To try to explain away the failings of Nepali Congress, the main opposition, by saying that it is a ‘divided house’, would be unfair on the previous generations of its lead­ers. Congress has always been a divided house, right from its founding in 1950, when the strong personalities of BP Koirala and Subarna Shumsher Rana repeatedly clashed over the party’s future course. Its other founding fathers like Tanka Prasad Acharya, Dilli Raman Regmi and Ganesh Man Singh were also frequently quarrelling. After the 1990 political change, feuding started between Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Girija Prasad Koirala. Then, in 2002, the breakaway faction of Sher Bahadur Deuba would form a separate party. It is true that current senior leaders like Deuba, Ram Chandra Poudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula are constantly at loggerheads. Relatively younger leaders like Gagan Thapa and Biswo Prakash Sharma are vying for greater space, even as the old guard looks to hang on. But again that is nothing new. Also, even when divided along personality lines Con­gress had been able to play the role of an effective opposition to previous post-1990 communist governments.

 

That the party is failing in its role as an opposition is evi­dent enough. For instance when the communist government presented its annual policies and programs, curiously, it was the MPs of the ruling parties who were criticizing it in the par­liament, and not opposition MPs. Moreover, Congress leaders have not grown tired of invoking the specter of ‘communist dictatorship’, which in any case has been a hard-sell, rather than do what they are supposed to: take up people’s liveli­hood issues and hold the government to account.

 

“Congress is yet to emerge from the state of shock resulting from its humiliating electoral defeat,” says Bishnu Sapkota, a political analyst. “This shock seems to have bred an inferior­ity complex among the Congress rank and file, which makes them reactive rather than proactive.”

 

Perhaps this defeated mindset explains why Nepali Con­gress, instead of setting the agenda as the main opposition, finds itself in an uncomfortable position whereby its leaders are having to take up the course recommended by the hand­ful of anti-establishment voices expressed in popular media.

 

Right now the country has no option but to rely on Con­gress to play the role of a responsible and responsive opposi­tion in other to keep the government honest. This is the time for Congress leaders and MPs to set aside differences and collectively work to enhance the party’s opposition role. If not, both the country and their political careers will suffer o