One Hundred Days Of Oli Administration

One Hundred Days Of Oli Administration

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

After a consistent delay for more than 100 days then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had caused not quitting office in the name of completing his official duty as provided in the constitution but actually for appointing the provincial chiefs and even making the recommendation to the president three nominations to the National Assembly, KP Oli finally became the prime minister on February 15, 2018 and took the oath of office from the president, and he then sworn in two ministers. However, he took one month to make the full-fledged cabinet indicating his efficiency.

For a month, Prime Minister Oli and his two ministers were working; anybody could guess what they must have done in a month. Certainly not much, he spent most of his official time in negotiating with the Maoist Supreme Prachanda, who pushed and pulled Oli for bending and twisting him. After a month of negotiation, Oli ultimately made a full cabinet including the Maoists.

One of his two ministers: Minister for Environment and Population Lalbabu Pandit went after the 20-year old vehicles used for the public transport, and the cows on the streets of Kathmandu; however, after a cabinet took a full shape, Minister Pandit had to move to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and General Administration before completing the chasing of cows and old vehicles.

Prime Minister Oli said that he had visited India, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal, he crushed the transporters’ syndicates, took hold of the gold smugglers, and he jointly with Modi initiated the Arun-3 Hydropower project as the gains he had made during the 100 days of his administration.

Visiting India, Prime Minister Oli had simply completed the traditional formality of the Nepalese prime minister visiting India immediately after taking office. This tradition had the implication in demonstrating that Nepal had not gone out of the sphere of Indian influence in other words to keep the Indian leaders and the head of the government happy. In return, what Oli might have got was the unconditional support of Indians for the constitution that Indian Prime Minister Modi had been saying the Nepalese leaders to make it inclusive but had stopped doing so recently.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal at whose invitation probably at his self-invitation. Contrary to the widely publicized previous plan on flying from New Delhi to Patan: State capital of Bihar, and then taking a helicopter to Janakpur, most likely for the security reason, Modi directly flew in from New Delhi to Janakpur on Friday morning, May 11, 2018 with a bunch of security that had put the Nepalese security out of actions, and bullied the Nepalese reporters favoring only the Indian State media and reporters. Like it or not Prime Minister Oli needed to fly to Janakpur and give a company to Modi for making offerings to deity Janaki.

Prime Minister Oli crushed the transporters’ syndicates no doubt about that. However, his Minister for Physical Infrastructures and  Transport  Raghubir Mahaseth has transferred Director of Department of Transport Management Rupnarayan Bhattarai to the ministry probably the director had been a bone hard to chew for the minister because Director Bhattarai had actively defied the challenges the transporters had posed, and stuck to ending the syndicates.

Oli jointly with Modi initiated the Arun-3 Hydropower project in Kathmandu on May 12, 2018.  However, hydropower experts said that handing out the Arun-3 to India had been the disastrous to the country. Nepal would not get even the amount of the tax gains the Oli government had given to the Indian State-owned Company. However, Nepal lost the sovereignty over the Arun-3 with the capacity of 900 MW for 25 years, the experts mourned.

His finance minister presented the white paper on the status of the economy of Nepal, and the energy minister also presented commitment paper on the power development. Oli himself went to the Rara Lake to stand by the people of Karnali province for the fast track development of the area, as the province had been heavily neglected for the socio-economic development in the past. On the New Year day of the Vikram Calendar, Oli made an address to nation from the lake side, which was practically the policy and program of his administration.

In his white paper on the economy of Nepal, Finance Minister Dr Yubraj Khatiwada had been successful to paint only the dark side of the economy. He also had been confused which sector was productive and which was not. Unfortunately, he had absolutely ruined the stock market saying the capital market was unproductive. Dr Khatiwada as an economist that had served as the governor of the Central Bank of Nepal, and Vice-chairman of National Planning Commission, had deliberately or ignorantly stated that the capital market was unproductive whereas other economists and the folks involved in the Stock market believed that the capital market was the backbone of the national economy.

Energy Minister Barshaman Pun presented his commitment paper on the development of the energy. The paper stated that Nepal would have 5,000 MW in the first five years and then 15,000 MW in the next 10 years, altogether 15000 MW in 15 years. However, Minister Pun had not said how he would mobilize the resources required for such huge power projects within a period of ten years.

Oli initiated the admission of kids to school, and declared that no children would remain without going to school while addressing to the nation from the Rara Lake on April 14, 2018. He took the guardianship of a kid and admitted the kid to the school personally. So, Oli seemed to be determined to make sure that every child would have a chance at least to enter a school. However, probably, Oli did not care about the need for the kids in the remote areas to walk for hours to reach school, as the kids had no easy access to school.

Oli’s personal efforts had made possible to eliminate the Indian Embassy Field Office set up in Biratnagar to oversee the Koshi Barrage the life of which had ended, and the Indian Field Office would soon leave Biratnagar. The office had been there for ten years. India did not listened to the previous governments for removing the field office from Biratnagar, the local news media stated. The credit for doing away with the Indian field office in Biratnagar surely went to Oli.

The president read out the policy and program of the Oli government for the FY 2018 to the lawmakers. On Sunday, May 27, 2018, Prime Minister Oli was to answer the questions of the lawmakers. Oli had said that the FY 2018 was the base year for the fast economic development of the country.

Stating the economy would be doubled in five years without any concrete basis for it, not only Oli had demonstrated that he had no idea of macroeconomics and how to develop the economy of the country but also the folks that had crafted the policy and program document had no idea of how to double the economy in five years; simply saying the economy would grow at about two digits in some initial years and then two digits in five years would not double the economy in five years, other economists stated.

The Oli administration had said that the finance ministry had taken strong actions to stop the leakage of revenue. However, the local media had been repeatedly saying that the government had returned Value Added Tax (VAT) worth NPR 54 billion to the businesspersons. Consumers had paid VAT. How the government could return or waive the VAT to the business companies, the reporters questioned.

Prime Minister Oli repeatedly boasted that he was for the rule of law. Regrettably, Oli had forgotten to follow the rule of law, as his ministers and he had publicly declared their personal assets only recently that were supposed to do within 60 days of taking office, opinion writer Narendraraj Poudel stated in his article published in the “gorkhapatra” on May 27, 2018.

The Oli administration particularly Minister for General Administration Lalbabu Pandit had not been able to post the civil servants to the local governments even after 100 days probably he must be facing the strong opposition of the Civil Servants’ Trade Unions. Previous government Deuba had presided over had prepared for giving voluntary retirements to the eligible about 15,000 civil staffers. However, Minister Pandit declared that he put it on hold, and probably would even rescind it.

Prime Minister Oli talked about the monorail from Nagdhunga to Dhulikehl, railroads, cable cars, and waterways and so on but strangely not metros without considering the cost involved in constructing them. Probably, the Oli administration had somebody that had interest in conducting the feasibility studies on them so that some consultants would have sufficient jobs for five years or more.

The Oli administration had spent 100 days talking and boasting many things but doing only a few small things such as increasing the operation time of the international airport from 18 hours a day to 21 hours, Oli visiting India, and welcoming Indian guest Modi in Nepal, and ending the syndicates, what else.

Prime Minister Oli had forgotten the election pledge he had made to the senior citizens that he would increase the allowance to senior citizens from NPR 2,000 to 5,000 per month.  Probably, his  administration could waive the VAT worth NPR 54 billions thus making the business people rich by such a huge amount but could not increase the allowance to the senior citizens.

May 27, 2018