BIKRAM RAI
There is a visible and not so visible turf war going on among the top leaders in the three big political parties. Although mostly the result of personality clashes, the protagonists give the impression that it is a struggle over principles and future direction of their parties.
Back-stabbing and intrigue has always been a part and parcel of intra-party politics in Nepal more than anywhere else. As always, internal rivalries are more serious than competition between parties. Many of these squabbling leaders, in fact, seem to have more in common with figures outside their party than those within.
In the Nepali Congress, it is even uglier:
Sushil Koirala the prime minister is playing second fiddle to Sushil Koirala the party president. He is more focused on managing the party than running a coalition government and facilitating the constitution-writing process. His rival in the party, Sher Bahadur Deuba is in a deep sulk.
NC Vice President Ram Chandra Paudel, for his part, feels he has become collateral damage in the Koirala-Deuba war. Paudel now wants to fight for the post of party president at the next general convention of the NC – a threat hurled at Koirala who, Paudel claims, backed down from making him NC’s “acting president” despite promising to do so.
In the UCPN (Maoist), what we see is just the latest bout in the chronic tussle between party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and former vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai. The most immediate cause of Bhattarai’s disaffection (and that of another former vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha) began when Dahal filled PR nominees for the Constituent Assembly mostly from among his own loyalists.
Since then, both the ex-es have discovered that the party needs a “transformation”. While Shrestha is somewhat low key in airing his displeasure, Bhattarai has launched social media and op-ed broadsides against Dahal.
Bhattarai also talked about establishing a “new power”, bringing together like-minded “progressive democrats” from other political parties. What he left unsaid was that he wants to lead this new political force. What he also does not mention is that the idea is borrowed from his former colleague, Muma Ram Khanal and others.
In Biratnagar, Bhattarai called Dahal “a Stalinist”, and he did not mean it as a compliment. Perhaps in Putin’s Russia, this is an honour, but Dahal was quick to retort: if he was Stalin, Bhattarai would be in a Gulag by now.
When daily headlines oscillate between imminent party split and the two factions nearing agreement, it is hard to say which way it will go. It is looking more and more like a love-triangle between the Dahal, Bhattarai and Baidya factions.
Things are strangers still in the CPN-UML. Two leaders who are ideologically on same wave-length (Madhav Kumar Nepal and K P Oli) are both hospitalised, and both have chosen strange bedfellows: those with whom they had sharp differences in the past. Nepal is courting the support (and so far seems to have it) of Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal while Oli has teamed up with Bam Dev Gautam. During the last CA, Khanal and Gautam were closer to the Maoist-Madhesi alliance while Nepal-Oli were effectively aligned with the opposition NC.
Despite his health, Oli has declared his intention to fight for the party’s top post. Many who see themselves as the next generation party chiefs are on his side and no prizes for guessing why. Nepal is younger and also wants the
top job.
All this is distracting attention from the job at hand:
writing the new constitution, as second and third-tier leaders are drawn into the intra-party power struggles. The CA still does not have the 26 nominated members even six months after the election. There is an intense faction fight over who should be nominated, most of whom will be from party ranks and not accomplished non-party individuals. Positions in the Supreme Court, the National Human Rights Commission, Public Service Commission and ambassadorships are up for grabs.
Because of the centralised power structure and the monopoly in decision-making by the top leaders of the three parties, the internal power struggles have paralysed governance. Younger, idealistic leaders within all three parties have been reduced to being helpless spectators.
@damakant
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Editorial