Failed Leaders And Corrupt Nation-III

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

As if the 22 political parties have no capable person to be the next Prime Minister, they have elected the man called Madhav Nepal rejected by the people to the office of Prime Minister after horse-trading for a week. The irony is that Mr. Madhav Nepal has claimed he has been elected by the people; certainly not the real people but shameless corrupt legislators of NC, CPN-UML and Madheshi political parties have elected him indicating that they have been paid by somebody for voting the man Nepalis have fired.

Leaders of the NC have believed that making Madhav Nepal a new Prime Minster means the two major communist blocks such as UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML will be head-on collision, and bring the political situation to their favor. So, they have lobbied other political leaders for making Madhav Nepal a Prime Minister. NC leaders have no courage to go alone for competing with the leaders of the UCPN-Maoist. They have believed that Madhav Nepal is a perfect person for weakening the UCPN-Maoist. That is one of the reasons why Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal has to give in the claim to the office of Prime Minister to his archrival Madhav Nepal even though he has the people’s mandate to be a new Prime Minister whereas Madhav Nepal has not but the NC, Madhehsi and CPN-UML leaders have made him a Prime Minister going against the people’s aspirations for making an untainted politician a new Prime Minister.

If we take a look at the immediate past political history of Nepal, we find that Madhav Nepal has been the most tainted politician. He has been the Deputy Prime Minister of the minority government of CPN-UML headed by Manmohan Adhikari after the general elections held in 1994. The then Minister for Agriculture CP-Mainali currently heads one of the micro communist parties has said in public that Deputy Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has asked him for Rs 20 millions from his ministry.

In 2005, stating he is the most suitable candidate, the then General Secretary of CPN-UML Madhav Nepal has applied for the job of a Prime Minster advertised by the then absolute king Gyanendra Shah. After taking the absolute power in his hands, Mr. Shah has advertised the job of his Prime Minister for finding a suitable candidate for running his cabinet. However, Mr. Shah did not award him the job most probably not finding his curriculum vitae good enough for the job of a Prime Minister. Madhav Nepal is a man that can do anything to suit his interest.

Leaders of Madheshi political parties have voted for Madhav Nepal for different reasons despite the fact that he has been against the interest of the Madheshi people and he is not going to meet their demand for ‘one Madhesh one province’. A fraction of Madheshi People’s Rights Forum headed by Bijya Gacchedar has voted for Madhav Nepal for material benefits and power. Mr. Gacchedar has become the Deputy of Prime Minister Madhav Nepal while other legislators have received the material benefits. Other Madheshi political parties have supported Madhav Nepal for the same reasons and for the UCPN-Maoist leaders taking unilateral decisions without bothering to consult them while they have been partners in the UCPN-Maoist government. However, the Madheshi political parties have been considerably weakened by supporting the political parties such as NC and CPN-UML that have been not for meeting their demands for ‘one Madhesh one province’ and equal representation of the Madheshi people in the Nepal Army police and the administration, and leaving the partnership with the UCPN-Maoist that has been for meeting most of their demands except for ‘one Madheshi one province.’ The main fraction of Madheshi People’s Rights Forum headed by Upendra Yadav has not supported Madhav Nepal and has not joined his government, too even at the cost of splitting the party into two fractions. Mr. Gacchedar has taken away slightly more than the half of the 55 legislators from the Madheshi People’s Rights Forum for forming a breakaway new party for supporting and joining the Madhav Nepal government. Thus, NC and CPN-UML leaders have successfully divided the Madheshi political parties and their leaders and then ignored their demands. Madheshi people have been the victims of the political maneuvers.

Mr. Madhav Nepal has entered the parliament from the backdoor, as most of the so-called leaders that have been fired by the people use to enter the parliament. Nepalese people have anticipated that the political parties will not nominate the defeated leaders to the parliament misusing the votes they have cast for the political parties believing the political parties will appoint only the sincere politicians that have missed the chance of getting directly elected by the people for some reasons. However, disregarding the people’s aspirations for having only the sincere representatives in the parliament, most of the political parties have appointed the defeated politicians back to the parliament misusing the votes the parties have received from the people.

The provision made in the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 for voting political parties and the political parties in turn appointing its members to the Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament based on the numbers of votes they have received is meant for making possible the representation of political parties that miss their members getting directly elected but still people have voted for them. That is why so many political parties have representation in the Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament. However, the political and constitutional pundits formulating the Interim Constitution have missed the point to make the provision for not allowing the political parties to appoint politicians defeated in the direct election to the Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament. Consequently, the men such as Madhav Nepal of CPN-UML and Mahant Thakur of Tarai-Madhesh Democratic Party have unscrupulously entered the Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament, and play the negative role in building a new Nepal.

The CPN-UML has forced one of the most sincere party workers appointed to the parliament based on the votes it has received to resign from the office of the parliamentarian for making room for the party to appoint Madhav Nepal to the parliamentarian. The corrupt politicians often make sincere politicians a scapegoat of their sins. After becoming the Prime Minister, Madhav Nepal has made him an ambassador of Nepal to Sri Lanka obviously to compensate for the loss of his position of the parliamentarian.

Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal has become the clown of the political circus. He has won the election to the parliament and the election to the Chairman of CPN-UML indicating the people preferring him to lead the country to politically stable and economically prosperous but he could not use the people’s mandate given to him rather has given in to the whims of his archrivals KP Oli and Madhav Nepal ultimately following the crook political path Mr. Madhav Nepal has trotted.

Nepalis wishing Mr. Khanal to lead the country to the correct path of the political development will not forgive him at all for all his political maneuvers and the misdeeds. He has led the leaders of 22 political parties to the President appealing him for taking the unconstitutional step convincing him the make-believe fear of the Maoists grabbing the power as the real one. He has done so most probably hoping to be the next Prime Minister of a new Nepal but he could not only claim to the office of the Prime Minister but also even got pushed to the position of back burner.

Currently, Mr. Khanal has been successfully holding on his party’s position on building a consensus on forming a new government; whatever might be his motive for doing so. However, he has no idea of where it will lead. He has been instrumental to the NC leaders holding the election to a new Prime Minister hostage for the ransoms of the demands for returning the seized property, for integrating the two armies, for completing the peace process and writing a new constitution as if other political parties can do all sorts of these things while they have continued to run the never-ending race for the office of Prime Minister. It has been already sixteenth round of election to a new Prime Minister by second week of November 2010 but NC candidate Ram Chandra Poudel has continued to run for the election to a new Prime Minister to block the formation of a new government and then in turn the new budget for the fiscal year 2010 (2067).

To come out of the current political deadlock, Mr. Khanal can do one thing: they can vote for Ram Chandra Poudel and elect him a new Prime Minister and vote him out of the office in a no-confidence motion. Thereafter, they can form a majority government with or without the NC. This is a dirty political game but you cannot expect to do any good thing in the parliament of majority of the dirtiest politicians. Whether Mr. Khanal has guts to do so remains to be seen. However, he has been sitting on his idea of working on the consensus politics so far despite the NC leaders have been posing a threat to the political stability, even though the administration will soon come to halt without the money and an elected government to run it.

The NC candidate running for the office of Prime Minister even though he has no chance of winning the race might be the tactic of the NC leaders to force the President to impose the Presidential rule in the country and then declare a state of emergency, dissolve the Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament as publicly charged by the Maoist leader Mr. Posta Bahadur Bogati on November 10, 2010. If this is the case, Mr. Khanal must have a secrete deal with the NC leaders to bring to the current political deadlock and take up such an extra ordinary steps in the current situation and grab the power and bring a political chaos in the country.

Whether Mr. Khanal has calculated the political risk he has taken in such a secrete deal with the NC leaders remains to be seen. His archrivals KP Oli and Madhav Nepal have been doing everything possible to grab the power in conjunction with the NC leaders, and they have succeed to some extent in this mission forcing the President to abuse the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 in May 2009 and putting Madhav Nepal fired by the people in power for thirteen months, and creating the current political deadlock for attempting to grab the power. Mr. Khanal has been instrumental to all of these happenings. KP Oli and Madhav Nepal have been for supporting the NC candidate for a new Prime Minister, and form a majority government sideling the UCPN-Maoist.

KP Oli and Madhav Nepal have been the extremists. KP Oli has been spokesman for the agents fighting against the Maoists. He has been publicly rebuking the Maoists for opposing anything they do; recently, he has even gone on saying the Maoists are devils. So, his public speeches often exaggerate the activities of the Maoists and call for even taking up arms against them in other words he is for going back to the conflict. The man of the political caliber of KP Oli needs to understand whether he should provoke the Maoists to a new conflict but he has been doing at whose interest known to him only probably to Madhav Nepal, too.

Mr. Oli has the history of breaking the chairs in the parliament when Girija Prasad Koirala has been the Prime Minster in the parliament of the previous regime. Any agents wishing to terrorize the regular political situation will surely back up Mr. KP Oli and his company. In view of his activities, Mr. Oli must been funded by such agents.

Often, Mr. Khanal has faced challenges from his archrival KP Oli that has lost not only the election to the Constituent Assembly-cum-parliament on April 10, 2008 but also the election to the Chairperson of the CPN-UML. After he has lost the election to the chairperson of the CPN-UML to Mr. Khanal, he has even said that the 500 more votes Mr. Khanal has received are bogus votes. He has organized district level offices parallel to the full-fledge offices of the CPN-UML. He has been doing everything possible going against the ideals and principles of the party. Mr. KP Oli must have received funding from somebody and somewhere most probably from his friends in India to keep so many cadres faithful to him.

Madhav Nepal has been also the terrorist-minded person. He has once said that anybody challenging his party will be shorten by a foot means cut off his/her head. In view of his activities, he has a big hand in killing General Secretary of CPN-UML Madan Bhandari in a vehicle accident. His cadres and he have launched a street movement charging the government headed by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala with killing Madan Bhandari to distract from finding the real culprit. He has been keeping Madan‘s spouse Bidhya Bhandari in his company to avoid any suspicion that he has his hands in the death of her husband or simply to engage her in other businesses making her a minister of his government to distract her from thinking who has been behind the death of her husband.

Bidhya Bhandari as a Minister for Defense in the cabinet of Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has been using even stronger languages than Mr. Oli and Mr. Nepal in opposing the Maoists. She has strongly opposed the presence of UNMIN and even charged the UNMIN of being biased to the Maoists. She has been opposing the integration of the two armies. She has vehemently opposed the extension of the term of the UNMIN. In 2007, the Government of Nepal has requested the UN to set up an UNMIN to monitor the management of arms and armed personnel of the former Royal Nepal Army (currently Nepal Army) and the UCPN-Maoist after the government and the CPN-Maoist (currently UCPN-Maoist) has signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in November 2006 ending a decade-long conflict that has claimed some 13,000 lives.

She has been instrumental to promoting Toran Jung Bahadur Singh allegedly involved in the forced disappearance of 49 people from the custody of the Nepal Army in 2003 and 2004 to the second-in-command of the Nepal Army against the opposition of the international community and the human rights organization. The national and international human rights organizations have been urging the government of Nepal for charging Toran Jung Bahadur Singh with the criminal act of enforced disappearance of 49 people from the custody of the Bhairavnath Battalion. The United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) has indicted Toran Jung Bahadur Singh for the enforced disappearance of 49 people while he has been the commander of the Bhairavnath Battalion.

She has also covered up Major Niranjan Basnet indicted for killing a minor. After finding Major Basnet was indicted for killing a minor, the UN has discharged him from duty at the UN Peace-keeping Mission in Chad, and escorted him back to Nepal for putting him on trial for the murder charge. International human rights organizations have been urging the government to turn over Major Basnet to the civilian court for trail. In December 2009, Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari has assured the relatives of Major Niranjan Basnet indicted for killing a minor Maina Sunuwar, of not taking actions against him as he has only followed the order according to the Nepalese private press. Obviously, Defense Minister has allowed the Nepal Army to set up a three-member court of inquiry for covering up the crime of Major Basnet.