It’s been a torrid one year for the KP Oli government. Having cemented the merger of the country’s two biggest communist outfits, and commanding over a two-thirds majority in the federal parliament, the government has created a semblance of stability in a notoriously turbulent polity. In theory, this should have helped attract the much-needed FDI and goaded our own businesses and industries to invest in job- and capital-creation. But with the federal government blasé about its woeful capital spending, despite the prime minister’s repeated assurance of swift and adequate infrastructure spending, the economy appears wobbly: there is a severe liquidity crunch in the BFIs, the trade deficit continues to tick up steadily, and economic growth has stalled. There has been no meaningful progress in big-ticket projects that PM Oli likes to talk about endlessly—rail-links with both India and China, water-link with India. The government has asked for patience as most of PM Oli’s first year in office was spent “laying the ground”. As proof, the prime minister on Feb 13 unveiled an unemployment allowance scheme and a day later, a ‘people’s hydroelectricity’ scheme. Yet there is no clear modality for either. Meanwhile, corruption has ballooned and the rule of law deteriorated. Press freedom is under threat. Transitional justice has been shelved, to potentially dangerous consequences.
Oli has tried to diversify Nepal’s foreign relations away from the two giant neighbors
On foreign policy, the government may claim success. Relations with India have been ‘normalized’ following the blockade-time low. The Oli government also seems to be in China’s good books. Further, it has tried to diversify Nepal’s foreign relations away from the two giant neighbors. As a part of this process, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali made a landmark visit to the US, even though NCP co-chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s mistimed comments on the US intervention in Venezuela severely dented the US outreach.
To give it the benefit of the doubt, it was the first government formed under the new constitution and it has had to spend most of the past year formulating laws to make the federal formula work. Yet even on law-making, progress has been slow and there has been little consultation with the stakeholders. As it enters Year Two, the government will make another round of big promises to make up for lost time. Promising big things has always been a strong suit of PM Oli. It is in follow-through that he falters.
