In a surprise move, CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) and other fringe parties have formed a coalition government, consigning the largest party in the Parliament, Nepali Congress, to the opposition bench. NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba is facing criticism over this debacle. Against this backdrop, Pratik Ghimire of ApEx talked to Congress Spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat.
How do you see the move of Pushpa Kamal Dahal?
Dahal's bottom line was that he must be the prime minister. In our party too, there were discussions on giving him the first premiership and we offered him the position at last, but he decided to go with the other alliance.
Who is responsible for such a situation?
Some leaders have resorted to social media to pinpoint specific leaders. Our party had officially decided to form a government under our leadership. As the largest party in the parliament, it was natural for us to claim government leadership. So, it is not appropriate to put blame on specific leaders. Yet, our President Sher Bahadur Deuba was lately in favor of keeping the coalition intact by offering Dahal the premiership.
Why did the Congress not adopt flexibility on power-sharing?
All leaders were on the same page that the party should claim both the president and prime minister. So, Deuba is not solely responsible for the current situation as claimed by the media and even some of our party leaders. There is a tendency to criticize Deuba. We would have faced more scathing criticism from party leaders if we had agreed to support Dahal as the new prime minister. Party leaders should realize that only a united party makes all party leaders strong.
As I said, Deuba was convinced at last that Dahal should get the premiership when the latter went to Balkot to form an alliance with UML. We even contacted Dahal and asked him to return. But Dahal said it was already late as he had made an understanding with the UML. Congress was flexible on this issue but a few leaders pressed our party president not to give away any of the important positions (to the Maoist party). They would not even participate in meetings and give their opinions publicly, thereby hampering the Congress-led ruling coalition. As a responsible party member, I had suggested to Deuba that we should be flexible to keep the coalition intact and he was positive too.
Being the largest party, Congress didn’t look prepared to be in the opposition. What will your party do now?
Yes, we were not ready as everything was moving in a positive direction. But we now have to review how this situation came about and who is actually responsible. The current ruling coalition consists of both pro and anti-federalist parties. Pro-monarchy and anti-monarchy forces are also there. This coalition has no ideological consensus, so it might break in the near future and we might return to power.
What role will the Congress play as the main opposition?
Since we are the largest party, we will make our presence felt in the parliament. We will not resort to vandalism and protests as our history doesn’t allow us to do that. In the past, we could not play an effective role as the opposition because we had a few parliamentarians who had won through the first-past-the-post system. This time, we have many of them and we will emerge as an effective opposition.
