By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : On Monday, there was a mini furore here when Nepal’s 84-year-old ailing Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, a former heavy smoker who now suffers from chronic respiratory problems, was rushed to hospital with chest pain.
With just 99 days left for a crucial election that will make or mar Nepal, Koirala, who since his appointment last year has been functioning from his residence hardly ever going to parliament or his office, has been yet again advised rest by doctors.
As the head of the eight-party ruling alliance rests, time is running out for both him and Nepal.
The stern reality is that with the holiday season about to descend on Nepal in October and November, there are effectively only 70 working days left before the Nov 22 constituent assembly election.
In two months, the eight-party government has to negotiate successfully with at least six protesting groups, three of which are armed.
It has to improve the security situation, not just in the Terai plains in the south, from where there has been an exodus of government staff due to frequent extortion, abduction and killings by nearly a dozen armed groups, but in the capital itself.
On Monday, even as the chief election commissioner said the security situation had improved, there was violence and disruption of traffic in the capital as the student union of the Maoists attacked an engineering hostel and clashed with their rivals, the student union affiliated to Koirala’s own party.
On the same day, an indefinite curfew was enforced in Bardibas town in Mahottari district in southern Nepal after angry pilgrims went berserk following a dispute over parking bicycles.
Besides the utter chaos and lawlessness, the Koirala government will face a new dilemma soon: to cope with a fresh Maoist agitation.
On Sunday, after the Maoists’ critical plenum ended, their chief Prachanda made public the new strategy devised by the meet.
Though the Nov 22 election was to have decided King Gyanendra’s fate, the Maoists now feel the election won’t be free and fair as long as monarchy remains. They are therefore demanding the abolition of monarchy before the election.
“Nowhere in the world has a king ever quit his throne voluntarily or accepted a verdict against him peacefully,” Prachanda said Sunday. “The palace has become increasingly active, so have some generals of the unified command.
“There was a deliberate attempt by the parties to dilute the anti-king fervour in Nepal after the pro-democracy movement last year. So instead of November 2006, the election was postponed by a year.
“To ensure that it is held this time, we will begin a new peaceful movement.”
Prachanda has warned that if the government opposes the new protest and fails to declare Nepal a republic before the election, his party could quit the government and start a full-fledged revolt.
Going by the performance of the Koirala government and his past track record, it is highly unlikely that he will address the growing crises with credibility.
During his nearly one-and-a-half year tenure, Koirala has failed to take any action against the king, royalist ministers and army top brass for the misdeeds of the royal regime, including the use of excessive force on unarmed protesters during the anti-king protests that caused the death of 25 people, including women.
He has failed to disclose the fate of over 900 people missing in the course of the 10-year Maoist insurgency, the majority of whom disappeared after being arrested by security forces. He has refused to punish the army officers involved in cases of gross human rights violations, including running torture camps in army barracks.
He has failed to bring to justice ministers, top bureaucrats and businessmen involved in graft.
Even on Monday, a special court absolved a former tourism minister in Koirala’s cabinet seven years ago of irregularity in an aircraft lease deal, which cost the nation a loss of millions of rupees.
There is mounting resentment among his coalition partners at his high-handedness, which made a Maoist minister quit in protest and a communist minister mull his resignation.
There is growing anger amongst his party men at the way senior members have been sidelined and all power given to a coterie.
Dubbed “Nepal’s Gang of Four”, the coterie includes Koirala’s nephew Shekhar Koirala, who has risen phenomenally in the party ranks in two years, and Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, whom Koirala has steadfastly refused to sack despite his inept handling of the security situation.
Despite his failing health, Koirala refuses to delegate responsibilities or announce an official successor.
He is also delaying the unification of his Nepali Congress party with its splinter, Nepali Congress-Democratic headed by his former protégé Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Though that would be the most logical step to ensure a victory for the Nepali Congress in the election, especially with the Maoists and communists discussing the possibility of fielding a united front, the merger is being delayed by Koirala since it would see the party leadership going to Deuba after him.
Like King Gyanendra, who had a window of opportunity to restore order in Nepal when he staged his coup in 2005, Koirala too was given a second chance by fate when he became premier after the king’s ouster. He did not have to contest any election and the misdeeds, corruption and nepotism practised by his government in the past was forgiven.
However, just as the king failed to convert the opportunity, signs show that Koirala is going the same way.