Weakening democracy

 The Himalayan Times

4 August 2022

Weakening democracy

It was not surprising to see Janardan Sharma being reinstated as the Finance Minister after he was found innocent by a 11-member investigation committee comprising four lawmakers from the UML and the rest from the coalition partners “Acquittal of the finance minister: Overshadowed by partisan politics” (THT, August 2, Page 4). Political critics and analysts were of the opinion that the formation of investigation committee to probe opposition’s allegation of the entry of an outsider during the last phase of this year's budget preparation, was nothing but simply to shut the opposition’s mouth, which had threatened to halt the House if Sharma continued to occupy FM’s chair. The UML lawmakers’ note of dissent showing dissatisfaction over the majority decision in the commission’s report did not stop the Deuba government from putting Sharma back in his chair. It was a shameful political drama being staged by the ruling parties, which has further eroded the parliamentary democratic practice in Nepal.

On the other hand, it was wonderful to see women lawmakers representing different political parties registering a motion of urgent public importance in the House of Representatives, demanding that their political parties give proportionate representation to women while fielding candidates for the first-past-the-post election in the upcoming provincial and federal elections rather than simply including them in the proportional representation lists “MPs demand 50 per cent FPTP tickets for women” (THT, Aug 2, Page 1). They have urged their parties that at-least half of their women candidates should be fielded for the major posts in the next local elections. This indicates that women representatives are gradually becoming politically empowered who have started seeking equal representation in the national politics.

Another interesting piece of political drama was seeing Minendra Rijal daringly showing his concerns towards blindly trusting the coalition partners in the upcoming provincial and federal elections and sharing electoral pie among the partners “Rijal against blindly trusting coalition partners” (THT, Aug 2, Page 1). He and some other lawmakers fear that Prachanda will change his political stand and side with the UML if he was not given the desired size of the pie, which indicates that the coalition has nothing to do with national interest but simply to fulfil their political interests.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj