Kathmandu, July 15
The newly appointed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli also administered oaths to 21 ministers along with himself.
The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers were sworn in at the swearing-in ceremony held at the President’s Office Shital Niwas at 11 am on Monday.
Prime Minister Oli has appointed Prakash Man Singh and Bishnu Prasad Paudel as Deputy Prime Ministers. Paudel has been given the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance and Singh of the Ministry of Urban Development.
Due to the large number of aspiring parliamentarians, Oli took the policy of completing the cabinet at once. However, Prime Minister Oli did not pay the necessary attention to inclusiveness while forming the Council of Ministers.
Oli removed party secretary Chhabilal Bishwakarma, who was certain to become a minister by Sunday night, from the list of ministers on Monday morning. Bishwakarma is one of the few senior leaders in UML to win elections.
When influential party leaders lost the election, Bishwakarma won from Rupandehi-1. But Oli removed Bishwakarma, who was preparing to take an oath, from the list to become a minister.
Nepali Congress, another power partner, also did not make MPs from the Dalit community as ministers. As in the UML, it was decided to make Jiwan Pariyar a minister within the Congress too.
The leader of other groups in the establishment, Shekhar Koirala recommended Pariyar as a minister. He was preparing to take oath as he was sure to become a minister from Koirala’s quota. But at the last moment, his name was removed from the list of ministers.
Even from the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, which participated in the government, the MPs from the Dalit community did not become ministers. In other words, when all the ministries got leadership, not a single minister from the Dalit community became a minister.
The constitution has given the facility to form a 25-member cabinet. Therefore, if Prime Minister Oli wants, MPs from the Dalit community can even become state ministers.
In other words, Oli has created a cabinet similar to that of the previous Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal where there are no ministers from the Dalit community.
Prime Minister Oli has appointed two women ministers in the 22-member cabinet. Arzu Rana Deuba has been appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Bidya Bhattarai as Minister of Education.
