As the KP Sharma Oli government completes a year in office on July 15, it is rocked by yet another corruption scandal, as a minister stands accused of accepting bribes in order to transfer civil servants. There must hardly have been a week in the past year that the government has not been a part of some controversy. Some opposition parties are still protesting in parliament asking for the resignation of the home minister over his alleged role in the ‘visit visa’ scam. Sure, it is nothing new for opposition parties in Nepal to try to pull down a government, sometimes from its first day in office. Yet many accusations tend not to stick, as those in the opposition bench have plenty to account for from their own time in government. But more and more of the mud flung the government’s way seems to be sticking. As we have written in this space multiple times of late, Prime Minister Oli must take the bulk of the blame for the unpopularity of his government. He has spent most of his time in office blaming the opposition and critics for all that is currently wrong with Nepal rather than doing something about it.

Civility has never been Oli’s strong suit, yet as the head of government he is expected to maintain some decorum in how he addresses his opponents and critics. But Oli continues to paint them as no more than crooks and criminals. The country’s prime minister also seems happy to live in his cocoon in Baluwatar and tune out people’s woes and complaints. He has meddled in the appointment of office bearers in universities, centralised powers at Singha Durbar, while his Cabinet is yet to make public their property details. This monsoon, none of the country’s major highways is fully functional. The government says inflation is under control, yet that is not the experience of common folks who continue to struggle to make ends meet. Nor has Oli shown interest in accommodating the protesters in Parliament. Even in his own CPN-UML party, disagreement with his rather authoritarian leadership style has grown so much that many of its senior leaders are now openly in favour of replacing him as chair with former President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

It takes breathtaking conceit on the part of Oli and his close circle not to see how unpopular they have become. His unpopularity is not limited to the opposition in Parliament. A random sampling of people on the street will suggest that most people are fed up with this government. The prime minister and his courtiers tend to focus on handpicked stats like low inflation rate and increase in exports to show their good work. But as the prime minister made one unpopular decision after another, at one point, people stopped caring about what he says or does. Many have concluded that Oli as prime minister can do no right. The more that Oli tries to weasel his way out of criticism by employing his usual maze of words, the more people will mistrust him. The government’s one-year report card looks abysmal. Do Oli and his courtiers have the gumption to internalise this hard truth?