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Kathmandu Wednesday March 07, 2001 Falgun 24, 2057.
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‘Priority’ trip
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala,
indifferent to the stalled parliament and seemingly untouched by the Lauda Air deal
controversy, went on an ill-advised four-day long official visit to France the other day.
The visit, at the invitation of French prime minister Lonel Jospin, marks yet another
foreign visit of the Prime Minister in less than a year. Last August, the Prime Minister
visited India on, what was described, as a "confidence building trip." This
time, the once in 150 years visit has been undertaken to "place Nepal on the priority
list of donor countries". However, the manner in which the now-off now-on visit took
place indicates that Koirala was more interested in diverting the attention of opposition
parties and rebels within his party than in undertaking a genuine working visit, as is now
being claimed. The relations between Nepal and France had remained warm and cordial even
before the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1949. In fact, the economic cooperation
between the two countries dates back to the time of Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa.
Last April, former Prime Minister Krishna
Prasad Bhattarai planned to visit France. But thanks to Girija Prasad Koirala, an internal
party coup ousted Bhattarai from the prime ministership. Reasons cited by the Koirala-led
rebel camp for his downfall were corruption, insecurity and poor law and order. But the
present situation is by no means any better. Rather it has worsened since Koirala took
over the office. He has now created a dubious history by becoming the second Nepalese
prime minister to visit France. Koirala has been rightly criticised by the opposition for
going on a visit at a time when the country is in turmoil. Whoever advised the Prime
Minister to leave the country, plagued by so many ills, and when the Parliament is in
limbo, has done this country a great dis-service. As far as the Prime Minister’s trip
to get Nepal included on the French priority list of French official assistance is
concerned, it needs no expert to point out that France, unlike other western countries,
has demonstrated a more flexible attitude towards Nepal. And therefore, it does not need a
prime ministerial visit to make it to the "priority list" of France. Nor should
Koirala count this as his achievement when the list materialises. But we would like to
emphasize that since so much of tax payers’ money is being spent on a seemingly ill-
advised trip, we could only hope that Koirala and his entourage will be able to bring more
benefits to this country than what would have come normally.
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