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Hundred Days of Madhav’s Regime
Siddhi B. Ranjitkar
It has been one hundred days since Madhav Nepal defeated in two constituencies in the election held for the Constituent Assembly on April 10, 2008 but successfully has rebounded as Prime Minister. It is time to see what gains he has made in the political, economical and security sectors during the last one hundred days.
Politically, Madhav Nepal has been the most unsuccessful Prime Minister. He took more than a month to put together his cabinet. So, he spent about one third of the one hundred days on bargaining with the leaders of the political parties about who would get what ministerial portfolios, as they are not bound by any political ideology but by the material and political benefits they have anticipated from the coalition government.
Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has said that he would complete the peace process integrating the two armies the government has been keeping so far since the Maoists came into the mainstream politics but he has never tried to do something to this end. Everybody knows that it needs the consensus politics but he has never seriously attempted on making the consensus politics a reality.
Rather Madhav Nepal has used his Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari and Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala to publicly convey the message of not integrating the two armies provoking strong reactions from the leaders of the United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist.
Then he sent Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari to India to sound whether his government could import the weapons from India. Indians were happy to dispatch their outdated weapons to Nepal. This attempt on purchasing of weapons going against the peace process has backfired again. Prime Minister Madhav Nepal needed to go to the legislature and addressed the legislators to refute that his government was not importing any weapons from India.
Most undisciplined Chief of Army Staff Rukmangad Katuwal has got an honorable retirement as a favor from Prime Minister Madhav Nepal in return for making him a Prime Minister as Army Chief Katuwal has claimed it in private. Former Prime Minister Prachanda fired Army Chief Katuwal for not complying with the orders of the government but the unconstitutional move of the ceremonial President saved the army chief’s job thus paving the way for Madhav Nepal to be a Prime Minister. A case of falsifying his age has been pending at the Supreme Court of Nepal for the last three years. The undisciplined Army Chief has been the disgrace to the nation.
The Maoist legislators have been blocking the regular business of the legislature demanding the debate over the unconstitutional move of the ceremonial President directly writing a letter to the army chief for saving his job. Madhav Nepal has been helplessly watching this political drama, as Nepali Congress legislators have been deadly against the debate over the unconstitutional move of the ceremonial President at the legislature because they believe what the President has done is constitutional.
The Madheshi leaders have alleged that the Supreme Court of Nepal in conjunction with the government of Madhav Nepal has annulled the oath taken by the Vice-president in Hindi. They also have alleged that the Supreme Court of Nepal has picked up the case of the Vice-president taking the oath in Hindi keeping the case of the Army Chief Katuwal falsifying his age aside for the last three years.
One another disgraceful thing Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has done is that he has submitted an amendment bill to the legislature for amending the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 for making the provision for taking an oath of office of President, Vice-president and other officer holders of the constitutional bodies in their mother tongues in response to the strong stand the Vice-president has taken on not taking an oath in Nepali but opting to have his duties suspended. Madhav Nepal should have done it well before the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal on this case but he has waited until the case has reached the stage of a prestige issue.
All these activities have gone against the consensus politics and peace process. Madhav Nepal has been successful to create political dissension rather than the consensus politics. So, how could any sensible Nepalis believe Prime Minister Madhav Nepal saying that he would complete the peace process?
The coalition government of Madhav Nepal has felt the first shock when his foreign Minister Sujata Koirala did not show up at the airport to accompany him to his India visit on August 18, 2009. Possibly, this must be the first attempt of NC President Girija Prasad Koirala father of Sujata Koirala to topple the coalition government of Madhav Nepal as he did to the Government of Surya Bahadur Thapa in 1998. This time, Koirala needs the support of the Maoists for removing Madhav Nepal from power and regaining it for himself. So, it would not be so easy for father Koirala to topple the Madhav Nepal government this time.
Within his party, too, Madhav Nepal has done nothing but has pushed his colleagues to their ideological extremes. The KP Oli-Madhav Nepal alliance has been moving farther right reaching to the Nepali Congress whereas the Jhalanath Khanal-Bamdev Gautam to the left toward the Maoists.
Concerning the security his Home Minister Bhim Rawal has boasted that he would quit his job if he would not able to manage the security and end the impunity. If he is true to his words he needed to quit his job long ago.
On August 29, 2009, a bomb went off nearby the residence of the Vice-president; splinters hit the glass window of the next house injuring a woman. The police found another bomb there. Prime Minister Madhav Nepal went to see the Vice-president after the bomb incident. Thereafter, a number of bombs went off in different places of the Tarai.
The Madhav Nepal administration has approved the special security plan put forward by Home Minister Bhim Rawal at the cost of one billion rupees to the nation. Home Minister would add 16,000 police to the current police force following the special security plan; this will create so many jobs for his party cadres and he will earn at least one hundred millions rupees as a commission even at the rate of 10% of the total amount according to some security analysts. The Madheshi leaders have alleged that the Madhav Nepal administration has brought up the special security plan to suppress the Madheshi movement.
Concerning the ending of impunity, Home Minister Bhim Rawal has failed as his predecessors in bringing the criminals to justice. He has even failed in booking the members of the youth organization affiliated to his party involved in shooting the students affiliated to the Nepali Congress in a row over the award of the contract for a civil work at Tri-chandra campus recently.
The law and order situation has been deteriorating every day. Nepalis do not feel safe even at their homes. They have to keep members of the youth associations affiliated to the political party happy to keep themselves safe. Anarchism has been the order of the day.
Roads have been quite unsafe, as the drivers do not follow the traffic rules. The Kathmandu traffic police have been helpless spectators of the gross violation of traffic rules. If they do something against such drivers they would immediately face the collective actions of drivers against the police usually shutdown of the public transport. Home Minister does not do anything to help the police to enforce the traffic rules. Consequently, the road traffic has been a state of anarchy taking so many innocent lives almost every day due to accidents.
Concerning the price rise of the daily necessities, the Madhav Nepal administration has fuelled it. Prices of rice, lentils, vegetables and other necessities have doubled after Madhav Nepal became a Prime Minister. His administration has raided the storerooms of the larger businesspersons, and has stopped the export of lintels, and has ordered the retailers to post the prices of items they sell at their stores. However, all these obviously strong actions against hoarders and corrupt businesspersons have not bring down the prices of daily necessities.
Business analysts have suspected that the Madhav Nepal administration in conjunction with the large business houses have been controlling the markets. For example, import of potatoes has been stopped causing the high price of potatoes. The police have raided the large stores of daily necessities but the administration closes the eyes letting the corrupt businesspersons doing the business as usual.
The diarrhea epidemic has continued to kill innocent people in mid-western Nepal due to the lack of simple water-purifying pills and other basic prescription drugs for treating diarrhea. Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has neither been able to tackle the problem of the diarrhea epidemic in mid-western Nepal nor has been willing to declare a state of emergency in this area. Because of indifference of the Prime Minister to resolve the problem of the diarrhea epidemic, people continue to die every day from this disease in mid-western Nepal even in the 21st century. Is it not shame on the Prime Minister?
Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has been distancing from China while moving toward India. It does not surprise to the political analysts, as the Indians have favored Madhav Nepal. So, Madhav Nepal has been letting the Indians encroaching on the Nepalese territory and letting them to harass the Nepalis living in the Nepalese territory on the Nepal-India border. The Indians have even built houses and shacks in the Nepalese territory, and have beaten the Nepalese police in Damak of the Jhapa District, eastern Nepal according to the state-run newspaper ‘Gorkhapatra’ of August 30, 2009. However, Madhav Nepal has no choice but to remain mute to save his job.
Madhav Nepal has boasted his visit to India from August 18 to 22, 2009 is a success, as he has secured Rs 32 billion worth of the Indian assistance for various projects and his administration has signed a new Trade and Transit Treaty with India. He boasted that the new treaty would increase the Nepalese export to India. However, most of the business analysts believe that the new treaty would end up as all the previous treaties in favor of India, as the Indian administration fails to enforce the clauses favoring Nepal.
So, if we measure Madhav Nepal’s success as a Prime Minister during the last one hundred days in percentage, his failure is ninety nine percent leaving one percent success in keeping his job intact so far. He has done nothing to the consensus politics and co-working with all political parties, consequently some dissident legislators have been blocking the regular business of the legislature. The most shameful thing has been happening is the Indian encroachment on the Nepalese territory but Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has remained comfortable with it. He has failed in convincing the Vice-president and other leaders supporting him of the need for taking an oath in Nepali for complying with the order of the Supreme Court of Nepal. He pretended to control the skyrocketing market prices but it is not happening. He has secured the job of Prime Minister on the majority votes after the ceremonial President violated the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 for saving the job of a soldier shaking the democratic norms and values. Nobody knows when his shaky administration would fall. Most probably it depends on Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala who in conjunction with Indians have made Madhav Nepal a Prime Minister.
August 31, 2009.
