Kathmandu: President of the Nepali Congress, Girija Prasad Koirala has finally honored the supremacy of the judiciary. In doing so he has once again exhibited his commitments towards a democratic order wherein the judiciary constitutes a strong pillar of the system.
Nevertheless, the manner he bowed down to the supremacy of the judiciary and the way he carried with him his party workers and some notorious leaders and the fashion in which he allowed his men to deride at the Supreme Court and that too indeed the very premises of the court does hint that President Koirala did bow down to the court but with half-heart.
That the court authorities were not that happy with what they call a sort of “show-of-strength” that was arranged by Koirala and his colleagues became clear from the fact that the spokesperson of the SC politely hinted that whatever mayhem happened well inside the Court premises were just unwarranted and unbecoming of a political party that has for decades and decades fought for the institutionalization of a system that the party itself deemed best in the world.
In saying so the SC spokesperson, Mr. Timilsina did amply hint that Koirala deliberate or otherwise made yet another blunder which apparently tantamount to yet another contempt of court.
The fact is that to clear one blunder, a second blunder was committed. How the court reacts to this pandemonium created by the congress activists Monday afternoon inside the court premises will have to be watched.
Koirala honored the court’s order should be taken as a very positive sign. However, the way he went inside the court to furnish his innocence and the manner his workers behaved inside the court does also hint that President Koirala would wish to hint the court that since he were a “high-level” political personality and thus the court too should exhibit its respect for the former while providing the verdict. He also prefers to indicate the court that any ruling by the court against him would not be tolerated. “This is a test case both for the court and I”, is what Koirala says to media men.
How the court understands Koirala messages will have to be seriously observed.
Not very surprising therefore that Koirala still considers the King his arch enemy for a variety of reasons. The reasons are best known to him only.
In Koirala’s consideration, most of the constitutional institutions still act under the influence of the monarch and that he was against that process. In criticizing the court and the King, NC President Koirala maintains that what he has been doing was his rights guaranteed by the constitution, which according to him has been twisted by the constitutional monarch after October 4, 2002.
“I am exercising my rights of the freedom of speech” and nothing more than that is what Koirala concludes. However, in the process, President Koirala forgets that while exercising his rights, he is abusing the rights of others, including those of constitutional bodies and legal authorities.
Be that as it may, Koirala appears adamant in his considerations. That Koirala is fighting alone in several fronts becomes clear from his adamancy what he has been exhibiting even after being dragged by the Supreme Court.
For Koirala, the UML, former street agitation partner, is a cheat. Deuba, understandably, is his declared rival whom he would like to see back in the footpath. The constitutional bodies have become defunct as Koirala sees it. The King is his number one detractor whom he declares that it is the King who has brought him to the footpath. His supposition is that he should have been at the Singh Durbar secretariat, which the King denied him.
All put together, what comes to the fore is that Koirala will continue to fight for long until he is installed as the nation’s prime minister. How he materializes his dream, at least for the moment, as it seems, will have to be gauged.
Koirala’s annoyance with the King is a puzzling phenomenon indeed. His repeated political attacks on the King, analysts presume, could be a design of this political personality to hint the monarch that if the latter is pleased enough then he can settle his scores secretly. If this is so then what is the harm him in granting an audience as the King has done so in the recent past. The King, to recall, has met with Surya Bahadur Thapa. If it is Koirala next then what is the harm?