Off The Record (Spotlight Weekly)

Jog Mehar Dai's Rise

As they say, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. During the Panchayat decades, Jog Mehar Shrestha was among the controversial political personalities. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the partyless polity, Shrestha was forced to go underground for a while. With the new ruling elites of hounding remnants of the partyless era, Shrestha lay low for a while. It took nearly a decade for Shrestha to rehabilitate himself in Kathmandu. As political resurrections go, Shrestha has done very well: he has become the darling of the opposition camp today. Those who remember how Shrestha's smiles and namastes placed him at the forefront of partyless politics will avidly watch how those attributes help him in the days ahead. For Jog Mehar Dai, a new era has dawned.

Proxy Politics

The ruling Nepali Congress has seen the emergence of proxy leaders. With first-generation luminaries ageing, the stars of younger personalities are on the ascendancy. Party president Girija Prasad Koirala seems to be relying on his right-hand man Govinda Raj Joshi. The seventy-eight years old supremo does not have a choice. Most of his erstwhile henchmen have switched over to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's camp. Joshi, who firmly established himself as a cunning politician in the first years after the restoration of democracy, exercises total control over Koirala. Many ruling party Mps prefer to deal with Joshi because he can better understand their problems and convey them to Koirala.

Advisers On Leave

It's interesting to note that two senior advisers to prominent Nepali Congress leaders have been appointed to the National Planning Commission (NPC). Dr. Narayan Khadka, long-time confidante of former prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, has been appointed vice-chairman of the organization. Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat, a leading adviser to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, has been appointed member of the NPC. Although they have no dearth of advisers, Bhattarai and Deuba will surely miss their charming aides.

Gautam's Silence

Until he merged his party with the CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam was in the news almost every day. His powerful oratory and no-holds-barred critique of contemporary politics drew the attention of a politically obsessed media. But the situation has changed. The general secretary of the dissolved CPN-ML has become uncharacteristically silent. One rarely sees Gautam on TV these days, as he studiously avoids journalists. The tranquillity on Gautam's face is unnatural. Is this the lull before the storm?

One-Man Army

The sole representative of his Nepal Workers and Peasants Party in parliament, Narayan Man Bijukchhe's political clout has diminished following the general election of 1999. But the soft-brand Maoist from Bhaktapur still dreams of bringing change. Nobody knows how powerful Bijukcche really is in today's political alignment, but his position in the broad democratic alliance is no inferior to that of Girija Prasad Koirala or Madhav Kumar Nepal. Whether he has one seat in parliament or 10, Bijukcche is the president of his party — and, therefore, a big force in mainstream politics. Off the record.