By Our Reporter 

The present coalition government of five parties led by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba completed a year in office on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Deuba was sworn in as Prime Minister on July 13, 2021, after the Supreme Court gave a verdict against the dissolution of the House of Representatives by the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, instructing the House to appoint Deuba as the new PM.

In 12 months, the government failed on many fronts although, in the area of controlling COVID-19, it achieved success. 

Moreover, the Deuba-led government formed with a promise of correcting the anti-constitutional and anti-democracy activities of the Oli-led government continued to resort to the same activities like issuing ordinances to divide parties and giving continuity to put some constitutional bodies like the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority under the Prime Minister. It also failed to control corruption and abuse of power. 

Still, the government has claimed that it made several important achievements.  

A list of achievements circulated by the secretariate of the Prime Minister has said that safeguarding the constitution and democratic system by ending political instability and bad governance, peacefully holding the local level elections and ensuring the elections to the federal parliament and provincial assemblies are mentioned as the major achievements of the government.

Although the Nepal Rastra Bank in its latest report presented a bleak picture of the national economy, the government has claimed that it has succeeded to move the national economy on the right path. It even made an unbelievable claim that the foreign reserves increased during the tenure of the government. 

More interesting was when the exemption of customs of the import of sanitary pads was listed as one of the achievements of the government while the same provision discouraged the local production of pads. in an unofficial list received from the secretariat of the Prime Minister this evening. 

Yes, the government has indeed succeeded in conducting a mass inoculation drive against COVID-19 to all eligible citizens giving priority to saving people’s lives as the first and utmost priority of the government.

Likewise, the government said it started selling electricity to India by expanding inter-country transmission lines.

Export of Nepali cement to India, the decision to provide a monthly allowance of Rs. 5,000 to patients suffering from cancer, kidney and spinal injuries, an announcement to provide a relief of Rs. 10,000 to each extremely poor household are listed in the achievements.  

 

 Tabulation of the New Citizenship Bill in the Federal Parliament this week is also mentioned as its achievements.  

 

The government within a year has been able to maintain cordial and balanced bilateral relations with all countries and such relations have further been strengthened by adopting a foreign policy based on national interest, read the 43-point achievements.

The visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lumbini on the occasion of the Buddha Jayanti and Prime Minister Deuba’s visit to India were two important events in the area of expanding the cordial relations between the two countries. 

Top US officials’ visits to Nepal and Nepal's Chief of Army Staff’s visit to the US are two important international visits to and from Nepal. The government has reiterated its commitment to a one-China policy during the visits of several high-level from China.

Likewise, it argued that the government had become successful in maintaining economic stability by creating an investment-friendly environment and encouraging the private sector. 

Building monitoring and evaluation mechanism to expedite the pace of the works on national pride projects and a policy to push ahead the projects that promote exports are other works carried out by the government.  

 

The endorsement of the US Assistance Project Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) from the Federal Parliament had remained one of the major successful works of the government. Likewise, the decision to not accept the State Partnership Programme has been another work. 

 Initiation to distribute landowner certificates to the identified landless squatters with an announcement to provide land to half a million landless people is another important work. The decision to provide allowance to senior citizens aged above 68 years was another important task listed in the achievements.

 

Deuba facing challenges from Koirala camp within the party

 

After feeling of being cornered by party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and the poor performance of the government, the rival faction led by Dr. Shekhar Koirala presented itself powerfully before the ongoing Central Committee meeting of the party. 

The rival faction was irked by the inability of the party president to constitute party departments, which should have been done six months after the general convention, to hold elections of the sister organisation of the party and unilateral appointments in some departments challenged the establishment this time making adequate preparations.  

Likewise, the controversy associated with the involvement of unauthorized persons in changing tax rates in the budget and the initiation taken to punish the leaders and cadres close to Koirala in the name of not supporting the official candidates have also provoked the leaders of the Koirala camp to voice strongly against the party leadership.

 Before the current CWC meeting, the faction held meetings in Kathmandu. Also, the students close to Koirala demonstrated against Deuba at the party office on Monday. 

However, in the meeting, Dr. Koirala put forth his views mentioning the weaknesses of Deuba in running the parties. Moreover, in the Koirala camp, most of the leaders are against an alliance with the communist parties in the election. They said the leader-centric alliance would cause damage to the party. Leaders like Sukra Raj Shama argued that the party has become weaker because of the alliance.

Vice president Dhan Raj Gurung and party general secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa are also against the alliance. Even Mohan Bahadur Basnet, a leader loyal to Deuba, challenged to revolt against the alliance in his home district Sindhupalchowk. However, leader Ram Chandra Paudel said that alliance was essential to safeguard the Constitution and democracy. 

Likewise, the Koirala faction that had earlier decided not to seek any share in the posts, has now started bargaining for 40 per cent share, stating that the faction received 40 per cent votes in the general convention. 

A few leaders like Jiban Pariyar are exerting pressure on Koirala to seek share. Obviously, they raise their voice fearing whether the party will not give them tickets in the election to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies.