Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
02KATHMANDU1988
2002-10-11 12:35:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

NEPAL KING NAMES NEW PM, MEMBERS OF CABINET

Tags:  PGOV PINR NP GON 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 001988 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR POL - RIEDEL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2012
TAGS: PGOV PINR NP GON
SUBJECT: NEPAL KING NAMES NEW PM, MEMBERS OF CABINET

REF: (A) KATHMANDU 1955 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: DCM ROBERT K. BOGGS. REASON: 1.5 (B,D).

-------
SUMMARY
--------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 001988

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS
LONDON FOR POL - RIEDEL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2012
TAGS: PGOV PINR NEPAL'>NP GON
SUBJECT: NEPAL KING NAMES NEW PM, MEMBERS OF CABINET

REF: (A) KATHMANDU 1955 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: DCM ROBERT K. BOGGS. REASON: 1.5 (B,D).

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (C) On October 11 King Gyanendra appointed National
Democratic Party Leader Lokendra Bahadur Chand as Prime
Minister. Chand, who has been PM three times before, will
head a caretaker government until national elections can be
held on an unspecified date. Biographic information on Chand
follows in Paras 5-7 below. The King also made a number of
appointments to Chand's Cabinet that include some figures
from the autocratic Panchayat era. Other appointments
reflect an apparent effort to broaden inclusion of various
groups in the caretaker government. The choice of Chand as
interim PM appears to meet the political parties' requirement
that the Prime Minister be a political figure while
reflecting the conservative political preference of the
Palace. The members of the New Cabinet seem to meet the
King's "clean image" criterion (Reftel). The NEPALi Congress
and the Communist Party of NEPAL - United Marxist Leninist
(UML),the two largest parties in the country, tell us that,
contrary to their expectations, they had no input into the
King's announcement of the Cabinet. End summary.

--------------
CHAND AS PM AGAIN
--------------


2. (U) On October 11--the day before the onset of the
weeklong Dasain holiday--King Gyanendra appointed National
Democratic Party Leader Lokendra Bahadur Chand as Prime
Minister. Chand, who has been PM three times before (twice
under the former autocratic Panchayat regime and once for a
seven-month stint after the restoration of democracy),will
head an interim government named by the King. That
government will remain in place until national elections,
indefinitely postponed because of adverse security
conditions, can be held. Clause 38 of the Constitution bars
Chand (and nearly all other members of the newly-named
Cabinet) from occupying their posts for more than six months
because they were not members of the previous Parliament. In
addition to holding the post of PM, Chand will also hold the
Royal Palace, Defense, Forest and Soil Conservation, and
General Administration portfolios. Chand may have selected

in part to satisfy other party leaders' demand that the new
PM be a political person (Reftel). The conservative National
Democratic Party (known in NEPAL by the acronym RPP) is
considered close to the Palace. Many former figures
associated with the partyless, pre-democracy Panchayat regime
are now members of the RPP.

--------------
CABINET MEMBERS
--------------


3. (U) In the same announcement, the King named Badri Prasad
Mandal, Acting President of the NEPAL Sadbhavana Party, which
is based in the Hindi- and Bihari-speaking communities of the
lowland Terai area of southern NEPAL, as Deputy Prime
Minister. Mandal will also hold the Agriculture and
Cooperatives and the Local Development portfolios. (Note:
Mandal is the only member of the new Cabinet who held a seat
in the recently dismissed Parliament. End note.) Narendra
Bikram Shah, a former Foreign Secretary (1986-1992) and UN
Perm Rep (1995-1999),has been given the Foreign Affairs
portfolio, while Dr. Badri Prasad Shrestha, a former Vice
Chairman of the National Planning Commission during the
Panchayat era, has been named Minister of Finance and
Minister of Education and Sports. Other Cabinet posts have
been awarded to Gore Bahadur Kapangi (Women, Children, and
Social Welfare),a member of the minority Magar community;
Dharma Bahadur Thapa (Home, Justice, Law and Parliamentary
Affairs),another Panchayat-era figure with a hard-liner
reputation and a reputed close friend of the King; Dr.
Upendra Devkota (Health, Science and Technology),a
neurosurgeon with left-wing but otherwise nonpartisan
leanings; Gopal Dahit, Assistant Minister for Population and
Environment; and Anuradha Koirala, head of the
internationally respected anti-trafficking NGO Maiti NEPAL
(Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare).
(Note: The King had originally suggested a 15-person
Cabinet. Thus other names may be forthcoming. End note.)
One media source commented that all new Cabinet members seem
to fulfill the required "clean image" stipulated by the King
as a criterion for participation in the interim government
(Reftel).



4. (U) In his radio address naming the new Cabinet, King
Gyanendra charged the interim government with certain
specific responsibilities, including creating a national
consensus to improve security in the country. He instructed
them to uphold multiparty democracy by holding free and fair
local and national elections. The new Cabinet was also
directed to to control corruption; to strengthen financial
discipline and transparency; and to promote friendly
relations with neighboring countries and allies.

--------------
BIO OF LOKENDRA BAHADUR CHAND
--------------


5. (SBU) Lokendra Bahadur Chand had previously been Prime
Minister of NEPAL on three separate occasions, including two
tours as Prime Minister under the former Panchayat regime.
He was the last Prime Minister under the Panchayat regime,
resigning in April 1990 after only a few days in office, when
the popular revolution against royal rule reached a
crescendo. Although once reviled as a royalist pupppet,
Chand is now seen as an affable politician, who writes well
and conducts himself with the decorum appropriate to an elder
statesman. The press is generally deferential to him,
occasionally referring to him as "Mr. Clean."


6. (SBU) Chand served his third term as Prime Minister from
March 1997 to October 1997. While the head of an unlikely
coalition of former revolutionaries and former royalists, he
nevertheless was able to produce some results, including new
agreements with India on air transport and land transit, a
renewed invitation to Enron to develop the Karnali-Chisapani
hydropower project, and basically free and fair local
elections. Still, his reputation as a leader is not strong.
He is still seen by many as a man who can be manipulated by
others. He was born in Baitadi, a remote western region
bordering India, on March 15, 1939. He studied in India,
graduating in arts from Nainital College and later in law
from Dehradun, and took an early interest in politics where
he rapidly made his mark as a local politician. Elevated to
the national Panchayat in 1974, he became Vice Chairman in
1975 and Chairman in 1980. He was reelected Chairman of the
national Panchayat the following year, and, in 1983, was
elected Prime Minister of NEPAL. He also handled the
portfolios of defense and royal affairs, and reportedly
enjoyed an excellent rapport with the late King Birendra. He
resigned in 1985 when internal power struggles undermined the
national Panchayat.


7. (SBU) Chand received his second chance at power when, in
1990, the popular movement for restoration of multi-party
democracy came to a head in NEPAL in the waning days of the
Panchayat regime. In April 1990 he was appointed Prime
Minister to mediate with the NEPALi Congress and communist
leaders of the movement. However, the movement had already
passed the point where mediation was possible. It culminated
with the restoration of a popularly elected parliament with
multiple parties, and the end of Chand,s second brief spell
in power. Chand ran for Parliament again in 1999, but failed
to gain either seat in the Baitadi district. He is married
to Subhadra Chand and has six children. Chand has always
been accessible to US officials.

--------------
PARTIES LEFT OUT IN THE COLD
--------------


8. (C) Arjun Narasingh K.C., spokesman for the NEPALi
Congress Party, and former NEPALi Congress MP and Finance
Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat both told us their party had
been surprised by the King's announcement. Mahat said the
technocrat members of the Cabinet were good--but not the best
that could be found. Jhala Nath Khanal of the Opposition UML
party told us that the King's 3:00 p.m. radio address was
"180 degrees opposite" to what he had promised UML Leader
Madhav NEPAL in a private meeting just four hours earlier.
In that meeting, NEPAL had agreed to Chand as the "consensus
candidate" for PM (the NEPALi Congress leader had reportedly
done so as well). The King promised the new PM would then
consult with the other parties on the composition of the rest
of his Cabinet. The UML was thus "shocked and surprised"
that the King announced, along with the appointment of Chand,
the apparently unilateral appointment of more than half of
the Cabinet. When asked if the UML would nominate members
for the remaining portfolios, Khanal said it was unlikely.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


9. (C) Leaders of other large political parties (like the
NEPALi Congress and UML) had expressed concern over the past
few days that the King, despite seeking their indiviual
counsel, would ultimately make his own choices for Prime
Minister and the interim Cabinet. The King did not accede to
the parties' request that he meet them as a group to discuss
Cabinet appointments (Reftel),and the parties never
forwarded their suggestions for such appointments to him.
The party leaders' dithering over the past week forced the
King to stretch his original October 9 deadline for
nominations by two days. With the week-long Dasain holiday
looming, the monarch doubtless felt that he had to appoint a
government--with or without the parties' consent.
Nonetheless, it is difficult to understand the King's
apparent about-face with party leaders whose trust he will
need to make this work. Chand has been one of several names
floated as a possible PM over the past week. With his "Mr.
Clean" image and his position in the third-largest party, the
Palace may be gambling that the former Panchayat-era PM was a
good compromise, if not the "consensus" candidate the other
large political parties have been demanding (Reftel). The
King has chosen a roster of past politicians and bureaucrats
who are unlikely to challenge his authority. But the heavy
representation of figures from the autocratic, pre-democracy
Panchayat regime is unlikely to sit well with the other
parties, who tag figures from that era, justly or unjustly,
as anti-democratic. As of COB October 11, there had been no
public reaction from either the NEPALi Congress or the UML
regarding the King's announcement. When they do speak
up--and we assume it will be soon--their comments are likely
to be critical.
MALINOWSKI