Kathmandu: Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa’s strategy is clear. His previous positions in and out of power should have made it clearer still. That his predictable standpoints were not foreseen points out to a glaring anomaly in our decision making process that has not surprisingly been put under scrutiny at this critical juncture of Nepali politics.
Prime Minister Thapa has said in clear words that his appointment is squarely the King’s responsibility. Last week, in bold words to the Nepali media Thapa says that only the “angel of death” (read YAM RAJ) can relieve him of his current post. The comparison with the use of the term Yam Raj to the person or institution that can dispense with him must be noted as an unfriendly threat since it is the King that will sack him.
In clear terms, if precedence of Thapa politics is any clue, Surya Bahadur Thapa will not resign. He has used these very words in explaining his position and in equally clear terms Thapa will exit by wreaking damage.
For those predicting his longevity, the scheduled SAARC Summit January 2004, becomes a landmark. As Chairperson of the SAARC, Thapa will logically be allowed to transfer the Chair at Islamabad also because he has toured the region in preparation of the event.
Those predicting his fall from power can’t but recall His Majesty King Gyanendra’s five point program last year charging the government formed under Article 127 with specific responsibilities for which the Thapa government has hardly succeeded.
Indeed, if his predecessor Lokendra Bahadur Chand resigned on grounds of his lack of success, Thapa should have done so at the very outset when his small unrepresentative cabinet could not woo participation from any other party. Lokendra’s cabinet had better representation despite the fact that the major mainstream parties outside the RPP and Sadbhavana refused to participate.
Thapa’s links with at least a section of the now agitating parties may no doubt have helped defuse the agitation itself. But the agitation hardly served to solve the Maoist problem and regardless of the subterranean linkages promising electoral participation, chances of peaceful elections taking place become remote.
Clearly thus, the appointment of Thapa to government has helped him, firstly, to organize for himself and secondly, to forge his linkages with the agitating parties for elections. All this at the expense of the King who has virtually been targeted by the agitators with no suitable response from a government appointed by the King. Those predicting his fall will have gazed this as adequate reason for his dismissal. None but the Thapa coterie have gained in the past months of his office. Of course, there is the non-transparent gains provided by Thapa to his “unseen” partners.
Continual discussions on the retention or dismissal of Thapa in the political media make the monarchy the unhealthy focus of current politics for which the Thapa government is squarely to be blamed. Until this dubious strategy is made to fail chances of real movement towards an effective solution will be made further remote. It was this crash partisanship in more overt terms over the years that helped accumulate the current problems in the very first place.