By Deepak Joshi Pokhrel
Politics across the globe is seen as a dirty game. It is said it is a game played by the dirty actors who are unable to rise above their partisan interest making the nation hostage. This statement is more relevant and appropriate in our politics as our politicians tend to swing along with the wind of opportunities. In plain words, they can betray their party and join the opponent if it meets their interest. The recent political drama in the wake of the presidential election is just a representative of such betrayal, retributions and avenges.
The presidential election is scheduled for March 10. The event has already created uproar across the country as we have witnessed double-crosses, betrayals, retributions and avenges. The coalition of the CPN Maoist Centre and CPN UML, along with the other four parties had joined hands and formed the government under the leadership of Maoist Supremo Prachanda on December 25, 2022. Within two months, four ministers representing the Rastriya Prajatantra party — a major constituent of the coalition resigned from their offices. Intending to safeguard his government, Prime Minister Prachanda created an alliance of eight parties (now nine parties) with NC as the new entrant. The move of the Prime Minister agonized the CPN-UML President KP Oli. Their relationship turned worst when Prachanda last a minute diktat to Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudel to cancel her trip to Geneva where she was scheduled to attend the high-level sessions of the UN Human Right Council.
The Prachanda-Oli relationship has been commanding the media limelight ever since Maoist joined mainstream politics. The relationship has been like a sort of rollercoaster ride. It is more like opportunist politics rather than trust and mutual respect. Further, the relationship is the doctrine of necessity where both bury their hatches and join hands for their personal benefit and not for the broader interest of the nation.
In April 2021, an alliance was formed comprising the Nepali Congress, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN-United Socialist, the People’s Socialist Party and the National Peoples’ Front. The alliance was not formed to provide some semblance of stability. Rather, it was formed to dislodge Oli from power and jointly fought the last November elections. In the election, the electoral alliance won 136 seats just two seats shy of a simple majority to form the government.
Prachanda and Deuba had forged a vibrant relationship especially after Oli dissolved the parliament twice for his personal advantage. Prachanda had assured Deuba that he and his party will support the formation of the government if it happens to win the November 2022 election, under his leadership. He, according to political observers, decided to support the Deuba to teach Oli a lesson.
At a time when people’s war was at its peak, then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba survived a communist ambush. The angered Deuba sets one million bounties on Prachanda’s head. However, their relationship started to improve in the years that followed. So much so, they even agreed to join hands and fight the election to defeat CPN-UML. This was the most surprising move of the leaders who were indoctrinated with two extreme political ideologies.
If media reports are any guide, Dahal tried to sweet talk Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba into supporting him to become the prime minister in the first half of the five-year term. He was willing to wait for his turn as he had no other available options. He was very much mindful of the fact that his political career was declining in recent times. Dahal was unwilling to wait for his turn in the latter half of the term as proposed by Deuba. But as expected, the clever Deuba betrayed him and refuse to hand over the power halfway through. This resulted in the severing of their ties and relationship.
While Dahal was getting restless, Oli was eagerly waiting for Prachanda’s first call to join hands with CPN-UML despite the outstanding bitterness in their relationship. This was the opportunity Oli was desperately waiting for: To dismantle the alliance formed against the UML. The interests of Dahal and Oli had converged here, and both succeeded in getting what they wanted out of the new alliance. Many political analysts say that Oli welcomed Prachanda despite his sound relationship with Madhav Kumar Nepal who divorced CPN-UML and sided with Prachanda. They say that Oli was waiting for a moment to teach Madhav Kumar Nepal a lesson
On the one hand, Oli betrayed Prachanda and compelled him to join anti-Oli forces. On the other hand, Prachanda betrayed Deuba who ditched Oli. This has been the hallmark of our political actors who can join and withdraw their support if it meets their personal interests.
If we assess the political history of Nepal after we restored democracy, we will find that there have not been permanent foes and friends in our politics. We can also conclude that our politicians are guided by vested interests and not by the broader interest of the nation. Our unstable politics is the upshot of such myopic, incompetent, self-centred and unaccountable politicians. The nation will never embark towards prosperity as long as these politicians fail to rise above their partisan interests and work for the betterment of the country and its people.
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