Kathmandu, December 18
Though a few leaders of the ruling Nepal Communist Party have publicly protested a two-year-old agreement about the United States government’s 500 million dollar grant support to Nepal through its Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the party leadership is not in the position to protest the deal publicly, insiders say.
Saying that the protests were raised ‘just for the formality’s sake’, they claim the party leadership including Prime Minister and chairman KP Sharma Oli and executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is ready to endorse the pact from Parliament. The agreement’s implementation has not started yet as the legislative has not approved the deal.
Prime Minister Oli is for an early endorsement and implementation of the agreement. He had publicly criticised the then speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara for failing to approve the deal from the House during the last session.
Further, the International Affairs Department of the party has also suggested that the party endorse the deal after a minute study, hence the party is not in a position to go back.
However, standing committee members such as Bhim Rawal and Dev Gurung have been protesting the deal, suspecting that the US government offered the grant so as to convince Nepal to join its controversial Indo-Pacific Strategy.
“But we believe the MCC agreement is a different component because it was signed before the Indo-Pacific Strategy came into discussion,” the party’s International Affairs Department’s deputy chief Bishnu Rijal says, “The prime minister wants to endorse it as soon as possible, and he is right.”
During the ongoing standing committee meeting of the party, Rawal and Gurung spoke against the deal. It is expected that Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokharel and Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Gyawali will speak later in the meeting highlighting the need of the deal. Since Oli is not attending the meeting, Pokharel and Gyawali will also represent the government’s opinion about the issue.
