Kathmandu: By time this issue comes out the tone of the gathering opposition momentum will have been set. None expected the opposition to be so poised as to pounce on the streets as they did last week on the strength of a dubious and still untraceable report of a non-news of an alleged comment on Nepal by an Indian film actor. Brakes are not surprising being applied by the major political parties to tone down the street campaigns that is by and large still to be owned up by any political party as such. Theoretically, the nine minor left parties prefer to continue the campaign. Even the UML now denounce the accompanying destruction and violence but are evidently grappling with efforts to prevent their workers on the streets. Even the congress would seem impotent in calming the situation. Lines are clearly being drawn.

Adding to this is the timing of the no confidence motion against Prime Minister in Parliament signature by his own party men. Clearly, this in-party move should have been a congress in-house problem. The use of the party committees has evidently been shunned and parliament preferred once more reflecting Girija babu’s preponderance in the party. The introduction of the motion in the parliament by his own party-men at this particular juncture prior to the party convention which is now within a fortnight away surely reflects the permanence of the rift in the congress that this will continue to reflect on party performance is clear.

Analogies may be drawn to democratic practice in England, for example, where successive TORY Prime Ministers’ Margaret Thatcher and John Major resigned from Party leadership to preserve party unity. In our context, the party machine is not to be given up to absorb opposing streams while the conflict continues in parliament. This anomaly is to effect Nepali democracy and its performance continuously. Curiously, it is the party that claims monopoly over democracy which remains the arena for such political conduct.

Neither a split nor unanimity remains the primary conduct of the majority party in government at time when organizations outside parliament press the system for major change. The mass movement witnessed so spontaneously last week is hardly an indicator of democratic health. Parliament, the elected government and the monarchy itself are being pressed in various directions and the continued presence of the agitation is hardly conducive to the overall performance of the present political establishment.