By L.D. Pulami
It is said that politics makes ‘strange bedfellows’. This has been seen in Nepal many times, when many political alliances have been formed, just for the sake of getting to power. The same sort of political developments are being witnessed at present also.
This author had written just last week that uncertainty reigns in the country at present and the only certainty is that the outcome of the present developments will not augur well for the nation and the people, no matter what happens. How can we expect any good things to develop when political parties with completely opposite ideologies get together just to form a new government or stay in power, not caring what happens to the country?
This is the situation in which we are living now, the economy is in tatters, industries are closing down, there is alarming inflation and no sense of any social security for the common people.
In the last few days, some developments have indeed taken place, but most observers are still saying that the political scenario has not settled down and one party or the other could betray either their alliance partners or the party leading the government itself, as we have witnessed so often these days.
So who wins this petty political squabbling or whether this government stays on in power or a new alliance is formed, does not bother the public at all, all they want to see is an environment where the people can stay on in Nepal and lead a secure and comfortable life because of a stable government, strong economy and better educational opportunities, better job opportunities and better health care among other such basic needs which other citizens of many countries around the world take it for granted.
The present government led by Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, got the vote of confidence on Monday, but this happened when the members of the Parliament belonging to the Nepali Congress were shouting slogans and surrounding the well of the House of Representatives. The opposition members were demanding the formation of a Parliamentary Committee to investigate the involvement of the deputy prime minister and powerful Home Minister, Ravi Lamichhane, in the cooperative scam, because of which thousands of people all across the nation are suffering.
The Parliament has been held hostage and day-to-day work for the development of the country has been adversely affected due to the constant stand-off between the ruling and the opposition parties.
The Nepali Congress blamed the partisan ‘attitude’ of the House speaker Dev Raj Ghimire for the present political turmoil in the House and also the way in which CPN (UML) chairperson KP Oli was trying to instigate Lamichhane, the leader of another party in the present government, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) who has been in the target of the opposition parties, specially the Nepali Congress has not been overlooked by both the opposition parties and the people. They are right in questioning the behavior of these leaders and also the present prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, but the firebrand leader of the Nepali Congress Gagan Thapa, an eloquent and young leader who has acted as the ‘spoke person’ of the party, failed to point out that it was Lamichhane who should be responsible for the unfortunate political developments in the parliament and also in other places.
The leader of the very new political party, RSP, is solely to blame, as he refused the formation of an investigative committee and also calmed down the heated political scenario by resigning from his post after serious allegations were being made about him being involved in the cooperative scandal that has caused much suffering for thousands of people who had put their hard-earned money in the hands of different cooperatives.
This writer feels that Ravi would have gained a lot of respect for himself and his party if he had willingly agreed to step down from his post and allow the probe committee to smoothly carry out its investigation. But right now, he has lost the faith the people had put in him and RSP and this was clearly demonstrated in the much-touted by-election in constituency number two of Ilam district, where its candidate had lost badly and failed to even recover his surety money.
When the country was in so big turmoil and he was being accused by the Nepali Congress and also the media, both print and broadcast, he would have gained much respect in the minds of the common people, many of whom are now writing to him and his party off the much-hyped (Mission 84), the Nepali year in which the next general election is scheduled to be held, through the bad impression left by him for his lust to remain in power. He has failed to realize that wily UML leader and former prime minister KP Oli is egging him on and pretending to do this as if he is supporting Lamichhane for the good of the minister while actually, he is doing this for his own ambition to be next prime minister as soon as possible, if before the scheduled general elections in which RSP leaders are also pinning their hopes to become a larger, if not the largest party in parliament.
A huge part of the blame for the woeful situation in which the country is now must also go to current prime minister Dahal, who led his party in the path of destruction and also in starting a violent civil war during which more than seventeen thousand innocent Nepalese lost their lives.
So it was ironic to hear this same fellow talk of giving good governance and bringing development to Nepal in his address to the House while seeking for his fourth vote of confidence to continue as prime minister. He and many of his top party leaders were directly involved in destroying much-needed physical infrastructure in this impoverished country, while they themselves were comfortably being sheltered in India, by taking Nepal to ‘Ground Zero’ and then starting developing the country from this point. Of course, the incompetent leaders in the governments of that time and also corrupt police personnel and civil servants contributed significantly in their own ways to this destructive war that virtually crippled this nation. Therefore, both the Maoists and the visionless decision-makers in the government have to be also blamed for creating such anarchy in this otherwise peaceful country. These very people are being seen at the forefront of the current situation of political uncertainty, and the only thing which the general public can be happy about is the way these leaders are unmasking each other in their lust for power. That is exactly why the different parties in the parliament are sharing their ‘beds’ or are willing to be ‘strange bedfellows’ with any party, no matter from which background they come or what political ideology they follow.
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