Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays On-Part 46

(Stop The Politics Of Obstruction)
Siddhi B Ranjitkar

The opposition coalition of the nine political parties including the NC and the CPN-UML have been adopting the policy of obstruction, and have been obstructing whatever the government has been doing. The opposition leaders know that they could not tear down the current government constitutionally. So, they have been stopping the government from doing anything in the hope of forcing it out of the office. They have obstructed the annual budget from passing. They also have obstructed the bills on the elections to a new CA, bills on appointing judges, and officials in the vacant positions at various constitutional bodies submitted to the head of state for issuing ordinances. They have even unleashed their cadres to stop the prime minister from going to the different events in Kathmandu and elsewhere. They have used journalists to boycott the events attended by the prime minister. They even declared that they would not attend any events the prime minister attends. With all these activities, how the opposition leaders could build a consensus on a new national unity government and hold elections to a new CA.

The main concern of the opposition leaders has been the power. The NC leaders have been saying publicly that only the NC-led government could hold free and fair elections. They say that they need to place the president of NC Sushil Koirala in the office of prime minister before holding elections to a new CA. However, NC leader Sujata Koirala has been wise enough to tell other NC leaders that they would not be able to remove the democratically elected government, so they have no choice but to join the current government and hold elections to a new CA. NC leader Sujata Koirala also said if the NC leaders were not to join the current government and hold elections then it would be the breach of the 12-point understanding the seven-party alliance had reached with the then CPN-Maoist in New Delhi in India on November 22, 2005. So far, none of the NC had listened to her.

The leaders of the ruling coalition don’t serve the state power on a platter to Sushil Koirala. The leaders of the ruling coalition have been telling the NC and CPN-UML leaders they were ready to quit the government and offer the office of the prime minister to Sushil Koirala but they have to agree on a package that contained the federalism and federal states. However, the NC and CPN-UML leaders were ready to go to great lengths to fight for power but they did not want to agree on the federalism and federal states as proposed by the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF leaders. So, the NC and CPN-UML leaders chose the street protests to tear down the current government. Street protest would obstruct not only the state business but also the businesses of the common folks.

First, the opposition leaders blocked the annual budget for the fiscal year 2012 anticipating it would bring down the government. They did not agree on anything the government did concerning the budget. They simply wanted to stop the government from functioning. The head of state President Dr Ram Baran Yadav had been cooperating with the opposition leaders rather than with the government. President Yadav had made it clear to the prime minister that he would not do anything without the agreement of the opposition leaders. The opposition leaders were not ready to agree on what the government did. Thus, the head of state became the part of the opposition to obstruct the annual budget. The annual budget was stuck at the office of the president. The government was nearing the dead end without the budget clearly due to the obstruction of the opposition leaders. In order to escape from the blame for obstructing the budget, the opposition leaders released the government from their obstruction for the provisional budget for the three months. The budget for three months has been the minimum possible. Consequently, the government could not do anything but to pay salaries to the state employees such as administrative staffs, police and the army.

The development activities have come to standstill in absence of the full fledge budget. The large projects such as Melamchi Drinking Water project could not move forward. Education, health, and infrastructure development heavily suffered from the lack of the full budget not to mention the budget for repair and maintenance of infrastructures. However, the opposition leaders had been waiting for chopping off the major portion of development budget after three months. The opposition leaders have conceived the bad idea of the government taking credit for any positive development. So, they were hell-bent not to let the government do anything development visible to the common folks.

The Supreme Court of Nepal, the Election Commission, the Public Service Commission have not been able to function normally, as they did not have the replacement for the retired justices, and retired chief commissioner and commissioners.

The government recommended bills on appointing new justices to the Supreme Court of Nepal at the office of the courts, and appointing chief commissioner, and commissioners in the vacant positions at other constitutional bodies to the head of state President Yadav to issue ordinances but the president put on hold all those bills asking the prime minister to have a consensus of the opposition leaders on these bills. As the opposition leaders had been not for building a consensus but breaking it; so, the bills remained at the office of the president making the Supreme Court and other constitutional bodies function halfheartedly. Thus, the opposition leaders along with the head of state have been obstructing the process of appointing the justices and the officials to the vacant positions.

The opposition leaders blocked the government from recruiting soldiers and policemen from among the Madheshi and the ethnic people to make the Nepal Army and the Nepal Police inclusive. The opposition leaders did not want to see the Madheshi and ethnic people serving in the police and army. They wanted to reserve the police and the army jobs exclusively for the traditional ruling class. Thus, the opposition leaders did not want to institutionalize the changes brought by the sacrifices of so many lives and the suffering of the brave fighters. The opposition parties had been the roadblocks to changes.

After the dissolve of the CA in May 2012, the government announced the elections to a new CA to be held in November 2012. To hold elections, the voter lists have to be updated, and certain amendments needed to be made to the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007. The government made bills on those amendments, and submitted to the president for issuing ordinances but the opposition leaders stopped the president from issuing the ordinances, as they did not want to see the current government holding the elections. They wanted to put Sushil Koirala in the office of prime minister in the name of a consensus government for holding the elections. For them, a consensus government meant the government led by the NC.

Ultimately, the leaders of the opposition parties put the pressure on the head of state President Dr Ram Baran Yadav to discharge the government, and appoint Sushil Koirala to the office of the prime minister. However, President Dr Yadav has learned the lesson from the past mistake of directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff Rukmangud Katuwal ignoring the prime minister. At that time, if the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF had a coalition as of today, the then parliament would have impeached the head of state and removed him from the office. President Yadav rightly did not want to repeat the similar mistake and provoke the wrath of the ruling coalition.

In 2009, the then Prime Minister Prachanda fired the CoAS Rukmangud Katuwal for his political comments but the opposition leaders petitioned President Dr Yadav for stopping the firing of the CoAS Katuwal. President Dr Yadav without thinking twice directly wrote a letter to the CoAS and stopped him from getting fired by the prime minister. The president’s action was unconstitutional but the opposition leaders successfully blocked the firing of the army general: remnant of the feudal rule.

Everybody knows except for the opposition coalition of the nine political parties including the NC and CPN-UML that the head of state could not remove the democratically elected government. President Dr Yadav has been ignoring the pressure of the opposition leaders to remove the current prime minister, as he is not the king that could do anything but he is an elected president bound by the constitution. So, he has to follow the recommendations of the prime minister to do anything concerning the state affairs. The opposition leaders have been living in the memory of the good old days of tearing down one government after another and taking power. President Dr Yadav also has had the good message from the Indian leaders when he visited India in December 2012 that the political leaders should resolve the political problems not the head of state.

The head of state President Dr Yadav had almost step in the business of the political parties. He set the deadline of a week for forming a national unity government to the political leaders on November 23, 2012. Nobody knew what the president would do thereafter. The opposition leaders obviously were happy that the president had ultimately step in breaking the deadlock of forming a new government. They hoped that the president would discharge the government if the political leaders were to fail in forming a new unity government within the deadline. However, the president did not jump into taking the hard decision on changing the government by force instead he went on extending the deadline. Ultimately, the president realized that it was not his business to form a new government, and refrained from setting a deadline for forming a new government.

We have not forgotten how the CPN-UML leaders obstructed the building of a 200 MW thermal power plant proposed by the then Prime Minister Prachanda in 2009 to mitigate the power outage. At that time, the CPN-UML leaders were the partners in the government. They wrote the prime minister that they would pull out of the government if Prime Minister Prachanda would go ahead of building a thermal plant. The reason mentioned in the letter was the high cost of the thermal plant. The obvious reason was the CPN-UML leaders did not want to see the Maoist leaders getting credit for ending the power outage the NC government and the CPN-UML did not end. For that matter, the CPN-UML leaders were clearly anti-national. Millions of Nepalis would not need to lose the jobs, and millions more would not need to lose the business due to the power outage. Students would not need to read at the candlelight. All these have been due to the wrong minds of the CPN-UML leaders.

Then, the Minister for Energy Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat stopped the businessmen from importing inverters in 2010 stating such inverters have consumed energy heavily keeping the common folks in darkness. The story was different than what the minister told the people. The minister made millions of rupees through graft while common folks suffered from the power outage. Dr Mahat was the Minister for Energy in the cabinet of the most unscrupulous man called Madhav Nepal.

The international community was for immediate elections to end the political standoff. The head of the diplomatic missions in Kathmandu have been telling the leaders of the ruling and the opposition parties to hold elections to break the political deadlock. Leaders of the ruling parties have been telling the people that they are for holding elections in May 2013 but the head of state President Dr Ram Baran Yadav has been holding the election ordinances obstructing the preparations for elections. The opposition leaders also have been telling the people that they are for holding elections but instead of giving a green signal to the head of state to issue election ordinances they have launched the street protests to force out the current government. The NC leaders except for Sujata Koirala have been telling that only the NC-led government could hold elections. At the same time, NC President Sushil Koirala and second-generation leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat have been repeatedly telling the head of state President Dr Yadav to take immediate step means discharge the current government and appoint Sushil Koirala to the office of a new prime minister. Every logical-thinking person including the head of state knows that such a step of the head of state would be a political coup and it would provoke political disaster in the country.

Speaking in the press conference held by the Nepal Press Union (NPU) of Surkhet in Birendranagar on February 02, 2013, NC president Sushil Koirala said that the UCPN-Maoist would reach a stage of the Rana oligarchy and former king Gyanendra and fall as it has tried to impose authoritarianism. President Koirala said that the Rana rule and the monarchy fell down as these regimes tried to impose a unitary rule and authoritarianism in the country. He warned of the UCPN-Maoist also would meet the same fate. NC President Koirala said that the People's Movement of 2006 culminated in the abolishment of the 240-year-old monarchy. The NC president declared that the current movement of the opposition parties would end the two-year-old Maoist rule. NC President Koirala said that the President (head of state) should take steps now for safeguarding the constitution. (Source: RSS/thehimalayantimes.com, February 2, 2013)

Addressing the opening session of his party’s seventh general convention in Hetauda on Saturday evening, February 2, 2013, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda said that the Maoists would never leave the people’s issues and that even if the politicians were to fail the Nepali people would not. Chairman Prachanda further urged that the main opposition parties such as NC and CPN-UML needed to give up their agitation and come for an agreement to hold Constituent Assembly elections. Chairman Prachanda said that the opposition leaders were heading to downfall, as they have launched the protest movement disregarding the Maoists’ call to join the Baburam Bhattarai-led government in order to hold CA elections with the offer of the Ministry of Home Affairs to the NC and to spearhead a high-level political mechanism. (Source: THT ONLINE, February 2, 2013)

Speaking at a press meet in Bhadrapur on February 2, 2013, Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gacchedar said that the country was heading to conflict and confrontation due to the debate on the position of prime minister among parties though it was time to give political outlet to the country through consensus. DPM Gacchedar said that the ruling alliance of the UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesi Front (UDMF) was making the people clear which parties were more responsible for the CA demise; only the CA election was the best option to free the country from crisis and if the political consensus were to elude again, CA election was impossible even in April/May. (Source: RSS/thehimalayan.com, February 2, 2013)

Speaking at the party event held in Debangaunj in Sunsari on Sunday, February 3, 2013, NC senior leader-cum-former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said that the NC-led government was necessary to resolve the country’s crisis, and the NC-led government would be formed by removing the incumbent government through the ongoing anti-government protest, as the series of discussions and dialogues with the government and the UCPN-Maoist failed. (Source: Gorkhapatraonline.com, February 3, 2013). Mr. Deuba speaks as a totalitarian leader. Nobody could believe that the so-called leader of the Democratic Party called NC could say such a thing in public.

Talking to the reporters at Tankisinwari of Biratnagar on Sunday, February 3, 2013, Senior leader of NC Sher Bahadur Deuba said that his party would never agree to the proposal put forth by the UCPN-Maoist for an apolitical candidate for the next prime minister; his party had already proposed NC President Sushil Koirala as the next prime minister, the party would not think about his alternative now; his party President Koirala should head the national consensus government for holding the elections. (Source: RSS/thehimalayantimes.com, February 3, 2013). What an authoritarian statement of the senior leader of NC Deuba.

Speaking at the opening event of the NC party office in Pokhara of the Kaski district on Monday, February 4, 2013, Vice Chairperson of NC Ram Chandra Poudel said that the new constitution could not be drafted because his party lost bitterly in the first CA election of the country, as the people didn’t trust the democratic NC party in the CA election instead voted for the Maoists. Had NC emerged victorious in the CA election, he claimed, constitution would certainly have been written. (Source: nepalnews.com, February 4, 2013). Everybody knows that the NC and CPN-UML turned out to be the main culprits for not completing a new constitution, as both these parties vehemently opposed the federalism and federal states. Mr. Vice-president blamed the people for not voting his party, and for not completing the crafting of a new constitution.

The delayed full-fledged budget due to eluding political consensus and the poor performance of the agriculture sector might pull the economic growth rate down, according to the central bank governor. “The central bank had projected economic growth at 5.5 per cent expecting a full-fledged budget, ending of political deadlock, declaration of election and better performance of agriculture,” said Nepal Rastra Bank governor Dr Yubraj Khatiwada briefing a visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) team. However, the government could neither bring a full-fledged budget, nor could declare election to end prolonged political impasse, he said, adding that the poor performance of agriculture has added pressure on the economy growth that would going to fall down from the central bank’s projection. (Source: HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE, February 4, 2013)

Speaking to the reporters at the Janakpur Airport on Tuesday, February 5, 2013, NC President Sushil Koirala said that the ongoing protest was for the formation of a political consensus; the protest would continue until the ruling party stepped down. Koirala went on to say that the UCPN-Maoist has violated the spirit of the interim constitution and further accused the UCPN-Maoist of trying to dole out false assurances. The NC president further made it clear that the nation has not been in this kind of critical state in the history of Nepal hitherto. (Source: RSS/thehimalayantimes.com, February 5, 2013)

Speaking at a press meet held by the Nepal Press Union in Dhankuta on Wednesday afternoon, February 6, 2013, senior leader of NC Sher Bahadur Deuba claimed that the nationwide mass protests being waged by the opposition parties including NC would certainly bring down the current Bhattarai-led government. “The mass protest rally being held by the opposition parties including the NC would soon bring the Bhattarai-led government to its knees,” NC leader Deuba said, also claimed that the first phase of the nationwide protests waged by the opposition parties have received widespread public participation and support, marking the beginning of an end of the UCPN-Maoist-led government. He, however, assured that the mass protest waged by the opposition parties would remain “peaceful”, although its nature and scope may change to achieve the desired results. Saying that there can be no other alternative to a national consensus government led by NC president Sushil Koirala, Deuba made it clear that the opposition parties would neither accept nor tolerate the continuation of the current UCPN-Maoist-led government or a formation of a new one. (Source: nepalnews.com, February 6, 2013). Such a statement of Deuba sounds more authoritarian than the NC leaders have been labeling the current government as the totalitarian.

US Ambassador to Nepal Peter W. Bodde called on Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal at the latter's party office in Balkhu on Wednesday, February 6, 2013. On the occasion, Ambassador Bodde inquired about the possible solution to the present political crisis in Nepal. The US envoy said that the US was for the fresh people's mandate to protect democracy and resolve the political crisis. Therefore, immediate consensus for the election was essential, stressed Ambassador Bodde. According to a press release issued by the CPN-UML, Ambassador Bodde was very dismayed over the current political standoff in Nepal. (Source: RSS/thehimalayantimes.com, February 6, 2013)

Participants of the closed-door session of the seventh general convention of the ruling Maoist party have unanimously endorsed Chairman Prachanda’s political dossier, which proposed Chief Justice Khilraj Regmi as a new Prime Minister. According to the party sources, Chairman Prachanda said that handing over the top post to Regmi would help pave the way for fresh CA elections, and keep NC and CPN-UML out of power. Earlier in the day (February 7, 2013), Chairman Prachanda had said that his party would not bow down to the opposition’s pressure, and leave the reins of government. Answering the questions on his dossier raised by the general convention participants during the closed-door session in Hetauda on Thursday, February 7, 2013, Chairman Prachanda said that his party would continue to engage with opposition parties to forge a broader consensus to end the protracted political deadlock facing the country. (Source: Nepalnews.com, February 7, 2013)

President of NC Sushil Koirala said that the Madhesi Front currently in the government under the leadership of Dr Baburam Bhattarai also was authoritarian like the UCPN-Maoist. Addressing a gathering jointly held by the major opposition parties at Tirahutiya Gachhi in Janakpur on Wednesday, February 6, 2013, NC President Koirala said that the Madhesi Front was indifferent to the problems of Madhesi people after it accepted the Maoists’ leadership in the government, according to the state-owned news agency RSS. On the occasion, Vice-President Ram Chandra Poudel said that the UCPN-Maoist was imposing authoritarianism with the help of Madhesi leaders. ”UCPN-Maoist is the major obstacle to making the country a federal democratic republic”, he said, adding that a consensus on the election to a new Constituent Assembly was the current need. Similarly, Vice-Chairman of CPN-UML Bamdev Gautam accused the UCPN-Maoist of making efforts on imposing ethnic federalism. ”The UCPN-Maoist would fade way like the fascist Hitler with its fake socialism diminishing,” he argued. (Source: nepalnews.com, February 7, 2013). These statements of the so-called opposition political leaders indicated that they were out of mind, and wanted to misinform the people stating whatever occurred in their minds.

Speaking at a press meet held by the Nepal Press Union (NPU) of the Dhanusha chapter in Janakpur on Thursday, February 7, 2013, NC President Sushil Koirala said that the President (head of state) should not remain a silent spectator at a time when constitutional crisis was deepening in the country. Koirala said that the President should be sensitive to the incidents, which were in violation of the constitution, as he was both the protector and patron of the constitution. "It is up to the President whether he continues or removes Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, in the context when constitutional crisis is deepening in the country”, Koirala stated. (Source: RSS/thehimalayantimes.com, February 7, 2013) Koirala directly ask the head of state to stage a political coup d'état to provoke real constitutional crisis to resolve his imaginary constitutional crisis.

The NC leaders have been shamelessly asking the head of state President Dr Ram Baran Yadav for toppling the current government disregarding constitutionally only the government that has announced the elections could hold the elections. The NC leaders also have ignored the possibility of the counter coup if the head of state were to discharge the current prime minister, and firing the current government meant going out of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007. The opposition leaders have launched the street protests to topple the government. Thus, the opposition parties have been pushing the country to the political chaos.

February 9, 2013