KATHMANDU, Dec 18: Dismayed by poor governance and sluggish party unification process, leaders of the ruling Nepal Communist Party have come down heavily against Chairman KP Oli, who also heads the government as executive head, and urged him to mend ways.

Airing their views on a joint-political report presented by chairmen duo Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, they said the government’s performance is weak despite commanding an overwhelming majority in all levels of government.  They accused the government of failing to curb growing corruption, improve service delivery and come up with impressive programs.  

Leaders attending the party’s ongoing Standing Committee meeting, where senior leaders are divided over party leadership and its performance in the government, said that most of the 10 leaders stood against the joint-report. During Monday’s meeting senior leader Bamdev Gautam was highly critical of the party leadership.

He said the joint-report presented at the meeting lacked the basic features of a report. It was produced just to defend the government instead of reflecting the latest public pulse. Further, he accused the party leadership, mainly the government leader Oli, of poor performance.

Without mentioning who among Oli and Dahal should be named party chief in the context of Oli assuming dual responsibilities, Gautam had presented a supplementary report to counter the joint-report presented by the chairmen duo. A day after the report was presented, Oli on Sunday had responded to Gautam saying, “I would happily accommodate him [Dahal] too as another prime minister if constitution allowed.”

In response to Oli’s remark, Gautam challenged the former to revise the constitution as he already commands a two-thirds majority in parliament and introduce a dual prime ministerial system.

“Someone like prime minister should not take serious issues lightly,” Gautam said at the meeting.

Also, Gautam came down heavily against the party leadership for “assassinating his character” when way was cleared for him to contest parliamentary election from Kathmandu constituency no 7.  NCP leader Rambir Manandhar, who was elected from the constituency had agreed to quit to facilitate Gautam’s election from the constituency.
“I was forced to speak out after my character was assassinated by my own party,” said Gautam.

Other party leaders including Ghanshyam Bhusal, Ashta Laxmi Shakya, Bedu Ram Bhusal, Mukunda Neupane and Haribol Gajurel also criticized both the party leadership and the government.

“No one gives high marks for the government’s performance. You yourself are undermining the members of intelligentsia. Why?” questioned Bhusal.  

Oli, who did not respond to the concerns raised by other leaders, however said he had no intention to undermine the members of intelligentsia. “I am not against the intelligentsia,” replied Oli.

The government is facing widespread criticism for failing to book the culprit(s) of the July rape and murder of Kanchanpur’s Nirmala Panta and poor service delivery.  

Bhusal also criticized the joint-report as less constructive from ideological perspective.
At the meeting Shakti Basnet, who is a member in the Oli cabinet, was the only leader supporting Oli. Commenting on the joint-report, Basnet admitted government’s failure to work as per the expectations of the people and cited multiple reasons for that.

 
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