Step aside Mr Deuba

Former prime minister and NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba wants to try his luck with Baluwatar for the fourth time. Our first response is laughter, followed by anger. If this sounds a little too harsh on him, so be it. Deuba should be the last person from among senior leaders across the parties to be seeking the prime minister´s job. He has already become prime minister thrice in the past. And what is his track record in that lofty office? It´s simply indefensible. His most enduring legacy is the so-called Pajero culture, or the largesse that he doled out to lawmakers in the form of tax concessions for importing luxury vehicles. And his political career is mired in blunders. He dismissed parliament, in which his party, NC, had a majority and split that party and created a platform for his own dismissal by an ambitious monarch on October 4, 2002. "Summoned" again by the then king, he obliged him and became prime minister for the third time, only to be deposed a few months later. His second dismissal by the king was followed by absolute monarchical rule.



If Deuba had any semblance of morality left in him, he should have retired from politics once and for all after the royal putsch. But the tragedy of Nepali politics is that he is now seeking a fourth stint as prime minister. His attempt could have been forgiven if he had been elected Parliamentary Party (PP) leader of the Nepali Congress. But he has not. That means, he is rejected by a majority of NC lawmakers as their leader. Deuba and his loyalists are now arguing that one doesn´t necessarily have to be PP leader to become prime minister and they are pointing to the case of Madav Kumar Nepal. Agreed that Nepal is not the PP leader of the UML, but don´t forget that he was proposed as prime minister by none other than UML PP leader and party Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal. In the NC´s case, PP leader Ram Chandra Poudel himself is in the race for premiership. Deuba must either challenge Poudel for PP leadership and defeat him or else he must step aside in the race to become prime minister.



It´s not a question of supporting Poudel; it´s rather a question of following principles and upholding a democratic process. We have written over and again that we are more concerned about the fate of the peace process and the writing of the new constitution. And we believe that the ongoing unhealthy competition for the prime minister´s post will only diminish the possibility of national consensus. We still think that the possibility of a national consensus government hasn´t been fully exhausted; so the parties should still strive to realize that possibility. A majority-based government should be the last resort, to be explored only after everything else has been tried out.

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