KATHMANDU. JANUARY 8
After the reinstatement of multiparty democracy in 1990, the interim government led by KP Bhattarai had successfully drafted the constitution of Nepal.
The people were hopeful of prosperity, development and good governance after a three-decade- long autocratic Panchayat era. However, destiny had something else in the offering. Prime Minister Bhattarai, the most popular politician at that time and a man of integrity, lost the election in 1991 and subsequent by-election in 1994, mainly due to the conspiracy plotted against him within his own party. That was the start of betrayal and immoral activities in contemporary Nepali politics.
That incident changed the entire political course of the country. Had Bhattarai won the elections, he would have led the government instead of GP Koirala. Intellectuals are of the opinion that, considering Bhattarai's credentials, the nation would have embarked on a progressive track. Contrarily, Koirala's power-appetite invited many unprecedented political events that resulted in the premature dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) and announcement of the midterm elections. The country remained in a volatile political conundrum afterwards, which provided the ideal breeding ground for the violent Maoist insurgency, uncanny prime-ministerial musical chairs and gradual downfall of the economic indicators.
The nation never attained political stability after the reinstatement of multiparty democracy till the promulgation of the constitution in 2015. This is strengthened by the fact that 27 governments were formed in those 25 years. During that time, the leaders did not display political morality and personal dignity. Any permutation-combination was acceptable for power grabbing. The politics became individual-oriented instead of agenda-oriented. The economic indicators plunged further deep down. The rest of the world swiftly raced forward, and we remained stalled at where we were in 1990 or even slipped backwards.
In modern democracy, the main recipe for development is political stability, the best example being our southern neighbour. After a long run of political instability in the 1990s, India settled itself on a course of stability in the new millennium. This stability coupled by good governance has enabled India to leapfrog ahead of its neighbours in the global arena. On the contrary, during this period (2004-2022), Nepal has seen 10 prime ministers, 15 governments and hundreds of ministers.
Alas, the political situation of Nepal did not change after the promulgation of the new constitution. The political leadership has a one-point agenda - power at any cost. There is no political morality, and the leadership seriously lacks self-integrity. The series of betrayals, opponent bashing and political misconducts keep repeating, and the people are being mere spectators.
Coming to the recent political developments, the new government under the premiership of Maoist party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, supported by the UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, other smaller parties and independent lawmakers, has been recently formed. In normal circumstances, this would not have invited a series of questions as none of the parties had attained a majority to form the government in the recently-concluded elections. Hence, the coalition government is constitutionally legal.
However, the moral ground of the government is not firm. The Maoist party had formed a pre-electoral coalition with the Nepali Congress (NC) and other parties. From the outset, this alliance was clearly unconstitutional. Some constitutional law scholars had faintly raised that point at various instances. However, the concerned authorities deliberately ignored that issue.
There is no doubt that the foundation of the pre-electoral coalition was laid on betrayal and self-centric power game. The failure of such an alliance was clearly reflected during the previous elections, the beneficiary of the betrayal that time also being the NC. Despite that, the political leaders mutually endorsed the candidates of other collating parties during the recently-concluded elections. For example, many NC candidates won the election due to the votes of the supporters of other collating parties and vice-versa. Hence, the lawmakers elected through the coalition have their moral responsibility towards the supporters of the collating parties.
Ironically, PM Dahal has utterly betrayed his voters after joining hands with the UML, against which he had contested. Despite the misunderstanding within the coalition, a leader with self-integrity should have remained loyal to his voters.
The severe outcome of the pre-electoral coalition - betrayal - has shed its colour in Nepali politics. PM Dahal had hitherto blamed K P Oli of being self-centric, autocratic and regressive. His twin attempts at the unconstitutional dissolution of the HoR were vociferously condemned. The visual bytes of Dahal's decision of not joining hands with Oli anytime soon are omnipresent. Oli's transcripts of a series of abuses and verbal bashing of Dahal are not rare, either. Still, these seasoned politicians betrayed their supporters and collating beneficiaries to dramatically form a new alliance. They didn't feel like clarifying their allegations against each other before joining hands.
A government had to be formed after the election for streamlining the general affairs of the nation. However, the present government formed on the foundation of betrayal, immortality and power bargain has catered a bad taste and has endorsed the pervasive political uncertainty in Nepal. The alliance has zeroed in on sharing the prime ministerial term between Dahal and Oli. This conveys that Nepal's longawaited political stability is still ages away.
Joshi is a senior scientist and neurobiologist at Martin-Luther University, Germany
The political situation of Nepal did not change even after the promulgation of the new constitution. The political leadership has a one-point agenda – power at any cost
A version of this article appears in the print on January 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
