What a waste

Whatever gloss Prime Minister Oli tries to put on his term, his nine months in office have been a failure.

As the country enters the Nepali new year, it is worth looking back at how little the KP Oli government has to show for its nine months in office. Since he became prime minister in July 2024, public frustration with the government has only grown. There are few signs of the economic revival the new government promised. Another of its big promises centered on amending and updating the new constitution. Again, zero progress on this, too. In fact, if we try to recall what the government has done in this time, only negative examples come readily to mind. It fired Nepal Electricity Authority chief Kulman Ghising even though Ghising, by most estimates, was doing a decent job. (In any case, he was retiring in a few months). There was pressure from the media, the street, the opposition and from within the ruling coalition to let the NEA head be; yet Oli was determined to have it his way. More recently, Vice-Chancellor of Tribhuvan University Keshar Jung Baral had to put in his papers after constant government interference made his task impossible. The federal government also fared woefully in controlling forest fires, making millions of Nepalis choke on dangerously polluted air.