By Our Reporter
COVID-19 cases are still there and there is a fear of entry of new variant of virus, but the government and the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) are least bothered to public health. The divided NCPs have been in a race to hold one bigger mass meeting after another across the country with leaders, including Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli exchanging abusive languages.
After the NCP faction of Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal held an impressive mass meeting in Kathmandu on January 22, the faction led by Prime Minister Oli is preparing to hold a similar mass meeting on February 5.
Oli, who undermined the January 22 Kathmandu demonstration of Dahal-Nepal faction, commenting that they (Dahal-Nepal) happened to brought a few people to Kathmandu and they needed to wait for February 5 to see the actual crowd of people.
Since the NCP virtually divided into two parties after Prime Minister Oli dissolved the House, which is said to be restricted by the Constitution, on December 20 last year, both factions are busy holding mass rallies across the country.
On Monday, Oli addressed a rally in Dang and Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal in Kaliot while on Tuesday Madhav Nepal reached Taplejung to address a rally and Ishwar Pokhrel in Saptari.
While the Oli faction has been spending energy to scold the leaders of the Dahal-Nepal faction by using possible harsh words and argue that the dissolved House could not be reinstated, the rival faction has termed the House dissolution unconstitutional and claimed they would reinstate the House through street demonstrations.
Both the factions are bringing people to their rallies by paying them. It was reported that the people were brought to Kathmandu paying Rs. 1400 per persons plus foods on January 22 while in Siraha people were brought to the Pokhrel-addressed mass meeting paying Rs. 1000 per head.
On 5 February, Oli has challenged to demonstrate more people in favour of him, also by bringing people from different districts by paying money. The Prachanda faction will counter it after five days on February 10 by organising another mass meeting in Kathmandu. However, the people, in general, have worried whether the two NCP factions could be a cause for the second wave of COVID-19 in Nepal as they keep on increasing crowds of their supporters in Kathmandu and elsewhere.
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