CA-- imminent death

In about 80 minutes, the Constituent Assembly is set to expire. It can be granted another lease of life, but the constitutional grounds on which that eventuality would have to be based are muddled at best.

I am pretty sure nothing will happen, no matter what the fate of the CA. There won't be any grand theatrics. The Maoists--forever the more theatrically aspirant and attuned--attempted the last grand theatrical gesture four weeks ago. They were not expecting contra-diction, but they found plenty. So, no such thing anytime soon.

Instead, it is the Limbuwan groups--for they too are fractioned--that have made the most dramatic declarations, and the most drastic preparations.

About theatrics and the fertility of the mind when it feels the urge to grapple for symbols: When the Maoists [YCL] were spending entire days dancing on the streets, it seemed they borrowed wildly from disparate traditions: revolutionary exhortation and symbols given the pointed wit and nimble feet of traditional styles of expression: dohori, jhyaure. Oldest forms, freshest expressions. Retaining the roots, decorating the surface.

**[I read the above paragraph and realized that I have used the colon three times in a sentence. Sorry. I am about to fall asleep, and have no strength to improve that sentence. Clearly, it is an idea that would lead to a more nuanced expression, but not from me, not right now :-) ]

Ina telling contrasting, the Peace Rally could think of only one song: Rato ra Chandra Surya, Jangi Nishana Hamro... a song the YCL can't be blamed for equating to the RNA. It had no fresh expression of patriotism or nationalism, because it hadn't spent the time imagining one. To them, Nepal is still just Nepal. Not the "New Nepal" it is to a very large part of the population. Nor the "Not-Nepal" that it is to a few, including myself.

Forgot to write what I really wanted to add here: 3 hours before the CA was set to expire, most of the women CA members--and Sunil Babu Pant, our GLBTQ(Third Gender) representative at the CA--were chanting slogans, warning the political parties to not keep the CA a prisoner to their petty squabbles.

Reason: It is extremely unlikely that an assembly of representatives elected under a political status-quo would include as many women among the body. If, for some reason, this CA goes kaput and is thrown out of the window, there is no guarantee that all the legal achievements made so far as concern the gender question in Nepal won't also be thrown out with the poop-chunked bathwater that is the past couple of years. So I was proud of them ladies, although what they were doing was decidedly ill-timed. Theirs was a most appreciable contrary view: that makes them my kindred, if only for the hour.

As this happening, the Maoist female CA members were in their seats, not joining their voice with that of their co-gender colleagues. Because, for them, I guess, the Party is above all other reasoning. Eventually, they left the assembly, filed in as a group, with note-cards filled with slogans.

These slogans had to do with two main demands: "Institute Civilian Supremacy" and "Prime Minister--Resign!"

That was a let down. Whereas, on one side were people concerned with protecting what has already been achieved and pressuring the leaders to write a constitution that moves closer to half than to a third, a greater revolutionary leap on the gender question rather than falling back, the other side showed how it enthusiastically limited its function to supporting the Party's dictat. No more. Mules, not Women. Sad.