Poor Nepal. Unless he manages to get substantial and open support from NC, he would be out. Of course, he would be tempted to make hell of the life of Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the likely next prime minister (PM).
Girija Prasad Koirala, Dahal and Jhala Nath Khanal have zeroed in on Nepal as a common enemy. Seeing the back of Nepal serves their immediate interest.
Blinded by their personal ambitions and coming together to realize their own interests, Koirala, Dahal and Khanal are leaving doors open to similar conflicts in the future.
Koirala has a one-point ambition now. He would like to see his daughter Sujata well entrenched in the party hierarchy and possibly as the first woman PM of the country. NC insiders have confided that the octogenarian president would not mind using any or all excuse for the purpose. The latest reasoning is protecting nationalism. Yes, you read it right. It is not just the royalists and communists who resort to nationalism when it comes to furthering their narrow petty interests.
Dahal is now smarting under humiliation and frustration for losing the reins of the government. He wants to regain the hot seat of PM. He does not even hide it anymore. His party leaders wanted his government to fall. They had two reasons. One, Dahal’s son, Prakash, was earning the entire party a bad name. Moreover, other party leaders have not taken kindly to Dahal giving the charge of party’s coffers to his relative. Two, the government miserably failed on all fronts except Dr Baburam Bhattarai’s efforts as finance minister to raise the revenue, which was unprecedented. Many senior leaders in the party were uncomfortable in being associated with a nincompoop government with lackluster performance. So they goaded him in dismissing the then army chief Rookmangud Katawal.
The UML too has its own share of leaders who have personal axe to grind. Party Chairman Khanal actually is in a pitiable condition. He not only won the Constituent Assembly election (in comparison Nepal lost from two constituencies), he defeated K P Oli in the election for the top party post. Yet, he is reduced to playing second fiddle to not only PM Nepal but also to Oli. He wants his own party-led government to go.
PM Nepal has shown that he would go to any length to keep his government afloat. Be it ill-conceived publicity gimmicks or bowing to Koirala’s pressure to promote his daughter as deputy prime minister (DPM). In the meantime, he has earned the dubious distinction of being the PM who has used up all funds in four months that was supposed to be used over a year. His nepotism was exposed by Republica’s sister newspaper, Nagarik, on Saturday. The cabinet appointed his brother Binod Upadhyay (Nepal) as consul-general to Hong Kong by changing rules. Aware that such an appointment would create storm, those involved in the appointment changed the surname of the PM’s brother to Pandey.
To add to his difficulties, he has been also unable to control his defense minister, Bidya Bhandari, who seems to be a big loudmouth. Time and again, she has made remarks that go against the Comprehensive Peace Accord. Her attempts to provoke the Maoists have worked but that is silly. Either he should control his minister or he should himself resign. But he cannot show Bhandari the door since he needs the support of Oli faction in the UML. Bhandari’s is Oli’s choice. The end of the story.
Except for PM Nepal, no one would mind a little shake-up from the Maoists’ protests which began on Sunday evening.
The current maneuvering and protests will have far-reaching consequences. For one, the Maoist leaders and those from the NC and the UML supporting their cause, would be conveying that it is okay to force a government out through protests when no national or constitutional issues are involved. Bullying is a preferred means, instead of legitimate channels, to change a government. That the Maoist-led government was justifiably booted out in May after they violated the interim constitution has been lost upon the leaders.
Blinded by their personal ambitions and coming together to realize their own interests, Koirala, Dahal and Khanal are leaving doors open to similar conflicts in the future. In fact, MPRF (Democratic) chief and DPM Bijay Gachchhadar has already warned the Maoists that it would pay them back in their own coin. The result would be never-ending series of protests, disruptions and instability.
This would cause further delay in writing the constitution but who cares. This is of no concern at all to leaders who are so full of themselves. The rehabilitation of the ex-Maoist combatants living in the cantonments will be pushed further down the road. All these power brokers feel that once the government falls, they can achieve what they have been nursing all along. If the people are harassed in the process, it’s not a big deal. After all, for ‘larger’ issues, a little bit of inconvenience is a given.
damakant@myrepublica.com
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