People haven’t given up hope of building the nation. The recently completed local elections exhibit that sentiment. The country is moving forward despite the challenges and problems. We no longer need a detailed explanation of the challenges and issues Nepal has. At the same time, economic performance has been slow and weak, while it appears that Nepal has been making progress politically.
Most importantly, the completion of the local polls on time is laudable. This has been particularly appreciated primarily because of the theatrical political scenario at the federal level in the last couple of years that reflected poorly on the political parties. The general assumption was that the country would again fail to hold timely elections.
The narrative of “prosperous Nepal, happy Nepali”, unveiled by a left-oriented government with a two-thirds majority in 2018, was inherently pompous. That euphoria evaporated quickly with the ousting of the KP Sharma Oli-led government.
The country lost politically and economically due to political uncertainty induced by leftist leaders compounded by the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the objectives set by the government were changed as a result of the global pandemic. And the
government’s mishandling of the pandemic led to unprecedented problems for the average citizen. The loss was inconceivable both at the personal and economic levels. But even after all these months, formulating a roadmap or a framework for recovery hasn’t been achieved.
While most of the developing world is bouncing back with a high economic growth rate, Nepal is struggling to maintain basic economic performance thanks to poor public finance management and a weak regulatory framework for procurement and capital expenditure.
With the dissolution of Parliament, KP Sharma Oli also let his aspirations be dissolved in dirty politics that changed the course of his party and himself and the country.
The new coalition government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, chair of the Nepali Congress, was formed in line with the Supreme Court’s verdict in July 2021.
The government seemed uninterested in economic and development agendas with no apparent economic and growth strategy; the default was the continuity of corrupt practices and half-hearted measures toward achieving the development goals.
The government lacked ownership of anything as it just followed a to-do list from some interest groups and power centres. All it did was overhaul the existing bureaucracy by making new appointments, which is deplorably customary after the formation of a new government.
Most importantly, the government withdrew the Federal Civil Service Act from Parliament for endorsement.
The government has failed to resume more comprehensive consultations on the new Federal Civil Service Act, nor has it been able to identify the core issues hampering the progress of sub-national governments at the local and provincial levels. Progress has been held up in the absence of the most important law to manage human resources from the federal to the local level.
The incumbent government is focused solely on doing well in the next election and remaining in power; little is being done on the development front and recovery from losses caused by the pandemic. It is evident that the coalition of parties neither stands on a moral nor ideological foundation.