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Kathmandu Monday February 04, 2002 Magh 22, 2058.
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What consensus ?
The coming session of parliament is likely to be
a crucial one, both for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and for the country. He has to
get the ordinance on the state of emergency and the one on finances ratified. The country
is now in serious crisis on the security front because of the Maoist insurgency, and the
prospect of a major economic crisis looms because of the need to divert resources to the
anti-Maoist campaign. These are on top of all the recurring problems that the country also
faces. At the same time the Girija camp in the Nepali Congress is pressing ahead with its
own campaign for a broader national alliance so-called, to purportedly pull the nation
through the slew of problems that threaten its very integrity. There is more than a whiff
of suspicion that NC strongman Girija Prasad Koirala is up to his old game of toppling
anyone who stays too long in the chief executive’s seat. At the same time, opposition
parties are also beginning to jump on the broader national alliance bandwagon, purportedly
for the same reasons that Koirala invokes, but it is more likely they are just fishing in
"muddy waters". Also in the opposition camp, the CPN-UML and the breakaway
CPN-ML are inching towards unification. There is a likelihood that they will merge and
emerge again as a strong opposition with a fair shot at forming an alternative government.
That will further compound Deuba’s woes.
But one wonders just what they mean by a broader
national coalition. Are they trying to rope in the king, and thereby wittingly or
unwittingly compromise his status as constitutional monarch? That would be a step
backwards in the political evolution of this country. Secondly, will they be able to
co-opt the Maoists, who have so far showed no sign of compromising on their demand for a
constituent assembly and without whose participation or involvement any notion of broader
national coalition will be a non-starter? Will the broader national coalition offer to
Comrade Prachand and company on a silver platter something that Deuba has been unable to
offer? And will the army go along with anything and everything that the broader coalition
will pull out of its hat? It should not be forgotten that it was precisely Girija’s
continued presence in government that the Maoists objected to before they agreed to a
cease-fire several months ago, and it was the failure of the army to go after the Maoists
that made Girija resign in disgust as prime minister. Will he fare any better under a
broader national coalition? As for secondary and tertiary issues like corruption and
cabinet size, many of these politicians are themselves knee deep in the slime and poor Mr
Deuba is unable to do anything about cabinet proportions because he has to keep the two
old party honchos happy.
It may not be the equivalent of Nero fiddling
while Rome burned. But what the political heavy-weights are up to now is putting party
interests above national interests, or personal interests above party interest, or both,
which is tantamount to a cardinal sin in multiparty democracy. At a time when the Nepalese
state is foundering, politicians of all hues and heft should be rallying behind the
government, whoever it is headed by, and helping that government govern, not pulling the
carpet from under its feet. If they fail to rise to this occasion, questions about the
political maturity of our country and its leaders will rise like it has never before. |
