Deuba stems tide of instability in Nepal- completes one year in office

Santosh Ghimire

New Delhi, July 14: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's government completed one year in office on Wednesday, stemming the tide of instability which has rocked Nepal in recent years.

 

Deuba was appointed the country's prime minister on July 13, 2021 following a landmark order of the Nepal's Supreme Court which overturned the decision of the government led by KP Sharma Oli to dissolve the House of Representatives, the lower house of the bicameral parliament.

Deuba is leading a five-party coalition government which includes CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal as its key allies.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the prime minister's secretariat released a list of 42 achievements that the government made in the domestic and foreign policy fronts in the last one year.

"The present government successfully restored democratic norms and values by ending a political instability and misrule that the country saw during the reign of KP Sharma Oli," the statement said.

In the statement, the conduct of local elections in May, tabling the Citizenship Bill in parliament last week, and the approval of the United States-initiated Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Nepal Compact in February have been listed as some of the key achievements of the Deuba-led government on the domestic front.

On the foreign policy front, the prime minister's secretariat said that it has adopted a policy of further strengthening balanced ties with all countries including India, China and the United States.

"The government is maintaining a foreign policy that serves the country's national interests," read the statement.

While mentioning the country's ties with India, the prime minister's secretariat said that bilateral ties have been further enhanced by removing all mistrusts and misconceptions that surfaced in the past.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha, in May and Prime Minister Deuba's visit to India in April have been included in the list of government's achievements.

"We have started selling electricity to the Indian market after setting up a cross-border transmission line," read the statement.

In the list, the government mentioned US officials' visit to Nepal and Nepal Army Chief Prabhu Ram Sharma's visit to Washington are also included. The list also includes Nepal's decision to back away from the US Army's State Partnership Program (SSP) which courted huge controversy in Nepal last month.

In matters pertaining to Nepal's ties with China, prime minister's secretariat reiterated the country's commitment to the long-standing One China policy. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit in May and Chinese Communist Party leader Liu Jianchao's ongoing visit to Nepal are also listed as the government's achievements.

Meanwhile, the main opposition, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) criticized the government for failing to control high inflation, growing unemployment and corruption. It also lashed out at the government for not being able to pursue a balanced foreign policy.

"Misrule, corruption, unemployment, high inflation and intolerance towards the opposition party have been the hallmarks of one year of the Deuba-led government," chairman of the CPN (UML), KP Sharma Oli, said at a recent press conference in Kathmandu.

The government, which is facing economic hardships due to the depletion in foreign currency reserves after the Ukraine-Russia conflict, has planned to hold provincial and parliamentary elections in the single phase in November this year.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative

( 574 Words)

2022-07-14-12:03:04
Source: IANS