Faking Political Drama In New Nepal

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

The story of running elections to a new prime minister 17 times is still fresh in the minds of most of us but Nepal is bracing up for the election to a fourth prime minister after Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal tendered his resignation on August 14, 2011. This time the election might not run for so many times as did last time because the rules relating to the election has been changed and the maximum number of elections to be held would be only three. UCPN-Maoist and NC leaders not tired of parroting the need for a consensus government have put forward their candidates for a new prime minister; both CPN-UML and UDMF have opted to support the party and the candidate that could build a consensus on forming a new government. Consensus has been the mantra of all political party leaders but none of them is practically using it. Clearly, the Nepalese political leaders have been the actors but fake ones that could hardly perform properly. So, most of the common folks have been disgusted with the fake political dramas the political leaders have been playing for their benefits at the cost of the nation.

The president has given a week to the political parties for forming a consensus government following the Article 38 (1) of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 after Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal tendered his resignation to the president stating he could not do what he was intended to do because of the non-cooperation of the UCPN-Maoist and the NC leaders. Some political analysts think that the president has been too generous with the time given to the political parties to form a consensus government at the time when the expiry of the term of the Constituent Assembly (CA) is just only weeks away.

If the political parties could not build a consensus on a new government then the president would ask the parliament to elect a new prime minister on the majority votes following the Article 38 (2) of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007. Then, the political parties will fight a real political battle in the parliament for forming a majority government.

UCPN-Maoist and NC: the two major political parties have put forward their candidates for a new prime minister while the third and fourth largest political groups such as CPN-UML and UDMF respectively have opted to follow the tactics of wait and see. So, both Dr. Baburam Bhattarai: the candidate of UCPN-Maoist for a new prime minister and Sher Bahadur Deuba of NC have started courting both the CPN-UML and UDMF leaders for their support for forming a new government.

UDMF leaders have clearly told both the candidates of the UCPN-Maoist and the NC that they believe in only a consensus government as they have seen the two majority governments headed by the CPN-UML could not do anything during their term of office. So, they are for forming a consensus government and asked both Dr. Bhattarai and Deuba for building a consensus among the leaders of the four major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF on a new government. Building a consensus among the political leaders is the bottom line the UDNF has set.

CPN-UML leaders have kept quiet concerning their bottom line and could not dare to claim the office of prime minister again, as both their leaders: Jhalanath Khanal and Madhav Nepal as the prime ministers could not perform at all except for stealing money as much as possible from the state treasury. So, CPN-UML leaders are waiting to see what will be the political development in the days to come. Half of the CPN-UML leaders are for going with the UCPN-Maoist and other half are for going with the NC.

Mr. Khanal has made the mockery of democracy inducting 10 new ministers to his cabinet just two weeks before he resigns. He has inducted nine UCPN-Maoist members and one MPRF-Nepal member to his cabinet. These 10 new guys have at least become eligible for writing former ministers in their biographies.

Mr. Khanal has acted to be against inducting new ministers to his cabinet at the time when his cabinet is shaky and he does not know when he needs to quit the office. He has consulted with the NC leaders on the mattes of inducting new members to his cabinet irritating the UCPN-Maoist leaders despite the fact the NC leaders have vehemently opposed any sorts of reshuffle of the cabinet at the time when they have been holding the House hostage for the resignation of the prime minister. They are not in a mood to change their political stand. Mr. Khanal has also proclaimed that he is not for taking all 24 members of the UCPN-Maoist in his cabinet but ultimately he has inducted 10 new ministers to his cabinet. Mr. Khanal has very poorly played this political drama.

Refusing to induct the 24 members of the UCPN-Maoist to his cabinet, Mr. Khanal has cut short his term of office. He could neither please the NC leaders nor the UCPN-Maoist inducting 10 members to his cabinet. In fact, he has proved to be the most incompetent prime minister in the eyes of leaders of both the UCPN-Maoist and the NC. Consequently, Mr. Khanal has no choice but to quit the office.

We don’t know what the UCPN-Maoist leaders have wanted to achieve sending 24 new members to the cabinet of Mr. Khanal. We can simply assume that they just want to demonstrate that Mr. Khanal is simply their puppet. Any Nepalis having a little bit interest in the politics know this fact. Why they do need to prove it? It is surely the immature political drama the UCPN-Maoist leaders have played.

Leaders of UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML have reached a five-point deal on the midnight of May 28, 2011 for extending the life of the CA for three months. The first two points are to complete the peace process and to prepare a draft constitution in the three months to come. The third point is to enforce the agreements the UDMF has reached with the government, the fourth point is the prime minister to quit the office for building a consensus on a new government and the last point is to extend the life of the CA for three months with the understanding of extending it for another three months to promulgate a new constitution.

These top guys of UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML have played a political drama very well taking the five-point deal in the parliament for endorsement and immediately extending the term of the CA for three months. Immediately after signing off the deal, they have exposed that their drama is a fake one and they are fake actors, too. Prime Minister Khanal has shamelessly said that his understanding of quitting the office is only after the political leaders build a consensus on a new government. Political leaders that have promised to complete the peace process have turned their back to it. So, the four points of the five-point deal have thrown to a trashcan. Only one point of the five-point deal to extend the term of the CA is enforced.

NC leaders waiting to see Prime Minister Khanal honor the five-point deal he has so happily signed off have lost their faith in the prime minister. After two months of the signing off the five-point deal, NC lawmakers have held the House hostage demanding the resignation of the prime minister following the five-point deal. The NC lawmakers have generously allowed Deputy Prime Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari to present the budget for the fiscal year 2011 and pass the advance budget for three months to run the administration but they have not release the House to discuss the budget and pass it. They have held the House hostage until Mr., Khanal quit the office. Thus, the NC lawmakers have forced Mr. Khanal to quit the office but the president has asked him to stay on for the time until the political leaders either build a consensus on a new prime minister or the parliament elects a new one. Taking the House hostage for the resignation of the prime minister, NC lawmakers have proved that they are really fake democrats.

Now, the question is whether the Nepalese political leaders can build a consensus on completing the tasks of the peace process and the constitution writing. The answer is yes on one condition that the political leaders should be real actors not the fake drama players. In the past, they have been players of both the real dramas and the fakes ones. So, they must stop playing fake dramas and play real ones to conduce to completing the peace process and the constitution writing.

Jhalanath Khanal had unscrupulously played a fake drama of building a consensus government. He had held the election to a new prime minister hostage after the resignation of Madhav Nepal for eight months stating he was for building a consensus government only to get elected on the majority votes of the UCPN-Maoist lawmakers. Nobody could believe that Mr. Khanal could betray his country’s future for the shake of taking the office of prime minister. Thus, Mr. Khanal had committed the most heinous political crime for his personal gains.

Mr. Khanal had betrayed other leaders including his colleagues secretly reaching the seven-point deal with the Chairman of the UCPN-Maoist Prachanda for the support of the UCPN-Maoist lawmakers for electing Mr. Khanal to the office of prime minister. Neither Khanal nor Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda had disclosed the seven-point deal to the public. The seven-point deal remained mystery except for the unofficial disclosure by the media.

During the eight months of the unsuccessful election to a new prime minister, NC candidate for a prime minister, Ram Chandra Poudel had childishly ran for 17 times for the office of a new prime minister without success. Why the NC leaders did not pull him out of the prime ministerial race had been a mystery, too. Now Mr. Poudel is paying the price for his childish political game. His rivals have labeled him as a failed leader and the most incompetent one. He has to give the way to his senior Sher Bahadur Deuba to fight the election to a new prime minister even though he is the most eligible candidate for a new prime minister following the NC statute.

The Deuba group had even threatened to bring a no-confidence vote against Mr. Poudel for removing him from the office of the parliamentary party leader of the NC. Mr. Poudel has saved his face agreeing on giving Mr. Deuba the way to be the next NC candidate for a new prime minister. However, Mr. Poudel still claims that he would be the candidate for a new prime minister if Mr. Deuba fails to build a consensus on forming a new government. So, Mr. Poudel would be a candidate for a new prime minister if the parliament has to elect a new prime minister following the Article 38 (2) of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007. The Deuba group says that it is a political fuss.

Now, how Madhav Nepal defeated in two constituencies has played a political drama. Immediately after losing the elections in two constituencies, frustrated Madhav Nepal had said that he would come back to the parliament as an elected parliamentarian. However, poor Madhav Nepal failed in keeping his words. He forced one of the most sincere CPN-UML lawmakers out of the office for making room for him to be appointed to a parliamentarian. Thus, Madhav Nepal entered the parliament through the backdoor. He later nominated the man to the ambassador of Nepal to Sri Lanka.

As if the CA has no other competent person to head the CA Constitutional Committee (CC), the CA has unanimously nominated Mr. Madhav Nepal to head the CC for preparing a draft constitution. The man failed in getting elected in the election to the CA became the head of the CC. Madhav Nepal has no people’s mandate but the people’s representatives gave him the mandate to prepare a draft constitution, what an irony of democracy.

After the sudden departure of Prachanda from the office of the Prime Minister, the NC, CPN-UML and UDMF lawmakers elected Madhav Nepal to the office of prime minister. NC lawmakers believed that Mr. Madhav Nepal was a fake communist leader; he was a real foe of Prachanda and his party; so, he would fight against the communist foes. NC lawmakers had dreamed of the two communist parties: UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML would fight against each other ultimately causing the irreparable damages to both parties, and then the NC would emerge as a strong unrivaled party. Unfortunately for the NC leaders, UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML did not fight against each other as anticipated, but Madhav Nepal engaged in making money rather than fighting with counterpart communists.

Certainly, Madhav Nepal exposed him as a fake communist and appointed all fake communists of his party to his cabinet. So, these fake communist ministers did nothing constructive things to build a nation and to complete the peace process and the constitution writing but they stole money as much as possible from the national treasury. Consequently, NC leaders and even their cadres had been subjected to be the part of the most corrupt government of Madhav Nepal, as the government headed by Madhav Nepal was the coalition of the NC, CPN-UML and UDMF.

After a year, the NC leaders pulled out the support for Madhav Nepal and forced him to quit the office either to stop him making any more illegal money or to take the power from his party to run the government. During his stay in the office of Prime Minister for about 20 months, Madhav Nepal made enough money to support his cadres for another ten years; so he would remain as a leader of the CPN-UML for the rest of the life of the CPN-UML. Jhalanath Khanal and KP Oli could forget about leading the CPN-UML in the coming years. Contrary to the anticipation of the NC leaders, the CPN-UML did not support the NC candidate for a new prime minister. So, Mr. Ram Chandra Poudel became a political joker not being able to get elected to a new prime minister even after 17 rounds of elections.

Madhav Nepal as a Prime Minister made fake statements calling for completing the peace process and the constitution writing. At the same time allowing his defense minister to state that her ministry was not for taking anyone of the Maoists combatants to the Nepal Army, Madhav Nepal had gone a head-on confrontation with the UCPN-Maoist leaders. NC leaders wanted such a confrontation to happen but both the defense minister and the UCPN-Maoist stopped short of a direct confrontation but the cold war between them had continued.

His political colleagues and Madhav Nepal have been the patrons of criminals thus exposing their fake political masks. They have been presiding over the Young Association Nepal (YAN) that has unleashed criminals to launch deadly assaults on the reporters in the eastern Nepal. CPN-UML leaders have refused to turn over the criminals to the police rather appreciated their criminal acts saying they are true CPN-UML cadres. So, CPN-UML leaders are the fake political leaders but true guardians of criminals.

Political leaders have been faking the writing of a new constitution and the completion of the peace process. Fake political leaders don’t hesitate to say the peace process and the constitution writing will be completed in a snap if the leaders agree to do so. If it is really so why they have already spent three years and three months on the peace process and the constitution writing but nothing has come out of them. One thing the political leaders should understand is they couldn’t fool all Nepalis for all times. There is a limit of tolerance. When the political leaders cross that limit; Nepalis will certainly rise against them.

August 20, 2011