Nepal: Governing the Ungovernable

  • by Kunda Dixit ()
  • Tuesday, June 12, 2012
  • Inter Press Service

The people of Nepal are justifiably proud that their country was never colonised, even though most other countries in the region were under the British. The joke in Kathmandu is that the British in India took one look at the mountains to the north, and didn't bother conquering Nepal because they found it ungovernable, writes Kunda Dixit, editor and publisher of the Nepali Times newspaper in Kathmandu.

Given the political brinkmanship of the past month, it doesn't look like much has changed in the Himalayan kingdom-turned-republic. It is still ungovernable, and Nepal's giant neighbours, India and China, are getting edgy about the prolonged instability.

Today, Nepal is in limbo: it doesn't have a constitution, it doesn't have a legislature, it has a lame-duck prime minister and a ceremonial president. The country is sailing into uncharted waters, with only a sketchy interim constitution that can be interpreted every which way. Any move the president or prime minister make now can be interpreted as unconstitutional, and be legally challenged.

* Kunda Dixit is the editor and publisher of the Nepali Times newspaper in Kathmandu.

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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