While the letter sent by the government to the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, has reached the UN headquarters, the Maoists have expressed reservations about the letter on the ground that it was prepared without consulting them. However, according to Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Mahantha Thakur, the letter to the UN seeking its assistance in managing and monitoring both the Nepali and Maoist armies and their arms is in keeping with the 8-point agreement signed on June 16 between the Maoists and the seven-party alliance (SPA). Clause 3 of the accord stipulates that the UN would be formally requested to help in arms management. Dinanath Sharma, a member of the Maoist talks team, has said that on his query about the letter’s content, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula told him that he, too, was unaware of it.

Content is most important. Their job is now to try to resolve the differences, if any, by determining whether the content was consistent with the 8-point accord. If the answer is yes, then there is no point in kicking up a fuss. The government may not be able to consult the Maoists on everything, but as the matter was of utmost importance, it might as well have taken the rebels into confidence. But the effort of both sides should be to expand the area of agreement and narrow that of differences. If the content differed from the accord in any significant way, both sides could correct it. But such issues should not be allowed to divert their attention from the principal agenda of holding free and fair constituent assembly (CA) polls to draw up a new constitution. But at the same time, it seems a bit odd for the home minister to say that he, too, did not know the content.

The Maoists’ position is that serious work should start on the implementation of all the provisions of the 8-point pact, not just on Clause 3. The inordinate delay on the government’s part, for example, in giving a full shape to the committee for the drafting of an interim constitution, has sown the seeds of suspicion in the Maoists’ minds about the government’s intent. The Nepali people do not seem to be in the mood to wait for the CA polls indefinitely by letting this date-expired parliament to continue for long, as the recent historic Jana Andolan’s most important mandate concerned the CA polls, not the restoration of the parliament. Whether the country should opt for a republic or retain the monarchy in a ceremonial role, the sovereign Nepali people will decide. It is not for any individual, party, domestic or foreign power to dictate terms. In this connection, the announcement by some civil society leaders that they would start taking to the streets from July 26 to exert pressure on the government to act in line with the mandate of the Jana Andolan reflects a measure of the public’s declining faith in the SPA’s bona fides. The SPA government cannot count on public support for long without carrying out the mandate in reference.