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DEUBA CABINET |
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DEUBA CABINET |
Compromise Formula By bowing to pulls and pushes within the ruling party, the new prime minister loses an opportunity to make a new beginning By A CORRESPONDENT Though his political guru and predecessor, Girija Prasad Koirala, managed to transfer his mantle to his successor in a constitutional way in less than four days (he is even said to have contemplated to complete the job within 24 hours), Sher Bahadur Deuba seemed in no hurry. For four days, officially, there was no government in Nepal. Only on the fifth day of his appointment did Premier Deuba manage to announce a 13-member cabinet, which looked like a compromise package rather than a committed team. (Box) Despite managing to garner a landslide victory in the Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party (NCPP) elections last Sunday, Premier Deuba had a tough time in constituting his cabinet, having to accommodate different camps and factions within the ruling party. In the first phase of his cabinet, he chose to give berths to so-called close aides to both senior party leaders Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Girija Prasad Koirala, as well as his own colleagues. Chiranjivi Wagle, a close confidante of Bhattarai, holds the second position in the cabinet. Similarly, kitchen cabinet members of former premier Koirala, Mahesh Acharya and Amod Prasad Upadhyaya, have been accommodated in the new cabinet. Acharya, who earlier held the high-profile defense portfolio, will now have to be content with the agriculture minister. Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat (finance) and Upadhyaya (education) retain their old portfolio. Deuba’s close aides, Bal Bahadur K.C. and Sharad Singh Bhandari, have been accommodated in the cabinet whereas former Koirala aides Bijay Kumar Gachhedar and Jaya Prakash Gupta, who had switched over to the dissident camp, have been given important portfolios. Former Kathmandu mayor, P. L. Singh, is the only new face in the cabinet. Khum Bahadur Khadka, an ambitious and influential young leader of the party, has been assigned the home and local development portfolio. Sources said Khadka finally agreed to join the cabinet after the premier assured to give cabinet berths to over half a dozen of his colleagues. In his second expansion, Deuba is expected to award more berths to Khadka’s supporters within the party. The Deuba cabinet has been criticized for giving more space to power brokers and ‘old faces’ with tainted images rather than giving a chance to young, energetic and clean faces within the ruling party. Whether he will be able to give a clean government and take the country out of the mess of violence and terror remains to be seen. The New Cabinet Sher Bahadur Deuba-Prime Minister, Royal Palace Affairs and Defense, Foreign Affairs, Industry, Commerce and Supplies, General Administration, Women, Science and Technology, Land Reforms and Management, Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministers Chiranjivi Wagle-Works Khum Bahadur Khadka-Home, Local Development |
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