Nepal: Starting on the wrong foot

As Nepal's first Maoist prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal enjoyed the spectacular closing ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing on Sunday, Manewa Ansari from Sunsari district in southern Nepal railed against his fate.

On Friday, the same day that Dahal - who still prefers to be called "Prachanda," the nom de guerre he used during the 10 years his formerly underground party fought a savage war against the state - was sworn in as the head of a new two-party coalition government, 32-year-old Ansari's house was swept away by the flooded Saptakoshi river.

Ansari was among the nearly 75,000 people who had become homeless due to the raging floodwaters in Nepal while in India's Bihar state across the border, the figure had risen to nearly two million.

"Ansari called me to his room," says Nepali legislator Sunil Babu Pant, who had gone to Sunsari to assess the situation, in a report. The "room" was a classroom in the Bhagwati Secondary School in the district's main town Inaruwa.

The school and other government buildings had been turned into makeshift relief camps. There was no bathing facility in the tin-roof school, while four shacks covered by sacks served as toilets for over 70 people. The same compound was also shared by the surviving cattle and the rising stench made it impossible to open the windows.

"No one has received any trauma-related counseling or orientation on hygiene and sanitation issues," Pant noted in his report.

When he asked the flood victims if the new Maoist government was doing enough, the answer was a stark "no."

"Many said the prime minister should have given priority to the epic struggle for survival instead of visiting China for the closing ceremony of the Olympics," the report said.

"The government should find their missing loved ones and provide food, proper shelter, clothes, medication and a long-term solution as their houses and land have been destroyed by the flood."

Choosing China

Besides the criticism at home, Prachanda's decision to head an 11-member delegation to Beijing within five days after taking oath of office also created a diplomatic maelstrom.

Traditionally, Nepal's prime ministers began their foreign visits with India, Nepal's biggest and most influential trading partner. In 2005, when Nepal's King Gyanendra seized absolute power with the support of the army, New Delhi forged an alliance between the then-banned Maoists and other major parties to throw a united challenge to the royal regime and cause its collapse.

This year, when debutant ethnic party Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) said it would prevent the April election if the government did not uphold the rights of Madhesis - people of Indian origin - it was the Indian government once again that brokered a pact between the MJF and Nepal's ruling parties.

An Indian delegation visiting Kathmandu this month urged Prachanda to postpone his China trip, saying it would send "wrong signals" to India. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been the first to congratulate Prachanda after he won the prime ministerial election this month.

In his message, Singh also invited Prachanda to India. However, the Indian invite went unanswered while the Chinese one was snapped up with alacrity, giving rise to speculation that the Maoists, much as deposed King Gyanendra had done, were trying to cozy up to China in a bid to squeeze out greater benefits and diplomatic concessions from India.

Though the Maoists deny that there is any political significance in Prachanda's China visit, their 9-day-old government has already struck other notes of discord in its relations with India, whose support or opposition in the past made or marred Nepal's governments.

The Maoists blamed India for the Saptakoshi flood, saying the Bihar government mandated by a 1954 treaty to maintain the barrage on the river had failed to carry out its responsibility.

Stung by the charge, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu issued a stiff rebuttal, saying Nepal was to be blamed for not providing security to the Indian team of technicians who had come to repair the barrage.

"The Indian technical team mobilized required resources and has remained in readiness to carry out the required work to strengthen the embankment," the Indian statement said. "But it was prevented from reaching the site. As a consequence, thousands of people in Nepal and India have been forced to suffer a calamity that could have been avoided."

A promise to be kept

Besides the spat with India, the Maoist government has to assure the international community that it has truly laid down arms and plans on honoring all past commitments.

On Tuesday, the UN reminded the Prachanda government and its People's Liberation Army (PLA), that they needed to fulfill the promise they made while signing the historic peace pact two years ago.

There are still nearly 3,000 child soldiers in PLA cantonments and the UN has reiterated its call for their immediate discharge.

"The successful [April] elections signal that the people of Nepal are entering a hopeful phase for peace and prosperity," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswami said in a statement issued from New York.

"However, the promise of peace has not come to fruition for these children, whose lives have been adversely affected by the conflict. Today they are still in the Maoist cantonments […].They must be released immediately. UNMIN [UN Mission in Nepal] child protection advisers, UNICEF and its partners should have access to these children to make sure that they receive their rights to recovery and reintegration."

Coalition hanging in the balance

As Prachanda returns to Kathmandu today, his most immediate task, however, will be to make peace with a key ally.

Though the Maoists won the national election in April, they suffered a stinging defeat last month when Nepal's interim parliament held a vote to choose the country's first president.

The Maoist candidate was defeated twice by the common candidate fielded by three other major parties - the Nepali Congress (NC), Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) and MJF.

Cautioned by the defeat, the Maoists this month began wooing the UML and the MJF to win the prime ministerial race in which Prachanda himself contended.

An uneasy alliance between the three parties saw Prachanda defeat the NC candidate by a large majority. However, soon after the triumph, the Maoists locked horns with the UML over power-sharing.

"As the largest party, the Maoists were to hold the first position in the coalition cabinet with nine ministers, including prime minister," Bamdev Gautam, the UML leader who was to lead his party in the government, told ISN Security Watch. "As the second-largest party in the alliance, the UML was to have six ministries, including deputy PM.

"However, the Maoists insisted on the first slot as well as the second, relegating the UML to the third spot. That is unacceptable to us."

On Friday, before flying out to Beijing, Prachanda hastily swore in a mini eight-member cabinet in which only members of his party and the MJF participated. The UML boycotted the ceremony, saying they would sit in opposition if they were not given the deputy premier's post.

Prachanda might have to tread warily as a UML in opposition could mean a new alliance between the communists and the NC, which has already said it would not join the government.

"The NC has a reputation for toppling governments," says Gunaraj Luitel, former news editor of Kantipur, Nepal's biggest daily. "Since the Maoists did not get simple majority in the election, they have to forge a consensus with the UML and the MJF. If they can do that, there will be stability in Nepal and the main task - the drafting of a new constitution in two years - will be accomplished.

"However, if they fail to do so, the focus will be diffused, and the main agenda of the parties will be reduced to a game of forming and dissolving governments."