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Nepali student unions are long used to shutting down education institutions. Now even teachers and staffers seem to be getting into it, as is evidenced at Kathmandu University in Dhulikhel, which had thus far been spared of such disruptive shutdowns.

KU professors and staffers have shut down classes of different faculties and departments, demanding recognition of their organizations—Kathmandu University Professor Association (KUPA), and Kathmandu University Staff Association (KUSA)—from the university. They have even been padlocking department and dean offices for the past three weeks.
The university, established in 1991, had long been untouched by party politics before it gave in to the demand for the opening of student unions affiliated to different political parties. Among the sufferers are foreign students, who constitute 20 percent of the total university students.
Maisha Spriha of Bangladesh is a student of pharmacy. She expresses her frustration with the shutdown: “It’s hard on us students. To be honest, it’s hard on the teachers as well. If this shutdown brings positive changes in the university, then we are fine with it. But we can’t say if that’ll be the case.”
The associations claim the shutdown is aimed at safeguarding the interests of not only teachers and staffers, but also of the students. They are demanding that the university ‘honor’ past agreements of recognizing the associations.
“On August 30 last year, KU’s executive council agreed to grant recognition to both the organizations. It also agreed to address our three demands—allowing KUPA’s president to take part in the university’s executive council meeting, ensuring transparency in administrative works of the university, and building mechanism to guarantee career growth of teachers and employees at the varsity,” says Bed Mani Dahal, president of KUPA.
He lambasts the executive council for not addressing those demands.
Deepak Dahal, a manager at the university, says students are suffering due to the teachers strike. “It is difficult to immediately fulfill their demands. They can only be addressed via the university senate in the presence of the prime minister and education minister,” says Dahal.
Meanwhile, students are mostly expressing their frustrations through social media.
“The university administration is sleeping like a log, and the professors and employees have resorted to protests. Students are suffering,” writes Kokish Busal, a student of mechanical engineering, on Facebook. Likewise, Kiran Gyawali, a law student, writes: “Maybe we run a public hearing with the vice chancellor, registrar, KUPA/KUSA members, and students to find a way out. How long should it go like this? There are rumors that classes will not reopen until January 27.”
“The concerned authorities should resolve it as soon as possible and keep us students out of it. They may choose to close the administration, but why cancel classes?” asks Spriha.
Bigen Aryal, a computer science student at the university, says he does not know who is right and who is wrong. “We only know that the conflict between the management and teachers is troubling all the students,” he says.

Leela Devkota, 38, was returning to her home near Budhanilkantha Temple at around 10:00 on the morning of 14 December 2019. As she was walking on the sidewalk, a grey Suzuki car breached the sidewalk, and ran over her. She was later pronounced dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.
Police investigation showed 21-year-old Prithiva Malla was driving the car—under the influence. In fact, he was completely drunk. The car was full of beer bottles and, reportedly, even illegal drugs. He had three other friends in the car.

The killing of a working mother of three by an inebriated driver created much uproar. The fact that the incident occurred during unusual hours for drunk driving came as a surprise for many. It later turned out that Malla had been out on a drinking spree with his friends for the whole night before the accident.
Nepal Police’s alcohol detection test for drunk drivers, popularly known as Mapase, has been credited for controlling alcohol-induced accidents in the Kathmandu Valley. But the case of Malla throws a different light on this issue.
The record of Metropolitan Traffic Police Department Kathmandu shows reduction in the rate of alcohol-induced accidents until four years ago. But the trend has been reversing in the past three years.
In FY 2016/17, there were 167 drunk-driving accidents, killing seven. The number of accidents rose to 221 in 2017/18 with 11 deaths, and to 283 with 16 deaths in 2018/19. In the first five months of 2019/20, already 237 accidents have been recorded, with four deaths.
Does it indicate waning effectiveness of Nepal Police’s alcohol detection test? Or does it show the alcoholics have found a way out—driving when there is no Mapase test? It is hard to say.
“Improvement is needed in the way traffic police work. Each officer on the street should have at least a breathalyzer to detect alcohol,” says Govinda Bhattarai, road activist and senior advisor at Nepal Automobile Association (NASA), an organization that works for road safety. “There is also no machine to trace other drugs.”
For somebody caught driving under the influence, the punishment is Rs 1,000 in fine, an hour-long road safety class at the traffic police, and a hole punched in the driving license. Five such holes will lead to the license’s suspension. Altogether 444 licenses have been suspended in eight years of the Mapase control campaign.
“The punishment for drunk driving is inadequate,” Bhattarai adds. “And the alcohol test is done only during the evening hours. The alcoholics know when and how to avoid the Mapase tests.”
The traffic police say they have challenges of their own.
“There are several reasons why we have not been able to trace drunk drivers,” said traffic police spokesperson and Superintendent of Police Jeevan Kumar Shrestha. “First, we don’t have enough manpower. Second, it is difficult for us to inspect during the day due to rush hours. Likewise, they might also be using alternate roads where our officers are not on duty.”
Shrestha is aware that there may be plenty of people who drink and drive during daytime.
Nearly every month, a couple of cases of alcohol-related accidents in the daytime are reported, says Jitesh Dahal, an inspector at traffic police. Yet there is no systemic record of the total number of road accidents in the daytime, much less due to alcohol.
“We are doing our job. But the drivers and their families also need to be aware of their roles,” says SP Shrestha. “These days, parents are often uncaring if their children come home drunk. Discipline starts at home. I ask parents to check what their children are doing.”

Taking oath of office on 15 February 2018, Province 1 Chief Minister Sherdhan Rai inducted four ministers in his provincial cabinet. The number was in no way sufficient to staff the provincial government.
There are seven ministries in the province, including the Office of the Chief Minister. Rai has also been looking after the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives, as well as the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, for the past two years. As the chief minister does not have enough time on his hands, crucial works at these ministries have been affected. But cabinet expansion seem unlikely anytime soon.
The four ministries headed by respective ministers have formulated policies and laws to execute their public duties. But those under the chief minister have been left to the discretion of bureaucrats. It has affected public service delivery as the civil servants are unable to formulate laws and policies by themselves.
“The cabinet has failed to expand even in two years. Without its ministers, Province 1 has become like a person without vital organs,” says Bal Bahadur Samsohang, parliamentarian fromthe ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP). “Now even if the ministers are immediately appointed, the two ministries will have to spend a lot of time clearing a two-year backlog.”
Works related to critical sectors such as roads, drinking water, irrigation, energy, transport, agriculture, poverty alleviation, and land management have been affected in the absence of department heads.
“Maybe the delay is due to pressure from the central government. The chief minister is just filling vacancies in these ministries, without evaluating their functioning,” says another parliamentarian, Lila Ballav Adhikari, also from the ruling NCP.
Absence of department heads has also affected capital expenditure. Not only have the concerned bodies failed to spend budgets, there have also been irregularities, claim parliamentarians.

“There are big irregularities in the ministries that are not headed by a minister. An irrigation staffer in Bhojpur district was recently found taking bribe,” says parliamentarian Ushakala Rai, also from the ruling NCP. “As there is no minister to oversee these departments, employees are going their own way.”
According to Dhruba Subedi, press advisor of the chief minister, the issue hinges on a decision of the federal government. “Expansion of provincial government needs federal approval. As the federal government has not given such an approval, cabinet expansion in the province has been delayed,” Subedi says.
Samsohang also criticizes the practice of getting blessings from Kathmandu to be appointed provincial ministers. The provincial government has been unable to function properly as there is interference from the center even in deciding the names of the province and its capital city, lambasts Samsohang. “Federalism seems meaningless if the provincial government cannot appoint its own ministers. We have to take orders from the center on everything, including choosing the name of the province and the capital city. How can we say the country has adopted a federal system?” questions Samsohang 

One conspiracy theory refuses to die. Krishna Bahadur Mahara was supposedly removed from the speaker’s post after he refused to start the process of the mandatory parliamentary ratification of the American MCC accord. The Maoist half of the ruling Nepal Communist Party strongly believes that the MCC is an integral component of the Indo-Pacific Strategy aimed solely at containing the dear northern neighbor’s rise. For his refusal to bow down before the ‘imperialists,’ Mahara had to lose not just his job but also his freedom.
Or so the theory goes. Frankly, I didn’t put much store on it. I still don’t. Sounds farfetched. But then knowledgeable sources keep alluding to it. And to the related issue of the deputy speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe refusing to resign to clear the way for the election of new speaker and deputy speaker. They say this too is closely tied to the parliament’s need to ratify the MCC accord. PM Oli does not want another Maoist speaker as he or she could block the MCC again.
There seem to be two clear camps developing inside the ruling party. One old UML faction under the current prime minister, while still keen on closer ties with China, wants to preserve Nepal’s age-old relations with the US. But the old Maoist faction under Pushpa Kamal Dahal continues to be highly suspicious of the MCC.
Foreign powers have always had a disproportionate influence on Nepali politics. The current crop of top Nepali leaders think they have learned how to play off big powers to their political advantage. Oli used to be India’s point-man in Nepal before he espied an opportunity to ride an anti-India wave to power. Now he is much closer to China. Dahal orchestrated the decade-long insurgency from Indian soil, only to later denounce the ‘expansionists’. After he lost his PM’s post due to ‘Indian meddling’, he once again embarked on a (as yet unfinished) crusade to please the Indians. During the insurgency, the West-friendly Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba hoped to save his premiership by convincing the Americans to ditch their knee-jerk anti-Maoism. He didn’t succeed, but remains a trusted American friend. Thanks to Pradeep Giri, his ties with New Delhi aren’t bad either.
As the internal rift within the NCP deepens, foreign power centers will look to play through their Nepal proxies. Dahal wants to portray himself as the only true friend of China in the NCP. Oli wants to show that he is more than capable of maintaining the delicate balance between the great powers, even as he maintains his warm ties with Beijing. He recently deported 122 Chinese nationals after asking Nepal Police to drop charges against them. This won’t go unnoticed in Beijing. Again, Oli as government head faces different kinds of pressures to Dahal as co-chairman of the NCP. But one long-term trajectory is clear enough: whatever their current inclinations, each sees his future firmly tied to their ability to keep Beijing in good humor. For the Nepali communists, the pro-China nationalist card comes with an indefinite
validity period.