Political Commentary

By P.R. Pradhan What is Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba doing? He has not been able to give the final shape to his cabinet. He is looking after 17 ministries and even the secretaries in the concerned ministries are unable to meet Deuba, which has stopped functioning of the ministries as there is the provision of the ministerial approval for any ministry’s decision. Many important works are impending due to the lack of ministers in different 17 ministries. There is the saying “morning shows the day”. Deuba’s non-performance has shown the future of the present government. The maximum tenure of the present government is just one year. In 2022, the government should hold three-level elections – local level, provincial level and federal level. Also, the government should run day-to-day affairs. The present time is not a normal period as the Covid-19 pandemic has very badly hit all the sectors. Rescuing the affected sectors including the economy is the prime job of the government. Also, controlling Covid-19 infection and preparing for the possible upcoming third wave of the pandemic are the main challenges of the government. Unfortunately, there is no sense of the presence of the government in the country. The most unfortunate part of the present government is that Deuba is also following the Oli path and decided to run the government through ordinances by escaping the House of Representatives. Deuba introduced the ordinance by making it comfortable for dissident leaders in different political parties. Deuba is the very person who had opposed the issuance of such an ordinance by the Oli led government. Along with the issuance of the ordinance, the UML and JSP have already been split. Contradictorily, the Supreme Court, which had rejected different ordinances issued by the Oli led government, has remained silent on the act of the Deuba led government. It is an example that the court is also not functioning according to the rule of law. The court, by undermining the prerogative of the executive chief of the government, rejected the wish of then prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli for a fresh election and restored the House of Representatives. The court’s verdict has amended the constitution and its role has become controversial as it has indirectly amended the constitution, which is an act of interference on the executive body’s affairs. Also, the court has proved that the present constitution is dysfunctional. According to news reports, the government has been constituted just to alter the decisions done by the previous government, including dismissing those enjoying political appointments. Such an act is to create vacancies to assign the cadres belonging to different political parties in the present alliance. After all, the government has become the venue to organize rampant loot.