Off The Record (Spotlight Weekly)

Puppet Show

As they say, there are no permanent allies or adversaries in politics. Nepalese leaders, for their part, are quite categorical in advancing the adage. Around this time last year, CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, Rastriya Prajatantra Party president Surya Bahadur Thapa and dissidents in the ruling Nepali Congress led by Sher Bahadur Deuba were locked in a common front to oust Girija Prasad Koirala from the prime ministerial seat. Today Nepal and Thapa are actively supporting Koirala's campaign to force Prime Minister Deuba out of office. The UML, which stalled parliament and took to the streets to press for Koirala's resignation over his involvement in the Lauda Air scandal, now sees the ruling party chief as a paragon of virtue. Nepalese politics has long become a puppet show, but it is becoming distasteful by the day.

Bastola : Ominous circle?

Chakra's Cycle

Former foreign minister Chakra Prasad Bastola, a close lieutenant of Nepali Congress chief Girija Prasad Koirala, is making desperate moves to remove Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba from office. Despite his efforts to draw the support of a majority of MPs in the Congress parliamentary party, Bastola is yet to get close to the magic number of 57. Known as one of the more shrewd politicians in the ruling party, Bastola probably hasn't exhausted all the weapons in his arsenal. Whether Chakra (which means circle in Nepali) succeeds in replacing Deuba remains to be seen. But he certainly has left Nepalese politics spinning.

Superior Leaders?

CPN-UML leaders rank themselves among the cleverest Nepalese politicians. From general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal to his deputy, K.P. Sharma Oli, leading comrades see themselves as accomplished players of politics and don't mind having to prove it from time to time. UML leaders have exploited internal differences in other political parties, although no one knows whether that success stems from their own strategy or is part of someone else's formulation. Having persuaded Nepali Congress supremo Girija Prasad Koirala to push their agenda of constitutional amendment, Nepal and Oli have demonstrated how the opposition can be in the driver's seat.

Ranabhat : Who is first?

Ranabhat's Hurry

House of Representatives Speaker Taranath Ranabhat seems to relish disruptions in parliament. After Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba left on a visit to India, the CPN-UML and other opposition parties have started boycotting parliamentary sessions on one pretext or the other. As soon as leaders of the opposition announce their decision to walk out of the chamber, Ranabhat rushes to adjourn the session for the day. If the speaker is in such a hurry to postpone daily deliberations, why doesn't he recommend holding shorter sessions from next time?

Paswan In Race

National Assembly Deputy Chairman Ram Prit Paswan, who belongs to the main opposition CPN-UML, has developed his own way of conducting proceedings. Sometimes Paswan happens to adjourn the session even before his party colleagues have fully explained their decision to walk out. It looks like the presiding officers of both chambers are in a race to prove who can bang the gavel first.

Undemocratic Conduct

Nepali Congress leaders never tire of claiming that they represent Nepal's most democratic party. But some of their recent actions tend to point in the other direction. As part of a campaign to harass leading critics of Congress chief Girija Prasad Koirala, party leaders sought a clarification from Minister of Information and Communication Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta on why Nepal Television failed to carry footage of senior leaders attending a recent central committee meeting. These leaders obviously misread Gupta's job description, for they wouldn't have held the minister accountable for the work of the cameraman and video editor. Or perhaps in their eagerness to collar a leading member of the Deuba camp, Koirala loyalists jumped at the first opportunity they got.