Kathmandu: Rumors have been floated that Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa upon return from his SAARC junket will expand his cabinet to accommodate some RPP members in order to pacify the opposition in the party prior to his attendance at the party disciplinary committee.
His cabinet members namely ministers Kamal Thapa and Prakash Chandra Lohani, on the other hand, have taken a belligerent stand on the party leaderships’ demand for a resignation and the mobilization of the mass media to disseminate the belligerence is considered meaningful in the accommodation process.
How much Thapa will win away support from the party leadership will perhaps influence his coming reaction. If the going is good a split that gives the RPP-Thapa real impetus will occur. If, on the other hand, the compromise is real, the cabinet will have non-Thapa RPP leadership.
But this appears remote going by hectic groundwork being done in other sections for an all-party cabinet that is also expected to include the RPP. That the exercises have begun would seem real in light of even RPP activities following the demand for the Thapa resignation from government. Indeed, sources say that the party leadership precipitated independent action from the Thapa coterie in preparation for the coming elections. This is as much indicated by the immediate rounds currently being undertaken by cabinet stalwarts and the vociferous outpouring of wrath against the party leadership being conducted by cabinet members.
Also to be watched is the subtle support provided to the Thapa cabinet by the Girija faction of the congress. Former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is also undertaking organizational tours presumably in preparation for the elections.
At another level, G.P.Koirala continues to head the four and a half party coalition threatening a tenth-phase of agitation against the Royal move of October 2002. Significantly, the threatened tenth phase has yet to have a coherent programme and Koirala’s leadership of the threatened movement appears to be suddenly challenged by the separate parleys being conducted by the UML’s Madhav Nepal.
Indeed, confusion among the agitating leadership suggests that a change in approach may be forthcoming particularly in the UML which appears to be also stalling its party rift in the process. The standpoint now in the UML is an all-party government with the UML participation and somewhere it is lost that the stalemate occurred because of Madhav Nepal’s claim to cabinet leadership and so it is possible that the UML will join a cabinet led by some other who can forge a more representative cabinet.
The pressure on the monarchy for a suitable compromise has nevertheless continued. The tenth phase of the agitation remaining a threat at the moment has a rallying point, it seems, in the constitution of the Constitutional Council.
It is noteworthy that Prime Minister Thapa initiated media discussion on the seeming dispute between the King and Council by leaking to the media the fact that the King was sitting on his (Council’s) recommendation of Bhoj Raj Pokhrel, a former Secretary. Thapa then distanced himself from the controversy by claiming that he had yet to submit the recommendations and then allowed judiciary members to demand the feeling up of the vacant constitutional council positions. And, now it is the none other than Girija congress Speaker Tara Bhat who leaks to the public the King’s private advice for more such names included in the recommendations. Legal interpretations and public discussions rally the cadre on the King overstepping his constitutional limits and there is a concerted effort to press the judiciary-the prime minister, the Speaker and the Chief Justice are sole members currently making the recommendation.
It is however, significant that the partisan discussions on the affair purposely keep light away from the PM’s nominee Bhoj Raj Pokhrel. He is a former civil servant intrinsically linked family and otherwise to the Girija coterie and his previous records deserve scrutiny given the evident Royal reluctance.