Sushil-led Government-1

: Is Sushil Koirala Really Honest and Sincere?

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

The world has been praising Sushil Koirala as a sincere and honest man since he got elected to the office of prime minister on February 10, 2014. On the afternoon of February 11, 2014, Mr Koirala took the oath of office of prime minister from the president Dr Ram Baran Yadav at the residence of the president. Then, Mr. Koirala in turn administered the oath of office of minister without portfolio to Dr Ram Sharan Mahat. None of CPN-UML members supposed to take the oath of offices of several ministers did show up. Only chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal and Senior leader Madhav Nepal showed up as the former prime ministers. The oath-taking ceremony caused the traffic blockade for several hours, and power outage to the resident of Panipokhari, Maharajgunj for almost 24 hours. After taking the office of prime minister, Mr. Koirala as the ex-officio chancellor of the TU ordered the Vice-chancellor to appoint the person of his choice to the dean of Institution of Medicine.

CPN-UML leaders said that Sushil Koirala tricked them to vote for him obviously agreeing on providing CPN-UML with the portfolio of home ministry and other major ministries; however, he stepped back from the understanding reached between the NC and the CPN-UML. Obviously, the understanding had been on the minds of the leaders not on papers. CPN-UML leaders claimed that five NC leaders including Sushil Koirala had agreed on to provide CPN-UML with the portfolio of the home minister and other major ministerial portfolios. Vice-chairman of CPN-UML Bamdev Gautam regretted that the understanding did not included in the seven-point agreement as an addendum. CPN-UML leaders had taken the stand on not joining the government until the NC provided them with the portfolios of ministries as agreed on. Bamdev Gautam was supposed to lead the CPN-UML team in the Koirala administration. Gautam was supposed to be the deputy prime minister with the portfolio of home minister.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and other NC leaders said that they had never agreed on providing the CPN-UML with the portfolio of home ministry. They were not willing to surrender the portfolio of home ministry to the Vice-chairman of CPN-UML Bamdev Gautam that had the history of sweeping the local elections in favor of the CPN-UML in 1995 when he was the deputy prime minister holding the portfolio of home ministry. NC was going to hold local elections within six months if it were to keep the election promises. So, NC must be reluctant to provide the same man with the same portfolio if they were to hold local elections.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala lost his sincerity, honesty and integrity on the second of elections to the office. He violated the fundamental human rights of the public on the second day when he went to take the oath of office of prime minister. It was 2:00 pm I had an appointment with the doctor. The traffic police did not stop us from going ahead from the residence of the prime minister but when we came nearby Goma Ganesh, the traffic police ordered us to shove our car into the side lane. We knew that Sushil Koirala lived at Maharajgunj but we did not know who were coming from the south to the presidential residence to attend the oath-taking ceremony. We saw a long line of cars, three wheelers, and motorcycles shoved into the side lane.

Prime Minister Koirala: tell us who was that person that had been treated with the so much of security. We knew that such security arrangement was made only for the king in the past. That was one of the reasons why the Shah had to quit the office. We also knew that almost all the members of the Constituent Assembly (CA) were of the background of migrant workers, seasonal agricultural workers and porters. They would have continued to be the migrant workers if the king were running the administration. Thanks to the Maoists, they were in the CA. Mr. Koirala, you needed to tell us why you accorded so much of honor to the people’s representative that were supposed to work for the people not against them.

When the motorcade of the person going to the presidential residence passed, the traffic police released all the vehicles shoved into the side lane causing untold traffic chaos. The traffic police did not bother to manage the vehicular traffic, as they felt released from the tension of passing the motorcade smoothly. Every vehicle tried to go ahead of another. We did not know how much trouble the commuters had to undergo when Mr. Koirala went to the Martyr memorial to pay homage to the martyrs after taking the oath of office from the president.

On the first day of taking the office, Prime Minister Koirala showed off not only his status as prime minister but also his colleague disregarding the violation of fundamental human rights of the public to travel without hindrance. Mr. Koirala, how could you violate the fundamental human rights when you were supposed to protect the rights of the people as a prime minister. You boasted that you were the president of the Democratic Party called NC but the very leader of the Democratic Party on the first day of taking the office of prime minister made so many troubles to the people including me. One thing Mr. Koirala had to think was that if he were to continue blocking the traffic then he would not be safe, as people would not tolerate it and would stone his vehicle if the past events were to take as guides to the future events.

The next remarkable event had been the power outage. On the day, Mr. Koirala took the office, the power went off at 4:30 pm from our neighborhood called Panipokhari, Maharajgunj; the power was supposed to go only at 6:00 pm following the power outage routine and then the power came to us only next day 1:00 pm. The power outage had been almost twenty-four hours. Such things had never happened. It might be coincidental or deliberate. Our area was near the prime ministerial residence but Koirala had not taken the official residence, yet. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) had published the routine of power supply and power outage. On the day, Koirala became the prime minister the NEA did not honor the routine. I suspected that the NEA must have diverted the power to area where Mr. Koirala and his colleagues must have been reveling the event of Mr. Koirala taking the office of prime minister. Was it the integrity of Mr. Koirala if my assumption were correct? My assumption was based on the historical events.

Denying power to the public was another violation of fundamental human rights. Mr. Koirala should understand how many of us had suffered from not having the power for almost twenty-four hours. Former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala left the legacy of power shortage, as he did not bother to build any hydropower stations in the public or in the private sector during his more than 20 years of administration. Currently, Mr. Sushil Koirala had been trying to monopolize whatever power the NEA had. NEA had been distributing power fairly until the day Mr. Sushil Koirala took the office.

Immediately after taking the office of prime minister, Mr. Koirala as the ex-officio Chancellor of TU ordered the Vice-chancellor to appoint the person of his choice to the dean of Institution of Medicine. TU was an autonomous institution. Mr. Koirala had no rights to interfere in the business of the TU. Thus, Mr. Koirala abused the office of prime minister on the very day of taking office.

Mr. Koirala had listened to Dr. Govinda KC. A man called Dr. Govinda KC had been fasting unto death if the TU were not to meet his demands that were not possible to meet without breaking the TU laws, rules and regulations. Mr. Koirala should understand whether such demands were logical or not if not then declare that such demands could not be met, and his fasting was illegal and take actions against such person accordingly. Such actions would be the rule of law rather than the rule of Mr. Koirala.

Diplomatic missions, international community and the public and the private media had been praising Mr. Sushil Koirala for his honesty, sincerity, and integrity. He had never been in the administration. So, he had no chances of abusing the authority but we have seen on the first day of taking the office, he abused his office. CPN-UML leaders were going to test Mr. Koirala’s honesty, sincerity and integrity. To prove his honesty, sincerity and integrity, Mr. Koirala should provide the CPN-UML with the portfolio of home ministry if CPN-UML leaders were right that Mr. Koirala agreed on it.

February 14, 2014