There are just so many layers of party and factional interests, alliances and dalliances, marriages of convenience and messy divorces, egos, ambitions, and personal vendetta involved, that it is difficult to delve beyond daily headlines about who stabbed whom in the back today.
We must start with the central protagonist, the man everyone seems to love to hate, Prime Minister K P Oli. He has proved all pundits wrong by surviving both medically and politically. This does not look like a man who has two kidney transplants—he appears stronger than ever.
He has outlasted relentless pressure from the combined strength of rivals within the NCP and a constant media broadside, to unseat him. When cornered, he has used nationalism, divided and ruled, used and discarded former comrades, and even dissolved the House and threatened elections to get his way.
Oli is wily, but a statesman he is not. Had he been, he would have found other ways than full-frontal attacks on rivals, concentrating instead on providing leadership on issues that really matter to Nepalis – jobs, inflation, education, health and Covid impact. He has spent all his time and energy running circles around Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal.
If anyone wanted to dismantle Nepal’s Communist movement, no one would have done a better job than Prime Minister Oli. He cracked open the NCP, then he got to work on his own UML, weeding out the disgruntled Nepal faction. Oli might have been seeking revenge on Nepal, but by sidelining him, he has effectively splintered the UML as well.
Efforts to cobble back the UML, Mukesh Pokhrel