Political instability plagues Nepal’s provinces as traditional parties undermine federalism

KATHMANDU, July 18: Nepal’s decade-long experiment with federalism is facing its most severe existential crisis, driven by the very traditional political custodians who championed its constitutional inception. A profound paradox currently defines the country's political landscape. When the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party questioned the utility and financial viability of provincial assemblies during its First General Convention, the traditional political establishment—comprising the Nepali Congress (NC), the CPN-UML, and the Nepali Communist Party (NCP)—united in a chorus of fierce institutional defense. Yet, away from the rhetoric of the capital, these same traditional parties are actively dismantling the credibility of the provincial system. Driven by an insatiable appetite for power and shifting mathematical equations in Kathmandu, they have reduced regional administrations to mere chess pieces, instigating a relentless cycle of government overthrows that threatens to render the entire federal structure obsolete.