Kathmandu: Nepal’s conspiratorial politics is all set to take its tall.
A secret meeting of some of Nepal’s noted politicians/leaders is said to have taken place at Surya Bahadur Thapa’s private residence in Maligaon, Kathmandu, this Sunday.
The RPP leader S. B. Thapa is a shrewd politician indeed and hence a secret meeting at his place must have some meaning in it.
The meeting has taken place at a time when the nation has just completed two months of the imposition of the state of emergency and that most of the political parties of the nation have been demanding an end to the emergency. On the contrary, the nation’s prime minister remains undeterred and declares that he would go on in for yet another round of extension to the state of emergency.
Those who met secretly at Thapa’s place are President Koirala, an arch-rival of Prime Minister Deuba; UML’s K.P.Woli, a declared detractor of strongman Madhav Nepal of his own party and Sadbhana’s Badri Prasad Mandal who perhaps would wish to see him elevated to the ranks of the NSP’s chairman after the sad and sudden demise of Gajendra Nrayan Singh.
To recall, while RPP’s Thapa is a staunch advocator of forging an all party consensus, president Koirala has forwarded his idea of forming a sort of broader democratic alliance to get rid of the present what he prefers to call political vacuum in the face of the emergency.
What the UML prefers is not yet clear but what is evident is that the party would wish that the NC becomes more and more weak due to their never ending in-party squabbling. Woli is a key-player in UML politics. Naturally Woli would also wish that he too remain at the center-stage of national politics.
However, what the NSP’s Badri Mandal will benefit from such secret meetings at a time when his party is yet to decide the next chairmanship will take some more time to come to the open.
Nevertheless, the Maligaon meeting will have its impact on the national politics which could only be seen at time of the winter session.
Unconfirmed reports have it that the secret meeting has decided to impress upon Deuba regime to shorten the duration of the emergency; to trim the existing jumbo sized cabinet and lastly but very importantly to allow the political parties to assess the performance of the security forces at time of the emergency. The secret meeting also concluded that the security forces in some districts committed excesses.
The participants at the meet decided to request the prime minister to act as per their requests. It was also apparently decided that should Deuba rejected their sound proposals then appropriate actions against the latter would be thought of.
The NSP participant is learnt to have told the gathering that Deuba be allowed some more time. The UML stalwart apparently hinted that trimming of the cabinet was a must. President Koirala is learnt to have hinted the participants that things would go even worse if Deuba were allowed to continue. In saying so, Koirala indicated that in the present scheme of things he could be the single option.
Nevertheless, the impending winter session will be a tougher one for Deuba to handle. How he survives from the visible and invisible attacks to his “lethargic” regime will have to be watched.
The fact is that the Deuba regime is too slow and has not performed well even at time of the emergency. Intellectuals say that Deuba could have accomplished marvelous jobs in favor of the common men. But he couldn’t and hence must face the consequences.
Does this mean that Koirala will again bounce back to power? Which of the political parties will support Koirala in his clandestine move? Will a motion of no-confidence be moved by NC parliamentarians against their own party-prime minister?
The answers to all these questions perhaps hinges on how Deuba performs at time of the winter session.