Even as the Nepali Congress tries to forge consensus among its coalition partners on the contentious Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact, the controversy has spilled out into the streets, with demonstrations for and against it. The government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba couldn't table the MCC deal in the House of Representatives (HoR) on Wednesday after one of its coalition partners, the CPN-MC (Maoist Centre), refused to back it. The House meeting has been postponed till Friday after the CPN-MC at its meeting Wednesday morning decided to vote against the MCC deal should the government go ahead without forging consensus at least among the coalition partners.

The Nepal government has a February 28 deadline to meet to approve the MCC agreement in the parliament, failing which the country would lose $500 million in grants from the U.S. government for two major projects – transmission lines and road rehabilitation.

The CPN-MC and the CPN-US (Unified Socialist) along with fringe communist parties have been insisting that the compact could not be passed in its present form without amending certain clauses, a request turned down by the MCC saying it was too late to do so.

From mere exchanges of arguments in the media, the MCC controversy has snowballed into violent activities in the streets. Wednesday saw a Nepal bandh, called by the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, after many months, to protest against the MCC deal, and this could be just a precursor to the many more rough days ahead in the run-up to its ratification. At least 150 cadres of various parties were rounded up in Kathmandu for engaging in violent activities, with the police having to use water cannons and fire tear gas shells at the protesters who were trying to break the security cordon around the parliament building at New Baneswore. It, however, does not augur well for the coalition partners to have their cadres out in the streets to protest against the MCC deal. Leaders of the CPN-MC and the CPN-US were in one way or the other involved in pushing the deal forward. The MCC process began in 2012 when Baburam Bhattarai of the CPN-MC was the prime minister, although he is now with the Janata Samajbadi Party. The agreement was signed by PM Deuba in September 2017 as head of the coalition that had the CPN-MC as a partner. And the government of KP Sharma Oli had registered the MCC deal in the parliament in July 2019 after getting it endorsed by his cabinet.

It is time those opposing the deal stopped beating about the bush and spelt out what actually is wrong with the MCC. Some have been claiming that the MCC is opposed to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). If so, the people have the right to know. No one has opposed the BRI, and there is no reason why anyone should go against the MCC deal. Quite unlike previous U.S. aid, the MCC agreement is pouring money explicitly into tangible projects that are set to benefit millions of people. Its success could prompt other countries to take up similar development projects in the country. All the parties must therefore reach a consensus on the issue without much fuss in the interest of the nation and its people.

Karnali's woes

The official neglect in extending development services to Karnali zone has been so long and profound that it will take unprecedented political will to bring it into the national development mainstream.

The remoteness of the region aside, other geographical features, such as unequal ratio between population density and cultivable land, have been blamed for the tardiness in tackling poverty, inequality and acute shortage of essential services. But the fact remains that services related to quality health, food access and a good education, among others, without which nothing much could be changed in the people's attitude and lifestyle, are sorely lacking. It is a pity that even after all the rhetoric about development, decentralisation, self-governance, donations and loans that pour into Nepal in the name of the poor, they have failed to reach the real needy in Karnali.

The abject poverty that persists despite pleas made to the centre is one of the reasons behind the negative sentiments among the populace. There is need for long-term planning which would stimulate the development in this region. Continued isolation of the region will further propel Karnali into darkness.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 18, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.