National 2 (Spotlight Weekly)

Full of Contradictions

Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa's move to bring all major political forces into his government seems to have failed

By KESHAB POUDEL

When he returned from the Royal Palace on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa was beaming with confidence about his ability to sort out the political stalemate in the country. Thapa, whose appointment came along with a proclamation by King Gyanendra handing over executive authority to the premier, soon found himself in a situation similar to that of his predecessor, Lokendra Bahadur Chand.

"I will bring all political forces in the cabinet. I am ready to discuss the issue of reinstatement of House of Representatives and any other political matters," an enthusiastic Thapa said in his first comments as premier.

Nepal (right) and Koirala : Friends in need

With a mandate to bring all agitating political forces into his cabinet at a time of national crisis, Thapa has begun his fifth time as prime minister with a heavy challenge. However, he faced an immediate obstacle from the five agitating political parties, which have unanimously decided to continue their protests until their demands are fulfilled.

After the failure of his broad-based reconciliation drive, Thapa is now considering appointing his cabinet by including some members of his Rastriya Prajatantra Party and people like Narayan Singh Pun and Narendra Vikram Shaha of the previous government. However, Thapa may have many cards to play. His political advisors are urging him to recommend some dramatic proposal to King so that he can pre-empt any political moves of the agitating parties and create a favorable situation.

"Prime Minister Thapa may opt to forward an advice to King Gyanendra to seek the Supreme Court's opinion on whether the dissolved House of Representatives can be reinstated," said a legal advisor.

Such a move could give the five agitating political parties a face-saving way to join the government. "If Prime Minister Thapa can take such a decision, his stature as well as his political bargaining power will go up," said a political analyst.

That would also provide a respite from the contradictions that has gripped the political process. From the nomination of CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal as the consensus candidate of the Nepali Congress and other four agitating parties to the appointment of Thapa as prime minister, politics is on an erratic course. In such a situation, making predictions becomes impossible.

"You cannot predict the political situation keeping in the mind the role of visible forces. Every political movement is determined by invisible force which seems to be dictating the political course," said a political analyst.

Nepalese politics is heading toward greater unpredictability, since the major political parties are sticking to their demand that either general elections be announced or the House of Representatives be restored as prerequisite for political negotiations. Thapa's reluctance to fulfill those demands averts the process of compromise.

"We have already passed the resolution that Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa's government is unconstitutional. So we cannot expect any political solution from this government," CPN-UML general secretary Nepal told reporters after meeting Thapa at his residence.

Thapa, who claims to have secured executive authority from monarch, is yet to show how his government is different from Chand's. The King's direction to Thapa has shown the limitation of his authority. According to constitutionalists, as long as Article 35.2 is there in the constitution of Kingdom of Nepal, every prime minister has a clear mandate to exercise executive authority.

The article says: "Except as otherwise expressly provided as to be exercised exclusively by His Majesty or at his discretion or on the recommendation of any institution or official, the powers of His Majesty under this constitution shall be exercised upon the recommendation and advice, and with the consent of the Council of Ministers. Such recommendations, advice and consent shall be submitted through the prime minister.

Prime Minister Thapa, who has already undergone open-heart surgery twice in the last two and half decades, is trying to project himself as a different politician. If he does not take initiative to constitute House of Representatives, he cannot prove himself any different from Chand.

In a calculated move, Thapa has already visited the houses of major political leaders, including Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, CPN-UML general secretary Nepal, Nepali Congress (Democratic) president Sher Bahadur Deuba and communist leaders. He can be expected to continue efforts to make them change their minds.

One way of doing that is by showing what his attitude toward their demands is especially on the reinstatement of the House of Representatives or the announcement of fresh elections. As long as Until then, the political deadlock is likely to continue.

For the first time in the last 12 years after the restoration of multiparty democracy, the country is running without cabinet ministers for a week.

Thapa, who was not in the race for prime minister or the favorite of any domestic political force, was suddenly picked up to lead the country, annoying the five political parties.

Although Thapa was part of the all-party opposition group when King Gyanendra appointed Chand as prime minister last October, his party's stand faltered because Chand, after all, was an RPP member.

From the nature of the alliance of the political forces to the course opted by them, there are many contradictions. Two radical communist outfits and another moderate communist party have joined hands with the Nepali Congress, the country's only democratic and liberal party, to step up pressure against the palace-appointed Chand government.

After a month of pressure tactics, street agitation and violent demonstrations, Chand was replaced by Thapa at a time when the five mainstream parties expected to be invited to form a coalition government.

As Rudyard Kipling writes in his poem The King's Job: "The wisest thing, we suppose, that a man can do for his land, Is the work that lies under his nose, with the tools that lie under his hand."