Six days back, Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa tabled a 13-point agenda for discussion in the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting.

The points were mostly related to the party organisation, renewal and distribution of active Congress membership, the party’s roles in the government and Parliament, sister organisations, and contemporary political, social, educational, and administrative issues.

Some leaders even cautioned the party leadership against possible unity between the communist parties.

But very few CWC members were focused on the core issues concerning the party organisation and those floated by Thapa for discussion.

Instead, some senior party leaders indulged in attacking each other. This began with party’s senior leader Shekhar Koirala against Congress lawmaker and industrialist Binod Chaudhary.

Koirala, who leads a dissident faction in the Congress, questioned Chaudhary’s eligibility to become a CWC member. Koirala gave the example of Sujata Koirala, who was barred from the CWC because her active membership had not been older than ten years. Was Chaudhary qualified to become a central member?, Koirala asked the party leadership at the meeting.

The next day, Chaudhary defended his position and urged that the Congress should have a provision for lateral entry and welcome professionals and experts from different fields in line with global practice. Chaudhary, who was earlier a member of parliament representing the CPN-UML, offered another explanation at the meeting on his entry into the Congress.

The next day, Dinesh Koirala, who is close to Shekhar, criticised Chaudhary while backing Koirala’s argument.

Also on Friday, Govinda Raj Pokharel, who is close to Shekhar Koirala, defended the role played by the Koirala family in establishing and nurturing democracy in the country.

As of Friday, only a few central members spoke within the allotted time and focussed on the meeting’s agenda.

Most others seemed to be driven by personal frustration and inferiority in comparison to rival parties while polarisation within the Congress along factional and sub-factional lines seems to be growing, said a party leader.

Another tussle erupted between General Secretary Thapa and former minister Mohan Basnet, who faces corruption charges. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority in May filed a corruption case against Basnet and 15 others representing two companies at the Special Court.

Basnet vehemently attacked Thapa at the meeting and urged him to rein in party leaders who continue to criticise him. Refuting the serious, apolitical, impolite, and inappropriate allegations, Thapa said he does not want to become tainted by taking them up.

“I don’t want to become dirty by handling dirt,” Thapa said, referring to Basnet’s allegations. Thapa said the allegations crossed the bounds of “political ethics and civility”.

Central committee members including Ram Hari Khatiwada and Ajay Babu Siwakoti spoke in Thapa’s defence.

This shows that rather than engaging with pertinent issues concerning the public, the members seemed more interested in throwing mud at each other, focusing less on substance and more on incidents or individuals.

“It is true that we have lost the plot,” a central working committee member said, adding that instead of focusing on real issues facing the party, they were wasting their effort vilifying each other.

“The current Central Working Committee has neither seriously revisited past decisions nor examined their implementation—how many were executed, how many were delayed and what benefits they may have brought to the party, the country, or the people,” the member said. “Not even the energetic young office bearers nor the jumbo-sized central committee seems to have found this worthy of reflection.”

Leaders from “anti-establishment” factions constantly repeated the issue of timely holding the party’s 15th general convention.

“They, however, failed to ask where the process for drafting necessary constitutional amendments has reached as per the government’s pledge, or why the draft committee has not yet been formed,” a leader said. “They do not even seem to realise the urgency of this issue.”

Shekhar Koirala and other central members close to him have been asking for a prompt announcement of the date for the general convention. But leaders close to party President Sher Bahadur Deuba don’t seem to be in a hurry.

One of them is Gyanendra Bahadur Karki.

Speaking on Friday, the former finance minister said there is no point debating whether the next general convention will take place on time.

“It is us who will hold the convention,” said Karki, a trusted aide to Deuba. “Instead of raising questions in the media when the general convention will be organised, all of us should focus on making it happen.”

Karki also clarified that organising the general convention is not solely the responsibility of party president Deuba.

“Holding the general convention is not the responsibility of one person—the president; it is the responsibility of the entire [central] working committee,” said Karki. “Even during the 14th general convention, questions were raised about when it would be held. But he [Deuba] managed to organise it within the stipulated time.”

Pokharel, former vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission, discussed the economy. There has been no improvement in the country’s economy amid a long period of slump, he remarked.

Overall revenue collection has not crossed 75 percent of the target, he said. There is a decline in the bank’s interest rates but loan disbursement is still low and the economic situation bleak. Pokharel also raised the issue of the party’s poor performance in government, and Parliament, and holding the general convention on time.

Khatiwada said he is ready to step down as chairman of the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee if the party instructs him to do so. Khatiwada is in the eye of the storm over tempering with the "cooling-off period" provision in the federal civil service bill as the chair of the House committee that thrashed out issues.

Opposition parties have demanded his resignation. Speaking at the party meeting about the call for his resignation from the committee, Khatiwada said, “If the party tells me to step down saying that I am at fault as chairperson, I am ready to comply.”

Govinda Bhattarai proposed that a system of “cooling-off period” be introduced in politics as well.

“Not only in bureaucracy, we need a ‘cooling-off period’ in politics, too,” he said. “We should not allow entry into Nepali politics as soon as an individual of Nepali origin relinquishes the citizenship of a foreign country.”