Is Royal Palace that weak as suggested by Koirala?

December 26, 2001
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Kathmandu: The internal squabble in the Nepali Congress has apparently touched a new height.

President Girija Prasad Koirala is determined to destabilize rival Sher Bahadur Deuba’s regime come what may. In the process, Koirala is not only talking absurd but is also indirectly “irritating” the Royal Palace.

“The situation in the country is that neither the political parties nor the Royal Palace command respect from the people and hence the need for a “broader democratic alliance” which if materializes would correct the prevailing anomalies in the Kingdom”, says President Koirala these days.

In his opinion, both the Royal Palace and the political parties currently operating in the country had lost their credibility or whatsoever.

Kathmandu intellectuals remain baffled on how to take Koirala’s utterances wherein he suggests that only his “new formulae” of the formation a broader democratic alliance could bring about a dramatic change in the country which will apparently “save the democracy” which he apparently sees under threat.

However, Koirala’s new formula does not provide answers to the impending threat to democracy and is also silent from whom this danger emanates?

If Koirala’s indication is towards the King then looking at the various interviews which the new constitutional monarch granted to a number of Nepali journalists of late what becomes clear is that His Majesty will prefer not to cross the limits of the constitution.

Now if we take the King’s assurances at its face value then there is nothing to panic regarding a threat to democracy as hinted by President Koirala.

Now the people have to decide whom to believe: the constitutional monarch or president Koirala?

If one were to recall Koirala’s previous remarks regarding threat to democracy, one could easily recall that Koirala sees a threat to democracy as and when he is out of power. He sees things to have gone upside down the moment he is chair-less person.

Even his one time close aides admit that Koirala at times exhibit such funny symptoms when he is not the prime minister which implies, say his political rivals both within and without, that the existing constitution be amended in order to make Koirala the nation’s prime minister for life-time.

“‘Koirala’s new proposal of broader democratic alliance is nothing but a ploy to bring his political rival down and rebound back to power”‘ said a NC man who comfortably disagrees with Koirala’s new plan.

Majority of the NC cadres apparently have not even understood the underlying meaning of Koirala’s new plan and feel some what ashamed over how the people belonging to other political parties and the international community would take Koirala’s new plan which is nothing more than a game to bring Deuba down and that too at time of the continuing state of emergency.

Though the international community has so far not commented on Koirala’s plan, however, what is believed is that they too would perhaps first listen to the mood of the countrymen and then would decide whether or not Koirala’s plan were justifiable.

Undoubtedly, the people are not that happy with Deuba’s present regime either in the sense that Deuba apparently has made the Maoists issues the country’s single agenda. The people admit that the issue in question is but one agenda. However, the fact is that the establishment under Deuba must concentrate his efforts on other equally pressing agenda confronting the nation, for example, alleviation of poverty, health, education, price rise and above all the ever down going prestige of the country abroad.

This not withstanding, the people, wish that the petty internal matters of “power game” of the NC be settled well after the country take a respite from the state of emergency.

Retorting to Koirala’s plan, the NC thespian leader Bhattarai described Monday evening that it was nothing but a “Koirala adamancy”. He further said that there was no need for a different sort of government other than what was now in place.

This means that Bhattarai’s blessings continue to be with his mentor Deuba that concurrently means that Bhattarai wishes Deuba regime to continue for long to the utter discomfiture of President Koirala.

Last week saw a sort of war of words in between Sher Bahadur Deuba and president Koirala. While on the one hand, Koirala hinted that Deuba regime had become redundant and hence there was a need to form a entirely new government comprising of members from various political parties, on the other the sitting Prime Minister dismissed Koirala’s proposal as saying “blowing trumpet in the wrong season”. Thanks that Koirala later got Deuba’s mood and brought about a change in his former version.

All in all, Koirala could be sincere in his proposal. Granted that he means business in the interest of the nation. But then yet his indirect pinching the Palace every now and then perhaps is completely unwarranted which time permitting could boomerang his political career as Koirala must understand the fact that the Palace is not that weak as he considers it to be. As for political parties his comments could be brought under debate indeed. The fact is that the Royal Palace gains strength from the people who at the moment feel utterly cheated by their own leaders. Moreover, the Palace is gaining strength by default. If there is no performance, law and order is deteriorating, the leaders fight amongst themselves, naturally the people will direct their eyes towards the Palace considering it to be the last resort for addressing their unfulfilled aspirations and long standing grievances that remained totally neglected by the government’s of the day. It is simply very natural. It is upto Koirala himself to judge his own performances being in the government for almost all the time since the advent of this new order. Will he do so? Perhaps yes but by being again in power.

More so, Koirala must understand that any change in the government set up at this juncture might hit the military’s morale who were now out of the barracks to tame the Maoists insurgency.’