By Pushpa Raj Pradhan
Let it make clear that this scribe is not a communist and also not closed to Prime Minister and chairman of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), KP Sharma Oli. Even though, while analyzing the ongoing dispute and attempts to oust Oli from the party and government, this scribe has reached to the conclusion that the present battle in the ruling party is the result of a gang-up of power greedy political leaders.
The ruling party holds virtually a two-thirds majority, as such, the government should have been very strong. However, this theory doesn’t apply in the Nepali context. The Oli led government is very weak. The Prime Minister is unable to reshuffle his cabinet. Due to the prolonged dispute among the senior leaders in the party, the government has become a lame duck.
The dispute between the chairmen duo was intensified since Prime Minister wished to reshuffle his cabinet. The other chairman Prachanda gave a long list of his close aide. When Oli was unable to include all of them in his cabinet, the dispute has reached the present stage of the split of the party.
According to the agreement signed during the merger of the two parties, the then UML and the Maoist Center, both the leaders Oli and Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda had agreed to run the party through a consensus between the two chairmen. There is no mention about taking any decision through a majority and minority.
After the merger of the two separate parties, the present status of the party secretariat, standing committee and central committee is the ad-hoc committees and all the members there are nominated by the two chairmen. Therefore, Oli believes that he is not bound to obey the decision of the majority in the party. He is right.
The blunder committed by Oli is that he gave 30 percent shares to Madhav Nepal out of 60 percent shares that were allotted for the then UML. As the party chairman, Oli should have kept more shares than Nepal, who was defeated by Oli in the last party election.
Madhav Nepal and Oli are the rivals and one wants to finish another at the party. Since Oli became the party chairman, Nepal always created hurdles against Oli but never extended cooperation to him. Nepal, however, doesn’t miss to take any benefit from Oli.
Oli is, time and again, saying that he is not going to contest the party election in the upcoming national convention scheduled for the second week of April next year, which is left just around four months. Why Prachanda-Nepal camp is trying to oust Oli from both the posts earlier to the national convention of the party? Are they afraid of facing the national convention?
Oli has floated the idea for taking retirement by those leaders who have already enjoyed the opportunity of being the PM and commanding the party by letting the opportunity to the next generation leaders. The idea must be welcomed by the next generation leaders as we have already experienced the leadership of those senior leaders in the ruling party.
The other odd thing is that Prachanda and Nepal have established a wrong practice in the party by pressuring Oli to give a ticket for the election of the National Assembly to Narayankaji Shrestha who had defeated the election of the member of parliament. Again, both Prachanda and Nepal provoked Bamdev Gautam for being nominated to the National Assembly by the government. Gautam was also defeated in the general election for the parliament. Both the leaders are thus responsible for acting against the spirit of the constitution.
What could be the solution?:
It makes clear that the Nepal Communist Party is on the verge of a split. Sooner or later, the party is going to split as leaders have reached to the conclusion that they cannot move forward together.
Today, not due to the ideology, but with the hope of sharing power, the leaders have developed a group. Even if the opponent group becomes successful to oust Oli from the party and the government, very soon, the leaders in the anti-Oli camp will start another quarrel in the party.
The cadres from the two different political parties also belong to different schoolings. It is not an easy task to stay together for them forever. After the power-sharing quarrel, the ideological quarrel is going to take place. Madhav Nepal is a very clever and cunning leader. He has analysed that tomorrow, after ousting of Oli, those in Oli camp will come to support him instead of Prachanda. Presently too, the former UML cadres are feeling uncomfortable to accept Prachanda as their leader. Therefore, although Prachanda will feel that he got the victory by toppling down Oli but tomorrow, his politics is going to be finished.
Meanwhile, by analyzing the present development in the ruling party, independent intellectual Keshav Prasad Bhattarai has remarked that in such a period of political, legal, and moral crisis, the PM should have the prerogative for dissolving the parliament. The court should define the prerogative of a prime minister in a parliamentary system.
Bhattarai has further suggested that if the PM will be unable to make a decision, the President, following a consultation with the Supreme Court, should dissolve the parliament with a provision of holding the fresh election within a year.
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