Kathmandu:- Yet another change in government appears as imminent possibility after Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand’s 22 man cabinet faces a near unanimous allegation of non-performance in its hundred days of formation. Cabinet members, on the other hand, privately complain of a reluctant bureaucracy staffed and manipulated by previous parties while the bureaucracy has gone vocal with complaints of interference and ignorance on part of government members. At another level, as expected public demanding performance has gone public with their frustrations regarding seeming compromises in the politics of the cabinet- even the widely lauded anti-corruption campaign has been compromised, they complain.

There are grains of truths in all these charges. Yes, the government does seem to be meandering. There are elements ignorant of the bureaucracy’s functioning no doubt. Vested interests in the bureaucracy, on the other hand, would be reluctant to cooperate. Rule of law must apply in even the anti-corruption moves. All these do apply. Nevertheless, the government must move and the overall assessment is that it has been disgustingly slow at best.

The effects of such an assessments on the expected masses has in case been positive. This has been fueled by a partisan press enthusiastically playing upon the general frustrations. News is dominated by the critical opposition parties who take up the frustrations gleefully as a basis to work upon. There is not much other public activity in defense other than the speeches of which one is being asked to take too much. The public at large has more than demonstrated their expectant mood in the turn out at the Biratnagar royal rally. The party demonstrations against the royal move has been limited in participation to party-workers alone. There is considerable agitation within the party ranks at the belligerent standpoints of their leaders which even party workers complain is much removed from public reality. And, yet, there is no denying that the government has failed to cash in upon this public reality to galvanize mass support for programs which seem virtually non-existent with government.

This is what is damaging. If Badri Mandal of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party, as deputy prime minister, nurture his party under the current government, why can’t the Cabinet nurture the public. There is no parliament to restrict it. There is the King to back it. There is an opposition exhausted. And there an expectant public. The virtual absence of any program at the public level is the source of public frustration. Although a hundred days would not seem too much, this honeymoon is over. Lokendra’s days are numbered.