Off The Record (Spotlight Weekly)

Unity in Division

Nepali Congress Party has many leaders. What is common among them is their contradictory approaches. Although the party has no dearth of anti-monarchical leaders, the latest to join the band is Krishna Prasad Sitaula. Projected as Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala’s staunch loyalist Sitaula seems to be very close to anti-monarchists like Narahari Acharya and Mahanta Thakur. Sitaula was speaking against Thakur and Acharya till a month ago but nobody understands his compulsion of changing that stand at this juncture. If the past experiences are any indication, nobody needs be surprised if Sitaula makes another change in course.

Test of Alliances

Nepal’s communist movement has seen many ups and down; making and unmaking of alliances, but no one can predict how long such alliances survive. In the last twelve years, CPN-UML leaders have made several temporary alliances to defeat their rivals. Few years ago, K.P. Sharma Oli was one of the diehard supporters of general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal opposing the grand alliance of Bam Dev Gautam and Sahana Padhan. The Nepal-Oli alliance was so powerful in the party that Gautam and Pradhan were compelled to form a splinter group. Following the unification of CPN-UML and CPN-ML, Oli and Gautam have formed a new alliance. After the announcement of nine-points roadmap, however, Nepal, Oli and Gautam have become united once again.

Populist Politics

Communist leaders are known for championing populist words. They don’t care what the real translated meaning of such words comes up in English language. CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal recently hugged another word called ‘Golmech Sammelan’ (translated as round chair conference). There are round table conferences and round table meetings but nobody understands what is the real meaning of round chair conference. Does Nepal mean sitting in a round-shaped chair for a meeting or what? Although there are a lot of differences between round chair and round table, Nepal does not mind persisting with the slogan.

No Let Up In RPP

Even after the announcement of RPP’s central council meeting, prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa and his supporters are stuck in adamant positions. With the written demand of RPP rival groups, RPP central committee meeting finally took a decision to summon the council meeting. This is for the first time in the history of RPP that the party leadership has summoned the council meeting to decide the fate of prime minister. It is yet to be seen how prime minister Thapa will exploit the meeting to fulfill his own interest.

Deuba’s Logic

Former prime minister and leader of Nepali Congress (Democratic) Sher Bahadur Deuba claims that his party is the genuine one and is the one that has strong faith in the ideology of original Nepali Congress as espoused by its leader B.P. Koirala. Deuba, who was dismissed a year ago, still hopes that the monarch will install him again as a prime minister. Deuba also puts forth certain valid reasons since his party is yet to join the meeting of five party agitation. Even as rest of the agitating brigade considers him as some kind of pariah, Deuba still states that only his reinstatement will bring the constitution back to the right track.