A hundred days later

By Yubaraj Ghimire

How does one measure the success of a leader heading a government? The yardstick should be what he or she has delivered, the promises that have been assiduously kept.

Baburam Bhattarai became the prime minister of Nepal a hundred days ago with the promise that he would complete the peace process, deliver the constitution by November 30 (a deadline that has now been extended to May 2012), eradicate corruption and check the price of essential commodities. At home and abroad, nobody doubted his words, intentions or ability.

But 100 days down the line, he still speaks about his intentions. No doubt, the peace process has moved forward as the Maoist combatants have been regrouped and their integration into the army appears imminent. But allegations of corruption are eroding the credibility of his government. And his failure to investigate the issues and apprehend the guilty could lead to his downfall.

The most damning of allegations, which could dent the image of both Bhattarai and Maoist chief Prachanda, is that the Maoist leadership has cornered allowances for combatants. The Public Accounts Committee of the parliament has asked Bhattarai, who is also the vice-chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M), to return 1.5 billion Nepali rupees that have been paid to “fake combatants” as monthly salary and food allowance from the state exchequer. “It is daylight robbery, and Bhattarai needs to be replaced,” says Madhav Nepal, a former prime minister and key leader in the joint initiative to draft the constitution and enable the peace process.

Bhattarai had earlier suspended a youth employment scheme after its chief, who he handpicked, reportedly disbursed 330 million rupees to cooperatives, mostly run by Maoists, without following due process.

The technical team of the Army Integration Special Committee which visited all 28 camps of Maoist combatants found flaws in the verification process carried out by the United Nations Mission to Nepal: IDs were reportedly issued to combatants who existed only on paper. Perplexingly, the party was drawing their salary. Also, 1,000 rupees that the party was levying every month from its 19,000-plus combatants — 50 per cent as deposit and the rest as donation to the party — has apparently not been accounted for. Combatants are asking the prime minister and the party chief to return their “deposits”, which remain untraceable.

It is not only the Maoist cadre that is agitated over the scale of corruption. Last week, Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire called a meeting of about 40 government secretaries and instructed them not to succumb to unlawful orders from their political bosses as misuse of government funds, corruption and arbitrary political appointments have become routine in Kathmandu. For the first time in Nepal, telecom terminology is being used to indicate the modality of bribes — “prepaid” and “post-paid” arrangements are fairly understood modes of payment in the corridors of power.

Altogether 26 government officials wrote to the prime minister that Irrigation Minister Mahendra Yadav allegedly stalled projects if he had not been “prepaid”. Health Minister Rajendra Mahato allegedly wanted a government hospital to foot the bill of his trip, with a huge entourage, to Janakpur.

Leading public figures, including a financial adviser to the PM, have asked Bhattarai to drop Information Minister Jaya Prakash Gupta, who is facing trial in a corruption case in the supreme court, from the Constitutional Council, a body that recommends candidates to constitutional bodies, including the anti-graft Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Authority. “I devoted myself entirely to peace and constitution-writing processes, but believe me, I have zero tolerance for corruption,” is all that Bhattarai has been saying during his series of interactions with the media and civil society.

Bhattarai has not accepted responsibility for failing to act on his promises. He only blames the compulsions of coalition politics. Along with Bhattarai, the speaker of the assembly, Subhash Nembang, is criticised for adopting double standards. While he allows a Maoist legislator who is convicted of murder to participate in House proceedings and vote, members who are under trial for misuse of their passports have been suspended. They fail to realise that their credibility, and that of the institutions they head, is at the lowest ebb ever.

Incidentally, Nepal figured 154th in a recent Transparency International survey of 174 nations.

Courtesy: Indian Express