Cabinet expansion

Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal has expanded his cabinet a month after assuming office. Though he had appointed three ministers from his party earlier he failed to assign two of them any portfolios because of a dispute with the Maoists over who should have the home ministry. The dispute is far from over but there seems to be a detente between the UML and Maoists, at least for now. Keeping the home ministry himself, Prime Minister Khanal today inducted four ministers from the Maoist party but failed to assign ministries to the two UML ministers. It only shows the difficulties both Khanal and Maoist Chairman Puspha Kamal Dahal face in managing internal feuds in their respective parties.



Khanal will have to persuade UML leader Bishnu Paudel, who was earlier nominated by the party as home minister, to accept another ministry instead. He seems to be interested in the Ministry of Water Resources, which he led during Dahal´s premiership, but the problem is the ministry has already been bifurcated into the Ministries of Irrigation and Energy. Whether Khanal will amalgamate the two ministries back into one to satisfy Paudel remains to be seen. Dahal has his own problems-- he has persuaded his confidante, Barsa Man Pun, to give up his claim to the home ministry and accept the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction.



The home portfolio will now be held in reserve, in hopes that the Maoist party will get it later on, for party heavyweight Dev Gurung to become home minister as per the wishes of Maoist Vice-chairman, Mohan Baidya. The number of aspirants in the Maoist party for ministerial posts is said to be in the three digits but the party will get only eleven ministries. So Dahal faces the tough challenge of maintaining a fine balance among the three rival factions in his party.



To be fair to Khanal and Dahal, cabinet expansion has always been difficult in Nepal as leaders have to accommodate the aspirations and ambitions of competing groups within any given party. So, the current complications are not unique to the Khanal government. Seen from a larger public perspective, the division of ministries and appointment of ministers hardly matters to the man in the street. What is of national concern is how quickly the government begins concentrating on its single responsibility: Facilitating conclusion of the peace process and writing the new constitution.



The UML-Maoist coalition alone cannot shoulder this monumental challenge. It will have to bring on board other political forces, mainly the Nepali Congress and some Madhesi parties that have decided to stay in opposition. We urge the UML-Maoist coalition to reach out to these parties in earnest and we also hope the NC and Madhesi parties understand that they are not in the opposition benches when it comes to peace process and constitution-writing. Each will have to play a constructive role. We want to remind them that the public will be watching them carefully.

Related story

Madhesh Pradesh: Cabinet expansion delayed amid differences amo...