Crisis in Nepal: Political Circus vs. Politics of Transformation

Govinda Neupane

For the last 13 years, Nepal is experiencing turmoil, uncertainty and instability. More particularly, after the historic democracy movement of 1990, the situation has continued to remain fluid. During this period, the people created either extreme optimism or pessimism for themselves. The politicians of the gifted parliamentary school marched for their own prosperity. The radicals vanished to the jungles and came back to the villages, towns and cities heavily armed with modern weapons. And, the palace also got change of face after the tragedy which took lives of several royals.

After the democracy movement, the change of heart and mind started from the people. During the movement and immediately after that period, the people were so optimistic that they were expecting the opening up of the flood-gate of prosperity. In their "dream-Nepal", everybody will have a decent job, children will be in schools, health facilities will reach their door-steps, poverty will disappear, inequality will vanish and physical facilities would match that of Singapore. This will not take long time as the magical multiparty was there and their leaders had promised so. Some of the leaders, even publicly, had declared that Nepal will be at par of Singapore quite soon. They were making speeches as if Nepal will start just cultivating smile, satisfaction and prosperity. But, the results did not support the loud talks. Therefore, optimism did not last long and the people changed their expectations rapidly. Hence, pessimism started to run high. In this way, the first party changing their side, expectations and fantasies were the people. They were away from the reality just for two to three years.

The second party noticeably faster in the competition of change was the galaxy of political leaders of the parliamentary school. They changed their goals, roles and assets in an unbelievably faster speed. They created oasis for themselves whereas people continued to starve. All of the sudden, they became powerful as the Ranas (a dynasty which ruled for 104 years), wealthy as the Marwaris (an influential business community migrated from Rajasthan) and unpopular as the Panchas (former ruling clique). They changed themselves dramatically.

The third party to change was the ginger group among the Nepalese left, the radicals. They were hanging around the parliamentary system talking some complex theoretical mysteries. One fine day, they discovered that nothing significant change is possible without arms. They vanished to the jungles. It was strange that one dark night the creamy layer of the Nepalese communist politics disappeared from the main roads of Kathmandu valley. They started either walking on the narrow lanes during the darkness of night or marching towards the lap of the majestic mountains. The gossip-loving Nepalese communists who had spent 47 years talking about armed struggle as a joke, this time did not tell a lie. A sea-change!

The fourth party to change was the palace. After 1990, the tamed king was residing in the royal palace. The king became so compassionate that it started to behave like a royal monk – loving, caring and above all gentle. The people started to feel close to that obedient, rule-abiding king. But, in the infamous June-One tragedy, not only the king but also all of his immediate family members were killed. As it happens in a monarchy, a new king ascended to the throne. The new king, overtly, expected an active role to play. In this way the forth and final party was the palace, which offered evidences of its change by expecting a dominant role in the coalition politics.

The leaders and their parties of the parliamentary school were discredited. The radicals in the jungles and remote areas were gaining strengths. And, the palace was trying to assert its dominant role. In this period of extreme fluidity, there was an infamous and weak government of a spineless leader who was surrounded by notorious political gangsters. The hunters, trained and motivated, overpowered this gang of political hooligans and gave them the marching order. Some termed this as a constitutional coup d'état. After this incident, in the political circus, roles changed. The yesteryear's tigers, the crooks of parliamentary school, were on the run. The political drama continued to unfold several mysteries, roles and events. One old political crony, who had already lost the teeth, was brought to chew the hard nuts of complex-make. As an obedient crony, he tried to chew. Predictably, he failed to break the nut and accepted to vanish in the wilderness. There was no problem, another crony replaced him. The second one also witnessed the same fate and disappeared. Once again, the dethroned spineless leader had the lady luck on his side. He got the chair back. In this way, the game of the musical chair has been continuing.

The people are fed up with the activity of changing the masks. For them, everybody who enters into the game park called Singh durbar (the central secretariat) is the same type of animal with a different human mask. The animal is well known as it is blood thirsty, voracious and greedy. The animalized human faces in the parliamentary school are also the same for the people and the nation as they looted the society and the state in the past. They also killed thousands of people and declared state of emergency to curtail all civil liberties and human rights whatever they were there. Only the difference is that, they do not feel tired while making lofty lectures. There will be no surprise if the former Panch's team and the parliamentary parties' team will join hands to share the booty.

What will be the net gain from such change for the people? In real sense, neither there will be any difference nor are the people expecting for. Even the radicals who have developed a habit of coming to surface for negotiating a peaceful takeover may book the ticket once more. There is no harm in trying as they will keep the mountain boots ready to disappear if the new political dolls behave differently.

The politics in Nepal has become a strange puzzle needing a large amount of neuron cells in the brain to understand and to play with. If nothing is going to change, why the new dramas are being staged? In reality, the same crowd wearing different masks will start another Tandab Nritya (a form of destructive dance). As usual, the dance will have the blending of vulgarity and utopia. All killings, commissions, bribes, nepotism, favoritism, etc. will be camouflaged by idealistic speeches and the auction of dreams. The people will be forced to watch the real action achievements of the ruling crowd – their laughter and smiles, bungalows and luxury cars, foreign trips and family shows, addition of fat in their body and brain, etc, etc. The people shall continue to watch this type of real actions with envy, jealousy and hatred till the ruling crowd will be decamped together with their rule.

The intellectuals, mostly befooled by strange schemes, talk about crisis in Nepalese political scene. They say that there is total absence of political stability. But, Nepal has not been entering into a crisis situation only because a toothless vegetarian old wildcat left the animal park or another crony vanished or a dethroned spineless leader might have the same fate. Nepal has been and will continue to be in crisis. Because, we Nepalese are 'Veer Gurkhas' (we, Gorkhalis are brave because we are stupid, we did not know to be brave without being stupid – Bhupi Serchan). If Nepalese people will get success to say good bye to the "stupid" part of the British colonial label of 'Veer Gurkhas', only then they can get rid of the crisis which is the byproduct of the criminally vulgar political circus. Therefore, the need of the day is the enlightened politico-ideological intervention further supported by strategic vision, sincerity of purpose, collective heroism and mass actions. Looking at the prevailing situation at the grassroots, there are reasons to be optimistic. The heightened level of socio-political awareness has created opportunities for change and has expanded the scope of qualitative difference at the grassroots level. Just the change of face at macro level doesn't add value. There is the need of transformation of the society. Also, there is the need of a mechanism that generates synergy to accelerate the process of change and gets rid of crisis. The most democratic and peaceful way out of the crisis and also the new departure point for the politics of transformation is to design a system accepting the sovereign right and General Will of the people. The election of the constituent assembly could be the most logical democratic process to recognize the General Will and to institutionalize the mandate. As a nation, are we ready to practice democracy?

The Telegraph Weekly, Kathmandu, June 16-23, 2004.