Nepal, Oct. 1 -- The spectacle unfolding around the Nepali Congress is, at best, a tragicomedy of elderly vanity, played out on the ruins of Nepal's largest democratic force. As the Gagan Thapa-led party moves to gather around 7,000 delegates at Tundikhel for its 15th General Convention, ousted party chief Sher Bahadur Deuba remains dug in at his Chundevi base, staging a defiant parallel circus. Nepal's grand old party, by operating as two bitter, parallel institutions-competing over ward conventions, squabbling over candidate fees, and hurling threats of expulsion-is committing public suicide. It is a spectacle as needless as it is disgraceful.

Factionalism is written into the very marrow of the Congress. The party's post-revolution tou...