<img width="1050" height="700" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101120/637208f89c7e80680e0b5517jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>A civil society group has urged Nepal’s political parties to take action against <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-speakers-ipu-trip-slammed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">House Speaker Agni Sapkota</a>, who they say has continuously violated the responsibilities and expectations vested in him as Speaker.A day after the statement, and right on cue, Sapkota for the second time postponed by a week a scheduled session of Parliament that for Wednesday, 9 February. The suspicion is that the speaker is trying to block the ratification by the House of the controversial American-supported <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/just-do-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Millennium Challenge Corporation</a> (MCC) project.The row has <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-risks-split-in-nepals-ruling-coalition/">threatened to split the five-member ruling coalition</a>, with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress and the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) supporting it while two Communist party members of the governing alliance opposing it.The Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialists fear that Deuba may team up with the opposition UML to pass the MCC automatically leading to a collapse of the coalition. The alliance is important to the two communist parties because they broke away last year from the NCP, and are not fully ready for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/think-nationally-vote-locally/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elections</a> this year. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/maoists-backpedal-on-mcc-letter/">Maoists backpedal on MCC letter</a>, Nepali Times <figure><img width="960" height="639" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101120/637208fb9c7e80680e0b5518jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Anti-MCC protests at Maitighar Mandala and Parliament on Wednesday. Photos: MAIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure><img width="960" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101120/637208fd9c7e80680e0b5519jpeg.jpg" alt="">‘It is the institutional and legal duty of the Speaker to facilitate the placement of all bills presented by the government before the House,’ the civil society statement reads,  accusing Sapkota of holding up ratification for two years. Sapkota, a close confidante of Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal,  has used the UML’s obstruction of Parliament as an excuse to postpone house sessions, effectively blocking parliamentary discussion of the $500 million American-supported project to<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/own-goal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> upgrade transmission lines and highways in Nepal</a>. Supporters of the Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialists on Wednesday staged a street rally outside Parliament in support of the speaker and against the MCC.  Disagreement within the governing coalition prompted Sapkota to postpone Wednesday’s parliament meeting, hours before it was set to begin, to 14 February. The US has said that the project needs to be ratified by parliament by 28 February, and the Chinese have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lobbying actively against it</a> – adding a geopolitical element to the row.While Prime Minister Deuba backs the project, his alliance partners Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Moaist Centre and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Socialist) have been fiercely opposed to it.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-damages-nepals-credibility/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MCC row damages Nepal’s credibility</a>, Ramesh Kumar <img width="960" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101120/637209009c7e80680e0b551ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="960" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101120/637209039c7e80680e0b551bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="960" height="640" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101120/637209059c7e80680e0b551cjpeg.jpg" alt="">The open letter from civil society notes that the Speaker has sought to evade the Constitution and relevant laws in order to exercise executive powers since the day of his appointment, even though Nepal’s parliamentary system does not grant such powers to the Speaker.“The main political parties must immediately take action on Agni Sapkota in order to protect the values and principles of the parliamentary system,” the statement reads.  Agni Sapkota was appointed Speaker in January 2020 even though he has been accused of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/state-of-impunity,2976" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">summary execution</a> during the conflict, with cases against him pending in Nepal’s Supreme Court.Sapkota was a central committee member and leader of the underground Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) in Sindhupalchok during the armed insurgency and said to be involved in the April 2005 abduction and subsequent killing of civic leader Arjun Bahadur Lama from Kavre district.  Arjun Lama’s wife Purnimaya Lama is one of the signatories of the appeal.The district police had initially refused to register an FIR on the case, until a 2018 directive from the Supreme Court to the Kavre police to investigate the case and submit monthly reports. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/speechless/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Speechless</a>, Sewa BhattaraiThe open letter says the fact that Sapkota has continuously occupied high political positions makes it clear that the police have been intimidated while conducting investigation. “Influencing the police administration by virtue of his position of power … and by remaining an absconder on the murder case of Arjun Lama, Agni Sapkota is responsible for obstructing justice in the particular case and contributing to the general weakening of the law and justice system in the country,” the statement reads.The signatories of the appeal include Purnimaya Lama, Badri Prasad Bhusal, Bhagiram Chowdhary,  Indra Prasad Aryal, Kanak Mani Dixit,   Kedar Narshing KC, Maina Karki, Manamunishwar Acharya,  Rajan Kuikel, Sabitri Shrestha, Suman Adhikari,  Surya Bahadur Adhikari,  Sushil Pyakurel, and Yagya Raj Thapa.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/14-years-after-conflict-no-closure-in-nepal/">14 years after conflict, no closure in Nepal</a>, Nepali Times

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Nepal House speaker embroiled in MCC row

<figure><img width="2211" height="1541" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101116/6372080d9c7e80680e0b54c7jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>A much-delayed half-billion dollar US government project to upgrade Nepal’s infrastructure <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587117000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1mPNK10b4Qti4kBCQ2ZqtY">threatens to split Nepal’s governing coalition</a>, amidst indications the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587117000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3xLZatwKG1qUAKCvOP5DVb">Chinese have intensified lobbying</a> with politicians to oppose it.Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress (NC), a minor coalition partner Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), as well as the main opposition UML support the project. But it is vehemently opposed by two Communist parties: the Maoist Centre (MC) and the Unified Socialists.The strain within the coalition appears to have taken a turn for the worse after Prime Minister Deuba got wind that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-speakers-ipu-trip-slammed/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-speakers-ipu-trip-slammed/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587117000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1748mrZsIq3zaEcjwoZOZ_">Parliament Speaker Agni Sapkota</a> of the MC postponed a sitting of the House on Sunday that was to discuss the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project.After a meeting of the five coalition partners on Saturday failed to agree on getting the MCC ratified by Parliament, Sapkota called off a scheduled House sitting for ten days without informing the prime minister.Deuba is said to be so put off that he has leaked a threat to register a proposal to unseat Speaker Sapkota, and has hinted that he will push through the MCC even if it means a split in the coalition.China’s Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi has been meeting various coalition leaders in the past months to lobby against the MCC, the latest was a one-on-one with the opposition UML’s K P Oli at his residence on 22 December.Then on Saturday, just after the inconclusive coalition meeting, the Maoist Centre’s Pushpa Kamal Dahal held an hour-long hush-hush virtual meeting on Saturday with Song Tao, the high-ranking head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC).Although the conversation was said to have centred around greeting each other on Chinese New Year and Dahal being congratulated for being re-elected chair of the Maoist Centre, the timing of the online discussion on Saturday evening is seen as significant.In November also, CPC officials had talked to senior party leaders in Kathmandu to actively dissuade them from passing the American project. The deputy head of the International Department of the CPC Chen Zhao had even called the UML General Secretary Ishwar Pokhrel on 13 December to try to change his party leadership’s pro-MCC stance. Zhao also spoke to Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Unified Socialists, and the latter is said to have assured him that he would not let the MCC be ratified.Speaker Agni Sapkota has been known to be close to Beijing, and has made no secret for his opposition to the MCC, and this week was not the first time that he blocked ratification in Parliament. His predecessor Krishna Bahadur Mahara, also a close confidante to Dahal, was also publicly anti-MCC before he was removed from office in 2019 after allegations of rape.   <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1ZjFWwIUS-IjUQIDA_jTNV">China’s suspicions about the MCC</a> as being an American geo-strategic counter to its own Belt Road Initiative (BRI) can also be gleaned from Chinese academics who have been <a href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TgjzJv5skEkt6rjm9pyU8w" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">writing in state controlled media</a> as well as in interviews with Nepali portals. Wang Yiwei of Renmin University in an op-ed in October called the MCC ‘American ploy’.Besides geopolitics, the MCC has also become a factor as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dance-of-democracy/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dance-of-democracy/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2v7G-9XPUQE_b0yVvy5RP7">Nepal’s domestic politics</a> as parties try to position themselves for upcoming local government elections in May and federal polls later this year.Last week, Deuba managed to convince Dahal and Nepal to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-coalition-dilly-dallying-on-polls/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-coalition-dilly-dallying-on-polls/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3bRn0dwVnuNcGvc5nNm05E">lift their opposition to holding local elections</a> on time in exchange for keeping the coalition in an electoral alliance. Although NC insiders say they also got a commitment from them to back the MCC, the two leaders have denied this.Both say they will back the MCC only “with amendments” to clauses in the contract that they say undermines Nepal’s sovereignty.For its part, the UML has obstructed Parliament for the past six months, accusing Speaker Sapkota of allowing a breakaway group from the Nepal faction to keep their seats.Amidst all this, Deuba appears to be losing his patience with coalition partners. He takes personal responsibility for having signed the MCC agreement during his previous tenure five years ago, and fears loss of credibility for Nepal from international partners if the agreement is not ratified.Sources said that in Saturday’s meeting, Deuba actually brought up the possibility of the coalition splitting if the MCC is not passed. Deuba is gambling that an electoral alliance with the coalition is important for the MC and the Unified Socialists, both of which have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-wants-early-elections-and-why/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-wants-early-elections-and-why/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3EuLUjhgdgtlUAmjsBpP1O">weakened by their split with the UML.</a>The UML itself is now playing coy, and K P Oli has made no secret of its aim to use the MCC to split the coalition. Deuba is determined to push the MCC to Parliament even if it means getting UML support, since the NC and JSP alone do not have the numbers to ratify it.UML Chair K P Oli was a strong backer of the MCC when he was prime minister till July last year, and it was in fact his erstwhile party colleagues Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal who <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2o4JhiHrU0WJYe66eGhiHV">weaponised the MCC</a> to bring him down. Ultimately, this led to their Nepal Communist Party to split into the MC and the UML, and the UML itself later split with Nepal breaking off to form the Unified Socialists.Having been so vehemently opposed to MCC, Dahal and Nepal can now not do a 180 degree on the project. And they also have to contend with the Chinese breathing down their necks.One of the more vocal proponents of the MCC has been former Maoist ideologue and ex-prime minister Baburam Bhattarai who fell out with Dahal and is now with the JSP.Bhattarai, who also has a PhD in urban planning, tweeted on Monday: ‘The MCC is a trial by fire for Nepal’s political parties, mainly the Communists. First: Will we try to balance the US and India and China or be beholden to one of them? Second: If we do not want American support, what will we do with aid from the WB, IMF or ADB? If an American grant is untouchable, how about aid from India, China or others?’ <img width="640" height="175" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101116/637208109c7e80680e0b54c8jpeg.jpg" alt="">The $500 million project was signed in 2017 when Prime Minister Deuba led a coalition that also had the Maoists as a partner in government. The Americans have denied that the project has any military component, saying Nepal qualified for it and there are no strings attached.Increasingly impatient with delays in Nepal and irritated with what it sees as Chinese obstruction, the Americans have sent a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-row-rocks-nepals-ruling-coalition/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2Io7kTRWitTQBFQcPJndxQ">slew of high officials to Nepal</a> in the past six months, who has also warned Nepal that project approval is time-bound, and the MCC can withdraw the grant if Nepal does not want it.The project will pay to expand <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-cost-of-no-mcc/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-cost-of-no-mcc/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3ftWPiTFZ8uZospptUy9b3">Nepal’s electricity grid</a> with a 400kVA transmission line to distribute power from eastern to western Nepal, as well as export surplus to India. Nepal’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-precious-electricity-going-waste/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-precious-electricity-going-waste/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2H55BAU4KQwQs8tcmB84xz">power producers could lose</a> up to Rs142 billion annually if the electricity lines are not built to evacuate the estimated 5,000MW of generation capacity by 2025. The project also has a component to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/generating-electricity-and-cash-for-nepalis/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/generating-electricity-and-cash-for-nepalis/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1643783587118000&amp;usg=AOvVaw212arRNKdVKZSYW2VBkCRW">boost economic growth</a> through improvements in highway connectivity in Central Nepal.

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MCC risks split in Nepal’s ruling coalition

<figure><img width="1286" height="1500" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d015a9c7e80680e0a3624jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Vice president of US Mellennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Fatema Z Sumar arrives in Kathmandu on Thursday.</figcaption></figure>Fatema Z Sumar, vice president of the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), parachuted into Kathmandu on Thursday amidst a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">firestorm of protest</a> against the project that threatens to divide Nepal’s coalition government.Together with her deputy Jonathan Brooks, Sumar over the next four days will be meeting Nepal’s top politicians who are for and against the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-millennium-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$500 million grant project</a> designed to upgrade Nepal’s electricity grid and highways. The visit follows Sumar’s written response to concerns raised by Nepal’s Finance Ministry on 3 September regarding the grant. The main objective of the MCC is a 315km transmission line between Hetauda-Damauli-Butwal, important for the distribution of the 3,000MW of electricity that will be added to Nepal’s national grid in the next three years. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/why-there-is-no-foreign-investment-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why there is no foreign investment in Nepal</a> , Nepali Times <img width="512" height="461" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d015d9c7e80680e0a3625jpeg.jpg" alt="">The discourse surrounding the MCC has been influenced by geopolitical rivalries between India and China on the one hand and between the US and China on the other, with Nepal’s political parties <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/knowing-whats-good-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">weaponising the project</a> to undermine each other.Indeed, support for the MCC by K P Oli was one of the issues raised by the five-party alliance that led to his ouster in July, after which <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/deuba-5/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Deuba took over as prime minister</a>.Two months later, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-is-delaying-nepal-cabinet-expansion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Deuba is yet to complete government formation</a>,  and support and opposition to the MCC is now threatening to undermine his governing alliance. The MCC is such a political hot potato that it was not even listed in the coalition’s common minimum program last month despite Prime Minister Deuba being for it.However, critics including his main coalition partner Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoists and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Socialist) view the project as part of America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, and superseding Nepal’s Constitution.Sumar’s letter attempted to assuage both of these concerns, saying that the MCC is neither a part of America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, nor is it not above Nepal’s Constitution. However, the response added that the points previously agreed upon would not be subject to amendments, which did little to quell the growing protest, including street demonstrations. The delegation led by Vice President Samar met with opposition leader K P Sharma Oli on Thursday afternoon to discuss the project, and is also set to meet with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal (both Maoists). <figure><img width="1800" height="1200" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d01609c7e80680e0a3626jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>The delegation led by Sumar met with opposition leader K P Sharma Oli on Thursday afternoon. </figcaption></figure>The MCC compact has clauses requiring that it be ratified by Nepal’s Parliament, and that the project be completed five years after the work officially commences. Nepal had committed to ratifying the MCC in Parliament by September 2019, but the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/just-do-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">process has been deadlocked</a> by the feud in the ruling Communist Party of Nepal while Oli was prime minister.Lok Raj Baral, Nepal’s former ambassador to India, says that there has been unnecessary over-politicisation of the issue that has harmed Nepal’s international credibility."The opposition to the MCC seems to have been led by those in power who were also trying to stop the Arun III hydropower project," says Baral. “That the opinions of individual leaders dominate the discourse over official party decisions speaks to the selfishness of Nepal’s political leadership.”Former Prime Minister Oli backed the MCC after he took over from Deuba in 2017, but his main party rival Pushpa Kamal Dahal and dissidents from his own UML used provisions in the MCC that they saw as being anti-national <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/own-goal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">against Oli</a>.  <figure><img width="1800" height="1121" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141148/636d01639c7e80680e0a3627jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Now, with Deuba being Prime Minister once again, the debate surrounding the MCC is likely to put a strain on his ruling coalition, made up of Dahal’s Maoist Centre and Madhav Kumar Nepal’s breakaway CPN (United Socialist) which are opposed to the project.On the other hand, the Nepali Congress and another coalition partner Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP)  seem open to ratifying the agreement in Parliament, but they do not have enough numbers in the House for it to be successful. Deuba has been sending feelers to the opposition UML to see if it will back the ratification in Parliament. For his part, Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been saying that the MCC is a conspiracy to break the ruling alliance. However, experts see Dahal’s position on the MCC as being inconsistent and opportunistic. He went along with the project, and then <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/power-politics-delays-mcc-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">weaponised it during his power struggle </a>with Oli."It should not come as a surprise to anyone if the ruling coalition collapses because of the MCC,” says political analyst Punaranjan Acharya, who adds that it is not Prime Minister’s Deuba’s intention to go against the agreement, but  that of the “so-called” communist parties in Deuba’s alliance. "The prime minister has tried to be transparent regarding the matter,” says Acharya. “The problem is with the double-dealing leaders of the coalition partners.”Former speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who resigned from his position in 2019 following allegations of rape, said last year in a statement that he had been falsely accused for opposing the MCC. His successor Agni Prasad Sapkota has also blocked the MCC Compact for discussion on the House floor.Rastriya Janamorcha Party Chairman Chitra Bahadur KC, who is a member of Deuba’s coalition, says that the MCC will not be allowed to reach Parliament, and will not be ratified in the event it is presented before the House. “We continue to oppose the MCC, which is not even included in the coalition’s Common Minimum Program,” says KC.Constitutional expert Bipin Adhikari says it would be ironic if the MCC is not allowed to be presented before the people’s representatives in the House because of the political self-interest of the Speaker and other powerful political leaders.Other analysts insist that the political process surrounding the MCC should be moved forward in a way that the project is ratified in the House without breaking the coalition and without the party whip being applied.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/using-the-delay-in-mcc-to-dissect-it/">Putting the MCC in context</a>, Jeevan R Sharma and David Seddon

MCC row rocks Nepal’s ruling coalition

On Tuesday, leader of the monarchist RPP once again gathered on Kathmandu’s streets to deliver fiery speeches, but this time there was no arson and looting and no need for riot police to fire live rounds or tear gas.
RPP leaders demanded the release of their members including vice-president Rabindra Mishra and MP Dhawal Shamsher Rana were arrested during the violent <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/republicans-and-royalists-on-nepal-s-streets">28 March protests at Tinkune </a>which left two dead. 
They denounced the current leadership of the main parties, demanding the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-party-reincarnating-hindu-monarchy">restitution of Nepal as a Hindu kingdom</a>. They also said the government was responsible for the fatalities on 28 March because it provoked its rally with a tear gas attack even before it started.
It has now been revealed that the police fired at least 100 live rounds from high powered assault rifles at the crowd. Twenty-one of the 120 injured received bullet wounds, and most of them were bystanders and people trying to reach home. 
Tuesday protest on the Ring Road in Balkhu was much more subdued, and comparatively fewer RPP supporters showed up. The arson and vandalism in the previous protest appears to have cost some support for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-ghost-of-monarchy-returns-to-haunt-nepal">former king Gyanendra </a>especially for the anointment of medical tycoon and bank defaulter <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/street-politics">Durga Prasai </a>as ‘commander’ of the Tinkune rally.
Some monarchists acknowledge Gyanendra’s mistakes when was king 2001-2008, but say he has had a lot of time to reflect on his shortcomings and seems more disciplined and committed. His supporters have tried to build on nostalgia among some Nepalis for<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-invest-in-nepal"> domestic stability </a>and international respect that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">the monarchy</a> commanded. 
“Nepalis were promised better service delivery, opportunities for the underserved, as well as better, more honest use of state resources, but the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16992">people in leadership </a>have not been able to deliver on their commitments,” says RPP leader Prakash Chandra Lohani. “The gap between their rhetoric and reality has widened, the people feel betrayed, and the respect Nepali people had previously had for them has changed to revulsion.” 
Indeed, many commentators have warned the three main parties and their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/politics-as-usual">serial prime ministers</a> who have ruled Nepal for much of the past 30 years should address rising public anger with them, and see the writing on the wall.
‘<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">The UML, NC and Maoists</a> must introspect about their conduct,” warns Gunaraj Luitel, editor of Nagarik, in an op-ed this week. ‘These leaders for life may save themselves from simmering public anger, but they will not be able to save the system. The monarchist wave can only be dispelled when citizens are assured of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-local-election-gives-power-back-to-people">better governance</a> through <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/real-world-training-for-youth-leaders">younger leaders</a>, and reforms.’ 
Rifts between radical royals who are gunning for a return to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/mob-movement-and-mayhem">Panchayat-style absolutism </a>and moderate monarchists who favour a constitutional king have also weakened the movement somewhat. The split between the RPP and RPP-Nepal cost the royalists numbers in Parliament in 2022, and both parties denounced the violence last month, albeit shifting the blame on the government.
The irony is that the same royalists who want to scrap the republican Constitution had formed electoral alliances with the UML during the 2022 elections. RPP-Nepal chair Kamal Thapa contested the 2022 election with the UML. Thapa has not taken part in the last two rallies, saying he will only be a part of a movement under a national flag, and not a RPP party banner.
For his part, the RPP’s Rajendra Lingden is said to be hesitant to censure some of his party’s more radical royalists for fear of fissure within his ranks, despite his aversion to Durga Prasai’s role. 
Analysts have questioned why <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/old-is-still-gold-in-nepali-politics">supporters of the monarchy </a>have decided to reestablish an institution that would not ultimately have executive decision-making power. There are doubts about whether authoritarian-minded Gyanendra will be satisfied being a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13957">ceremonial king</a>. 
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-deja-vu-on-black-friday">Nepal’s déjà vu on Black Friday</a>, Sonia Awale
"The Nepali people will not accept <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/forgotten-woman-who-sheltered-communist-activists">an absolute monarchy </a>at this point of time, and both the public as well as <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">king Gyanendra</a> are fully aware that there is no other possibility beyond a constitutional monarchy," asserts the RPP’s Lohani. “The traditional monarchy’s institutional capacity might have been enough to meet the needs of feudal Nepal, but an absolute monarchy is impossible both in concept and practice in the context of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Economic-Class/waiting-for-an-industrial-revolution,784">modern day Nepal</a>.”

New year revolutions

Besides multiple <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/republicans-and-royalists-on-nepal-s-streets">street demonstrations </a>that gridlocked Kathmandu’s traffic for the past weeks, public discourse in Nepal has also been dominated by dangerously <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking">high air pollution levels</a>. Caused mostly by hundreds of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/wildfire-season-starts-early-in-nepal">forest fires </a>raging across the country, the smoke contains suspended soot particles that harms <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/playing-with-poison">human health</a>. Thursday’s rain have cleared the air somewhat, and many people will soon forget how bad the air quality was. But the time to address the roots of next summer’s fire season is now.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411060440_d1a119716a9031aadfdd611d299348d436842d376a03e664b8d773957a237524.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250411060440_d1a119716a9031aadfdd611d299348d436842d376a03e664b8d773957a237524" data-rendition-name="original" width="502" height="540" loading="lazy" alt="Wildfires"> <figcaption>EXTINGUISHED: Forest fires raging all over Nepal in the week after 3 March (above) reduced air quality, creating a public health hazard in Kathmandu and across the country. Each red dot is a fire detected by infrared sensors on the NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) satellite. But the rain on Thursday doused most of the fires (below) with more rain forecast over the weekend.</figcaption> </figure>  The reason everyone was talking about air pollution was because the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke"> smoke from wildfires</a> was visible. But much more toxic are the invisible and odourless <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-doubles-its-carbon-footprint">gases from vehicular and industrial emissions </a>which have always been there. The theme of World Health Day on 7 April this week was ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’ dedicated to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/saving-more-mothers-and-babies">preventing maternal and newborn deaths</a>. It is estimated that in Nepal, 30% of neonatal mortality can be blamed on air pollution. But that is only part of the story. Harmful as fine particulate matter is to human health, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone and other gases in vehicular emissions are more hazardous to health. While the concentration of suspended particulate matter tinier than 1.5 microns (PM2.5) is closely monitored, these toxic gases are invisible, not measured much, and the public is not aware about the dangers they pose. Surface ozone is produced by the interaction of various gases found when <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/fossil-fuels-poison-air">burning fossil fuels</a>. Besides being poisonous, ground level ozone contributes up to 0.23°C to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-mountains-are-melting">global warming</a> because it is also a greenhouse gas. A new policy brief by the Clean Air Fund titled The Case for Action on Tropospheric Ozone blames surface ozone for a half a million premature deaths every year, 54.8% of which are in South Asia. Ozone also stunts plant growth and reduces crop yields by 26% globally, and 11% loss in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/economic-benefits-of-saving-the-ecology">forest productivity</a>, the report adds.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411060456_aa02a923f8b27544ae54d0220162678f5bbb5eeb8fc3c466173c22c49b3e9a85.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250411060456_aa02a923f8b27544ae54d0220162678f5bbb5eeb8fc3c466173c22c49b3e9a85" data-rendition-name="original" width="998" height="724" loading="lazy" alt="Gas Chambers"> </figure>  Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bad-air-and-polluted-politics">Bad air and polluted politics</a>, Sonia Awale Ground-level ozone is not emitted directly into the air like other gases, but is formed when oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from automobile tailpipes or industry smokestacks react chemically with each other in the presence of sunlight. The main source of carbon monoxide in Kathmandu Valley are its 1.2 million two-wheelers. “Usually the concentration of carbon monoxide is 200-500 parts per billion (ppb), this has increased up to 3,000 in Kathmandu. Meanwhile, ground-level ozone has gone from 70-80 ppb to 150 ppb,” says Ravi Sahu, regional air quality specialist with the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).&nbsp; Sahu says <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/no-smoke-without-fire-p7vb9dcj">rampant forest fires of the past weeks</a> have also added to carbon monoxide and ozone in the air, not just the fine particles that make up the visible smoke. He adds, “There isn’t much awareness about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/poisoning-the-air-we-breathe">ground-level ozone and carbon monoxide</a>, we need to urgently look into it.” A distinction must be made between good and bad ozone. Stratospheric ozone protects living beings from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.&nbsp; Tropospheric ozone can again be separated into two types: ozone in the free atmosphere which is a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide, and ground-level ozone which has adverse impacts on health and agriculture. ‘Cutting tropospheric ozone presents a unique challenge as it requires smart and fast action across multiple greenhouse gases and air pollutants, as well as multiple economic sectors,’ notes the Clean Air Fund's policy briefing. ‘It is a growing and neglected problem that needs an integrated approach on both a local and global level to tackle climate change and air pollution together.’ Dying young There was a time when Nepal made it to international news bulletins only if there were fatalities on Mt Everest. Now, Kathmandu’s bad air frequently makes headlines all over the world. This past week, the concentration of PM2.5 that harms human health was up to 40 times the WHO recommended guideline — adding to the poisonous gases already present from vehicle emissions. The Department of Environment says 40% of the pollution in the past weeks was from wildfires sparked by nearly 6 months without substantial rain over central Nepal. Most of the rest is from vehicular and industrial emissions from Kathmandu itself and across the southern border. NASA’s Fire Information and Resource Management System (FIRMS) which issues daily maps of fires, showed hundreds of blazes raging across Nepal on Wednesday, mainly in Chitwan, Parsa and along the East-West Highway.&nbsp; “If we look at the figures for the last few years, it is clear that wildfires have become the biggest source of air pollution, they are seasonal but have overtaken vehicular emissions,” says urban planner and environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar. “Forest fires, stubble burning, and open burning of garbage are the bigger problems now. Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are at risk every year, we shouldn’t further delay in finding solutions,” warned air quality expert Bhupendra Das during an event on air pollution organised on 7 March by the Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ).&nbsp; Indeed, studies have shown that in winter 60% of the air pollution over Kathmandu is transboundary from the south, and in November it is compounded by smoke from crop residue burning by farmers in India and Pakistan blown in by prevailing winds. Forest fires are a regular pre-monsoon occurrence in Nepal, often intentionally set by farmers and herders to stimulate new grass growth for livestock. Winter rains have failed for eight of the past ten years, and this means the fires often spread out of control. The other reason for the increase in wildfires is the doubling of forest fires to 46% of the country’s area in the past 25 years. But this has happened simultaneously with outmigration, with some mountain districts losing 30% of their population between 2011-2021. With less pressure on forests for fodder and firewood, the undergrowth of community forests is loaded with dry fuel just waiting for a spark. The bowl-shaped topography of Kathmandu, Pokhara and other valleys further concentrates pollutants as they are trapped by surrounding mountains. But a year with a high number of wildfires is usually followed by a year or two with fewer incidents. For example: there were 6,537 fires in 2021 but the following year the number was down to 1,528. There were 5,216 fires last year, this year the number has already reached 1,800, and the trend is likely to be broken. Heavy rains forecast for the coming days are expected to douse some of the fires and clean up the air. But the damage has been done: Kathmandu residents of all age groups this week crowded clinics and hospitals with burning eyes, itchy throats, difficulty breathing, headaches, and dizziness. But in the longer term, soot particles that are tiny enough to jump the blood-air divide in lung capillaries do not just cause Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, but also cancers, heart attacks, strokes, birth defects and other chronic diseases. The latest Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) report by the University of Chicago shows that the annual concentration of PM2.5 in Kathmandu’s air rose from 17.87µg/m3 in 1998 to 31.33µg/m3 in 2022. Air pollution has got worse by 75% in Kathmandu in 25 years. During this time, air pollution has reduced the average life expectancy of Kathmandu’s residents by 3.5 years. According to the Health Effects Institute in Boston, dirty air is among the biggest public health concerns in Nepal killing over 42,100 a year. The adverse impact of high levels of air pollution is not limited to public health, it is seriously affecting tourism. Operators in Pokhara this week said that there were many negative online posts by visitors unable to see the famous panorama of Machapuchre and the Annapurnas even from Sarangkot. Aviation is also affected, as planes have to circle sometimes for hours burning a lot of fuel because of runway visibility being below minima at Kathmandu airport. The higher fuel cost is just passed down to customers, making air tickets in and out of Kathmandu some of the highest in the world. Kathmandu, with a population of four million, has not implemented a concrete policy to curb toxic air despite having formulated various action plans and repeated commitments by the government to protect the environment and control air pollution. The Department of Environment’s 2017 Air Quality Management Action Plan for Kathmandu put forward a policy to reduce air pollution caused by vehicles which was approved by the Cabinet, but has yet to be put to practice. The action included the immediate implementation of the Euro 5 emission standard to reduce pollution emitted by vehicles. However, Nepal has not even been able to implement Euro 4 standards so far. India, meanwhile, has already moved forward with the implementation of the Euro 6 standards. Says Ravi Sahu: “Air pollution in Nepal is not just about air pollution, it has ties to tourism, aviation, the economy so we must be prepared for annual conditions like forest fires, and this requires urgent interdisciplinary collaboration.” &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250411050452_821d09e283d8a590f1369bfb71b9b7fc6d950726e0651ea86c6488d04deb1742.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250411050452_821d09e283d8a590f1369bfb71b9b7fc6d950726e0651ea86c6488d04deb1742" data-rendition-name="original" width="839" height="784" loading="lazy" alt="Silent Killers"> </figure>  &nbsp;

What is invisible is more dangerous

82 in २०८२

Here in the mountains of far-western Nepal, the biggest threat to life and limb is gravity. Women collecting fodder fall from trees, boys grazing goats fall off cliffs, heavily loaded tractors plunge from dirt roads carved out of steep slopes. There is nothing to be done about those who die on the spot. But for the severely wounded there is only one hospital: Bayalpata. And it is there that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJzWlnYd0ZM&amp;t=8s" target="_blank">orthopaedic surgeon Mandeep Pathak</a> is the last hope for many wounded people. Pathak, 42, is too modest to tell us how many lives he has saved over the past 10 years he has worked at Bayalpata. But hospital records show he has performed more than 4,000 operations in the past decade, many of them so patients did not suffer permanent physical disabilities. Pathak also did 800 major life-saving surgeries in that time. “I treat patients with injuries, but I wish I could also treat poverty,” Pathak says, emerging from Bayalpata’s surgical theatre one recent afternoon. <div class="embed-block"><iframe width="700" height="415" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CJzWlnYd0ZM?si=s_rkbU4YDaw87gqH" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> Sudurpaschim Province in Nepal’s far-west is far away from everything: from Kathmandu, from adequate medical care, from food security, and far from the reach of government services. It has suffered state neglect for centuries, its men mainly migrating to India for seasonal work to families who depend on subsistence agriculture. Pathak remembers the searing sadness he felt when a patient once told him, “Doctor, I sold the last of my rice to pay to come here, please give me a medicine that I can take on an empty stomach.” Pathak was born in Kathmandu, and after getting his MBBS from Kathmandu University, he got an MD from The Philippines. At a time when many Nepali doctors and staff nurses were emigrating, Pathak did not just return to Kathmandu but decided to go to one of the remotest districts in Nepal to serve those most in need. The hospital was established in 2009 in the village of Bayalpata, and has been managed by the non-profit <a href="https://www.nyayahealthnepal.org/" target="_blank">Nyaya Health Nepal (NHN)</a> as a public-private partnership treating 100,000 patients a year for no fees at all. NHN is now preparing to hand over the running of the hospital to the Sudurpaschim provincial government so its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-how-to-upgrade-nepals-rural-health" target="_blank">model of hospital management</a> can be replicated.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250414130456_b59dabd4604a24426a55fe91c0e5866b5029858bdb4c4028c331557aeb5408ae.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250414130456_b59dabd4604a24426a55fe91c0e5866b5029858bdb4c4028c331557aeb5408ae" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Bayalpata hospital"> <figcaption>Bayalpata hospital in Achham.</figcaption> </figure>  People from not just Achham but surrounding districts, and from as far away as Humla, bring patients to Bayalpata, sometimes walking for days. Some with complicated pregnancies are brought in stretchers, young children with broken arms walk into the emergency, and sometimes there are mass casualties when a tractor or bus falls off a road. And Pathak is always there with his team performing triage, and doing orthopaedic surgeries that would be difficult even in Kathmandu. Recently, his team did a hip replacement at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/state-of-the-art-rural-hospital" target="_blank">Bayalpata Hospital</a>. Mild mannered, modest, soft-spoken, hard-working, professional are the words families of patients who have been treated at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-rural-lifeline" target="_blank">Bayalpata Hospital </a>use to describe Mandeep Pathak. But the surgeon is too busy to let all this get to this head.&nbsp; Asked why he does not emigrate like his peers or get a lucrative position at a private hospital in Kathmandu, Pathak answers simply, without a trace of self-importance, “I do not think I could get the satisfaction or sense of fulfilment anywhere else.” When travelling to attend medical congresses overseas or visit family in Kathmandu, Bayalpata has other doctors to take care of patients, but many wait patiently till Pathak returns for their consultation or surgery.&nbsp; When he returns from seminars abroad after learning the latest skills, Pathak’s suitcases are not full of clothes or presents, but titanium bone implants, external fixation rods, or intramedullary nails to be used in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/altruistic-healthcare-models-in-nepal" target="_blank">surgeries at Bayalpata</a>.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025041414040_5356278472c1eb2b9e4af1d593d6234cc8dc5e5161a8c614197c01abefadbd80.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="2025041414040_5356278472c1eb2b9e4af1d593d6234cc8dc5e5161a8c614197c01abefadbd80" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1368" loading="lazy" alt="surgery"> </figure>  Before Bayalpata Hospital was established, most people suffering broken bones had to travel down to Dhangadi or Nepalganj for treatment. No more. Although Pathak’s specialisation is orthopaedic oncology, he is mostly treating fractures and rejoining broken bones.&nbsp; Now as Bayalpata’s Hospital Director, Pathak also has administrative and fundraising duties. He has to take the 10-hour ride down to Dhangadi often to meet various Sudurpaschim ministries to release the hospital’s budget — that is sometimes more difficult than the most complicated surgery. Recently, he had to cancel an appointment with the Chief Minister to rush back to Bayalpata because there was a patient who needed emergency surgery. “I told myself, let me save this patient first, then I will try to save the hospital,” he recalls.&nbsp; Once, when he had to be away for a month on emergency surgery training in the US, the family of a 90-year-old woman who had dislocated her hip after falling from a staircase was waiting for him to return. Her son told Pathak: “Doctor, either put her out of her suffering, or cure her.” Pathak told him it was too dangerous to operate at her age, but the son said his mother was in so much pain it was worth the risk. The operation was touch-and-go, but it was successful. The woman who had been brought in on a stretcher, walked out of the hospital three days after the operation.&nbsp; A few months later, a 27-year-old woman was brought into the ER bleeding profusely from an arm mangled by a thresher machine. Even in that state, she was breastfeeding her baby. Pathak welled up seeing this display of selfless motherhood, as he wheeled her into surgery. She needed three operations, but now has full use of her hand. <div class="embed-block"><iframe width="700" height="415" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xJdxLD0hBqo?si=mOpM2R_DsYL88Lfg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> It is the sense of achievement from such recovery that keeps Mandeep Pathak here in this isolated village in the middle of nowhere. Bayalpata Hospital has not just saved lives, it also saves families from poverty because they do not have to take sick relatives to expensive city hospitals.&nbsp; In January, a woman was brought to Bayalpata with both hands broken. She said she had taken a fall, but Pathak did not believe her. When alone in the surgery, she finally admitted that her husband had beaten her.&nbsp; It was her husband who had brought her to hospital for treatment, but she refused to file a police report. Pathak quietly put both her arms in casts, thinking about the poverty, patriarchy and injustice in society that he is unable to treat.