History on a Loop
It is not amusing anymore how in this space week after week we are recounting the political horrors of the past two decades only to realise that history is repeating itself as a farce.
Oftentimes, it’s the same actors, the same alliances and the same bargains. 20 years ago this week the page 1 story by Binod Bhattarai titled ‘Deuba’s gamble’ might as well have been written today.
The then second-time prime minister had completed his first 100 days in office, but was far from making peace with the Maoists as he had promised. After a delayed jumbo cabinet formation that was an excuse to hand out rewards for his supporters, his government failed to perform once again, and to silence his critics, Deuba was gearing up to announce local elections.
The circumstances could not have been more similar to today. Before the Chief Justice controversy was brought to the forefront, Deuba was once again looking to announce early polls to divert attention away from his own incompetence, and the growing discontent within his Nepali Congress about party leadership. Sound familiar?
Excerpts from the report from issue #67 9-15 November 2001:
When Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba took office four months ago, he told everyone he had one goal and one goal only: to make peace with the Maoists. And sure enough, he struck a truce with the rebels and went about systematically trying to lure them out in the open.
Deuba was, and is still, gambling on a negotiated settlement so that he can bask in the political glory of being a peacemaker. For a while, it looked like he had a strong hand, but lately he has started frittering it all away. To shore up support within his party, Deuba doled out ministerial portfolios to just about everyone. The cronies were happy, but the 41-member cabinet was an unpopular move.
It was the combined support of Koirala-bashers in the Left and the Right that helped Deuba oust Girija in July. Now that the honeymoon is over, the main left UML is getting impatient. It brought together an everyone-except-Congress meeting on Tuesday, and the message was: “We can’t expect much from Deuba anymore on talks with the Maoists, we’ll forge a unity of all non-Congress forces.”
Deuba now wants to announce local elections immediately after Tihar to stave off moves to unseat him. Koirala controls the party’s organisation and its vote banks, he would like to use elections to get Deuba out. Chakra Bastola is another Congress MP who is disillusioned with Deuba. “The government is wasting time,” he told us. “It has nothing to show, it’s just bragging about the Maoists not having killed policemen after the peace process began.”
From archives material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: www.nepalitimes.com
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