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Hop, skip and jump
by PRAVAT J GURUNG
| FROM ISSUE # 165 (September 2009) | IN THIS ISSUE | |||
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What has happened in the past month in politics? Well, nothing much besides hopping, skipping and jumping. 
Sujata Koirala recently dropped out of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal's India tour last moment stating that she was 'not feeling well' which created a fuss amongst kangresi leaders. But word had it that she didn't accompany the PM because she was not given Deputy Prime Minister's post.
All the while, Vice President Paramananda Jha kept everyone guessing till the last moment about whether or not he was re-taking his oath in Nepali. As we went to press, he decided not to, and this brought the already unstable government more instability.
The Supreme Court had ordered the Veep to re-take his oath in Nepali because he had earlier done the swearing-in Hindi. On the last day of the deadline set by the SC for VP to take oath, or leave office, the Council of Ministers on 30 August urged the Vice President to take the oath and set the oath taking function at 4 pm in Sital Niwas.
But to the embarrassment of the government and the President's office, Vice President Paramananda Jha skipped the oath ceremony that had already been arranged. The prime minister, ministers and other dignitaries waited for more than one and half hour only to be formally reminded of the announcement Jha had made earlier that the Supreme Court's ruling was biased and that he was not ready to re-take oath, in Nepali.
A day before the embarrassing event, VP Jha had requested Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to exercise Article 151 of the Interim Constitution, which authorises the President on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers to grant pardons and suspend, commute or remit any sentence passed by any court, special court, military court or by any other judicial, quasi-judicial or administrative authority or body, reports say. But to his dismay, the PM kept quiet.
By the way, chakka jams and bad traffic jams are to get worst in the run-up to Dasain. Joint National People's Movement Committee of the Unified CPN (Maoist) decided to intensify the party's ongoing agitation for "civil supremacy" on 30 August. The committee also decided to organise mass assemblies in 18 places across the country from 6 to 14 September. The agitation is against the President's move to block the erstwhile government's decision to dismiss former CoAS Rookmangud Katawal and in favor of civilian supremacy. They also decided to boycott all functions attended by PM as part of the agitation. General Katawal is long gone, but the protests go on.
In other news: Maoist lawmakers are still obstructing parliament and demanding the President's move be allowed to be discussed in the house. Doesn't look like that's going to happen, so the gheraos will go on.
It is a pity that some skip and some hop and some just don't budge at all, but where does Nepal stand in this? What do the Nepali people want? We want health care, education and jobs. But our leaders are so immersed in their power games they have no time to hear us.
the article is fine but the last sentence disappointed me because it seems like each and every leaders are immersed in their power games, which is offorce not correct and other tihng if u put the problem and dont suggest any solution, it will creat another problem and discurage joung people from politics which is the most important matter to make a nation prosperous. so litte bit responsible, it is fine that u wanna use simple langusge but simplicity cant always explain complex matter. i guess u have heard "Lato Baudhe ko Matra, Jamapuri ko Jatra" or something like that.
But our leaders are so immersed in their power games they have no time to hear us. this is wrong, be litte bit responsible. if u explain the things this way, u will discourage our youth from politics, which the most importat for our nation now.