By Our Reporter

The present coalition government of the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML formed with a message of maintaining political stability and with a commitment to amend the constitution is on the verge of collapse within 10 months of its formation without initiating any process to amend the constitution.

On Monday, there were imminent signs of the government collapse after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli cancelled the cabinet meeting which was supposed to appoint the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank. News reports had it that NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba gave an ultimatum to Oli to appoint the governor in 24 hours, and Oli did it by appointing Bishwo Paudel as the governor on Tuesday. For now, Oli avoided the risk of losing the government.

Nepali congress leaders and lawmakers fed up with the working style of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli openly criticised the PM in the parliamentary party meeting of NC on Saturday. They urged party President Deuba to rethink giving continuity to the Oli-led government. Although Deuba tried to console the lawmakers in Saturday's meeting, he exposed his ire against Prime Minister Oli on Monday.  Deuba reportedly warned Oli not to call the Cabinet meeting if it would not appoint the new Governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank. As a result, PM Oli cancelled the weekly Cabinet meeting on Monday.

After cancelling the Cabinet meeting, Oli invited Deuba for a meeting, but the latter outright rejected it. When PM Oli himself tried to visit Deuba at his Budhanilkantha residence, Deuba told Oli not to visit him. Media reports have it that Deuba gave an ultimatum of 24 hours to appoint the new governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, which is without a Governor since April 4 after the retirement of Maha Prasad Adhikari. When Oli agreed to meet Deuba's demand, the two leaders held a meeting on Tuesday morning, paving the way for the appointment of governor.

Earlier, NC and UML had agreed to appoint NC's candidate to the post of Governor, but PM Oli had been dillydallying in the appointment. NC forwarded two candidates—Dr. Gunakar Bhatta and Dr. Bishwo Paudel to the post—over the weeks. When Oli denied appointing Bhatta, Deuba forwarded Paudel. But Oli again delayed to begin the appointment process. Many NC leaders argued that Oli would not hand over power to Deuba in the next 14 months referring to the incident.

Powerful and popular NC leaders like Gagan Thapa, Shekhar Koirala and Bishwa Prakash Sharma have been strongly criticising the government for its poor performance. The high-level mechanism of NC and UML formed to support the government has already become defunct after NC leaders Thapa and Purna Bahadur Khadka stopped attending it.

The relations between the NC and UML leaders went sour after the school teachers' Kathmandu-centric protest, which the men close to Oli said was organised in the support of NC's two general secretaries—Thapa and Sharma.

When Deuba refused to meet Oli on Monday, NC leaders including Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak held a separate meeting at NC vice president Purna Bahadur Khadka's residence on Monday evening.

It seems now that the government may collapse at any time soon if Prime Minister Oli did not correct his activities. When the relations with NC leaders have already turned sour, it will not be easy for Oli to fix the relations if Deuba gets angry again. If NC withdraws support, he may try to woo the Maoist Centre, and if he fails in the mission, he can even dissolve the parliament, because the constitution and law matter less for PM Oli.