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This may be a coincidence but it is an indication that the road ahead for the prime minister is anything but smooth. Koirala successfully managed to remove his rival K. P. Bhattarai, from office last month. Prime Minister Bhattarai resigned from his post on March 16-- a day before a crucial vote on the no-trust motion against him registered by 69 out of 113 ruling party legislators. The dissident Congress MPs accused the Bhattarai government of doing nothing and lack of seriousness to deal with mounting challenges before the country and government.

Even before his unceremonious removal, Bhattarai backed a younger generation leader, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, against his main political rival. Though Koirala defeated Deuba by 26 votes within the ruling parliamentary party (on March 18), it is more than obvious that he will have to face a strong rival faction from within his party. This was the first time that the oldest party in the country had resorted to polls to elect its parliamentary party leader.

Only ten months ago, then Prime Minister Koirala had proposed the name of Bhattarai as the country's next Prime Minister. Koirala's proposal was never discussed at the Congress Central Working Committee, nor did anybody in the Congress Parliamentary Party ever question it.

Earlier known as a staunch anti-Communist, Koirala joined hands with the Unified Marxist-Leninist party, to conduct general elections in May last year. Koirala's Nepali Congress bagged clear majority in the 205-member House of Representatives whereas UML secured second position winning 69 seats.

Koirala stood by his word supporting Bhattarai to get elected in the NC Parliamentary Party thereby clearing the way for his appointment as the country's eighth prime minister since the restoration of democracy in 1990. As Bhattarai tried to sideline him and promoting his rival camps by exercising his executive power, Koirala decided to call it a day. After two previously failed attempts, Koirala acted decisively to remove Bhattarai and his ten-month-old government in his third attempt.

"Good governance, controlling corruption and maintaining law and order will be my top priorities," Koirala told the House of Representatives   (on March 23).  It is easier said than done. In order to streamline the bureaucracy and make it effective, the government has already initiated action to downsize it. To check corruption, the government will amend existing laws making it mandatory for public servants including ministers and members of parliament to submit the report of their property on a regular basis. "A law will be introduced to confiscate property of the public servants that doesn't conform to their sources of income," declared Koirala.

But, the biggest challenge to Koirala comes from the Maoist insurgency that has already claimed lives of more than 1200 people over the last four years.

A small ultra-left outfit, the CPN (Maoist) launched what they called "people's war" in February 1996 with the declared objective of making Nepal a Communist republic. Initially, a couple of remote districts in mid-western hills were known as their flashpoints. Now, the party is said to have expanded its activities in nearly half of the 75 districts in the country. Both the government and ruling party view Maoist violent activities as a form of terrorism. They even see it as a design to destabilize the new democratic order. The new government seems to be taking a tough stand to force the rebels to a negotiation table.

"Those who want to resolve the problem through dialogue must give up violence and killing before sitting on the table of negotiation," said Prime Minister Koirala. Rebels, on their part, have demanded that the government create a favorable environment for dialogue. They have said the government should fulfill  "minimum conditions." This includes making public the whereabouts of its supporters and activists, who have allegedly disappeared from police custody, and compensate families of victims who died during the rebellion.

Reports say that in the wake of the latest developments in India, Maoist rebels would like to find a temporary `seize fire' in Nepal. The Indian government has recently started cracking down against different Maoist outfits and has alleged that Maoist activities in Nepal are funded by ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency. Pakistan vehemently denies such allegations.

The Bhattarai government formed a committee headed by former Prime Minister Deuba to recommend ways to resolve the Maoist problem in consultation with different political parties, human rights activists and academics. The high-level committee even went beyond its mandate and called the rebels to the table of negotiation. In a good will gesture, the government released some senior Maoist leaders and sympathizers from behind the bars, which was reciprocated by the rebels by releasing a few policemen they had captured.

But with Koirala coming to power, Deuba committee has turned virtually immobile. Rebels, too, have adopted a tough posture to show that they are not in a weak position. "There is a crisis of confidence between the government and rebels. As the dialogue is a two-way process, the initiative should come from the government," said Prof. Kapil Shrestha, President of Human Rights Organization of Nepal (HURON). " In order to create an environment of confidence, the government should give up its `dualistic' attitude like equipping police with ultra-modern arms and pushing draconian laws in the parliament. The government should change its attitude before sitting on the table of dialogue. Once the dialogue starts, it will generate its own momentum," he added.

The problems on the foreign policy front are equally challenging. Besides trying to find out an amicable solution to the decade-old Bhutanese refugee problem, normalizing relations with India has become an urgent task for the new government. Perhaps with this in mind, Koirala inducted his close confidante and former Royal Nepalese ambassador to India and Bhutan, Chakra P. Bastola, as the Foreign Minister. Bastola is said to enjoy personal rapport with some top Indian leaders including Defense Minister George Fernandes.

As soon as the new government was formed, India sent a high-level delegation to discuss the issue of resuming Indian Airlines flight that remained suspended after the hijacking of IC 814 aircraft that left Kathmandu for New Delhi on December 24 last year by Islamic militants. The act, which has been considered by the country's travel trade sector, as tantamount to an "economic embargo" has resulted in the loss of a big revenue for the country, tourism being the highest foreign exchange earner. Indian side has reportedly asked for permission from Nepali authorities to station their security personnel at the Tribhuvan International Airport, the country's only international airport. 

Though Nepal government is wary about possible backlash it may have to face in the wake of any such arrangement, analysts say that Nepal might consider taking some measures to win back the faith of its big southern neighbor. "Nepal should attach top priority to normalize relations with her southern neighbor," said Prof. Lok Raj Baral, former Royal Nepalese ambassador to India. "For this, both formal and informal channels should be employed."

Foreign Minister Chakra P. Bastola agreed that relations with India have cooled off in the aftermath of hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane. "There is a need for little bit of warming in the bilateral relations," he told the Spotlight magazine in a recent interview.

On the domestic front, people's aspirations have gone high especially after the restoration of democracy in 1990. But successive governments in the past have failed to meet those expectations. The economy is yet to recover from the phase of economic slow down and the bureaucracy neither has zeal nor motivation to execute decisions taken at the political level.

Not only the constitutional monarch, donors, too, have been emphasizing on good governance and controlling corruption as prioritized now by Koirala. They have made it clear that Nepal may not be able to pull nearly 50 percent of 23 million population out of the absolute line of poverty through existing pace of development work. "Nepal needs to grow well above its current 2-3 percent per annum if growth is to have any impact upon poverty reduction," said Hans Rothenbuhler, country director of the World Bank in Kathmandu. "Growth will only come from investment- most of which will have to come from the private sector," he said in an interview with the Spotlight magazine recently.

Officials do agree. "Nepal must break the low level equilibrium in economy in order to reduce poverty and generate employment opportunities," Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya told reporters upon assuming his office. "We need private sector investment, both domestic and foreign, to reduce the gap between savings and investment," he added. The ratio of savings to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is around 11 percent whereas that of investment to GDP is nearly 17 percent, he said.

Unfortunately, foreign direct investment into the country has declined over the years. It came down by nearly half to US$9.0 million in 1998 compared to previous year. Analysts primarily blame political instability and lack of consistency in government policies over the last few years for this. After the general elections in 1994, Nepal saw five different governments, some of them lasting for barely five months. Political interference in day-to-day administration, corruption and frequent transfers of chiefs of development projects had become a rule rather than exception during the period.

"Political instability and economic concerns have delayed much-needed structural reforms in recent years. Immediate attention should be given to improving governance and reducing corruption in order to establish credibility in public and private institutions, which is essential to increase confidence among investors," according to a document called the Country Operational Strategy prepared by the Asian Development Bank for Nepal last year. "Frequent changes in Government have often been followed by a high turnover of professional staff in the civil service. The turnover has adversely affected civil service morale and distracted attention from the important policy and institutional reforms needed to secure and sustain accelerated growth and economic stability," the document said.

This was not the case during the first tenure of Nepali Congress government (1991-94) led by Koirala himself. The Koirala government not only followed the policy of economic liberalization by opening up the economy, it even took harsh measures to streamline bureaucracy.  Economy grew by around 5 percent per annum creating jobs and raising level of income for the masses. With the fall of Koirala government in 1994 due to internal wrangling within the ruling party, the country was pushed toward the era of political instability and economic stagnation.

This time around, keeping his house in order and delivering the goods are some of the immediate challenges for Koirala. "The life of the Koirala government rests on whether he can gain performance legitimacy by delivering the goods," said Krishna Hachhethu, a political scientist with the Tribhuvan University. Given Koirala's commitment and stakes involved at the fag-end of his political career, even the harshest critic of this lanky politician would like to keep their fingers crossed, at least for sometime to come.