Off The Record (Spotlight Weekly)

Deuba Wants Recognition

Nepali Congress - Democratic leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has declared that there will be no sense for unity as long as Giirijababu does not recognize him as a leader of separate political party. The demand of former prime minister Deuba is understandable since he knows what consequences his party leaders have to face unless such recognition is guaranteed. Since large numbers of his party workers have already switched to Girijababu’s party, former prime minister Deuba, too, has very limited options. Deuba seems to be waiting for the signal from his former boss and guru. If he receives warm signals, the two Congress will join their hands. The question remains how long will Deuba stick to his stand?

Hardening Posture

Till a week ago, Nepali Congress president and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala used to view his unity proposal differently. Following the decision of his former student Deuba, Koirala, too, seems to have hardened his stance. The octogenarian leader Koirala has now flatly rejected the proposal of Deuba to recognize Congress Democratic as a separate party. Since Koirala announced his unity proposal from his hometown Biratnagar a few weeks back, it seems that Koirala has gone there again to close the door of unification. Congress insiders still hope that the two former close colleagues will mend their differences soon.

Small Is Powerful

This is not for the first time that the leader of a small radical leftist party Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) Narayan Man Bijukchhe had secured such a key position in national politics. In 1998, he held a key when his three-MP-strong party was so important that its support became vital to retain majority for the government in the parliament. Interestingly enough, Bijukchhe is in a similar position now. Harassed by the role of bigger political parties, he has now forwarded a demand asking bigger parties not to take any decision on their whims and without consulting smaller parties. Pointing to bigger parties like Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, Bijukchhe has declared that he would launch an agitation on his own in case these two parties continue to take decisions on their own. Thanks to Nepali Congress and CPN-UML leaders, Bijukchhe now enjoys an equal status to that of a larger party. It seems that Bijukchhe is now more powerful than leader of two largest parties.

Sticking To Tradition

It is a long history in Nepalese communist parties that someone who has tried to raise the rational issue against the leadership of the day had to face dismissal from the party. Former CPN-UML leader Radha Krishna Mainali is facing the similar situation now. Being a founder member of CPN-UML, Mainali has played a very crucial role in the formation of CPN-UML. During the people’s movement in 1990, Mainali took a leading role in negotiating with late King Birendra. After CPN-UML came to power, senior Mainali secured a ministerial position along with his brother and founding general secretary of the CPN-UML Chandra Prakash Mainali. Although he was elected as central member of the party in Janakpur convention a year ago, Mainali has now been suspended from the party’s general membership by the party leadership. Known to be a moderate and rationale mind, Mainali’s crime was that he opposed the general secretary Nepal. Whatever the democratic rhetoric the communist leaders preach, there is no room in the party to hold different opinion and survive.