Off The Record (Spotlight Weekly)

Deuba : Always a disciple

Whose Disciple?

Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba split the Nepali Congress (NC) party hoping that he will be the leader of his new party. Deuba challenged the leadership of his former guru Girija Prasad Koirala who treated him as a disciple. But Deuba’s wish to prove as a separate leader has been dashed recently after another Congress leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai told the media that Sher Bahadur Deubaji is now his disciple. Despite his yearning to break away from other people’s leadership and become one himself, Deuba repeatedly finds himself under the shadow of one or the other leader.

Gautam : Changed personality

No Revenge

The CPN-UML leader Bamdev Gautam seems to be a very optimistic and sober man. Although he was badly beaten by police a few weeks back and had to be admitted to a hospital for treatment of his head injury; the firebrand communist leader Gautam is yet to speak anything against anybody. He seems to have pardoned the Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa and the Home minister Kamal Thapa. In his recent statement, former deputy prime minister Gautam presented himself as a leader of liberal thought. Nobody understands the rationale behind his changed personality from a fire-spewing diehard communist preacher to a sober and liberal leader.

Thapa : Relaxed mood

Relaxed PM

Following more than 11 months of hectic job, prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa seems to have found ample time to relax. Although he is still heading a caretaker government, prime minister Thapa has already started to remove his belongings from the official Baluwatar residence to his own in Maligaun. Before resignation, Thapa used to attend his office before 10 a.m. but now he is not following any schedule. Despite the assurance of the agitating five political parties not to harm his vehicle, prime minister Thapa does not want to take any risk. This is the reason, it seems, that he is not venturing out in the streets these days.

Lawati’s Line

After remaining silent for long, RPP leader Padma Sunder Lawati has opened up his mouth suggesting agitating political parties not to take hard stand against the King. Former minister Lawati, who has taken a neutral stand in the recent intra-party feud, seems to have changed his stand. RPP’s vice president Lawati, in the past, had even accused the prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa for not taking the issues of five parties seriously. Whether one likes it or not, Lawati does not hold any influence in the party and that his suggestions and recommendation are not going to be taken seriously by anybody.

Followed By Monsoon

In the last few years, Nepalese football standard has not improved at all. Despite spending millions of rupees, the country’s only national stadium is a scene of pity. The Dasarath stadium turn into a mud ground as soon as rains lash the valley. Thanks to heavy criticism for holding national league tournament during mid-monsoon season last year, the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) president Ganesh Thapa had pre-poned this year’s league by a couple of months. Alas, the rain God, seems to be fond of football too. This year, weather experts predict that monsoon will come quite early. Already the pre-monsoon splashes have turned the stadium into a paddy field. Thapa can now be expected to re-schedule the next year’s league during winter season. One only hopes that the monsoon, too, will not change its calendar and decide to lash the valley in winter then.