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Former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai fans the raging fire of internal rivalry in the ruling Congress party

By A CORRESPONDENT

Despite securing majority in the last year's general election, Nepali Congress is yet to deliver a stable and strong government. Earlier, Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai resigned after nine month in power thanks to party pressure and now the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is facing similar trouble.

As Prime Minister has no real authority to discipline his members, he is compelled to compromise with his colleagues to survive. However powerful a leader may be in his party organization, he will at the mercy of the MPs to stay in power.

The recent growing internal disputes in the Congress is one of the indication how fragile the stability of the country is when it falls in the hand of a weak PM.

Internal politics in Nepali Congress seems to be on the verge of explosion as septuagenarian leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai openly declared he would be Prime Minister again.

Just before the arrival of Prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala from his India visit, Bhattarai declared that he wanted to be the PM for the third time.

Bhattari (left) and Koirala : Turn by turn

As the dissension is brewing in Koirala camp, Bhattarai's expression has some meaning. Furthermore, an influential member of the Koirala cabinet, Minister of Water Resources and Works and Physical Planning Khum Bahadur Khadka is said to be very angry with Koirala.

"We held a meeting of like minded people to discuss various issues regarding the present political problem," said a minister and close aide of Khadka. "There is no truth in the stories published by one of the leading daily newspaper regarding the dissension within Congress."

The relations between Koirala and Khadka became sour after Koirala refused to remove Police Chief Achyut Krishna Kharel.

Khadka's anger went out of control when Prime Minister Koirala accepted the resignation of Minister of State for Forest and Soil Conservation Mohammad Aftab Alam by undermining his request.

As Koirala is in trouble after dispute with Minister Khadka, Bhattarai-Deuba duo are now trying to create further rift in the camp. Deuba even has sent one of his close ally Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar to explore possibilities of reaching some sort of deal with Khadka on Sunday (August 6).

Despite the internal differences within the camp, Koirala is said to enjoy the support of majority of the parliamentary party members.

"Khadka's rebellion may rock Koirala camp but it is inadequate to replace Koirala," said a political analyst.

The perennial instability in the government whoever comes to power is the result of clipped authority of Prime Minister. Unless the PM is equipped with power to discipline MPs and is allowed to use his "long stick", a simple rebellion by even a handful of MPs also has the potential to throw the entire government into tantrums.

DEUBA-MAOIST TALK
Still Uncertain

Communist Party of Maoist expressed unwillingness to send its representative for the talk with the government accusing the latter of not fulfilling its demand of creating minimum environment to start the negotiations.

Just one day after the return of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala from his official India visit, Maoist general secretary Prachanda issued a statement saying that they are not in a position to send their representatives for the talk with government.

"Government seems to be in no mood for negotiations and instead is involved in terror and violence," said Prachanda in his statement issued on 6th July.

The high level Deuba committee had sent a letter to the Maoist Party last month inviting them for talk. Maoist had agreed to hold the talk with government on the condition that it met the minimum environment which included fulfilling its demands like releasing some of its top leaders currently in government custody among others.