Nirendra Dev
New Delhi: Deuba’s appointment ends KP Sharma Oli’s three-and-a-half-year-long stint as the prime minister of the Himalayan nation marred by several controversies and a few 'anti-India' stances.
Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday was sworn in as the country's new Prime Minister for a record fifth time on Tuesday, July 13 late evening after the Supreme Court had overturned the presidential order of dissolution of Parliament.
Deuba’s appointment ends KP Sharma Oli’s three-and-a-half-year-long stint as the prime minister of the Himalayan nation marred by several controversies and a few 'anti-India' stances.
The 75-year-old veteran politician took the oath of office and secrecy from President Bidhya Devi Bhandari during a swearing-in ceremony here.
The swearing-in ceremony was delayed for over two hours after Deuba flagged a controversy in the presidential communique.
The 'technical lapse' in the order was eventually addressed by the President's Office, which stated that Deuba was appointed prime minister under Article 76 (5) of the constitution.
The new PM Deuba now has to secure a vote of confidence in the restored House by August 12, as per Article 76 (6) of the constitution, Nepali officials said.
On Tuesday morning, senior BJP leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy tweeted saying, "India should right away tell the new Nepali PM-designate (Mr. Deuba) that he must disown all the outgoing Nepal PM's (Oli's) anti-India postures on Indian territory, Bhagavan Ram, etc., otherwise India cannot support Nepal".
Oli had triggered a rather unnecessary row when he claimed that Bhagwan Ram was born in Nepal and not Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, India.
The Nepali Congress had then slammed Oli and had said that he had "lost the moral and political basis to govern,"
Effigies of Oli were burned at many places in Nepal and also in the Braj region in India and demands were raised to end diplomatic ties with Nepal.
K P Sharma Oli had allegedly also fallen into a 'honey trap' and at times grew close to China.
On May 20, the Nepal government released a 'new map' showing some areas such as Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani as part of its territory.
India had flatly rejected the Nepalese Parliament's decision to bring the Constitutional Amendment Bill, which approved the new and contentious new map.
"This artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable," the then MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said.
Nepal and India share a 1,800 km open border.
