The overall performance of the government has been dismal. After the UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Rastriya Swatantra Party quit the government, some of the key ministries were left without their heads. As a result, the works of the ministries and their line agencies were affected. At one point, Dahal was in charge of 16 ministries.
In the first week of January, a week after taking charge of office, Prime Minister Dahal issued a 30-point directive to government secretaries, urging them to take immediate steps to improve service delivery at government offices. He went so far to give a 30-day ultimatum to the secretaries to make the services smooth or face action. The slew of instructions did little to change the historically sluggish bureaucracy of Nepal. Prime Minister Dahal declared at an event on Wednesday that his government was on track to deliver better services to the people and that they will get better after the Cabinet expansion. He also assured that he will remain in power for a full five-year term, even though his coalition partners, NC and CPN (Unified Socialist), have been saying that there will be a change of premiership after two years. The new coalition government is busy giving final touches to its Common Minimum Program (CMP), but there is little hope that it will buoy the people who burdened by inflation, high cost-of-living, unemployment, and failing economy. Prime Minister Dahal and his key coalition partner Sher Bahadur Deuba of the NC have yet to show the political willingness to address the problems that the country is facing today. The ruling parties are busy in talks for the expansion of the Cabinet, and there are doubts that Dahal can manage the 10 parties and deliver good and stable governance. Since being elected the prime minister, Dahal has spent most of his time in political negotiations and attending public programs here and there. He hasn’t provided enough time to look after the affairs of the ministries under him. The ongoing Cabinet expansion talks will likely cause a serious discord inside the Maoist and the NC because there are many ministerial aspirants, says one Maoist leader. He fears the government’s time and energy could be spent on managing the disputes within and between the ruling parties in the days to come. The Dahal government has also failed to provide business to Parliament. Raghuji Pant, leader of the opposition party, UML, says the House is without business not because of the lawmakers, but because of the government and its ministers who are neglecting Parliament. The government did recently present the bill to amend transitional justice laws, but it is facing stiff opposition. Similarly, the Dahal government has also not taken any measures to address the problem faced by the country’s judiciary, which is without its head for a long time. On foreign policy front, too, Prime Minister Dahal seems undecided. Two of Nepal’s key neighbors, India and China, have been closely following the activities of this government, but Dahal so far seems content managing the internal power struggle. He is expected to visit India soon but the date has not been fixed yet. After his India visit, the prime minister is likely to visit China—then again, nothing has been decided so far. Soon after the formation of the government under Dahal, there was a flurry of visits to Nepal from high-level officials of major countries. But the government could not create an environment of trust to attract foreign investment and assistance. Despite the increased visits and interests of major powers, Nepal’s foreign assistance is declining. Even after three months in power, Dahal has not even appointed a foreign policy advisor, which says a lot about his attitude toward international relations. Political analyst Puranjan Acharya says it is hard to be optimistic about the Dahal-led government. The main thing, he says, is that Prime Minister Dahal does not have a strong mandate to lead the government because his party polled third in the general elections. Despite strong backing from the NC, the largest party in Parliament, it is hard to believe that this government can bring positive changes, he adds.
