Broken Alliance
Kathmandu: The adhesive that had temporarily glued the five agitating political parties fighting against regression appears to be losing its power.
Girija Prasad Koirala’s excessive “lust” for power and Madhav Nepal’s “intense” temptation for power have come to the open exposing the two stalwarts that both will not settle for less come what may than occupying the Chair that is so carefully kept inside Singh Durbar complex.
The tragedy is that the Chair for the prime minister is one and we have two competent contenders for the chair they love most.
The resultant effect is that the two political, the contenders of the Chair, have begun recriminating each other. The intensity of the words being made against each other have yet to attain a sort of high pitch but hopefully if they continue to quarrel for the chair for a day or two, the scene could be an ugly one.
To begin with, much ahead of PM Thapa’s resignation, Mr. Koirala was all set to meet the King in private. However, societal pressure, more so from the agitating students of its own faction, Koirala had to devise new schemes. The schemes were lifting up of the violence prone zone and release of some Jan Morcha leaders. The government complied and an encouraged Koirala began ventilating his feelings that what is the harm in meeting the King in private and that too one-to-one. His colleagues smacked foul in Koirala’s growing penchant in seeing the King. In effect, they all concluded that Koirala could negotiate with the King the post if he were allowed to go his way. Thus Koirala had to compress his temptations to see the King for fear of getting exposed.
Now when Thapa resigned, as per the wishes of the UML, it was Koirala who rushed to Kathmandu from his hometown and hinted all and sundry that there was no harm in meeting the King in private provided one remained true to the agreed commitments subsisting in between the coalition partners.
A clever Madhav Nepal knew Koirala’s hidden intentions and made mandatory that not a single member of the coalition will see the King in private. The coalition under the intense pressure of Mr. Nepal and the rest of the smaller parties decided not to see the King on an individual basis but instead would comply if the Palace invited them en masse. In devising this mechanism, the coalition members suspected the very credentials of the Congress and its president.
It is this binding factor that has tied the hands of Koirala or else he would have long ago met the King.
Now when Koirala has been denied the meeting, he too has some cards under his sleeve. Koirala now dismisses the agreement arrived at between the five party some one year ago that Madhav Nepal was their consensus candidate.
In a changed mood Koirala made it known in no uncertain terms to Madhav Nepal the other day that he should now give second thought to the post of the Prime Minister and that the agreement was made “then” and that the “situation” then and “now” is an entirely “different” one.
Madhav Nepal has got the message and the message is no less than a bolt from the blue to him and his followers in the party.
To add insult to injury, on Saturday evening the Indian Ambassador Shyan Saran too approached Madhav Nepal and told him politely not to dream the prime ministerial post but should make a sacrifice in the larger interest of the nation. This was an event for Mr. Nepal as if some one pulled the carpet under his feet. Poor Nepal still considers that he is in the marathon for the prime ministerial post. However, high placed personalities see meaning in Ambassador Saran’s message to the UML leader. Sources say that Madhav’s elevation to the country’s executive post will mean having the REDS in Singh Durbar and in the Jungles as well. Ambassador Saran’s subtle hint to UML leader could also be interpreted as that as a country India would also not prefer the government of the Red in Nepal for varied reasons. The developed West perhaps will toe the Indian line for explainable reasons. If it is so then it means that the chances of Madhav Nepal coming to power appeared remote if not impossible.
But then the fact is that his own strong partners in the coalition have cheated Madhav Nepal.
Madhav Nepal’s eleven months long wait for this lucrative post appears going to the dogs. But will the King accept Koirala as his next “loyal” prime minister? Question also arises will Madhav tolerate Koirala’s set up given the manner he was humiliated?
Or a new face is being searched? Who knows what is in King’s mind. Keep on guessing.