Off the Record 148: Meet the prime minister's men
Issue 148 • 19 July 2024
It’s July 19, 2024, and you’re reading Off the Record.
I’m Pranaya Rana and in this newsletter, we’ll stop, take a deep breath, and dive into one singular issue that defined the past week.
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Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. We now have a new prime minister and a new government, but everyone seems to be asking, so what? It’s not like KP Sharma Oli will be very different from Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Nepal’s political leaders are more similar than they dare admit. Despite their widely differing ideologies, they are old, either Bahun or Chhetri, and are more interested in personal gains and legacies than working to improve Nepal.
Just a few things I need to mention before we get to the deep dive.
Ambica Shrestha is no more
Ambica Shrestha, a pioneering heritage activist and hotelier, has died at the age of 92. Shrestha and her husband Dwarika Das were behind the Dwarika’s Hotel, a marvel of Newa architecture in the heart of Kathmandu. The Shresthas collected windows, doors, struts, and all manner of Newa woodwork from buildings torn down to make way for more concrete monstrosities. All these materials were preserved, refurbished, and then used to build this hotel. In the process, countless artisans and woodworkers found lasting work in the upkeep of the hotel and the construction of newer materials for use in properties inspired by Dwarika’s. The updated Newa style employed by Dwarika’s has been replicated across the Kathmandu Valley for commercial and residential properties.
Shrestha was also an icon of women in business. She took over all hotel affairs after her husband died in 1992 and was well-known for her no-nonsense personality. She is credited for being the first Nepali woman to get banks to provide loans to women entrepreneurs. Earlier, banks hesitated since women often had nothing to their name, everything belonging to their fathers or husbands. She championed women entrepreneurs and was a vocal proponent of women becoming financially independent from their husbands and families.
Fittingly, Karna Shakya of Kathmandu Guest House, another pioneering tourism entrepreneur, called her a ‘tourism deity.’
Two court victories for Balen Shah
On Wednesday, Kathmandu Metropolitan City resumed expansion of pavements in New Road. The city had been embroiled in a standoff with New Road locals and the Department of Roads after attempting to expand pavements and limit vehicular traffic earlier in May. However, on Sunday, the Patan High Court ruled in favor of the city, allowing it to resume expanding pavements. As I wrote in a previous edition of this newsletter, Mayor Balen Shah’s plans to expand pavements across Kathmandu, especially in New Road, are great ideas. Kathmandu desperately needs wider pavements for pedestrians. However, he has been unable to bring loclas on board with his plan leading to unfounded protests stoked by political actors with vested interests in offering paid parking. Now, armed with the court order, he can resume expanding pavements. Still, he would do well to try to appease locals by educating them on the myriad financial, cultural, and environmental benefits of wider pavements and fewer vehicles. After all, cars and bikes don’t buy anything; people do.
The next court order came from the Supreme Court, which ordered the city to clear all illegally built settlements along the Bagmati River. In 2022, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City attempted to evict all squatters from the banks of the Bagmati but was met with fierce resistance. Squatters pelted the city police with rocks and improvised weapons, leading the city to retreat in humiliation. Since then, Mayor Shah has made no more attempts to evict these squatters, but now, with the Supreme Court decision, he can resume.
However, the court order comes with a caveat. The city must first ensure alternative housing for those who will be evicted, per the constitution’s Article 37 (1), which ensures the right to proper housing for all citizens. This housing can either be the government-owned housing project in Ichangu Narayan built by Baburam Bhattarai or any other alternative. The Ichangu housing project has been a failure since it is located too far from the city center, where most squatters work. So, resettlement there is unlikely to work out. Mayor Shah will have to find a different solution, which is easier said than done. Squatters are not going to move just anywhere. The city government will have to ensure that their needs are met.
Addendum: The Supreme Court’s decision was not just regarding squatters. It was a broad decision regarding conserving and revitalizing the Bagmati River and its tributaries in the Kathmandu Valley. In that regard, the court ordered that no government infrastructure, except parks and playgrounds, can be built within 20 meters on either side of any river. The court further ordered that all new buildings inside the Valley must construct septic tanks and rainwater harvesting soak pits to recharge groundwater. These are all good decisions, and I hope they will be implemented. The Kathmandu Valley has been siphoning groundwater for years, and the water table has sharply fallen. There is a very real danger that the Valley will run out of groundwater if recharge measures are not implemented. So kudos to the Supreme Court for realizing this and making it part of a judicial fiat.
And now,
That’s it for the wrap-up of the week. Let’s get right into the deep dive.
The deep dive: Meet the prime minister's men
KP Sharma Oli on his way to be sworn in as the prime minister (Image: AP)
On Monday, KP Sharma Oli of the CPN (UML) party was sworn in as prime minister for the fourth time. Oli took the helm after Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the previous prime minister, could not secure a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives. This led to Dahal’s dismissal, and Oli staked his claim, backed by the Nepali Congress and two smaller parties—the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP). Later on Monday, Oli announced his 21-member Cabinet of Ministers — to the collective disappointment of almost everyone.
Let’s take a quick look at the roster:
Prakash Man Singh (Congress), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Urban Development
Bishnu Poudel (UML), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance
Ramesh Lekhak (Congress), Minister for Home Affairs
Arzu Rana Deuba (Congress), Minister for Foreign Affairs
Prithvi Subba Gurung (UML), Minister for Communication and Information Technology
Sharat Singh Bhandari (LSP), Minister for Labor, Employment, and Social Security
Bidhya Bhattarai (UML), Minister for Education, Science, and Technology
Devendra Dahal (UML), Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport
Pradip Paudel (Congress), Minister for Health and Population
Ajay Chaurasia (Congress), Minister for Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs
Badri Pandey (Congress), Minister for Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation
Damodar Bhandari (UML), Minister for Industry, Commerce, and Supplies
Manbir Rai (UML), Minister for Defense
Dipak Khadka (Congress), Minister for Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation
Ram Nath Adhikari (Congress), Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development
Pradip Yadav (JSP), Minister for Water Supply
Raj Kumar Gupta (UML), Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration
Aain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri (Congress), Minister for Forests and Environment
Nawal Kishor Sah Sudi (JSP), Minister for Women, Children, and Senior Citizens
Balram Adhikari (UML), Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives, and Poverty Alleviation
Inclusion failures
What do you notice?
What stands out is that the Cabinet is overwhelmingly male and Khas-Arya. Thirteen of the 22 Cabinet members, including Oli, belong to the Bahun or Chhetri community. Twenty of them are men, with only two women ministers — Arzu Rana Deuba and Bidhya Bhattarai. Both Rana Deuba and Bhattarai have been active in politics for a long time. Rana Deuba is the wife of Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and has been an active member of the Congress party for decades now. Bhattarai is the widow of the late Rabindra Adhikari, a popular UML politician. Bhattarai, who had quit active politics after marrying Adhikari in 1999, returned after her husband died in a helicopter accident. She has since won resoundingly in Adhikari’s electoral constituency. Both women are upper-caste Bahun-Chhetris (Khas-Arya).
Other communities are not adequately represented either. There are five Madhesi ministers, which is fair, but only three from the Janajati community and no Dalit or Muslim ministers. Although estimates vary, Madhesis are believed to constitute anywhere from 23-35% of the total population, while Janajati/Adivasi (Indigenous nationalities) constitute 30-35%. Dalits make up around 14% of the population. Article 76 (9) of the constitution clearly states that “The President shall, on recommendation of the Prime Minister, constitute the Council of Ministers comprising a maximum of twenty-five Ministers including the Prime Minister, in accordance with the inclusive principle, from amongst the members of the Federal Parliament.” Emphasis is mine, as successive governments could not be bothered to do the same.
If this is a sign of things to come, then the principle of inclusion will be in trouble. The UML and Congress coalition has already stated that it wishes to amend the constitution, especially proportional representation in Nepal’s electoral system. These parties believe that the provision of proportional representation, which allows for the inclusion of all of Nepal’s various castes and ethnicities in policy-making, has hindered parliamentary politics, specifically by preventing parties from attaining a majority. They might be right about that latter bit but that’s no reason to meddle with proportional representation. A mixed system has been implemented to ensure the representation of individuals from groups who might not have access to the finances required to contest elections. If you only had first-past-the-post, the one with the deepest pockets would almost always win, which is what happened in the past.
And it’s not like the parties have been using inclusion to their benefit. The 2015 constitution dealt a blow to inclusion by mandating a quota for the Khas-Arya community, the same community that has dominated Nepal for over a century. Although the constitution specifies “indigent” Khas Arya in other instances, it does not specify that the Khas Arya candidate must be indigent regarding the House of Representatives candidacy. This is how our new foreign minister, Arzu Rana Deuba, who is by no means an indigent Khas Arya woman, became a Member of Parliament via proportional representation. And yet, this is the very system that the parties want to make toothless.
But let’s get back to Oli’s Cabinet. Among the most contentious of Oli’s picks are Arzu Deuba, Sarat Singh Bhandari, and Deepak Khadka.
Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba
Let’s begin with Madame Arzu. With a doctorate in organizational psychology and decades of experience working for various non-governmental organizations, Dr Arzu is a formidable woman. She is articulate, well-traveled, and opinionated. With her appointment as Foreign Minister, the top leadership is now all-female, with Sewa Lamsal as the foreign secretary. She is often alleged to be the driving force behind Sher Bahadur Deuba, even called the shadow prime minister at times when her husband held the chief executive’s post. At social gatherings, Deuba tends to shrink in front of Arzu, whose force of personality eclipses his doddering persona.
However, Dr Arzu also has skeletons in her closet. Most recently, her name has appeared numerous times in the investigation into the Bhutanese refugee scam. Multiple people arrested in the fraud have alleged her involvement, especially in accepting bribe money. She vehemently denied any involvement, stating that she was a victim of ‘character assassination.’ Any investigation into her alleged role in the scam was a red line for Deuba; thus, no serious investigation was ever conducted.
In 2022, Arzu Deuba had also landed in hot water for making off-the-cuff remarks during election time. First, she warned voters in Dadeldhura district that no money from the federal level would be given to mayors that weren’t from the Congress party. Then, she told voters in Kailali that the party would provide free tickets to Malaysia for migrant workers who voted for the Congress. The Election Commission investigated both statements for violating the election code of conduct. Nothing came of these investigations either.
Then, there are her links to the Indian establishment, particularly the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 2021, the Deubas invited Vijay Chauthaiwale, chief of the BJP’s Foreign Affairs Department, to Kathmandu, where Arzu tied a rakhi around his wrist, symbolizing a fraternal relationship. Arzu again met Chauthaiwale in January 2022 when she was in Delhi for ‘personal reasons’ and then, in July, once again in Delhi. Deuba also dispatches Arzu to India whenever he needs to feel out the Indian establishment, signalling that perhaps Arzu has closer relations with the ruling party than Deuba himself.
So, Dr. Arzu has been controversial over the years, but there’s no real evidence of wrongdoing yet. Please don’t take it from me, though. You should read this fawning report by KhabarHub.
Sarat Singh Bhandari
Now, let’s talk about Sarat Singh Bhandari. Just four months ago, Bhandari was Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security in Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s coalition government with the Nepali Congress. When Dahal broke with the Congress and tied with the UML earlier in March, Bhandari and the rest of the Cabinet were let go. But now that the UML and the Congress have allied to form their own government by ousting Dahal, Bhandari is back in the ministerial chair, the same one he had vacated four months ago.
This is Bhandari’s forte. He has become minister for the twentieth time now, receiving portfolios in governments of every shade and hue — from the autocratic Panchayat-era government to the fractious multiparty democracy years of the 90s and now in the time of federal republicanism. He was appointed Assistant Minister for Panchayat and Local Development nearly 40 years ago, in June 1986, by Marich Man Singh towards the end of the Panchayat, king Mahendra’s doomed experiment in direct rule and self-governance. Just a year later, he was promoted to State Minister for Commerce. He continued as state minister until 1990, surviving two Cabinet reshuffles. Then, the Panchayat ended, and Nepal embraced multiparty democracy once again. Bhandari was to fare even better under the new system.
After 1990, Bhandari reappeared in 1995, having been elected to the House of Representatives as an independent from Mahottari district. Sher Bahadur Deuba, the prime minister at the time, inducted Bhandari into his Cabinet as a State Minister without a portfolio. He again survived two Cabinet reshuffles and was promoted to Minister without portfolio in 1997. The Deuba government fell, and Surya Bahadur Thapa formed another government. Again, Bhandari was inducted as Minister for Youth, Sports, and Culture. And so it would continue. He was minister for youth, sports, and culture again in 1999, minister for health in 2000, minister for health again in 2001, minister for tourism and civil aviation in 2008, minister for defense in 2011, minister for energy in 2021, minister for labor twice in 2023, and minister for labor once again today.
What is it about Bhandari that has such staying power? He’s not a top-rung leader, yet he almost always finds his way to positions of power. Even this time, he represents the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, which has just four seats in Parliament. The Congress-UML coalition did not need the party’s seven votes and certainly did not need to reward them with a ministerial berth. But somehow, because he’s Bhandari, he becomes a minister. But what has he achieved in his nearly 40-year career with 19 ministerial berths under him? The same question can, of course, be asked of all our political masters. They’ve been in the game longer. Deuba has been prime minister five times, and Oli is now on his fourth run. They’ve collectively run the country for over three decades now, so what do they have to show for it?
Deepak Khadka
Yet another controversial face in the Cabinet is Deepak Khadka from the Nepali Congress. Khadka, the founding chairman of two hydropower companies, has a conflict of interest as the new energy minister. For a party that hounded Rastriya Swatantra Party chair Rabi Lamichhane when he was Home Minister, the Congress indeed tolerates conflict of interest regarding members of its own party. Khadka is also implicated in the mess over land belonging to the Nepal Scouts. This prime piece of land in Lainchour was leased to Khadka by the Nepal Scouts. Khadka built a banquet hall and infringed on more land than he had leased. He built buildings and leased them out, collecting rent while billing the utilities to the Scouts. When the contract expired, he refused to vacate, leading the Scouts to take him to court. The high court, upon appeal, decided in favor of the Scouts and ordered Khadka to vacate. But he never did. Earlier this year, Minister for Youth and Sports Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, who coincidentally is Sarat Singh Bhandari’s son-in-law, padlocked the banquet hall and other properties. But Khadka has not relented, and now that he’s in government and Khadka is out, I wouldn’t be surprised if the padlocks miraculously disappear and Lainchour Banquet is roaring again.
Khadka, unlike Bhandari, is a first-time Cabinet minister. And there are eleven others for whom it is their first time as full Cabinet ministers — Foreign Minister Arzu Deuba, Health Minister Pradeep Paudel, Environment Minister Ain Bahadur Shahi, Tourism Minister Badri Pandey, Agriculture Minister Ram Nath Adhikari, Youth and Sports Minister Tejulal Chaudhary, Law Minister Ajay Chaurasia, Defense Minister Manveer Rai, Education Minister Bidhya Bhattarai, Physical Infrastructure Minister Devendra Dahal, and Federal Affairs Minister Rajkumar Gupta. But there are also others like Bhandari. It is Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel’s eighth time as a Cabinet minister.
So you have a mix of the very old and the relatively new. But the new faces are already repeating the same old patterns. Pradip Paudel, a promising ‘youth’ politician within the Congress, had just been appointed Health Minister when he pledged to eliminate queues from all public hospitals within a month. That would be great, but is it feasible?
I don’t expect much from the Oli government, but then again, I don’t expect much from any government led by the Congress, UML, or Maoists. Too much time is spent managing each other’s massive egos to actually govern. Still, I don’t want to sound too cynical. Let’s instead be cautiously pessimistic.
That’s all for this week. I will be back next Friday, in your emails, for the next edition of Off the Record.
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