Wheels are turning with PM's Mustang

KATHMANDU: Newly elected Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s ‘made in Nepal’ vehicle has become the talk of the town.

Prime Minister Bhattarai today went to Shital Niwas for the swearing-in ceremony on a Mustang Max, a jeep assembled in Nepal.

Social network sites are flooded with messages in praise of Bhattarai.

“Thumbs up Bhattarai. Impressive first move to use a Nepal-made vehicle, unlike all ex-PMs who rode vehicles that cost crores of rupees,” tweeted Sudeep Sharma. And there was one by Tirtha Acharya, who tweeted: “Morning shows the day. PM Bhattarai will try to do things in his own way.”

However, there are some brickbats, some calling Bhattarai’s selection of a Nepal-made car a ‘populist move’. Commented Indra Dhoj Kshetri on Facebook: “It will prove to be a snobbery unless he can replicate it among his party comrades who ride imported vehicles worth crores.” The feeling is echoed by ‘friendlycalls’ in Tweeter. “Two years ago when I met Baburam in a programme in the Capital, he stepped off a Scorpio jeep. I’d be happier if he was in a Mustang then too.”

Nonetheless, Bhattarai’s decision has broken the longstanding tradition upheld by his predecessor who enjoyed the ride on expensive foreign SUVs.

“The trend of using expensive cars by prime ministers dates back to the time of then king Mahendra and his son king Birendra, who during the Panchayat regime, would give away latest cars to outgoing premiers as a parting gift,” says a former minister.

After the restoration of democracy in 1990, the trend has but flourished, thanks to the successive prime ministers and ministers who institutionalised the tradition — through Cabinet approvals — of using luxury SUVs.

Former prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal is the latest in the series. Khanal will take home a Toyota SUV that costs Rs 13.5 million. Through a Cabinet decision, the government acquired the SUV, which Gokarna Bista, a minister in Khanal’s Cabinet, had refused to take, from the Chameliya Hydropower Project. Former PMs Madhav Kumar Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba also have expensive SUVs at their disposal. The government spends millions for such facility.

Meanwhile, today at Shital Niwas, besides the oath-taking ceremony, what stole the show was Bhattarai’s Mustang. And, Diwakar Golchha of Golchha Group that owns Hulas Motors, the manufacturer of Mustang, was another person to hog the limelight with television crew chasing him for an interview.