Prime Minister (PM) Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal have agreed to make the ruling coalition stronger and find a way to pass the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact.
A leader confided with Setopati that PM Deuba during two rounds of meeting on Wednesday assured Dahal and Nepal that he is ready to continue the current alliance to the general election.
He also claimed that there is no truth in media reports that he talked about breaking the coalition during the meeting with CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli three weeks back. The leader revealed that Deuba told the two party chiefs that he only talked about ending House obstruction with Oli as mandated by the alliance.
Deuba sought help from Dahal and Nepal to pass the MCC on Wednesday after expressing commitment to continue the alliance.
The first meeting of the three leaders on Wednesday ended with an agreement to find ways about MCC and Nepal then addressed a party program saying that the coalition will not fall apart despite efforts by anyone.
The three leaders again met in the evening to discuss about MCC. "Different measures have been discussed. We will agree on MCC," a leader told Setopati after the meeting. "The three leaders have agreed that MCC should not be sent back."
The leader did not elaborate on the basis on which such agreement has been reached. Another leader added that agreement will be sought even by further postponing the House meeting.
The three top leaders and members of the three-strong task force formed by the coalition to study about the MCC—Jhala Nath Khanal of CPN (Unified Socialist) and CPN (Maoist Center) leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, and Government Spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki—had also discussed MCC during the briefing by the task force about MCC Sunday evening.
Deuba was angry after Maoist and Unified Socialist leaders said that the MCC cannot be passed as it is. He pointed how he and Dahal had written to America about MCC a few months back and accused Dahal of stepping back from that now.
Deuba then sent his confidants Minister Karki and Purna Bahadur Khadka separately to meet Dahal on Monday and urged Dahal that coalition partners should understand that Deuba is serious about passing the MCC. The two NC leaders told Dahal that Nepal will lose credibility on the international stage if MCC were not passed and it will be difficult to mobilize foreign aid in the future.
The top three leaders then met again on Wednesday to try to find a way to pass MCC.
Vice President of the Department of Compact Operations Fatema Sumar during her Nepal visit in September 2021 had talked with Prime Minister (PM) Sher Bahadur Deuba and top leaders of all the major political parties about the MCC. She had expressed hope that Nepal will endorse the MCC in the press conference organized before returning home.
The MCC had replied to the government's queries ahead of her visit. Sumar sent answers to the queries through the American Embassy in Nepal addressing Finance Minister Janardan Sharma. She also sent the response in Nepali language for 'transparency and accessibility' and recommended that it be made public to ensure that all Nepalis know that it benefits the people.
"The MCC Nepal Compact is a continuation of our mutual friendship and underscores the Government of Nepal's commitment to democratic principles and building a better future for all Nepalis," she replied.
She pointed that in her previous visits to Nepal, she was overwhelmed by the request for, and positive support of, an MCC partnership - from business and community leaders to members from every political party. "Unfortunately, since my last visit, there has also been an increase of false and misleading statements about MCC. MCC has no hidden agenda."
The MCC replied that the Constitution of Nepal prevails over the MCC Compact, it is not related to any defense or military strategy pointing that the US law governing the MCC prohibits it from using funding for any military purpose, all the projects to be developed under the MCC have been selected by the Nepal government and parliamentary ratification has been required to make it international agreement as the Nepal government concluded that parliamentary ratification is required to make the compact an international agreement as per the prevailing Nepali laws.
It also clarified that it is not part of Indo-Pacific Strategy and just an agreement between the MCC and the partner government concerned and any decision by Nepal on Indo-Pacific Strategy will be separate and independent from the MCC.
The MCC has been stuck at the House for a long time. It was to enter the construction phase from June 30, 2020 after House endorsement as per the previous schedule but could not be passed as the then ruling CPN was bitterly divided over the issue.
But government officials have been insisting the MCC is still not dead pointing that nowhere is it written that the agreement will be revoked if it is not endorsed by the House by that date.
The then CPN, formed after unification of UML and CPN (Maoist Center), had hotly debated MCC even during the standing committee meeting in December 2019 with the erstwhile Maoists and those from Madhav Kumar Nepal faction of CPN-UML opposing it saying it should only be passed if it becomes clear that it is not part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy floated by America.
The US embassy in Kathmandu later issued a 10-point statement clarifying that the MCC is not part of military affairs.
The press statement, which it said was in response to a large number of queries from Nepali citizens, politicians, and members of the media about the MCC, claimed that every Nepali government since 2012 has been in favor of the MCC and that there is no military component to the compact.
The then CPN had even formed a task force to address the issue. The party formed the task force led by senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal and including the then foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali and standing committee member Bhim Rawal as members to study MCC to find out whether it is part of the American military strategy or not.
The task force recommended that it should not be endorsed without amendment. But Gyawali had put a 15-point dissenting opinion.
