Bhagbanda politics

On/Off the Record

By P.R. Pradhan

The Nepali Congress-UML government has been formed under the guideline of the seven-point agreement inked between Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML chair K.P. Sharma Oli.

The seven-point agreement includes giving stable government ensuring political stability, amending the constitution, ending bad governance, corruption and other anomalies.

Whatsoever is written in the seven-point agreement, the two leaders have decided to share power and rule the government based on bhagbanda. The first decision made by the two supreme leaders was to recall the ambassadors assigned by the political parties in the previous coalition government – Maoist Center, Ekakrit Samajwadi Party and Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal — and assign 19 new ambassadors from the UML and NC, including two career diplomats from the Foreign Ministry. Earlier, different small political parties had also got a share in such bhagbanda politics, however, when the two largest political parties in Parliament developed an alliance sidelining small parties, the two parties also encouraged the bhagbanda politics. Unfortunately, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba are keen to share power and recruit their own men for the ambassadorial posts even by destroying the country’s foreign policy.

The two big parties have felt an obstacle in assigning their men to the constitutional bodies as the NC and UML are in the minority in the constitutional council.  Therefore, the scandal of writing a recommendation letter to the deputy speaker to the American Embassy for a visa to several people with the idea of trafficking Nepalis to the USA has surfaced. Of course, misusing and abusing the authority of the deputy speaker itself is a crime, however, until yesterday, the NC and UML remained silent and when the two parties faced a minority in the constitutional council, they made efforts to oust the deputy speaker from the post and elect a new deputy speaker from the Nepali Congress. This plan is also guided by the bhagbanda politics.

The government appointments are not free of cost. Some of the candidates who became ambassadors from different political parties’ quotas have informed that they have paid six crore rupees in advance, whereas, some of them have made public statements saying that they had paid three crore rupees in advance. Even in getting the constitutional posts, the candidates have paid an attractive amount in advance to the parties in the government.

The Nepal Electricity Authority cut power off to different industries which refused to pay electricity dues for years. If commoners delay paying the electricity bills, they are punished with heavy fines but the Prime Minister used his excessive power to resume electricity lines to the industries. This is an example of abuse of authority by the PM by taking the side of those industrialists who are exploiting the government coffer.

The two big parties inked an agreement at midnight when Bechan Jha, who had escaped in India, was arrested by the Indian police and handed over to the Armed Police Force of Nepal, the supreme leaders of the two parties were scared, according to news reports. The fake Bhutanese refugee scandal could have surfaced and Oli and Deuba were supposed to be exposed in the scandal, therefore, the NC-UML government was formed, many analysts believe. 

The nation’s economy has been ruined as the country has fallen into a trade trap. At any cost, the government should import luxury goods to meet the customs revenue targets. In this regard, the government is unable to facilitate local industries and local products. The government has totally failed in protecting local farmers, and industries, and encouraging local production. Today, Nepal solely relies even on agricultural products. Due to government intervention and turning government undertakings into political recruitment centers, all of them have been ruined. The government is unable to introduce a practical policy for the revival of those already shut down government-owned industries causing unemployment problems in the country. Hence, the government is insisting youths to go abroad for dirty and risky jobs.

We witnessed jatra (perversion) in the provincial governments along with a change in the federal government.

As the present coalition government is also involved in bhagbanda politics and unable to curb rampant corruption, we don’t see any hope of improvement.

Indeed, all these acts of the two big political parties have proved that the system has already failed and an alternative political system is necessary to save the nation.