By Our Political Analyst
The MCC rectification process from Parliament has strongly jolted Nepali politics and the alliance government.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, during the meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee meeting at Baluatar last week, said to the alliance partners to conduct the local level elections in May. He further said that the election front among the five parties would continue in all three level elections – local, provincial and federal elections. However, he added that as he is facing strong pressure, he has planned to table the MCC American grant project in parliament and endorse it immediately.
Maoist Center chair Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda and Unified Socialist Party chair Madhav Nepal agreed to Deuba’s proposal for conducting local level election in May but objected to rectification of MCC from Parliament earlier to the local level elections.
When Deuba took a strong stance for rectification of MCC, Prachanda used speaker Agni Sapkota for postponing the meeting of the House of Representatives scheduled for 30 January until 9 February. The notice for postponement of the HoR meeting was placed at the notice board at midnight. Normally, such notice will be placed during office hours.
The intention for the postponement of the HoR meeting was to avoid the rectification process of MCC planned by Prachanda.
Madhav Nepal and Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda are saying that MCC cannot be rectified from Parliament without amendment. On the other hand, Baburam Bhattarai, also an alliance partner, is advocating for rectification of MCC from Parliament without any hurdles to fail the conspiracy of the “regressive and reactionary elements”.
PM Deuba is in close contact with UML chair K.P. Sharma Oli. Oli has assured Deuba for supporting in endorsement of MCC, however, he has put forward a condition that speaker Agni Sapkota should be terminated.
Deuba has discussed this issue with his closed aide at the party.
Deuba, who has taken the MCC as his prestigious issue, wants to endorse the grant project without any delay.
However, those communist leaders, who pretend to become more patriotic on the eve of elections, are worried about the possible impact of endorsement of MCC earlier to the elections. Therefore, they want to postpone MCC until the upcoming local elections.
Meanwhile, all four partners in the five-party alliance government, don’t want to lose partnership with NC as it is impossible to secure even one or two seats in the upcoming federal elections without the support of NC.
On the other hand, K.P. Oli, chair of UML, is trying his best to break the present coalition at any cost.
PM Deuba is unhappy with the act of speaker for postponing the HoR meeting overnight after he remarked for endorsement of MCC at any cost. Deuba is also thinking about the removal of the speaker and also thinking about taking UML’s support in rectifying MCC.
PM Deuba wants to endorse the MCC because it was signed when he was PM in 2017. Deuba believes that MCC is not a project against Nepal’s national interests.
Deuba is waiting for a final decision from Nepal and Prachanda on MCC. If the two leaders deny rectifying MCC from Parliament, Deuba has decided to break the present alliance and shack speaker but rectify MCC from Parliament at any cost.
Deuba believes that rejection of MCC would have a long term impact on Nepal’s relations with the Western countries including the USA.
However, the MCC is likely to cause political turmoil in the country. When UML is using MCC to break the present coalition, neighbouring countries also using their men against the pact, because China takes MCC as an American design to control China in South Asia, while India wants to overtake the project itself like the Arun III.
However, Nepal will be losing credibility for not accepting the project which it signed earlier. There is also the risk of facing sanctions from western power in case Nepal fails to endorse the MCC. And if it endorses the MCC, it may irk the northern neighbour.
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