Kathmandu: “I will resign next minute if things come under control and that all political parties extend their full cooperation to the 14 point agenda put forth by me for arriving at a national consensus on vital national issues”.
-P.M. Koirala.
” I will not resign under coercion”.
-P.M. Koirala.
These are the two statements made by nation’s Prime Minister at two different intervals but within a fortnight.
Encouraged by Koirala’s first statement, the firebrand opposition-the UML-preferred to go in for talks with the congress under Koirala and exhibited that the party too sided with him on national issues of prime concern. However, the UML remained too confident that after the consensus Koirala would resign.
The fact is that listening to the second statement and the message contained therein, the UML has fallen flat and that too very badly politically speaking.
In effect, Koirala as a stubborn personality albeit a political one and the hope against hope of his tendering the resignation and that too voluntarily were two different issues which practically go parallel.
Analysts remain bewildered thinking of the UML leaders’ poor analysing capacity of Koirala’s remarks.
Koirala critics say that what he says he never does and acts what he or his family men decide or force him to act.
If this were any clue then what could be expected of Prime Minister Koirala at this critical juncture is that if he is really pushed to the wall he would preferably first convince the King to declare emergency and thus mobilize the army to contain the threats of the insurgents. If not then he might bring out one special card under his sleeve and surprise the whole set of his enemies, both in his own party and the opposition camp, by throwing the nation to yet another expensive snap polls.
However, which one will suit him politically most perhaps it is up to Prime Minister Koirala to assess and later act.
The national tragedy is that the citizens including the political parties excluding Girija congress would wish to remain far from both the options currently that might be in the brains of the Prime Minister.
The lay men would appreciate neither mid polls nor the army mobilization through declaration of emergency, commented a local intellectual.
However, one must praise the Himalayan patience of the UML and its allies who still expect the voluntary resignation from a person who would wish to continue in power even after the end of the civilization.
It has got to be watched now as to what strategies the entire opposition acquire for Koirala’s ouster. In effect, the fight is already on and the UML has already begun to press Koirala through the use of boycott of the session of the parliament.
But will that be enough to bend Koirala? Perhaps not.