Is Nepali Congress intent on spoiling Maoist honeymoon?

By Anand Gurung

The country’s oldest party the Nepali Congress (NC) squandered one of the most important day in its party calendar – the 95th B.P Koirala Memorial Day – by indulging in intra-party wrangling and hitting at the CPN (Maoist) (and the coalition government it heads) Tuesday, giving rise to speculations whether the party is in a volatile mood after being forced to sit in the opposition and intent on inviting next round of political turmoil in the country.

B.P Koirala, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal and elder brother to NC President and six-time Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, was one of the founders of Nepali Congress. Apart from the legacy he left behind as a ‘freedom fighter’ both in his country Nepal and India, the country where he spent most of his time as a political exile, Late Koirala also championed the concept of “national reconciliation”, which helped him return to the country and make peace with the then king led Panchayati regime.

It is quite clear now that Nepali Congress has forgotten the legacy left behind by the most important leader the party gave to the nation.

The dispute over chairing the parliamentary party (PP) meeting of the Nepali Congress, which had caused repeated postponement of its parliamentary party (PP) meeting, showed how the party that ruled the country for much of the past 18 years since democracy was reinstated in the country is still prone to intra-party squabbling over petty issues after suffering a convincing defeat in the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections. The incident also shows the fissures that are starting to show in the party that recently got united after parting ways few years back.

On Monday, the party postponed its meeting till Tuesday to finalise the party's parliamentary party statute, as party members were divided on who should chair the meeting.

Few spoke in favour of Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is second in party's hierarchy while others supported general secretary Kul Bahadur Gurung, eldest leader in absence of Koirala. General secretary Bimalendra Nidhi argued that Deuba should chair the meeting while other members including Dr Narayan Khadka, Narahari Acharya, Ramesh Rijal and Shovakar Parajuli supported Gurung.

But the dispute was resolved on Tuesday after Girija Prasad Koirala, handed over the chairmanship to senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Koirala expressed his concern over the dispute over the chairmanship raised in recent days, and urged the NC lawmakers not to get distracted in irrelevant issues. After presiding over the meeting for some time, he handed over the berth to Deuba and immediately left the meeting, letting everybody know about his displeasure on what was going on.

But soon after coming out the former prime minister Koirala said his party would act tough against CPN (Maoist) to make them “a democratic force”.

Koirala, addressing a function organised at B. P. Koirala Museum in Sundarijal where the leader served most of his jail term, said his party would act strong against “undemocratic activities” of the Maoist in the capacity of a responsible opposition.

Some political analysts say G.P Koirala’s relentless criticism of the Maoists is a strategy to deviate the public attention from the deep intra-party squabbling his party is mired in right now. His last-ditch effort to save the NC-led government even after his party tasted defeat at the hands of the Maoists in the polls got him in deep controversy at the fag end of his political career with critics accusing him of sacrificing national interest and democratic ideals for the sake of power. However, despite speculations that he may retire from active politics after CA election, Koirala is still active in politics and trying to dictate the affairs of his party, albeit not as forcefully as in the past. Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is hoping to lead the NC after Koirala steps aside, appears clearly irritated by it, and what was seen during the party’s parliamentary party meeting was only the upshot of that feeling.

If Koirala’s refusal to relax his iron grip over the party has irked senior party colleagues, his recent statement calling Congressmen to brace up to play the role of a “responsible opposition” prompted fierce reaction from rebel leader-turned-prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal who warned that any conspiracy to topple the government will push the country into a grave crisis.

"Some people are talking about bringing down the government in three months...six months," PM Dahal told a delegation of journalists at his official residence, alluding to a comment by Koirala that the Maoist-led government would not last more than six months.

However, in a recent interview to a newsmagazine (see Nepalnews interview section) Koirala made it clear what he meant by “responsible opposition.

“Our party will not break the iron-railings in the streets (referring to past tendencies of violent opposition street protests) and will not burn the tyre disturbing the lives of common people,” he said in the interview. “Our party will follow the peaceful and legitimate path. We will show the Maoists how a responsible opposition looks like.”
Koirala also tried to allay doubts whether NC, which was in power almost all the time since the restoration of democracy in 1990, can don the new avatar effectively.

“We will be visible in the parliament, street and the villages. Whenever the government veers to wrong path, we will oppose it,” he said in a rhetoric quite new to him. “Whether in the Constituent Assembly or in the streets, you will see our visible presence as an opposition party.”

When asked if his party will try to destabilize or pull down the Maoist led government, he simply said that the contradictions within the coalition partners are enough to pull down the government that nobody needs to hatch any conspiracy against them.

In the meantime, however, the Maoists seems to be the favorite punch bag for most senior NC leaders trying to hide their own failings which led to the ignominious defeat of the party at the polls and further humiliations it suffered as it desperately sought to retain its hold on power by trying to prevent the Maoists from forming the government.

Even leaders like Sujata Koirala, who despite being G.P’s daughter and an NC central leader, hardly has any say in the party’s matters and is sure to go into political oblivion soon, took some lame shots at the Maoists.

She blamed the Maoists of violating past pledges and said that it would soon have to bear its consequences.

Speaking in Biratnagar Tuesday where she suffered a humiliating defeat in the recently held election, the NC central leader said that although the Maoists had expressed commitment to “politics of consensus” at least for ten more years prior to the CA election, but soon after becoming the largest party in the CA it went back on their words and betrayed the NC.

That the Nepali Congress has started to throw barbs at the Maoist party not even a month after the latter took the reins of the government clearly shows how desperate the party has become. Some political analysts say at least the party should have shown the maturity by adopting the “wait and see” approach till the Maoist-led coalition government completes its, what in politics is called, the “honeymoon period”. But looking at the way things are, Nepali Congress seems bent on playing the party pooper for the Maoists. nepalnews.com Sep 10 08

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