Common minimum performance

A task force of the UML-NC coalition presented its Common Minimum Program (CMP) to Prime Minister K P Oli on Wednesday, reaffirming the deal Nepal’s two largest parties made in July to amend the Constitution.

This could be an attempt by top politicians to douse rising public discontent by blaming the 2015 Constitution for governance failure, and not themselves for cumulatively holding the prime ministership 9 times between them. 

On Constitution Day Thursday, Kathmandu’s mainstream press headlined what they said was politicians passing the blame on the Constitution for their own failures in ensuring stability and progress.

In a sharply critical editorial, one Nepali language broadsheet said ‘public disillusionment is turning into disgust and outrage’ against long-serving elderly men at the nation’s helm. 

‘It’s Governance, not the Constitution’ was a headline in Kantipur. ‘Ten Years after the Constitution, No Cheer for the People’, was a banner in Nagarik. Op-eds inside carried the same sentiments.

Nepal’s social media platforms are also bursting with anger and abuse against the main parties. There are signs that Prime Minister Oli and other senior coalition figures are aware that newer political entrants could ride the wave of public outrage against incumbents.

Oli has been lashing out on all fronts: against Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah, the independent RSP, opposition Maoist Centre, Deputy Speaker Indira Rana Magar, his old nemesis Madhav Nepal, and the monarchists. Mayor Balen Shah has been goading Oli, while his legion of social media followers cheer him on in cyberspace.  

Oli’s reaction has been to insist that the Constitution is flawed and needs amendments, but not to kickstart the government machinery so citizens can see visible signs of better delivery and performance before elections barely two years away. The proposed amendment to the Constitution is seen by many as a gerrymandering strategy for the 2027 election by abolishing inclusion provisions. 

Successive governments have promised clean and efficient government, but even the two biggest parties coming together have not been able to assuage public opinion. Instead, it is the populist mayor of Kathmandu who has convinced even critics that he means business by repainting bridges, lighting up streets, and laying colourful sidewalks. 

During this week’s Indra Jatra, police detained a dozen young people just because they wore t-shirts with the visage of Balen Shah, citing ‘risk to security’. Last week, Oli publicly urged his cadre to repulse anti-UML trollers on social media, ordering them: “Use every weapon in your arsenal, use yoiur mobile phones to hit back at those who oppose us.” 

In August, police arrested three people for chanting slogans against Oli and Sher Bahadur Deuba during Gaura Parva celebrations in Kathmandu. They were later released after a public outcry.

Most observers believe that the NC-UML partnership that ousted the Maoist Centre and its prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal from power in June was to protect their top leaders from two scandals involving fake citizenship and the landgrab of a vast state-owned tea estate in Jhapa. 

Balen Shah has been using his social media handles to needle Oli about the tea estate scandal. Oli and the mayor have also been going after each other about widening river corridors, and Shah bringing to public notice alleged abuse of a child worker at the house of UML MP Rekha Sharma.  

Oli is known for delivering scathing rebuttals targeting detractors, but Balen Shah’s relentless attacks appear to have rattled him. The UML appears convinced that the Kathmandu mayor and other independents have national ambitions and want to exploit anti-incumbent public opinion.

UML supporters have off late been branding the Kathmandu mayor as an “Indian stooge”, and posting on social media that his house is strategically located adjacent to the Indian Embassy.

In Parliament, the UML and the Maoists have been at each other’s throats over the word ‘violence’ referring to the armed insurgency in which 17,000 Nepalis were killed. The vociferous Maoist protests actually are a sign that the former rebels want to airbrush history. 

Maoist Chair Dahal himself is on a grassroots tour to rebuild his support base. He has predicted that Nepal could turn into the “next Sri Lanka or Bangladesh” due to the bad governance. Meaning, he is also trying to cash in on public discontent.  

The UML-NC coalition has also been trying to defuse a potential challenge from the RSP by cornering its chair former home minister Rabi Lamichhane over allegations that he stole deposits from cooperatives for his TV channel. A House investigation committee found Lamichhane had indeed channeled the funds.

“This is a moral crisis for the RSP, a party that had come into the scene with the promise of achieving the things that establishment parties have not been able to,” says political analyst Indra Adhikari.

Despite this, other RSP leaders like Swarnim Wagle and Manish Jha have interpreted the House probe findings as giving him a ‘clean-chit’. 

Adhikari says the future of the RSP would now be determined by the public’s awareness of developments as well as the role played by other leaders within the party. 

“It remains to be seen whether the RSP will cover up the deeds of its chair,” she added. “But if this had happened in a country with rule of law, he would already have been relieved of his post.”