Party politics in education sector By Manoj Kumar Karna Former prime minister and co-chairman of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” shared a news link of a vernacular in his Facebook account on 7 April, entitled “Prachanda is the legendary man of the world revolution, the lion does not need to roar amidst the sound of wolves”. This report reveals the secret agreement between Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, another chairman of CPN) and Prachand to lead the country towards ‘socialism’ in the party and in the government turn by turn. The report gives credit to Prachanda for unifying then Maoist Centre with then CPN-UML. It has two gist: ‘It is a political dishonesty of the two-thirds majority government led by Oli to overshadow the weaknesses of the government which stands on the base of sacrifice and promise of Prachanda, a dynamic leader’ and ‘even in the former faction of the then CPN-UML, the leaders are publicly criticizing the Oli government on its performance’. The report’s main purpose is to praise Prachanda’s line which claims all the political parties in the country as full of corrupt people. This columnist reminds some events such as the then Youth Force’s corruption complaint filed at the Commission for Investigation on Abuse of Authority (CIAA) against Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Prachanda on exploitation of the then PLA’s amount provided by the Nepali government in those days; the tape record episode of very Mahara who had asked huge amount of money to retain the Maoist government or the Mahara’s latest extra-marital scandal with his own office staff woman; the Nepal Rastra Bank’s denial on transfer of millions of foreign currency received without source belonging to Prachanda in the past are some examples to characterize political transparency of Prachanda, wherever and however it exists. The term ‘socialism’ which Prachand and his other ministers usually repeat in the media, however, the sole intention of these leaders is to ‘highjack’ the country’s politics through education, party-ideology and economy. How the then Maoists plan to hijack the country through university and education, the recent activities of the former Maoists reflect. Many newspapers published the educational policy of the union minister of Nepal, Girirajmani Pokharel, based on his recent interview to the Rastriya Sambad Samiti (RSS) in the second week of March. He is the pro-chancellor of Tribhuvan University and other many universities also. His interview is based on education policy in Nepal broadly at three levels age group students in his language which are up-to lower school level, class 12 level and for campus level students who pursue higher education. His interview focuses on principally how to appoint teacher in schools, how to make effective teaching to produce salable Nepali students in the market, what to do about teachers’ license in the huge demand of teacher at school level, the recruitment of volunteer teacher at school and so on. He claims in the interview that he has proposed a far better system of evaluation of the student than the grading system of Kedar Bhakta Mathema and he further denies that the government has done anything careless in the evaluation pattern of the educational bodies to increase the pass percentage of the student. Over these matters, the education minister counts the acts National Education Policy 2076 BS, Free and Compulsory Education Act 2074 BS, National Science & Technology Act 2076 BS, the Ten Years Plan of empowerment of the community schools 2076-2085 BS and so on. The fact is that a country’s policy must not be guided or influenced by particular party’s politics and ideology. The minister’s frequently used term ‘socialism oriented education’ and his ‘concern’ how to bring a drastic change from 80 percent only theoretical teaching and course nature to maximum practical and student-centred with his proposed plan are both politically coloured which a reader knows while reading the interview thoroughly. A reader of his interview gets confusion as minister Pokharel claims ‘finishing’ politics from universities and educational institutions but himself appoints the university authorities who are closed to the ruling party or say Nepal Communist Party. This is nothing but ‘capturing’ the fort. The current NCP seems very happy to enjoy till it remains in power anyhow. The Oli government is probably sleeping when the Prachanda faction blames all the rest political parties as irrational and financially corrupt. However this language never means that the ministers in the Oli cabinet are very transparent as a whole. No and never, and the constitutional bodies against corruption are expected by more than average Nepali people to take action against such corrupt ministers at union or province level. The serious matter is that Prachanda seems irresistible and restless without transferring the premiership from Oli to him. It is also very diagnosable that some efforts of Prachanda in the NCP is to capture the party and the government to attest a pace in the path of his political ‘socialism’ which he and his faction’s ministers use to talk occasionally. TU is the oldest and the only central declared university. Its plan and policies are independent and the role model for rest of the universities. In such case, the government has ‘captured’ the TU by appointing vice-chancellor, rector, registrar, chief of the service commission of TU, member-secretary of the service commission, almost all deans and directors in which the then CPN-UML has helped the education minister by all ways. There arise some questions, such as: does former CPN-UML defers with the former Maoist Center and is the Prachanda faction really intended to finish democracy and freedom in the country, for which, they are planning to start it from universities  and educational institutions? Is the Oli faction aware about such a plan of those former Maoists in his party? If not, why Oli has permitted the education minister to perform his monopoly in the education sector?  (The writer is the lecturer in the Patan Multiple Campus, Patandhoka)