FUTURE OF NEPALI CONGRESS
The Kathmandu Post
19 January 2018
FUTURE OF
NEPALI CONGRESS
Nepal has passed through much political
turmoil in the last 70 years due to the internal and external political
environment. Democratically elected governments have been thrown out of power
citing its poor governance and undemocratic acts. People had to pass through 10
years of ‘people’s war’ with much difficulty. Many people sacrificed their
lives in the name of bringing political changes in the country. The Maoists
joined mainstream politics. The King was dethroned by the first Constitutional Assembly
(CA), which also declared the transformation of the country into a Republic. A
second CA was able to draft and promulgate the new constitution.
Three tiers of elections were
held in accordance with the new constitution. The left alliance comprising the CPN-UML
and the CPN- (Maoist Centre) was able to capture majority seats in the
provincial and federal elections. Madhes based parties also performed well in
Province 2. The Nepali Congress’s (NC) performance in all three elections remained
dismal for a number of reasons. Intra-party feuds, factional politics, misuse
of power, corrupt leaders, poor organisational structure at the grass level and
deviation from BP’s political philosophy were the main reasons among others for
its political debacle. However, people have voted for them to play a strong
opposition role over the next five years.
Now, the NC is struggling to
maintain its political image in the coming days. Second-rung leaders are
blaming the party leadership and demanding party chief’s resignation for the
NC’s poor performance. It seems that not only the party chief but the other
senior leaders are equally responsible for the party’s miserable performance.
In fact, once the late Girija P. Koiral decided to abandon BP’s two pillar political
principle, the NC’s political image started going down the drain. The NC then should
have played the role of a facilitator, leaving the people to decide about the
fate of monarchism and secularism rather than following one man’s unilateral
decision. Nonetheless, it is encouraging to know that three Koiralas- Shashank,
Sujata and Shekhar- are taking initiatives to revive the NC (‘Koiralas in bid to revive Congress’,
January 17, Page 1). It remains to be seen whether their political remedy will
rectify the NC’s future political course.
Rai
Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj
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