By TON Nepal

Incumbent Nepal’s government is under severe criticism from a section of Congress, and the opposition charges the prime minister with failing to rung the affairs of government. Congress group questions the party president’s performance. Just days ahead of the completion of his one year in office, Prime Minister has come under fire for running badly the government.

On Monday, a section of the prime minister's own party, the Nepali Congress, posed a dozen questions before him. The chair of the CPN-UML came down heavily on the current coalition government and said that the government is dead and that continuing with it would be a disaster for the country. He also warned that Nepal could head the Sri Lanka way if the current activities of the government are anything to go by and said that “this government has lost its significance.”

The incumbent government, formed on July 13 last year, has been facing charges of failing to act despite allegations that finance minister, had invited two outsiders to tweak tax rates on the night of May 28, hours before he presented the budget in Parliament.

Now the incumbent government has run into another controversy by introducing a bill in the National Assembly to amend the Constitutional Council Act so as to make it easier for the commencement of the council meeting and take decisions. The current PM Congress party had fervently opposed an alike move by the erstwhile government calling it an attack on the constitution and rule of law.

The rival camp in Congress on Monday raised questions about the intention of bringing the bill. The rival camp also questioned the president's performance in the last six months as party president.

At the Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting, the rival group in the government said that because of the alliance with the communist parties, Congress confronted the decline of its ideology and principle and could not select the correct candidates for the local elections.

On Monday Nepal’s prime minister faced protests from the party’s sister wings at the gate of the party headquarters in Sanepa when he reached there to attend the CWC meeting. The protesting members of the sister wings vented ire against PM for failing to convene the general convention of the Nepal Student Union, the student wing of the party.

The prime minister is constantly facing the wrath of the rival faction backed by the party vice president and General Secretary. At the meeting, some party leaders including chiefs of seven provinces voiced their concerns about the objective and purpose as well as the rationale behind the alliance with parties that have completely opposing ideologies.

Most of them, according to party leaders, said that since the Nepali Congress could not get enough vote transfers in the local elections, the party should review the alliance with CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist). Ahead of the CWC meeting, the rival camp held a separate meeting to chart out its strategy and brought up the issue of not holding the general convention of ten various related organizations of the party.

At a time when coalition partners are expressing their anger and spreading negativity about Congress for not cooperating in the local elections, the party leadership is silent. Two more CWC members also raised similar kinds of concerns regarding the alliance.

One of the issues the rival group in the incumbent government has raised is the question that why the government has not removed the ex-government decision to bring the National Investigation Department, the Department of Revenue Investigation, and the Department of Anti-money Laundering under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The government 2018 had brought these three offices under the PMO and the Nepali Congress protested the decision describing it as an effort to centralize power.

However, the current government has continued to have them under the PMO. The rival camp also reminded the PM of the promises the party made as the opposition and questioned him about the recent controversies. They raised the question of various corruption cases that the party had promised to investigate and the urgency of introducing the new bill related to the Constitutional Council.

The rival camp also said that the weakness of the government was exposed when the Nepal Rastra Bank governor was suspended. It sent a wrong message to the public that the government's move was wrong when the Supreme Court told the governor to return to work.

Then finance minister constituted a committee to probe the Governor leading to the suspension of the latter. Prime Minister, however, took no action despite a grave move by his finance minister against the chief of the central bank, the government’s financial counsel, at a time when the country was showing signs of falling into a deep economic crisis.

The rival group also accused the government of not taking any concrete steps to curb rising market prices. The media, public intellectuals, and the general public are questioning the rising inflation and unemployment because the government is doing nothing.

On Monday, the central bank said that the year-on-year inflation reached 8.56 percent in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year ended mid-June. The rival group in the incumbent government also drew the attention of the prime minister to the country’s economy, degrading confidence in the private sector and growing indiscipline in the financial sector. Another CWC member also read out 18 different issues and posed several questions to PM.

Amid mismanagement charges, the current PM is facing accusations that “strangers” are running the government. He is also accused of promoting cronyism. As elections are just around the corner, the incumbent president should display a liberal approach in a bid to create an environment to win the elections. The government should come up with actual plans to solve the present financial condition.

Furthermore, the government should remove inflation, and ensure fertilizers for farmers and textbooks for students. The government should give more care to the incomes of the people. Ahead of the elections, the party should come up with a clear position on social issues like improving education, health, employment, and public transportation.