Since its founding in 1947 Nepali Congress has been led by a Koirala for 64 of the past 69 years, with only brief spells under Subarna Shamsher Rana and Krishna Prasad Bhattarai interrupting the Koirala family's vice-like grip of party machinery. So the election of Sher Bahadur Deuba as its new president is a welcome break for the oldest (and currently also the biggest) democratic force in the country. In many ways, Deuba is a self-made politician who has managed to rise to the very top of Nepali politics—he has already occupied the seat of prime minister, thrice—through his unmatched ability to cultivate loyal followers and his strangle-hold over the politics of the Far-West, particularly his native Dadeldhura district. His ability to get people in this region to consistently vote for Congress was one of the reasons he was rewarded with the post of the Congress parliamentary party leader in 1994, which in turn cleared his way to Singha Durbar. This is one way of looking at Deuba's political career.But there is a sinister side to Deuba's political persona as well. Deuba is someone who has repeatedly gone against party positions for purely personal gains. For instance, he fomented dissent in Congress in 1994, which in turn contributed to the fall of the government led by his party colleague Girija Prasad Koirala. Then, again, in 2002 he engineered a divide in the party over a dispute, again with GPK, over whether to extend the state of emergency that had been declared in the country at what was the height of the Maoist insurgency. To be fair, the authoritarian tendencies of Girija Prasad made it difficult for any independent-minded person in the party to create a space for himself; and Deuba was far too ambitious to be denied his place in the sun by the wily Koirala patriarch. So, yes, Deuba had high political ambitions and he was determined to realize them at any cost. But, then, which politician isn't ambitious? The biggest blot on Deuba's image was rather his decision to bestow extraordinary wealth and privileges on the members of his cabinet when he became prime minister in 1994—just to hold his coalition together. The expensive Pajero and Prado, the SUVs he generously gifted to his ministers to cruise around in the potholed roads of Kathmandu, had become synonymous with his misrule.
Given his checkered past, Sher Bahadur Deuba carries a lot of political baggage as he becomes the eighth president of Nepali Congress. Rumors are that he is already in talks with UCPN (Maoist) on the possibility of a national unity government under him. We advise him against such naked displays of ambition at this stage in his political career. His focus should rather be first build Congress into a strong, united force that is sound not just in its organization but also in its ideology. It would not be wrong to say that Congress party post-BP Koirala has been in an ideological wilderness. Another of his challenge as the leader of the biggest party in the country will be to try to take the disgruntled Madheshi forces into his confidence. Only when there is a semblance of political stability should he again aspire for high office. In the end, we would like to take this opportunity to wish the new President of Nepali Congress the very best of luck. We also hope that he now has one eye firmly fixed on his legacy. Both the Congress and the country need Deuba to play the role of a statesman, for a change.
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