Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s government completed its 100 days in office on Wednesday. Let’s start with the context leading to Oli’s return to power for the fourth time. It began with the competing desires between the chairman of the CPN (Maoist Center), Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba, then serving as interim prime minister. The NC-Maoist partnership began before the November 2022 parliamentary elections but fell apart by the time the government was to take shape. At the heart of the tussles was Dahal’s obsession with becoming the prime minister. Both Dahal and Deuba wanted to go at it first – come what may. In a dramatic turn of events one December afternoon, Dahal outsmarted Deuba. He roped in the CPN-UML and the new political outfit, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). The new party had emerged as the fourth largest party, controlling 20 seats within six months. Dahal became the prime minister backed by Oli and the RSP, but the NC wooed Dahal back, persuading him to walk out of the tripartite coalition. Dahal obliged by the first quarter of 2023, beginning a Maoist-NC partnership at the expense of the UML and the RSP. Oli did not take that lightly. The NC-Maoist government collapsed, leading to a second phase of partnership between the CPN (Maoist Center), the UML, and the RSP. Alas, this only lasted four months.
By July 2024, the general public was utterly disenchanted with the frequent changes in government. The big four – NC, UML, CPN (Unified Socialist), and RSP – invested all their energy in gaining control of power and the spoils that came with it. The NC and the UML suddenly moved closer and decided to forge a coalition government. The first and second parties coming together disregarded the norms of parliamentary democracy. A week after Dahal’s government failed a parliamentary vote of confidence, the two parties came up with an ostentatious seven-point deal that made tall promises, such as ensuring constitutional amendment. The public knew this was easier said than done but gave them the benefit of the doubt. Corruption control and good governance are long-term projects dependent on the state’s capacity to deliver, commit resources, address structural problems, and the competence of implementing agencies. The Oli-led government has failed to deliver on these commitments, like the previous governments. While some ministries have done commendable jobs, these are too insignificant in the grand scheme of things that Oli promised after swearing in as premier. Worse still, in the last week of September, the government failed to make its mark following nationwide floods and landslides, killing over 200 people and damaging private property and state infrastructure worth billions of rupees.
Let’s live and let live
As if this was not enough, a controversial businessman donated over 10 ropanis of land and committed to handing over a state-of-the-art building for Prime Minister Oli’s party office within a year, stoking criticisms from all sides. RSP Chairman Rabi Lamichhane, currently under police investigation in Pokhara as per the recommendation of the parliamentary special committee, has used the arrest as a ploy to divert public attention from the government’s criticisms. Lamichhane’s claim is far from the truth, but a section of society appears willing to buy his tactic to intimidate the court with staged public support. The government’s reluctance to investigate NC leader Dhan Raj Gurung and UML leader Rishikesh Pokharel, both implicated in cooperative scams, seems to favor Lamichhane as he loudly discredits the government. There’s a clear mismatch between public expectations and the state’s capacity to deliver within the 100-day honeymoon period. While Prime Minister Oli was upbeat during his live address highlighting the government’s achievements, the public did not quite resonate with his optimism. By the way, this precisely is the order each time there is a change of guard. Perhaps, given our national capacity to commit resources and the competence to perform or deliver on the promises made, it hardly makes any sense for governments to mark their 100 days.
