HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 31 August 2017 Should or shouldn’t It was difficult for the common people to understand whether Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba should have made remarks about the recent constitution amendment bill, that could not get through the parliament, during a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi held in New Delhi. However, he tried to defend his position in the Parliament by saying that it was not unusual to apprise the national and international community of a country’s agenda “PM defends his position in Parliament (THT, Aug. 29, Page 1). The PM further assured the House that he had not struck any deal with anyone regarding implementation of the constitution. If so was the case, why should someone try to make such a fuss about it? The UML boss K.P. Oli, before his departure to Bangkok for his regular health check-up, came down heavily on the PM about this issue citing that it was great mistake made by the PM to speak about the iss...

The Kathmandu Post 25 August 2017 JUMBO CABINET It seems that the big three parties want to compete among each other in forming the largest cabinet in Nepal’s history. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba formed the largest cabinet in Nepal’s history with 48 ministers in 1996. He was then followed by Baburam Bhattarai with 49 ministers, KP Oli with 40 ministers and Pushpa Kamal Dahal with 46 ministers. Two decades later, Sher Bahadur Deuba broke all the records by installing a 50-strong Council of Ministers, the largest ever in Nepal’s history (Deuba’s Cabinet largest ever” Aug. 23, Page 1). According to the new constitution, Cabinets with more than 25-members are clearly prohibited. Isn’t it the prime minister supposed to follow the elements and spirit of new constitution? They should be safeguarding the new constitution instead of violating it? Is it necessary for them to compete with each other to satisfy the desire of lawmakers by appointing them as ministers? Don’t they...

The Himalayan Times 24 August 2017 New political course It was not surprising to know that the amendment bill that was put to vote by the ruling parties on Monday could not garner two-third majority in the parliament “Amendment bill falls through in Parliament” (THT, Aug 22, Page 1). The UML led opposition block was dead against the amendment bill from the beginning of registering it in the parliament. The Rastriya Janata Party- Nepal (RJP-N) did not participate in the first and second phase of local elections citing they would not participate in the elections until their demands were met. One of their demands was to amend the constitution. The other demand among others was to increase the numbers of local level units in Province 2 which was earlier rejected by the Supreme Court and has now been okayed by it. However, the RJP-N had recently shown flexibility in its political stance saying that it would accept the outcome of the parliamentary process and would participate ...