NATIONAL 1 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Gaining Strength

Days after assuming office, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is gradually consolidating his position

By KESHAB POUDEL

After nearly six months of endless confrontation, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba seems to be in a position to calm national politics, consolidating his position within the parliament and the ruling Nepali Congress party.

PM Deuba : On truce

From septuagenarian leader and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala to the main opposition party CPN-UML and, importantly, the CPN-Maoist, Deuba appears have been successful in garnering support for his government from all quarters.

As Deuba moved to consolidate his position, he called a meeting for national consensus. The prime minister is said to be preparing a common approach to talk with the Maoist rebels. As Deuba has already received backing from the opposition, the government may be in a position to talk to the Maoists from a wider mandate.

Koirala’s backing for Deuba is understandable, as this is a Nepali Congress government. What is interesting is the way in which Deuba has been able to rally the support of all opposition parties and rivals of the Nepali Congress.

Declaring a truce with the government and agreeing to hold a dialogue, the CPN-Maoist has shifted its stand for the first time in the last six years from unleashing the full power of their "people’s war" towards the negotiating table. This atmosphere was not seen during the RPP-UML, NC-ML and NC-UML governments.

Leader of the main opposition party Madhav Kumar Nepal has already asked his workers to support the government based on its performance. Nepal, who led an agitation that included a three-day bandh and the disruption of the winter session of parliament for 64 days to oust Koirala, seems to be in a no mood to obstruct the new government.

Whether it is the success of his political strategists or something else, Prime Minister Deuba is consolidating his position inside the party and outside. In the party, Deuba has already clipped the wings of Koirala by appointing his two closest allies Mahesh Acharya and Amod Prasad Upadhyaya in the cabinet. Sushil Koirala, party general secretary who challenged Deuba for the leadership of the parliamentary party, too, has joined Deuba’s bandwagon.

"Sherbahadurji and Sushil Koirala are the two sides of the same coin," said Shailaja Acharya, former deputy prime minister and leader of the Nepali Congress, hinting at a secret alliance between the two. Had the junior Koirala agreed to withdraw his candidacy in the parliamentary party election, former prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai would have become prime minister for the third time.

This change of atmosphere is hardly coincidental. Prime Minister Deuba has certain distinct quality. He is known as accommodative and is easily accessible to party workers. The majority of Congress workers prefer Deuba, because they believe Bhattarai is arrogant and unwilling to listen to others.

In his last tenure as prime minister Deuba handled Nepal’s first coalition government with great care and brought all political parties together to ratify the Mahakali Treaty in parliament. At a time when the country is in urgent need of another phase of national consensus to solve the Maoist problem, Deuba’s personality and style may come in handy.

Regardless of results the impending talks between the government and the rebels, Deuba is establishing himself more firmly as the third — and youngest leader — of the Nepali Congress triumvirate.