By Sunil KC
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda is trying to navigate the turbulence created after the withdrawal of the Rastriya Swatantra Party from the government. That decision put the future of the coalition in doubt after other smaller parties also started venting their dissatisfactions over the formation of the government, furthermore, KP Oli of CPN-UML, the largest party in the coalition, in an address to the parliament threw all his weight behind Ravi Lamichhane.
On the next day of withdrawal from the government, three ministers of the Swatantra Party. But much to the relief of Prachanda for now, the party kept its support to the government. Had it not done so, Prachanda would have had to seek the vote of confidence of the House of Representatives again amidst his souring relations with KP Sharma Oli of CPN-UML, the largest party in the coalition, regarding who will be the next president in the election next month.
Spokesperson of the government, Minister for Information and Communications Rekha Sharma told the media Tuesday that the government was not in crisis but hinted that the coalition was trying to get the Swatantra Party into the government again. She said it was a political issue and would be resolved politically without explaining further.
Lamichhane’s party decided to quit the government last Saturday after Prime Minister Prachanda said that he would not reappoint Ravi Lamichhane of the Swatantra Party to his previous position of Home Minister. Lamichhane’s party had given the prime minister until last Thursday (Feb. 2) to decide his reappointment as Home Ministry.
That deadline was extended by two days after the prime minister said that the case would be put up in the party’s central committee meeting and the political coordination mechanism that includes KP Oli of CPN-UML as coordinator. But on Saturday when Prime Minister Dahal, obviously under pressure from the party’s central committee, told Lamichhane that the demand could not be fulfilled citing the ongoing investigation on Lamichhane’s passport issue, Lamichhane said it was over.
Prachanda was disinclined to give the home portfolio to the Swatantra Party and the party said that it was given to Lamichhane as president of the coalition partner and not to the party. After his claim and demand for Home Ministry went unheeded by the prime minister Ravi Lamichhane said it was over, but vented his anger at a section of the media at a hot-headed press conference blaming them for ballooning the issue of his citizenship.
Holding a press conference on February 4 at the party office in Basundhara, Kathmandu, Lamichhane blamed the biggest media houses of the country for chasing him since he announced his candidacy until his ouster from the government as deputy prime minister and home minister on the citizenship issue. He, however, accepted that there was some procedural error regarding his citizenship.
His reference was the big media houses and some online media portals forming a media cartel that controls the country in collusion with the political parties. His choice of word, calling them, 12 bhais, is a word probably taken from Indian movies referring to the boss or don of the Indian criminal underworld. This has rocked the Nepalese corporate media world with the exchange of blame from both sides.
However, for senior members of Prachanda’s party, withdrawal by the Swatantra Party from government, was an opportunity to gain some grip on the government after the party gave away important ministries such as home, finance, and foreign to the coalition partners. One senior person of the Maoist party even said that giving away the home ministry to Lamichhane’s Swatantra Party was a mistake in the first place.
There were even rumours of Prachanda offering the Swatantra Party with the Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning instead of the Home Ministry to keep it in the government. This was denied by Lamichhane at the press conference as totally false. He said his party, if it has to rejoin the government, it would not accept anything other than the ministries agreed upon, including the home ministry.
After the withdrawal of the Swatantra Party from the government and to avoid more domino effects after the simmering discontent of other smaller parties, Prachanda is trying to save the coalition and his current government at any cost.
This political puzzle might be a hard nut to crack for Prachanda. Re-inclusion of the Swatantra party with Lamichhane as home minister could invite serious opposition within the party. This will make Lamichhane ever more influential within the government while other leaders in the Maoist party fear he might overshadow them rendering them more of a bystander in power politics. Keeping the Swatantra Party out of the government might irk Oli, who is desperate in keeping Prachanda under his shadows. But no matter what Prachanda is frantic to keep the coalition intact and he knows that if he wants to keep his position as prime minister, he must not let any of the coalition partners, especially the smaller ones, go out of his hand.
Login to add a comment