A walk down the year 2021

The year 2021 has been a rollercoaster of events that happened, and some of it were because of the ongoing coronavirus spread.

In the early years of 2021, as Nepal struggled to overcome coronavirus infection, India donated one million covishield vaccines to the Nepalese government to aid in the fight against the Covid – 19 pandemic. India also gave financial help, as promised, to re-build 50,000 dwellings in Gorkha and Nuwakot, two districts in central Nepal that were heavily impacted by the 2015 earthquakes.

The CPN-UML government dissolved after a split in the CPN-UML, which had over two-thirds majority support, and the Nepali Congress was elevated to power through a Supreme Court ruling that reinstated the House of Representatives and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba as Prime Minister. Deuba was re-elected as Nepali Congress president during the party’s 14th annual convention in 2021, bringing the year to a close. Many new faces were elected from the younger generation, including party general secretaries and vice presidents, making the largest democratic party a vibrant one.

Starting from the beginning, On January 21, 2021, the Indian government presented Nepal with one million doses of the covishield vaccine to aid in its fight against covid – 19. On February 12, the Indian Embassy in Nepal signed three separate agreements with various stakeholders in Nepal to rebuild three cultural heritages: the restoration of Kathmandu’s Seto Machindranath temple, the construction of Dharamshala in Budhanilkantha, and the preservation of Kumari House in Lalitpur.

During President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s state visit to Bangladesh from March 22 to 23, the two countries signed four bilateral agreem

0ents. Four agreements were signed between Nepal and Bangladesh at the time, including a Memorandum of Understanding on Tourism Cooperation and a Letter of Exchange to designate the Rohanpur – Singabad railway line as an additional transit route.

Following the month of April, Pradeep Gyawali, Nepal’s Foreign Minister, has stated that there is no problem between Nepal and India that cannot be resolved via conversation. Foreign Minister Gyawali stated at an interaction session held by the Nepal-India Friendship Association in Kathmandu on April 16 that all lingering issues between the two nations must be resolved via mutual discussion and dialogue.

Following the proposal of the council of ministers, Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the country’s House of Representatives on May 21 and suggested general elections on November 12 and 19. Bhandari’s statement comes as the country battles a deadly second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.

After opposition parties failed to form a government, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli was reappointed on May 13 as the head of the largest bloc (121 seats in the House of Representatives) (which would have required 136 seats). Oli just had 30 days to win a confidence vote. The Nepali Congress has 63 seats, while Oli’s opponent Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) has 54.

On July 12, Nepal’s Supreme Court issued a historic ruling reinstating the House of Representatives, which had been dissolved by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Prime Minister K P Oli’s recommendation, and ordering the president to appoint Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba as Prime Minister.

On August 21, Vijay Chauthaiwala, the BJP’s Foreign Affairs Division chief, paid a visit to Nepal and met with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to discuss ways to improve the bilateral relationship between Nepal and India and to strengthen the party-to-party relationship between the Nepali Congress and India’s ruling party, the BJP.

The Nepalese government on Sept. 10 reopened the holy Pashupatinath temple to Hindu pilgrims following a four-and-a-half-month period of adhering to health guidelines, as Covid – 19 instances in Nepal have drastically decreased.

India also delivered on its promise to aid with the reconstruction of 50,000 homes in Nepal’s Gorkha and Nuwakot districts, which were destroyed in the 2015 earthquakes. The Joint Project Monitoring Committee (JPMC) conference on post-earthquake rehabilitation projects between India and Nepal was conducted in Kathmandu on September 30. The meeting, which was co-chaired by Anurag Srivastava, Joint Secretary (North), India, and Sushil Chandra Tiwari, Secretary, National Reconstruction Authority, Nepal, expressed satisfaction with the successful completion of 50,000 houses in Gorkha and Nuwakot districts, which were built with grant assistance from the Government of India.

Following a four-and-a-half-month period of adhering to health recommendations, the Nepalese authorities reopened the holy Pashupatinath temple to Hindu pilgrims on Sept. 10, as Covid – 19 cases in Nepal had substantially declined.

India also followed through on its promise to assist in the reconstruction of 50,000 homes devastated in Nepal’s Gorkha and Nuwakot districts by the 2015 earthquakes. On September 30, the Joint Project Monitoring Committee (JPMC) held a session in Kathmandu on post-earthquake reconstruction projects between India and Nepal. Anurag Srivastava, Joint Secretary (North), India, and Sushil Chandra Tiwari, Secretary, National Reconstruction Authority, Nepal, co-chaired the meeting, which expressed satisfaction with the successful completion of 50,000 houses in Gorkha and Nuwakot districts, which were built with grant assistance from the Government of India.

In October, Nepal saw a dark side regarding the proper justice for women. On October 6, people from Nepalgunj entered Kathmandu after their 20 days walk, demanding justice for the death of two women, who were the victims of domestic violence. The case has yet not been solved after 2 months of their protest.

December brought us the election for the new central committee in the political parties of Nepal. Talking about the major political parties, A 45-member Standing Committee was constituted at the CPN-central UML’s committee meeting on 12th December 2021.

The party’s office bearers will be 19 ex-officio Standing Committee members who were chosen to the top leadership position at the party’s tenth national conference, which just ended. The rest of the appointees were chosen at the central committee meeting on Sunday. Ram Bahadur Thapa, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Lekhraj Bhatt, Mani Thapa, and Prabhu Sah are among the five former Maoists on the Standing Committee. The election result of Nepali Congress has yet not been revealed.