Fresh politics in Koshi

After months of trial and error for stable government amidst a hung Koshi province assembly, a new chief minister has taken charge pledging stability in governance and politics. The fresh move has in the meanwhile avoided the compulsion to hold reelection and ignited hope that new dispensation backed by opposition party CPNUML and a section of Nepali Congress will witness better longevity than the one experienced by earlier combinations. Since the country’s politicos have, these days, been pursuing a transactional mode of politics in place of principle-based politics, the new arrangement should not surprise anyone. The CPNNUML logic behind backing a politico of NC is: a genuine desire to give continuity and stability to governance of the province. If the opposition party does not change the current stand in the near future, the province will be able to concentrate on governance, development works, resource management and response to the public service need of the people in general. Any change in current policy would be disastrous for the governance in the province. It will also affect the management of federalism in the country. The political move in Koshi could pave way for further cooperation between NC, the largest party in the parliament, and the second largest and opposition party CPNUML in future. In a sense political parties of Nepal should learn the skills of working together for national cause. They should develop a system of recognizing, understanding, and tolerating the differences among political parties and working out a negotiating formula to take common stand in all the agenda for the nation and the people. This way will facilitate them to make parliament and provincial assembly functional in the real sense of the term. That sense of functionality would in course of time be transferred to the executive branch as well. Parliament or assemblies which are in effect the houses of representatives elected by people should be a place where solution to problems could be explored and commonality among different parties or their factions could be explored for the broad interest of the people and the country. As the new chief minister seeks fresh vote of confidence in the Koshi provincial assembly all these points should be considered well and in a positive spirit. After all what has been done in Koshi today is just another version of what was done at federal level immediately after the general election. If the federal experiment is considered OK there is no point in arguing against what has happened in Koshi at the moment. The experiment would over time be helpful in making politicos accountable to the people who voted them to power.