By Our Reporter
The coalition government of the two big old parties—the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML– has completed its first year in office.
However, the government of a two-thirds majority failed to make any significant achievements in a year.
Formed based on the seven-point agreement inked between the two parties, the KP Sharma Oli-led government totally ignored the key issue of constitution amendment included in the seven-point agreement. Instead, Prime Minister Oli openly undermined the constitution amendment agenda, stating that an amendment to the constitution was impossible before 2030.
While completing a year in office, the government lost the support of two smaller coalition parties—Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal and Resham Chaudhary’s Nagarik Unmukti Party. These parties have decided to withdraw their support given to the Oli-led government.
With the withdrawal of support by JSP-N, the government has lost its simple majority in the 59-member National Assembly.
Although the government faced no survival threat as the Nepali Congress strongly backed the government, it was mired by controversies and parliament obstructions as well as street demonstrations.
The pro-royalist groups staged a massive demonstration in which two were killed on March 28 and schoolteachers paraded in Kathmandu for a month. The government, which promised to pass the School Education Bill by June 29, has not yet registered it in the Parliament. The Civil Service Bill passed by the House of Representatives has been dragged into controversy after the key provision of a cooling-off period was altered by the civil servants when it was passed.
The medical doctors shut down hospitals for two days to protest against the decisions of the Consumers’ Court. Many patients were deprived of health services because of the closure of the health facilities across the country.
As such, the government formed with promises of good governance, political stability and constitution amendment seems to have failed to deliver in all fronts, resulting in growing frustrations among the people.
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