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 Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada’s announcement on February 12 that the government was slashing the annual budget by nearly 10 percent was only the final confirmation of the headwinds facing the Nepali economy. The plan of bringing in two million foreign tourists during Visit Nepal 2020 has been badly hit by the coronavirus scare. Chinese folks, who were expected to make a big contribution to Visit Nepal, are now staying put in their own country. Nepali banks that had invested heavily in hospitality in anticipation of the Visit Nepal tourist bump now fear their loans could sour. Inflation is already a worrying 6.4 percent, and given the turbulent state of the Indian economy, could further rise. Foreign aid and grants are down.

But perhaps the biggest problem is, once again, the government’s failure to spend. In the first six months of this fiscal, just 15.4 percent of the allotted capital budget was spent. Likewise, only 29.9 percent of the budget under ‘financing’ head was put to good use. The Oli government likes to talk up its focus on ‘big ticket’ infrastructure and yet of the Rs 10 billion allocated for the national pride projects, only 19 percent was spent. Yet while announcing the revised budget on February 12, Khatiwada sounded an optimistic note. He said the government still expects to spend over 80 percent of the capital budget, over 90 percent of the financing budget, as well as meet its growth (8.5 percent) and inflation (under 6 percent) targets.

Khatiwada pointed to the narrowing trade deficit and the healthy performance of the agriculture sector as reasons for optimism. He also cited higher spending on roads, hotels and hydropower as further cause for cheer. Yet Khatiwada surely knows Nepal’s economic fundamentals are still astray, starting with its perennial inability to spend. Despite PM Oli’s commitment to root them out, cartels and syndicates still sit atop all important sectors. The government has looked on helplessly as chicken farmers artificially increased poultry prices by killing off chicks and burying unhatched eggs. Nor has the government been able to crack down on dilly-dallying contractors.

The Nepali economy seems to be on autopilot. The government, and its cerebral finance minister, it appears, could not do even the bare minimum to gin up the economy, in what is turning out to be among the signature failures of the mighty two-thirds communist government. or SAARC as two regional bodies have dif

 The editors present at the prime minister’s residence in the Feb 4 get-together at Baluwatar were all struck by a sudden change in the PM’s voice-tone. Normally given to hectoring his audience, that evening, he seemed to be in a mood to listen. His replies were mild too, gone the acerbic edge. It was easy to guess why. PM Oli is soon undergoing another kidney transplant. He fears that as his mobility and functioning could be restricted in the case, it would be wise to placate or neutralize his enemies before he reenters active politics.

KP Oli is in no doubt that, boosted by a new kidney, he will be at the helm for another three years of this government’s remaining term, as he admitted to the editors. He must also be feeling quite humiliated at having to make big political concessions to his co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal. For instance, despite his old stand against the election of Agni Sapkota as the new speaker of the federal parliament, he had to bow down before an un-budging Dahal. He has also faced a lot of flak from inside his party over the American MCC compact, again largely from the ex-Maoists.

Oli seems to realize he can only lose by going on the offensive when his political hand is weakened and his health is again iffy. He rather appears minded to bide his time. This is perhaps why he has of late been unusually soft spoken, even with the press folks he usually takes to task. Maybe this is also why he agreed to the leak of the photograph that shows him playing a bansuri, to suggest that the hardheaded politician also has a ‘soft’ side.

KP Oli has made astounding political comebacks even when all hope seemed lost. He had developed a debilitating kidney ailment much before he became the party chair, much less a two-time prime minister. So his determination to make yet another comeback should not be taken lightly.

But will his charm offensive work? He may have removed some doubts of the participating editors at his Tuesday meeting. But the doubts will soon start resurfacing as he will remain the executive prime minister who presides over an ineffective government, whether or not he can rule from Singhadurbar post-operation. His time-buying tactic could come to be seen as another cynical ploy to cling to the PM’s chair. Besides, he has his hands full with the unfolding Lalita Niwas fiasco

The week-long Nepal Communist Party Central Committee meeting that kicked off in Kathmandu on January 29 was overdue. The party statute provisions for the CC meeting every six months. But the ongoing meeting is only the second since the formal unification of the two largest communist forces in the country some 20 months ago. On paper, the 441-member Central Committee is the party’s second most powerful decision-making body, after only the General Convention. Yet the committee was virtually defunct as the two NCP chairmen, among them, made nearly all important decisions. What they could not agree on, they got done via the nine-member Secretariat.

The Central Committee plays a vital role in strengthening the party organization and in energizing the grassroots. But the NCP Central Committee could not convene, first, because the two chairmen and the Secretariat did not consider it necessary. Second, the former UML and Maoist members could not settle their differences. Twenty-long-months after the formal unification, the NCP is still a divided house. One notable division is over the American MCC accord, which is sure to create a stir in the Central Committee meeting too. The ex-UML leaders, for instance, are more amenable to the accord’s parliamentary endorsement than are the ex-Maoists.

It will be interesting to see how such ideological debates play out on the CC floor. Another big ideological debate concerns whether the new party has gone too far down the capitalist road and whether the time has come to rein in the excesses of its senior leaders. Maintaining party control over the functioning of the federal government, which is widely seen as underperforming, will be another area of focus.

Perhaps the leaders and cadres of the newly minted NCP can take comfort as the main opposition, Nepali Congress, is arguably even more divided and chaotic, and the NCP has no serious electoral challenger on the horizon. But that isn’t saying much. The CC meeting would have achieved a lot if it can send out a clearer message of unity, an assurance that the bitter divisions between the UML and Maoist parties of the yore have been narrowed if not bridged altogether. (Announcement of the ‘Unity General Convention’ for April 7-12, 2020 could be step in that direction.) In that case, many other issues will sort themselves out for the political behemoth with 800,000 active members.

 This is a cold-cold Nepali winter, with chilly days forecast well into the next few weeks. Sporadic deaths have been reported from the Tarai as those without concrete homes struggle to keep warm. In fact, this is a tragic yearly occurrence. This winter, eight people have lost their lives, en masse, for a different reason. To fight the cold, they had locked themselves into a room with a gas-heater on. The eight Indian nationals, including four minors, who were staying at a resort in Daman, Makawanpur, reportedly asphyxiated to their deaths.

Common sense would dictate that you never go to sleep with a heater on and all the doors and windows shut. In fact, the Indian tourists had no intent of doing so. But when the little children could not sleep because of the biting cold, they were forced to ask the hotel for a gas heater. Although they had booked four rooms, 15 people of the touring party had all huddled into two to keep themselves warm. But why weren’t there enough heating arrangements in a hotel at one of the coldest holiday destinations in Nepal?

This isn’t the first time foreign tourists have died from asphyxiation in Nepali hotel rooms. In December 2013, two Chinese tourists passed away in a hotel room in another popular tourist destination of Nagarkot on the outskirts of Kathmandu. A suspected cause was leakage of gas from a bathroom heater. Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism has set up a probe committee to find out whether there was any negligence on the part of the Daman resort owners where the eight Indians died.

In fact, this should be a wake-up call. A minimum requirement of warm blankets and (working) air-conditioners or some other heating alternatives should be mandatory for all hotels. Apparently, the electric blankets in the resort in Daman had failed to warm, whereupon the tourist party had to ask for a ‘big heater’. There can hardly be a frequent traveler inside Nepal who has not had to put up in cold and dank hotel rooms with filthy bedsheets and blankets. As more and more tourists are coming to Nepal, there is a risk of the hotels and resorts cutting corners to adjust more guests, often by compromising on safety and sanitation. Let this Visit Nepal Year also be the year that our hotels and guesthouses were made safe for all travelers, in all seasons.