Submit your Article

Kathmandu valley could again be locked down in the third week of December as the festive season winds down. The mayors of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur as well as the chiefs of smaller local-level units in the valley have suggested the same. They fear the covid situation in the valley—with now nearly 100,000 covid-positive cases, and close to 500 deaths—is getting out of hand. Anecdotal evidence suggests unreported cases will easily outweigh the reported ones. Without a more active intervention, the number of positive cases could explode and the valley’s hospitals be overwhelmed.

The local bodies’ leaders have asked the federal government to ramp PCR testing as well as contract-tracing. They also want additional hospital beds for serious patients. We hope the government, everyone from the prime minister down, is listening. The six months of the previous lockdown could have been used to drastically reduce virus-spread had they been coupled with mass testing and more effective contract-tracing. Yet most federal, provincial and local representatives appeared content to do nothing more, as if they expected the pandemic to die down with time. Protests erupted against the draconian measures aimed at curbing freedom of movement, even as the government seemed clueless of the end-goal.

With millions of livelihoods on the line, people are in no mood for another protracted lockdown. The authorities must hence come up with a clear roadmap on mass testing and contract-tracing—and a set timeline. Many started flouting the previous lockdown and other restrictions when they sensed the government’s indifference to their fate. After not working for long, they also got increasingly worried about their livelihood. Heavy-handed police interventions to force people into their homes or to arbitrarily fine the rule-breakers were counterproductive too.

Make no mistake. It won’t be easy to convince Kathmandu folks to again agree to hole themselves up in their homes—for any length of time. The government messaging is important. Can it convince them about its seriousness this time? If not, the government should brace for another revolt, more ferocious this time. The previous lockdown’s lesson was clear enough: you cannot take people for granted. 

It’s not for us to say whether Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli should resign. The party he jointly chairs with Pushpa Kamal Dahal has near two-thirds majority in the federal lower house and Oli was chosen the prime minister as its parliamentary party leader. At least until the next elections or so long as the Nepal Communist Party remains intact, the party has legitimate claim to the top post. And choosing the prime minister is undoubtedly the NCP’s sole prerogative. Yet the media and the people also reserve the right to pass judgment on his government.

The Oli government has been a disappointment. It promised so much, and delivered so little. From the wretched state of the national economy to the abysmal handling of the Covid crisis, its failures are a legion. This is partly why there is disquiet in the ruling party. The shoot-from-the-hip Oli was never going to be universally popular in the NCP. Yet his rival factions would have been silenced if people had expressed their faith in Oli’s leadership. As it is, the intra-party rifts threaten to tear the NCP apart.

PM Oli on Nov 4 accused rival factions in his party of conspiring to unseat him and reaffirmed his commitment not to resign under any condition. Meanwhile, his chief rivals like Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal have had enough of Oli’s ‘go-it-alone’ attitude. And these in-party disagreements are once again threatening to boil over. Dahal and Nepal are both canny politicians who will not miss a chance to pull Oli down. Yet they justly accuse the prime minister of mishandling the pandemic, of enriching his cronies, and of ignoring (even mocking) healthy public criticism. Oli has also been reluctant to share power even though his party espouses ‘collective leadership’.

The prime minister has two options. Either he has to accept the charges levelled against him and resign. Or, if he is determined to stay put, he has to mend his errant ways and justify his continued government leadership. At least that is how things work in a healthy democracy. Oli must show through his deeds that he is accountable to the people and the parliament. People elected him to power for more than his oratory skills.

It’s wrong to say former UML and Maoist factions remain intact in the ruling Nepal Communist Party. These old factions are in fact losing their salience as new ones develop. Right now, the tussle is between a faction under Prime Minister KP Oli and an emergent one of Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal. This was expected. The party has, as a whole, been copping the blame for PM Oli’s governance failure, be in corona-control, medical education reform, economic development, or implementation of federalism. 

Despite these failures, the party would still be more united were it not for PM Oli’s unilateral ways. For instance, he reshuffled the cabinet earlier this fortnight with little consultation with Dahal and Nepal, and once again packed vital ministries with his cronies. The appointment of Bishnu Poudel, someone implicated in a widely reported land scam, as the finance minister was galling. The new bone of contention is PM Oli’s diktat to provincial NCP parliamentarians for the removal of Karnali Province Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi. The attempt was foiled when leaders Dahal and Nepal instructed the Karnali MPs close to them to reject the no-confidence motion tabled against Shahi. 

The prime minister’s direct orders to provincial MPs for Shahi’s removal belie the spirit of federalism. And it was another instance of PM Oli’s attempt to bend the party to his will. The latest ructions in the NCP, coming right on the eve of Dashain, again indicate the difficulties of a rather unnatural marriage between communism and democracy. The prime minister would like to run the NCP as a top-down communist party, but he cannot. This is because he shares party chairmanship with Dahal and internal democracy is enshrined in party charter. The prime minister’s alienation of senior party leaders and his failure to govern during a national medical emergency are not signs of a stable polity.

PM Oli’s repeated attempts to prolong his tenure not by the dint of his service to the country but through internal party machinations will be costly for Nepal. If nothing else, our government head will continue to be consumed with internal party dynamics when all his attention should be on tackling one of the biggest calamities the country has ever faced. 

Most Nepalis will greet the country’s biggest festival that kicks off on Saturday, October 17, with a strange feeling. We have largely been holed up in our homes for well over eight months—and there is no respite in sight. True, the lockdown has been lifted. But that does not mean much when you are constantly reminded of the potentially deadly enemy by the ubiquitous masks and sanitizer bottles wherever you go. The whole family effectively quarantined for months, it’s also no holiday-time.  

If this was the end of the pandemic, perhaps half of us would immediately leave the country. People are dying for novelty of a foreign place and culture after the stultifying conformity they have had to endure for most of 2020. (Oh, what a dastardly year.) Those who can’t afford foreign holidays would leave for Nepal’s favored labor destinations to kick-start their migrant-worker careers. But, as things are, most of us won’t be venturing anywhere far.

Whether or not you mark it as a religious festival, Dashain has always been tantamount to fun. Visiting your ancestral home, eating and drinking, playing cards, bonding with loved ones—it’s the time you forget individual woes and take part in collective celebration. This year, things are different. Many have abandoned all celebration plans. Others are not venturing beyond their homes. Some say they will put ‘e-tika’.

And where’s the money to buy new clothes and appliances? Forget Dashain bonus, most working Nepalis are getting only a fraction of their salary, if at all. Hundreds of thousands have been laid off. Indeed, what is there to celebrate? And how can you celebrate when your friends and relatives are constantly falling sick and even dying from the pandemic?

But we human beings are strange. For the next fortnight, many of us will try to forget we are in the middle of a raging pandemic. We will pretend Durga Mata will look after our health and wellbeing. And we will eat and drink like there is no tomorrow, if only to drown our sorrow. APEX has absolutely no problem with your personal celebration. Just make sure your actions don’t harm others. Stay home. Stay safe. Wait for a better tomorrow. It will come.