On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
Almost every day the chairmen duo of the Nepal Communist Party – Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda — are holding the hours-long meeting, which, later, is concluded without conclusion.
One week earlier, PM Oli had called the cabinet meeting and informed that in the next meeting some of the cabinet members may not be seen. Oli had hinted that he was going to reshuffle his cabinet soon.
The next day, we were informed that due to the clash of interests between the chairmen duo, the cabinet reshuffle process was delayed. When will the two chairmen develop consensus and the cabinet will be reshuffled, we don’t know. Yet, reports state, the two leaders have settled down their deal and now, anytime, the cabinet is going to be reshuffled. We have become fade-up from listening repeated news about the one-on-one meeting between the chairmen duo.
Reports state that after several rounds of meetings among the chairmen duo and main opposition party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, when they got an equal share, the three universities got new vice-chancellor. Among them, one is Oli’s man, another is Prachanda’s man and the next one is Deuba’s man. The post of the vice-chancellor is purely academic and respected one but the fact is that the purely academic personality having an independent stance will be disqualified for this post. Academic qualifications, experiences and seniority won’t count to become a vice-chancellor, rector, or registrar in the universities. The candidate should be the leader’s man, the only qualification needed to become the vice-chancellor or occupy other positions in the universities. This applies everywhere.
To become a section officer, a third class officer’s post in the civil service, one needs to pass the Public Service Commission, which is very tuff, but one minister can assign many advisors without having such a qualification. In fact, the advisors are superior than the government secretaries and they are running the ministry.
Due to lack of consensus among the supreme leaders in the ruling party and the main opposition leader, many constitutional posts including the chief and other commissioners of the Commission for Investigation on Abuse of Authority (CIAA) have remained vacant. Understandably, the said consensus is based on “giving and taking” deal.
The constitution has clearly stated the provision of representation of the leader of the main opposition party with the spirit of the nomination of an independent, qualified, and capable personality in such appointments in the constitutional bodies. But leaders from the ruling party and the main opposition party are finalizing the deal on a give and take basis and assigning their own men rather than capable men.
CIAA and the Supreme Court, among others, are very sensitive organs. Performance of such independent and autonomous bodies are being questioned none other than the very political leaders, academicians and media persons even those closed to the mainstream political parties including ruling NCP and main opposition party NC. All leaders are facing different corruption and criminal cases. Therefore, the first question by the members of the Constitutional Council to the recommended candidates for the Supreme Court judges and CIAA members will be that whether the candidate is ready to keep the cases against the political leaders impending or not. If the candidate becomes ready to keep impending or dismiss the cases against the political leaders, he will get the chance, otherwise, a strong, committed dedicated personality, who wants to work independently, will be rejected. The nation is running through a planned setting. The CIAA catches small fishes but never can catch big fishes. The government and the mainstream political parties are under the grip of the middlemen, brokers and agents. And the organs constituted to curb corruption, commission, abuse of authority and crime are under the grip of the ruling and the main opposition parties.
The cabinet decisions are not allowed to investigate by the CIAA. This is a policy-corruption. The government is also trying to empower the provincial governments with such a right. This is a shameless act of the government encouraging corruption practice in provincial governments also.
The government has been abducted by a particular gang of the political leaders having the corrupt and criminal background and they are ruling the nation turn by turn. There is no meaning of people’s mandate, constitutionalism and rule of law. The entry of Bamdev Gautam and Narayankaji Shrestha, who had defeated the elections for the parliament member, in the parliament is an example of the strong existence of the political syndicate and serious violation of constitutionalism.
The government’s prime job is the welfare of the citizens. If one will go through the constitution, the general public’s fundamental rights have been guaranteed. In practice, the general public is deprived of enjoying the basic fundamental rights such as health, education, employment, etc.. The government authorities and political personalities are enjoying all kind of rights. Besides, the political leaders in power are misusing the government fund as much as possible. Particularly talking about the advisors and aides, they are, in fact, misusing their authority. Yubraj Khatiwada is the person who has continuously been rewarded to different positions. He became vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission. After completing his tenure there, he became the governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank. Then, he became the finance minister. After compulsory retirement from the finance minister, immediately, he was assigned special advisor to the prime minister. Within a week, he has been named as an ambassador to the USA. Khatiwada is just an example. Some other limited people are continuously being rewarded by the prime minister.
There is a high demand for the swab test against Covid-19 pandemic. Those helpless people are conducting a PCR test in private hospitals by paying double amount than the government-set charge. On the other hand, Prime Minister, ministers, provincial ministers, their families, relatives, staffers are receiving PCR test at free of cost that too on a priority basis. Is it justifiable?
The Covid-19 pandemic has created havoc among the people, people are unable to get relief from the government. The political leaders are less bothered about the pandemic. They have no time even to think on overcoming the pandemic, unfortunately, they are spending time just quarrelling against each other in assigning their men in the cabinet and also in other political appointments.
It is clear that we have adopted an expensive constitution which is non-functional and we have such leaders whose priorities are family first, relative second and supporters third. Forget about the poor voters and the political ideologies described by the party!
People’s Review Print Edition
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