Rebanta Bahadur K.C.

The incumbent coalition government, led by Nepali Congress (NC) president Sher Bahadur Deuba, is an outcome of KP Sharma Oli’s failure to keep intact the nearly two-thirds majority in parliament. Despite holding such a majority, Oli dissolved federal parliament twice due to intra-party rift within the then Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

Deuba’s fifth innings as the executive head has offered him both challenges and opportunities to demonstrate his able leadership at this critical juncture. Nepal has been reeling from both political instability and COVID-19-induced economic problems. The pandemic has hit the economy and social life. People are still panicking. Each day, dozens of death tolls from the pandemic are being recorded. Tourism, transportation, civil aviation, education, manufacturing industries and retail business, among others, have suffered setbacks. Protracting restrictions, including lockdowns, have made normal life of people, particularly the poor, more difficult for their survival. Suicide cases are also recorded at an increasing rate across the country.

Economic recovery

In such a situation, arranging and administering COVID-19 vaccines to all the eligible citizens, providing relief packages to the poor, reviving the economy and promoting good governance and rule of law should be the government’s priorities. Deuba's accommodative leadership, experiences and extensive international relations could play instrumental role in ensuring supply of COVID-19 vaccines from the international community, including the neighbouring countries, and dealing with the existing national socio-economic issues.

Nepal has huge potentialities for rapid national economic development. The country possesses abundant water resources for hydropower generation, scenic natural beauty and bio-diversity for promoting tourism and a large number of young and energetic human resources. Another strength of the nation is that it is located between the demographically explosive immediate neighbours - India and China.
Although the Nepali Congress has only 61 members in the House of Representatives (HoR), Deuba has succeeded in taking other political parties in the federal parliament into confidence to lead the nation at this crucial hour. This is an important opportunity for him to demonstrate his able leadership and thereby enhancing his own stature and party's goodwill and image.

NC is a party having historic legacy. It demonstrated able leadership and took leading role in the establishment and restoration of democracy, bringing the then Maoists into national mainstream politics, establishment of federal democratic republican governance system and new federal democratic constitution. Popular late leaders like BP Koirala, Subarna Sumshere, Ganesh Man Singh, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Girija Prasad Koirala had led this party at different phases of history.

Therefore, Deuba must prove his mettle in tackling the burning problem of the COVID-19 pandemic and revitalising the battered national economy. A failure to lead the nation at this hour of necessity would be detrimental to the party's legacy and its future. It is also his litmus test to demonstrate the party's efficiency and integrity towards people and nation which will determine its performance in the upcoming federal, province and local polls.

All rank and file within the NC must work in tandem to make this coalition government a success. The NC functionaries should contribute on their behalf to the nation-building task. The government should leave no stone unturned to meet people's minimum requirement to solve the problems related to the hand to mouth, healthcare, education and employment. among others. It should work more closely with international community, including neighbouring countries for the promotion and protection of people's life and liberty, and national interest.

Nasty bickering
Despite having the huge mandate, the NCP comprising CPN-UML and CPN- Maoist Centre parties had lost historic opportunity to take the nation on the path of peace, progress and prosperity. The NCP got disintegrated and reverted into UML and Maoist-Centre after the historic verdict of the Supreme Court on 23 Falgun 2077. The UML plunged into serious internal crisis. Despite arduous efforts of the second generation leaders to unite the party, it has been formally split. It suffered the nasty bickering after the top leaders were involved into blame game and war of attrition. The intra-party feud within the UML reached the grassroots and the rebel leaders have formed their parallel committees from the ward to central level.

Given the flux in national politics, the Deuba government has the onus to fix the critical problems roiling the nation. All the people need to be vaccinated so as to gain the early economic recovery. Likewise, it should let the House complete its full term. It has to show the liberal approach to maintain consensus among the key parties in order to protect national interest and sovereignty. As seasoned politician, Deuba is expected to achieve these goals and put the nation on right political course.

(Author is a post-graduate from the KDI School of Public Policy and Management, South Korea. rebantakc@yahoo.com)