Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has completed six months in office. He was appointed the prime minister for the third time with the backing of the CPN-UML on Dec 25 last year. But the coalition didn’t last long due to a dispute over the presidential candidate, which brought together the current coalition of Dahal’s party, CPN (Maoist Center), and the Nepali Congress. On Thursday, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers issued a 44-page long progress report of the Dahal government in the last six months. Naturally, the report talks about various achievements of the government. It makes no effort to ease the general concern regarding government stability. There is still no certainty that the current coalition will remain intact for the next five years. It took more than five months for Prime Minister Dahal to give a complete shape to his Cabinet due to the change in coalition. There is no guarantee that the current coalition will remain intact.

Prime Minister Dahal is in constant fear that the NC and other coalition partners could pull out their support to his government at any time.

In these past six months, the government has also failed to bring stability to bureaucracy. There have been frequent changes of government secretaries and other high-level officials. If the prime minister fails to ensure that this coalition will remain in power for five years, the bureaucracy, which is highly politicized, will not cooperate with him. This non-cooperation will impact the government’s delivery. So far, Prime Minister Dahal has spent most of his time attending formal programs and inaugurations, instead of closely working with bureaucracy to improve governance. The only positive of the Dahal government, says NC youth leader Shankar Tiwari, is that it has taken the much-needed initiative to fight corruption. After weeks of uncertainty, it seems that the government is on the right track and the NC is fully ready to back this government, he adds. Regarding the rumors about government change, Tiwari says that there is no immediate chance of that happening and that the NC is happy to sit back and support Prime Minister Dahal. NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba is also not in favor of changing the government, though the party’s general secretary, Gagan Kumar Thapa, has said that the government could change. In order to keep the coalition intact, Prime Minister Dahal has addressed the dissatisfaction of CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, who were displeased with the monopoly of the NC and the Maoist in the government and the budget planning process. The passage of the budget also shows that the government is secure for now. Perhaps this is why the government came up with its progress report, touting a long list of accomplishments. But the situation on the ground has not improved. We can see long queues of service-seekers in the government offices. Country’s economic situation is turning from bad to worse despite the government's claim that there has been some improvement. Lawmaker and noted economist Swarnim Wagle has warned that though Nepal is not at risk of becoming the next Sri Lank, the country could still plunge into a serious debt trap. The report says that the government has achieved success in addressing the issues such as high-interest, devaluation of Nepali currency, pressure of foreign exchange reserves, but economists are not convinced. The Dahal government has drawn some appreciation for not interfering in the investigation of big scandals like fake refugee scam and Lalita Niwas land grab case. It has claimed that the policy of zero-tolerance to corruption has been implemented in all federal, provincial and local government agencies. It has listed the investigation into Bhutanese refugee scandal and formation of a committee on shark-loan victims as achievements. But there are still doubts regarding the so-called big fish or powerful individuals getting prosecuted. As claimed in the government's document, there has been some ease in the service relating to citizenship, national identity card, passport, driving license and no objection letter but people are still forced to queue in the government offices. There are reports about people from Madhes staying in a long queue to get citizenship. The government also faces criticism for failing to provide business to both the House of Representatives and National Assembly, but the government report refutes this. The report says: "The Government has tabled nine bills (seven in HoR and two in National Assembly) and has cleared some working procedures and directives.” The decision to distribute cash incentives to minor combatants in the former People’s Liberation Army of the Maoist party had also caused a major controversy. But the Dahal government has listed this decision as a major progress made in the peace process. The progress report also lists Prime Minister’s India visit on May 31-June 3 as a remarkable progress, stating that various significant agreements were signed during the trip. Mahesh Kumar Bartaula, whip of the main opposition CPN-UML, says there is no single convincing indicator to show that the Dahal government has been a success. He claims that the problems of unemployment remain unaddressed, farmers are still facing fertilizer shortage, domestic agricultural products still do not not have market access, corruption is thriving, and the cost of living is increasing. In essence, Bartaula says, the government that was elected from the national election with a fresh mandate has failed to instill the hope of optimism and hope among the public.