Kathmandu, Dec. 17 -- Nepal has been on a knife-edge in 2020 because of the pandemic, but the country's leaders are too involved in their internal power struggles to notice. This week, better sense prevailed once more at the last moment as the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) on Wednesday pulled back at the last minute from tearing itself apart.

The struggle for supremacy between the two top leaders, Prime Minister K P Oli and party co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, have become so nasty, rhetoric so acrimonious and the actions being taken so drastic that it has now dragged all three arms of the state the legislature, judiciary and executive into controversy.

The latest casualty was the Office of the President which is now seen by many as j...