an alternative to the Congress and the CPN-UML. But the RPP failed to decide even on the basis of the security situation, which, by its own reckoning, is not conducive to the polls. One can infer then that if the parliamentary polls were announced tomorrow, as promised, the RPP would take part in some of the constituencies and not take part in others. What purpose the RPP leadership seeks to serve by standing between the two stools is indeed bewildering.

Rana’s pre-meeting announcement “I have already tolerated too much; but no longer” had given hope that he would be both tough and clear on vital issues. But oddly,Rana, who had made participation conditional on the creation of an atmosphere suitable enough for all the parties to take part, repeated this view even after the central decision. This decision might have been aimed at averting any further party split after the recent one, but even this objective might not be achieved, if the mood of party dissidents led by Lawoti is anything to go by. As the battlelines have already been drawn in the country between regression and democracy, the RPP’s current decision (rather indecision) will not put it in the camp of the democrats, to say the least. It is another matter that the RPP’s decision, either way, would not make a significant national impact, as the party infact is not taken seriously by the palace, the people, the Maoists, the foreigners, or the fellow travellers.