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Ms. Koirala has little experience in the rank-and-file politics of the country. She was married to a German national and spent most of her adult life abroad. She returned to Nepal after her father was first elected Nepal's prime minister back in the early 1990s. Since then she has had an easy ride within the Nepali Congress party and in the country's "influentials only" alley.
In spite of her lack of experience and grasp of issues facing the common citizens, her father appointed her to powerful positions within the party. Party members much more senior than Ms. Koirala were sidelined to make way for the “chosen daughter." The prime minister pampered his adult daughter with lucrative appointments while his party, the Nepali Congress, rapidly lost supporters. Finally, in last year's elections the party was soundly ignored and rebuked by the people.
The Nepali Congress party is being treated like a family piggy bank by the Koirala family. Girija Koirala manipulated party rules, seniority and the national interest to install Sujata as the next leader of the party. It is no surprise that the party is now in shambles. Rank-and-file Nepali Congress activists are deserting the party in large numbers, unable to bear the moral decay that has taken over.
But the Koirala family is still in no mood to give up. In his latest move, Girija Koirala unilaterally decided that Sujata would be the leader of Congress party in the new coalition government. Senior party leaders like Ramchandra Poudyal have opposed this decision, further deepening the crisis within the party.
As a Nepali, there have been a few occasions when I wished I could go and hide somewhere until the country gets back on track. This latest craziness is one of them. I cannot explain to my friends and colleagues why a former prime minister insists on promoting his incompetent daughter. The shameless acts of the Koirala family have left millions of Nepalese like me speechless.
Sujata Koirala is alleged to be a master manipulator and a corrupt politician. The charges remain "alleged" because her father's government and his friends stopped legal action over the allegations; otherwise there is little doubt that the allegations would have been proven in a court of law.
As a result of her "alleged" acts, Nepal's national carrier Nepal Airlines – which used to be called Royal Nepal Airlines – is now an international shame. It has only two aircraft, and the service is no more reliable than the water supply in Kathmandu. Sujata and her cohorts bled the airline dry and now it exists only in name. Such is the record of national service and professional achievement of Nepal's new foreign minister.
At a time when Nepal is facing border encroachment issues with India, a Tibetan refugee issue with China and a new government in the United States, it has appointed an incompetent, corrupt person to represent itself in the international community. I will not be surprised if she sells Mt. Everest one of these days – she is quite capable on that front.
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(Bhumika Ghimire is a freelance reporter. Her articles have been published at OhMyNews, NepalNews, Toward Freedom, Telegraph Nepal, Himal South Asian and ACM Ubiquity. She is also a regular contributor to News Front Weekly, in Kathmandu, and Nepal Abroad, in Washington D.C. She can be reached at bhumika_g@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Bhumika Ghimire.)
