Political commentary
By P.R. Pradhan
The present Sher Bahadur Deuba led alliance government has not been able to function. The government is not even able to give a final shape to its cabinet. The government is functioning with a team of five ministers and the PM is looking after 17 portfolios since Deuba was assigned to the post two and a half months ago.
Due to the negligence of the political parties in the government, the nation had to face a budget holiday for the first time in the history of the country.
When is the cabinet going to be expanded?:
On Sunday, Unified Socialist Party chairman Madhav Nepal said that within a week, the cabinet will be expanded. The next day, i.e. Monday, Upendra Yadav, chairman, Janata Samajbadi Party said that cabinet expansion is possible only after suspension of the ordinance related to the split of the political parties. The same day, PM Deuba said that very soon the cabinet is going to be expanded. To whom to believe, commoners are confused.
Madhav Nepal is waiting for the court decision on the petition registered by UML on the legitimacy of the 14 UML MPs who joined his party. UML has filed a petition against the act of speaker and the Election Commission.
Doubt among the alliance partners:
PM Deuba wants to endorse the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) immediately from parliament. Madhav Nepal and Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda are reluctant to rectify the MCC soon. They are against rectification of the American grant project without amendment.
Meanwhile, Deuba is trying to develop relations with UML on the issue of rectification of the American project from Parliament as he felt non-cooperation from the communist leaders Prachanda and Nepal. To note, UML chair and leader of the main opposition party in the parliament, Oli is in favour of MCC from the beginning.
Viewing the softness of Deuba on Oli, Prachanda has become suspicious and felt a threat of breaking the present ruling party alliance.
Past scenario:
There was a two-thirds majority government led by K.P. Sharma Oli. We, the people, had expected that it would end decades-long political instability. It proved false as the Oli led government was toppled down within three years.
Oli, although a powerful minister, was unable to utilize his power for the nation’s development. Oli was unable to break the circle of those middlemen or say brokers roaming around him. He was unable to function, as he has alleged that his partners in the party — Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda, Madhav Nepal, J.N. Khanal, among others, didn’t allow free hands to him to work for the nation. Oli has alleged that always, those senior leaders were found lobbying for assigning their men to the government positions including ambassadorial posts, constitutional appointments.
If Oli is true, presently too, we can imagine that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has become the hostage of the senior leaders in the alliance government so that he is not even able to give the final shape to his cabinet.
These scenarios indicate the failure of the government and also the failure of the system.
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