Editorial
Manipulators of Nepali politics are grossly vagrant It is probably strategic on their part to advertise that they are behind the moves. If not, it is high time that they rein in their lackeys in order to impose a required dose of decorum in respect of Nepal and Nepalis. But, of course, it is us Nepalis who have a hand in losing our respect regardless of the fact that our leaders have dumped us in this mess albeit at the jostling of their foreign members. What else can we say of the sordid drama last Sunday in parliament? In actual fact, the political drama in Nepal has been going for quite some years intentionally disabling national capabilities to cushion external machinations. That this has come public in the past decade of excessive micro-management has only soured public perception of foreign intents encouraging very xenophobic intents that may ultimately prove expensive for the country. Begun with the Oli-Prachanda rift which surfaced last winter in open flagrancy, discord within the once united party was adjudged by the court to re-split the UML and the Maoists impinging on prime minister K.P. Oli’s near two-thirds majority in parliament which led to his move to use the majority to dissolve the house and the legal challenge that ensued with constitutional repercussions. The seemingly whimsical decision by the Supreme Court to revive a case long-pending at court to disqualify a painstakingly unified Left party was a misnomer on its own. Having got away with it on the plea of the supremacy of law, the Judiciary last week went a step further and asked parliament to appoint a particular leader as prime minister by a particular date after having reconvened a parliament whose dissolution was again challenged at court. Court-appointed prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba went a step ahead on the very date of parliamentary resurrection when he shortened his month-long period of grace for his vote of confidence by seeking the confidence of the house on the very first day of resurrection. Sunday was a day of miracles. K.P. Olis’s UML saw some members abstain and some members vote for Deuba and the terai’s JSP, till before the day split on the support, come wholesale in favor of Deuba. In a matter of hours, a government with close to a two-thirds majority was toppled in the parliamentary vote by a nearly two-thirds majority. This miracle can only be called detestable and those involved in engineering it cannot but be detested and deplored.
Perhaps a more deplorable element to modern Nepali politics is the ease with which our supposed political masters accept the manipulations. We are to accept the judicial engineering that has taken place. The court has appointed the prime minister of Nepal and has instructed an elected legislature on its task. We are told that the Supreme Court decision has helped salvage the constitution. The constitution says that it is the President of the country that is the guardian of the constitution. The constitution says that the Judiciary is the ultimate interpreter of the laws of the land. Is it that the president has been rebuked by law? It is another thing that the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court has as yet to be challenged. But it is not just K.P.Oli’s NCP/UML that is disgruntled. It is, after all the hurt party. But the lay public who are just now getting aware of the extent to which their individual sovereignty has been usurped by the political party is aghast. The court has ruled that, at this stage of constitutional provisions for the appointment of the prime minister as done so by the Supreme Court, the choice can be party-less. Of all the splendours of Nepali constitutionalism!!!, shall we say?
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