We now have exactly a month before the twice extended deadline of the Constituent Assembly will once more expire on 28 August. And by the pace at which things are moving ahead it doesn’t look like either the peace process or the constitution writing will be completed by then.What is most likely is that they will come to agree on a certain number of combatants to either integrate into the army or mix to form another state sponsored armed group under this or that pretext and declare that the peace process has been brought to a logical conclusion. And the Nepali people will do little but applaud the great vision of the fierce one.

But is that what the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was all about? What happened to forming the Truth and Reconciliation Commission or the Disappearance Commission. And if the Maoists (and the rest of the so called democratic parties) are committed to bringing the peace process to a logical conclusion why is the current Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara trying to give general amnesty to those accused of gross human rights violations? Why is Agni Sapkota, accused of personally being involved in a murder still a minister? What about the Khum Bahadur Khadkas and all those who have been indicted on criminal charges and yet are member of the Constituent Assembly?

We have traded justice for peace, but such a peace will not last long because the voices of the grieved will wake us up with their cries for justice that resound from the graves they were buried in.

In the name of representation and inclusiveness we have allowed the formation of a body which has over the last three years proved that it may have the desire to give Nepal a new constitution but does not have the ability to do so. We ourselves have allowed the creation of another monster in the name of putting one dragon to death.

Apathy is no longer a disease of the class. Whether you are poor or rich in Nepal does not matter any more. If you are poor you strive to be rich, if you are rich, you strive to be powerful. Why else would we have businessmen who have cheated the country of hundreds of thousands of rupees as CA members? Or why else would politicians be investing in banks, TV channels, industries, schools, colleges, and what not.

No one is innocent here, no not you not me. We are all equally guilty of  bringing Nepal to this state. And yet what is worse is that we are all hypocrites. Apathetic creatures who can point the finger in a thousand an one directions and refuse to see one pointing at oneself.

We are a society that will soon be amalgamated into the teeming billions that populate the sub-continent, our nationalism, if any is left, from the battles to place communal identities in priority, will suffer the fate of the native American Indians. And yet we will still be fighting with each other.

Nothing will happen on the 28th of August. There will be a few who will visit Baneswore and shout because they are not among the 601. The remaining will be there to observe the national past time, “ramita herne”. And in the evening, bars and restaurants in the few urban centres, and the bhattis in the villages will be filled with drunks,complaining about how the 601 and the political leaders spoilt it all.They will drink till late, wake up the next morning with a heavy hangover, do their daal bhat and head off for business as usual.

So what if the peace process is not over, so what if a just constitution is not written? The poor will have to earn his daily bread, the middle class will have to rush off to do his jagir, the business class will have to go and give that percentage to the dalal and the sarkari maanche. The politician will have to fulfill this and that businessman’s business. No it will not matter.

And 30, 40, 50, years down the line, another generation of whatever they will call themselves will look back at us and say, it was because of them that they are suffering. What will you tell them then?

Kaziba is a Nepali who dreams of conquering the world every night, but ends up waking every morning in the same prison.

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