The constitution amendment bill registered in Parliament by the government on November 29 seems to have further exposed the country’s deep political fault-lines.

The main opposition CPN-UML was the first party to clearly come out against the amendment even before the bill was tabled; it has now started obstructing the House proceedings. But it is the other political forces’ resistance against the bill that threatens to unravel the amendment process and seriously undermine Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s effort at making the new constitution broadly acceptable. Even the Madhes-based parties, at whose insistence the bill was registered, have refused to take ownership of it.

A major cause for concern is protests that have erupted after the bill’s registration. On Friday, thousands of people took to the streets in Butwal to protest against the government’s plan to split Province 5. Demonstrations have continued in other parts of the country as well.

Why is a move that was supposed to offer a political way out generating adverse effects? Did Dahal in his bid to return to power underestimate the gravity of the federal delineation project? Did he have a “magical formula”—as he had claimed in an interview with us days before his election as the prime minister—to resolve the crisis?

A deal with the agitating parties on August 3, which paved the way for his election as prime minister, required him to register a constitution amendment bill at the earliest. But it took months for the government to register the bill, which the Madhesi leaders now find too little, too late.

Upendra Yadav, coordinator of the Sanghiya Gathabandhan, a broad alliance of Madhesi parties and Janajati forces, has dismissed the bill, saying “it does not address even the minimum demands”. Meanwhile, the UML is still seething as it sees Dahal’s move of making an alliance with the Nepali Congress to ride into office as a betrayal to their nationalist alliance.

Amid all this, the government has proposed local level elections in mid-April. Elections are a must as they will mean one step towards constitution

implementation, but the government must make sure it allays the concerns voiced by the agitating parties, which have warned of foiling the polls.

It also needs to take the UML into confidence. The UML, too, is making a pitch for polls, but not unless the amendment bill is withdrawn. The NC seems to be at a loss for words. Some of its leaders have spoken, but only to make a case against splitting Province 5. Similar voices are coming out from some lawmakers in Dahal’s own party.

Dahal seems to have handled the amendment process very badly, and blaming all the trouble as a conspiracy to make his party implode is exactly the kind of thing that has earned him a name as an unpredictable leader.

Dahal should avoid forcing elections without settling the issues on the table. We also urge the UML, as the main opposition and the second largest party, to offer solutions. For its part, the NC needs to make its stance clear. As far as the Madhesi parties are concerned, they—as the aggrieved party—should not hesitate to reach out to the major parties to smooth out differences. The current Maoist-NC government is perhaps the best political dispensation to accommodate their issues.

It’s imperative that the government and parties take serious steps before the political mood reaches flashpoint and the protests spin out of control.