-Narendra Choudhary, RPP
Kathmandu: The RPP is a mess at the moment.
Internal political rivalry has weakened the party from within and the squabbling appears will continue for long and will take its toll.
Clearly, two diametrically opposed theories prevail in the party.
The section led by the party chairman, Pashupati Rana has already demanded resignation from its party leader, Surya Bhadaur Thapa, on grounds that the leader has not been able to muster support for an all-party government as per the royal instructions.
Prime Minister Thapa says that he is not accountable to the party and that since he has been appointed straight by the monarch and thus he is only answerable to the King and the people.
His detractors in the party summarily reject Thapa’s new theory saying that King Gyanendra lifted Thapa’s ranks to the current post simply because he were a RPP leader.
Thapa dismisses this theory and has in clear terms hinted that no force on earth can unseat him from the current chair and that he can’t even imagine of tendering resignation.
Thapa’s blunt words have dismayed and frustrated the other camp which has been demanding his resignation unconditionally.
In the process, the party, say insiders, is experiencing a grave threat even to its existence as a party.
However, the lone Terai RPP’s elected leader and former Zonal Commissioner of the Bagmati zone, Mr. Narendra Kumar Choudhary, out-rightly rejects the notion that the RPP will see a vertical split on account of the present crisis.
Talking to this scribe Mr. Choudhary says: ” The party will not split come what may. But then the prime minister should resign on the solid grounds that he has failed miserably in carrying out the instructions provided to him by the King at time of his appointment as the nation’s prime minister. He should comply to the demands of the majority of the party men in order to facilitate the formation of a sort of an all-party government which in essence is also the demand of the five agitating parties including the UML and the Congress”.
Mr. Choudhary who is also a member of the disciplinary committee formed apparently to tame the Prime Minister says, Thapa’s reiterating that he is not a man picked up for the current post by the King from the party and hence he is not obliged to listen to the party’s dictates, is a mistaken thought nurtured by the Prime Minister.
Asked what if Thapa doesn’t resign, Choudhary says: ” he has to resign or else the King would do the needful taking into consideration the RPP’s decision that is very much similar to the demands pushed by the five agitating parties”.
Choudhary remains confident that Thapa will tender his resignation upon the completion of the SAARC events slated this January in Islamabad.
When asked how you think of the government’s plan to go in for elections at this troubled period, Choudhary opines that “since the situation is not favorable for obvious reasons and since the government has also not consulted the party in this regard, I think the whole affair pertaining to the elections is a political gimmick in order to ensure longer tenure in government”.
Asked how the prime minister has responded to the party’s disciplinary committee, Choudhary says that the prime minister has assured the media men, instead the party, that he would respond to the queries of the said committee upon his return from Dhaka and Maldives. Thapa’s right hand man, minister Kamal Thapa, too has hinted that Prime Minister will reply the overtures of the RPP’s disciplinary committee.
This means that Thapa has demeaned the role of the party’s committee, which again means that Thapa cares little about the party directives.
When further pressed as to what if Thapa does not resign, Choudhary said that at best the party will submit a petition to the King reiterating that Thapa henceforth does not enjoy the party’s backing and support.
This would, adds Mr. Choudhary, apparently facilitate the King to go in search for yet another prime minister who could form an all-party government at the center which is today’s need.