New Government: Look at Finance and Home Minister

Along with Prime Minister Oli, 22 ministers took oath at the same ceremony, including two deputy prime ministers and 20 ministers. However, questions have been raised in the Parliament and in public on the very first day about the UML-Congress coalition government regarding the low participation of women in the government and zero participation from the Dalit community. There are four parties participating in the government. The government is led by the UML and the main component is the Congress. Jaspa with seven MPs and LOSPA with 4 MPs have also participated in the government.

government has ministers from different groups from Congress. Five leaders from the chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba group have become ministers - Deputy Prime Minister and Urban Development Prakashman Singh, Home Affairs Ramesh Akbar, Foreign Affairs Arju Rana, Law Ajay Chaurasia and Forestry Ain Bahadur Shahi.

Pradeep Paudel in health, Badri Pandey in tourism and Ramnath Adhikari in agriculture have become ministers from the Shekhar Koirala-Gagan Thapa group. Tejulal Chaudhary, the sports minister close to President Ramchandra Poudel, also became a minister from the Koirala-Thapa group, while Dr. Shashank Koirala has become the energy minister close to Deepak Khadka.

There are 9 new faces and 12 old faces in the 22-member cabinet led by Oli. Among the old ministers, they range from getting the responsibility for the second time from the Panchayat period to getting the government responsibility for the 13th time.

Congress and UML have appointed one person each as Deputy Prime Minister - Prakashman Singh of Congress and Bishnu Paudel of UML. Singh has been given the responsibility of Urban Development and Poudel of Finance. Singh and Poudel have been ministers in the past.

In the 22-member cabinet led by Oli, only two women, one each from Congress and UML, have been given responsibility. This is only 9 percent of the cabinet. Arju Rana from Congress has got the responsibility of foreign affairs minister while Vidya Bhattarai from UML has become education, science and technology minister. Both these MPs became ministers for the first time. Rana was an MP in the House of Representatives and was also the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee.

Foreign Minister Arju Rana

She is also a member of the Congress Central Committee and is the wife of party president Deuba. Bhattarai is an elected MP from Kaski-2. Rana has experience of working in the social sector in the past. Bhattarai is a former Vice-Professor of Tri. She entered politics after her husband, the then tourism minister Ravindra Bhattarai, died in a helicopter accident. She joined the student organization of UML and was active in politics.

Education Minister Vidya Bhattarai

The Oli-led government has been criticized in parliament and social media after not a single person from the Dalit community was included in the 22-member cabinet. None of the parties participating in the government considered it appropriate to make their Dalit MP a minister. Even though the UML has 8 ministries besides the Prime Minister and the Congress has 10 ministries, these two parties have been criticized for not appointing a single Dalit as a minister. Apart from these two parties, Jaspa led by Ashok Rai got two ministries.

The parliamentarians of RSVP have mentioned that the participation of women and Dalits in the Oli-led government is low and have questioned the government as well as the Congress and UML about their views on inclusiveness. MP Sovita Gautam said in the meeting of the House of Representatives on Monday, "What is the vision of the newly formed government towards inclusiveness?" Looking at the current form of the Council of Ministers, the representation of women guaranteed by the constitution is not seen there, the representation of Dalits is zero.'

MP Dr. Toshima Karki also questioned that the government was not made inclusive. "The representation of women who cover half the sky should be 50 percent, but 33 percent of the two big parties that we are making it mandatory is 2 out of 22. Is your math weak or is it wrong on purpose?," Karki asked.

Foreign Minister Rana, Forest Minister Ain Bahadur Shahi, Health Minister Pradeep Paudel, Tourism Minister Badri Pandey and Agriculture Minister Ramnath Adhikari are the new ministers from the Congress.

Energy Minister Deepak Khadka and Youth and Sports Minister Tejulal Chaudhary have already received the responsibility of state ministers. Having become a minister of state, it is not his first time in the government but his first time as a cabinet minister. Law Minister Ajay Chaurasia became Assistant Minister for Local Development in 2058.

Energy Minister Deepak Khadka

Defense Minister Manveer Rai, Education Minister Vidya Bhattarai, Physical Infrastructure Minister Devendra Dahal and Federal Affairs Minister Rajkumar Gupta became ministers for the first time from UML.

LOSPA's Saratsingh Bhandari has become a minister for the 20th time. He has been changing parties in panchayat, monarchy and republic, becoming a minister. The 69-year-old Bhandari has become a minister for the 20th time after coming from the panchayat to the republic. He entered the Singha Darbar for the first time in 2043 as the Panchayat State Minister.

Bishnu Paudel, who got the responsibility of finance minister along with deputy prime minister from UML, has become a minister for the eighth time. He is also the vice president of UML and is in his fifth term as finance minister.

The topic of federalism implementation is becoming complicated. At a time when there is conflict between the union and the province on issues such as implementation of administrative federalism, adjustment of employees to the police, teachers, etc., experienced politicians who have run the provincial government have also found a place in the Oli-led government. UML Deputy Secretary General Prithvi Subba Gurung, who has become the Chief Minister of Gandaki Province, has taken over the responsibility of Minister of Communication and Information Technology. He was the chief minister of Gandaki province from January 2074 to June 2078, who created an image of being a supporter of federalism and able to keep his words to the party leadership. At that time, he created pressure with the federal government saying that the states should be given the rights given by the constitution.

In the Oli-led government, three ministers have been appointed from the same district Parsa. MPs elected from JSP, Congress and UML have become ministers. JSP's Pradeep Yadav, Congress's Ajay Kumar Chaurasia and UML's Rajkumar Gupta have become ministers. Yadav has been made the Water Minister, Chaurasia the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister and Gupta the Federal Affairs and General Administration Minister. Yadav is an MP elected from Parsa-1, Chaurasia Parsa-2 and Gupta from Parsa-3. Congress MP Ramesh Rizal, elected from Parsa-4, has been given the responsibility of Industry Minister in the Maoist-Congress coalition government. Parsa has 4 constituencies of the House of Representatives.

Hydropower investor Deepak Khadka has become the energy minister, and there has been a question about the conflict of interest. Khadka Menchiyam, a Congress MP elected from Sankhuwasabha, is also the founding chairman of Hydropower Limited and Langtang Bhotekoshi Hydropower Company. He is the promoter of the 4.72 MW Menchiyam Hydropower Project and the under-construction Langtang-Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project of 120 MW capacity. Khadka is also an advisor to the Association of Independent Power Producers (IPPAN).

He was the founder and shareholder of the hydropower project and was pushing to make a policy that was friendly to him. He had been putting pressure on the parliamentary committee, regulatory bodies, etc., to make policies favorable to the founding shareholders, citing the damage caused to the hydropower project by the floods in Koshi province last year.

After making him a minister, a question has been raised in the parliament. RSVP MP Gautam has raised a question saying that he has been given the responsibility of the ministry related to the business he is doing. How sensitive is the government to the conflict of interest? Can the minister accept the authority that suits his business or not?, she asked.

RPP MP Dhavalshamsher Jabara said that he would support and oppose the Oli government on the basis of merits and demerits. He said that the government should move quickly to control corruption. "We all believe that not only the corruption files should be opened, but the culprits should be prosecuted at a fast pace and we believe that this new government will do this," Jabara said.

Congress MPs of Gandaki state have expressed their displeasure saying that there is no regional representation when the party participates in the government. Dissatisfaction has increased in Congress Gandaki saying that even though the party got 10 ministers, Gandaki province was neglected. Congress MPs from Gandaki including Jeevan Pariyar, Raju Thapa, Rajendra Bajgain were ministerial aspirants.