Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa has offered to step down as the coordinator of the Political Committee mandated to resolve the dispute over the federal boundaries by talking to the agitating Madhesi parties if the panel remains dysfunctional.

A day before Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli went on an India visit on February 19, the government had decided to form an 11-member committee with Thapa at its helm to settle the row as demanded by the regional parties. But in nearly three months since, the committee has remained idle.

The 10 members of the committee have also not been named. “If the Madhes-based parties want to see me go, I’m ready to quit. I have asked the PM and top leaders of the political parties to make the committee functional or relive me of responsibilities,” Thapa told the Post.

Sadbhawana Party Co-chairman Laxman Lal Karna said they will join the Thapa-led committee if PM Oli, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal are also part of it. “We don’t think the Thapa-led committee can address our demands. We need major political parties on board the committee,” Karna said.

Some Tarai parties have criticised the government for putting a known “anti-federalist” in charge of resolving the state border row. But other Madhesi leaders say they have no objection to Thapa’s leadership but to the process, ambiguous terms of reference and the lack of constitutional validity for the panel.

Negotiations took place between the ruling CPN-UML, the Maoists, the NC and the Madhesi parties on the committee’s mandate before the PM’s India visit but there was no headway.