NATIONAL 5 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Unimpressive Show

Koirala passes his honeymoon period facing opposition from both outside and inside his party

By KESHAB POUDEL

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala passed his own hundred days in office without bringing significant changes in economic, social and other policies.

Some of the major events recorded during his first one hundred days would be the meeting of Nepal Development Forum held in Paris after the interruption of four years where donor communities expressed their support for Nepal's development efforts.

Koirala : Lack-luster performance

Other achievements was that Indian Airlines resumed the long suspended flights to Kathmandu following the visit of his foreign minister Chakra Prasad Bastola.

In his first official statement, Prime Minister Koirala had declared that law and order, economic reforms and good governance are would be his priority.

In the law and order front Koirala witnessed some unprecedented scene as Maoist escalated their violence. Although Koirala expressed his willingness to use Royal Nepalese Army against insurgency, he pulled back his idea after strong opposition from within the party and outside.

Maoists violence continues and economic reform package is moving very slowly. Moreover, since Koirala had replaced his rival Krishna Prasad Bhattarai charging him of failing to maintain law and order, his own failure to do so could be more damaging to Koirala's image.

In good governance, Koirala took some steps but they are too little and too late. After assuming office, Koirala has made every efforts to convince that he meant business but rivalry within the party gave him little time to concentrate on his efforts in bringing down some programs.

Bhattarai and Deuba duo have been launching the joint aggression against Koirala government soon after he took oath. In his first one hundred days, main opposition party CPN-UML seemed more tolerant to him than the rival factions of his own party.

Despite hard resistance in the party and outside, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has made some noticeable progress in the period.

Koirala assumed the office after winning the elections in the parliamentary party as he forced Bhattarai to resign on the ground that he failed to restore law and order situation in the country.

"The government has totally failed to provide any kind of relief to the people and the last one hundred days was direction-less in all front," said Bharat Mohan Adhikary, chief whip of CPN-UML. "We don't see any possibility that the government will bring any kind of change."

The ruling party members disagree on the criticism and argue that the government has made some important decisions in the area of good governance.

"As his commitment to the crusade against corruption, Koirala has already asked to table a bill to that effect in the parliament and the government has taken decision not to make any political appointments in public sector undertakings," said Jaya Prakash Gupta, Minister for Information and Communication.

"Hundred days is not adequate to judge the performance of the government. There have been some pluses and minuses. One has yet to see a positive improvement on the three priorities namely the law and order situation, good governance and corruption as identified by the Prime Minister himself. They still continue to be matter of concern to everybody and the Prime Minister should not hesitate to take the country forward which will have the support of the people in general," said MP and former Foreign Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat.

As Koirala himself had admitted that he was putting his whole political career in jeopardy by replacing Bhattarai, no one but he himself realizes his do or die position best especially when his rivals are already sharpening their tools accusing him of failing to justify the replacement.