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OFF THE RECORD |
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OFF THE RECORD |
Tussle In Commission Nepali Congress members and supporters were
treated to many bizarre sights last week. The general secretary of the "new"
Congress strode into the Election Commission to register for the November 13 elections,
staking his claim to the election symbol (tree) and four-star flag. Members of the
"mainstream" Congress were close by, taking part in an all-party meeting on the
elections. When the newly elected general secretary, Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka,
entered the room to take part as the representative of the "real" Congress,
bewilderment reigned supreme for a moment. Instead of trying to separate the
"real" from the "fake", commission officials simply decided to
postpone the meeting for a week. Speakers' Camp Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives
Mahesh Acharya resigned from Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's government and declared
his allegiance to the "mainstream" Congress led by Girija Prasad Koirala.
Influential second-generation leader Ram Chandra Poudel's decision to side with Koirala
motivated his successor as speaker of the House of Representatives, Tara Nath Ranabhat, to
follow suit. Poudel's predecessor, Daman Nath Dhungana, also let it be known that the
Deuba brigade was not legal. With all three speakers since 1990 siding with Koirala, would
anyone be surprised if Deuba returned to the "mainstream" Congress?
Anti-Corruption Crusader Although many Nepali Congress leaders and
workers were upset to hear that party president Girija Prasad Koirala had been expelled,
general secretary Sushil Koirala seemed to be happy. Stepping into a white Pajero, a
vehicle that has come to symbolize sleaze in Nepal, Sushilda sought to reassure workers
that the party's scum were swept by the storm. The general secretary seemed to overlook
the reputation of some of the people still in his camp, though. In any case, Sushil
Koirala lost little time in asserting his favorite role as the country's pre-eminent
anti-corruption crusader.
Gautam's Worry Few politicians know better than CPN-UML
leader Bam Dev Gautam how painful a party split can be. That's why he spent so much time
counseling Nepali Congress leaders to maintain unity. If splitting the party were the
answer, Gautam thundered, would he have returned to the UML with drooped shoulders?
Instead of relying so much on the skills of "centrists", the Nepali Congress
should have sought Gautam's help to avert a split. Whether other comrades would have
allowed Gautam to mediate between two factions of a party that saw their victory in the
UML split is, however, an open question. Ranabhat's Mobility Speaker of the dissolved House of
Representatives Taranath Ranabhat seems convinced that the Supreme Court will restore the
lower house. But it's risky to bank on the confidence of a man who has made a career of
oscillating between the extremes. In 1994, Ranabhat led the Group of 36 that brought down
Girija Prasad Koirala's government. After losing the mid-term elections, Ranabhat became a
Koirala loyalist, serving as the party's general secretary. After he was elected speaker
in 1999, Ranabhat returned to Krishna Prasad Bhattarai's side. Who knows how long Ranabhat
will remain with Koirala - or where he will go next? |
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editor: spotligh@mos.com.np |
