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Electoral outcome and party leadership are closely tied in mature parliamentary democracies. If the party does well, the credit goes largely to the leader. If it does not, the leader assumes full responsibility and resigns. Perhaps there could be no better example of this than the case of the otherwise powerful British Prime Minister David Cameron resigning as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party after the Britons voted to leave the European Union (Cameron had made a strong pitch for staying.) In fact tradition dictates that among the two main British parties, the leader of the one that fares poorly in vital elections resigns. Not so in Nepal. It is hard to think of a single instance whereby the leader of Nepali Congress or the erstwhile CPN-UML, the country’s two main parties until recently, resigned after an electoral debacle. Most recently, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba refused to accept responsibil­ity for his party’s poor showing in the three tiers of elections in 2017, and sought to hang on through means fair and foul. This, coupled with the party’s failure as the main opposition and Deuba’s rule-by-fiat, has bolstered those in the party clamoring for change.

Those in the party calling on Deuba to make amends have gained a new voice ahead of the crucial meeting of NC Mahasamiti—the party’s second-most important deci­sion-making body after the national convention—slated for the end of November. President Deuba is said to have repeat­edly postponed the meeting as he feared his rivals would use the body to ‘gang up’ against him. He seems to have relented only after immense pressure from the party rank and file.

Deuba does not want to relinquish the top post. But at the next national convention in 2020 he is likely to get a tough competition from one of the scions of the powerful Koirala family, which has controlled the party for most of past 70 years. Also in the fray for party leadership will be veteran leaders like Ram Chandra Poudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula. As much as Deuba hates having to step down—ever—the day of reckoning seems to be getting closer. In the meantime, at the upcoming Mahasamiti meet, he will try to tweak the party statute to further centralize decision-making. The goal is to amass enough pork to pass around for his future bid for another term as party president o

 Speaking at the opening of the fourth Bay of Bengal Initia­tive for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooper­ation (BIMSTEC) Summit in Kathmandu, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said SAARC and BIMSTEC are complementary and there is no reason they cannot simultaneously succeed. He was clearly trying to assuage fear among smaller SAARC states like Nepal and Bhutan that India is promoting BIMS­TEC in lieu of SAARC. As these smaller countries see it, the reason SAARC has not succeeded is two-fold: one, India and Pakistan’s failure to agree on anything substantial and two, India’s traditional apprehension that other SAARC countries were somehow ‘ganging up’ against it.

The feeling is that India, as by far the biggest country in SAARC, both militarily and economically, and as a fulcrum around which most other SAARC countries operate, could have done more to promote regional trade and connectiv­ity, for instance by unconditionally backing the idea of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA). Even if Pakistan was obstructing regional integration, why was India then not keen on sub-regional initiatives? For instance it could have earned itself a lot of goodwill in Nepal by agreeing to let the landlocked country trade directly with Bangladesh, which is just 27 km from the eastern Nepali border?

India’s apparent reluctance to do even bare minimum to boost regional trade and connectivity in turn fueled skep­ticism about whether it was really committed to a more integrated, interdependent South Asia. And this is the same skepticism other countries have when it is now promoting BIMSTEC, comprised of five countries on the Bay of Ben­gal plus the landlocked Bhutan and Nepal. After ignoring BIMSTEC for over two decades, why the sudden change of heart? Perhaps there is a broader geostrategic component to BIMSTEC as well.

BIMSTEC, in this reckoning, is being promoted to isolate the ‘terror sponsoring’ Pakistan and to check China’s growing inroads in South Asia. At the last SAARC Summit in Kath­mandu in 2014, Nepal and Pakistan had even proposed that China be included as a full SAARC member, raising predict­able hackles in New Delhi. India has also looked at China’s catchall Belt and Road Initiative doubtfully, not the least because one of its core components passes through disputed Kashmir territories. To add to these suspicions, following the fourth BIMSTEC Summit, India is playing host to BIMSTEC military exercises. The onus is on Indian leadership to show that it has abandoned its security-centric approach and is now committed to common growth and development of this crucial part of Asia

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is com­ing to Nepal, in what will be his fourth visit, to attend the fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIM­STEC) being held in Kathman­du on August 30 and 31. This regional body is comprised of four countries from South Asia (Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and two countries from South-East Asia (Myan­mar and Thailand).According to a Foreign Ministry source, along with Modi, there is a high chance that the executive heads of all seven countries will participate. During the last Nepal-India Eminent Persons Groups meeting in Kathmandu, the Indian EPG members had also informed that Modi would be coming to Kathmandu for the BIMSTEC summit.

The source said Nepal’s emphasis during the summit will be on coming up with a BIMSTEC charter, which the member countries have been unable to agree on in the 20 years of the organiza­tion’s existence.

Kathmandu: Ruling party leaders including Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and leaders of main opposition Nepali Congress held a meeting on May 23. In the meet at the Prime Minister's residence, Baluwatar, matters related to contemporary political issues including formation of parliamentary committee, parliament regulation and interim work procedure and government's policy and programs were discussed, the Prime Minster Office shared. On the occasion, PM Oli urged the main opposition party leaders to move ahead on the agenda of formulating parliament regulation on consensus.

Ruling party leaders present on the occasion were CPN Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha, General Secretary Bishnu Poudel na leader Subas Chandra Nembang. Likewise, leaders present on behalf of the opposition were NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel, general-secretary duo Shashank Koirala and Purna Bahadur Khadka, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Bijaya Kumar Gachchahdar and Dr Minendra Rijal. RSS