Stalled earthquake recovery efforts weaken Nepal outlook

The government failed to tackle a black market in essential commodities that piles further misery on the worst-hit victims of the earthquake.

The Nepali media was busy with the visiting British Prince Harry and a range of other issues during the country’s prime minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli’s push to carve out a new trade route with China last week.

Prince Harry seemed to hog the nation’s attention as the media plastered pictures of him carrying bamboo baskets like Nepali villagers, chatting to local people in forested areas, visiting sick children in hospital, helping to rebuild a school damaged by the earthquake last year and raising his voice against child marriages.

The coverage somewhat overshadowed the fact that Mr Oli’s coalition government seemed to be cracking even as he was in Beijing signing multibillion-dollar trade agreements on behalf of the country. The Unified CPN-Maoist party, which has propped up his government, threatened to pull out.

“If the quake victims are compelled to live in temporary shelters, our party may quit the government,” the Unified CPN-Maoist spokesman Dinanath Sharma announced while castigating policymakers for delaying reconstruction of infrastructure damaged in the disaster.

The government had also failed to tackle a black market in essential commodities that piles further misery on the worst-hit victims of the earthquake, Mr Sharma complained.

At the same time, he expressed appreciation for Mr Oli’s achievement in signing the raft of major agreements in China.

In Kathmandu, Mr Oli tried to douse the political fires by joining critics in venting frustration over the rebuilding issue. “The reconstruction work is not going to end even in decades at this pace,” the prime minister said yesterday. “Everything will be gone … people will die.”

The Nepali Congress, which was denied power even after emerging as the single biggest party in the elections last September, is eagerly watching the infighting in the coalition government hoping it will fall.

"There is no pre-planned development strategy behind Oli's moves in Beijing," Amresh Singh, a member of the opposition Nepali Congress Party tells The National. "Oli is not keen on implementing the agreements signed in Beijing. He is only playing political games because a pro-India community called Madhesi is opposing him."

The Kathmandu Post, one of Nepal's leading dailies, noted in an editorial: "The context of prime minister Oli's China visit is important. It came on the heels of an Indian border blockade that brought our trade and transit to a near-standstill for more than four months. Unsurprisingly, when Oli left for Beijing, alternative transit routes to cut down our sole dependence on India were high on our agenda."

The Madhesi community recently formed a huge human blockade that stopped the flow of essential commodities from India into Nepal, causing severe shortages and inflated prices. They were protesting against a new constitution brought in by the Oli government, which they said denied the community certain rights. The blockade was lifted after the government amended the constitution removing restrictions that had been placed on the community – a serious loss of face for the Oli government, which accused India of encouraging the protesters.

In Beijing, the Mr Oli did everything to convey his commitment to Nepal-China relationship and assure Chinese leaders that he is capable of implementing the accord. “Nepal’s relationship with China is higher than the Mount Everest and superior than the Great Wall,” he said.

But the fact is China’s Communist Party knows exactly what is happening in Kathmandu because it is closely linked to his government partner, the Unified CPN-Maoist party.

The Oli cabinet is made up of several parties including some pro-China leftists and some on the right supporting closer relationship between Nepal and India. Mr Oli’s own foreign minister, Kamal Thapa, belongs to the right-leaning Rashtriya Prajatantra Party.

Many doubt the feasibility of some of the agreements signed in Beijing. For instance, Mr Oli said Nepali goods would be shipped through Chinese ports in future. This seems far-fetched to many observers because the nearest Chinese port from the Nepali border is 3,000 kms away, and building a railway line to China is itself but a distant dream.

On the face of it, India appears to be unconcerned about the enhanced ties that the new agreements signed by Mr Oli in Beijing seem to promise.

“Our age-old ties with Nepal are unique and special,” says the external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup in New Delhi.

“They are characterised by an open border based on shared history, geography, culture, close people-to-people ties, mutual security and close economic linkages.”

But India will be forced to learn new lessons, according to Nepali leaders. “India should give up the practice of making promises and not delivering,” says Mr Singh. “We have road and hydroelectricity projects signed with India 15-20 years back, and hardly any steps taken to implement them.”

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