Political Viruses In Nepal

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Political viruses have infected democracy and the rule of law in Nepal. These viruses are the politicians that have lost the elections for the Constituent Assembly held on April 10, 2008, and some winners also joined the looser viruses endangering democracy and the rule of law. The Constituent Assembly has been full of political viruses. So, it has not been able to work. The most dreadful viruses have been the President and Prime Minister incubated by the dormant viruses such as Girija Prasad Koirala, Jhalanath Khanal and Prachanda. The irony is that the same viruses have been talking about the need for treating the democracy and the rule of law that have been the victims of the viruses.

Daughter of Girija Prasad Koirala and Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala has come out for treating the current government headed by one of the main political virus Madhav Nepal, as the viruses of the CPN-UML have infected the government, and would infect the government with his cadres so much that it would be very hard to remove those numerous cadres infecting the government. So, Sujata wants to stop the infection of the government with CPN-UML cadres in time.

Certainly daughter Sujata must have got the hint from the father Koirala of the need for timely control of CPN-UML viruses infecting the government. So, Sujata has hit the Madhav administration saying the Prime Minister has been infecting the state administration with the CPN-UML cadres; so, timely treatment is necessary to save the state machinery from infection.

The Prime Minister has been nervous of the strong threatening words coming out of the mouth of no other than his own deputy Sujata Koirala. He has immediately started the prophylactic measures talking to other viral leaders such as Sushil Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Ram Chandra Poudel deeply infecting in the Nepali Congress (NC). They have assured Prime Minster Madhav Nepal of Sujata alone would not be able to harm him, as the powerful dormant virus leader Girija Prasad Koirala have been living the last days of his life; thereafter the Koirala group of viruses would be out of the NC, and then his family viruses would not endanger the current sickly government.

The Prime Minister has the strong support of other viral leaders such as KP Oli and Vidhya Bhandari of his own party to stand on. They have been growing stronger to kill democracy and the rule of law much to the pleasure of Madhav Nepal, as he would be able to continue the office of Prime Minister if he could kill democracy and the rule of law. At the same time, Madhav Nepal has been using his deputy Bijya Gacchedar and Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari as his mouthpieces for speaking out all sorts of anti-democratic matters.

The President has been the dormant virus, too, once hitting democracy hard and infecting it with the anti-democratic viruses. Even if the President wants to he could not heal the democracy without killing himself, as he has been the mother virus to infect democracy. He has infected the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007, too, allowing other viruses to grow fast and to kill it if possible.

Most probably, politically sidelined Girija Prasad Koirala must be dreaming of seeing his daughter Sujata being a Prime Minister before taking the rest forever. Such a dream might be a dream only, as so-called stalwarts such as Sushil Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Ramchandra Poudel of his party might not let it happen. These guys have been dreaming to be the heir to the chair of the NC presidency after the departure of Girija Prasad Koirala. In fact, Mr. Deuba has publicly claimed for that position after Girija Koirala’s departure. These three guys would fight against each other for the position of the President of the NC.

So, the question is why Sujata wants to remove Madhav Nepal from the power. She might be just trying to see what the reactions would be from the public and from the Prime Minister or she wants to please Prachanda and his colleagues. As anticipated she has no positive response from her party colleagues such as Sushil Koirala, Deuba and Poudel. Prachanda also has kept mum concerning her desire for removing Madhav Nepal from the chair of Prime Minister despite the fact Prachanda wants to remove Madhav Nepal from the position of Prime Minister at any opportune moment. Young leaders of her party are also looking for an alternative to the current government heavily infected by anti-democratic viruses, and are not happy with the work done by the Ministers particularly the Minister for Energy Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat representing the NC in the government. However, they are also not supporting her. They just want to recall those immature ministers and send some senior leaders that could handle the ministerial portfolios properly.

Mr. Jhalanath Khanal has been the incubator of all viruses infecting democracy, as he led the group of viral leaders to the residence of the President urging him to kill democracy. After successfully infecting the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 and democracy in the country, Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal has been saying the need for a national government means a government of all political parties to break the current political deadlock. He has tried every possible trick to dislodge Madhav Nepal from power but he has not been able to do so. Despite the fact that he is the elected member of the Constituent Assembly and is also the elected Chairman of his party he has shown weakness in handling the political matters concerning his party and the nation. Even after confidently dislodging Prachanda from Prime Minister, he has failed in getting the position of Prime Minister and has demonstrated that he is not competent enough to be a Prime Minister.

Another leader of the CPN-UML KP Oli has been the strong challenger to Jhalanath Khanal, and has even set up district committees parallel to the regular committees of his party challenging Jhalanath Khanal’s leadership in the party. KP Oli has been flourishing despite defeat in the election for the Constituent Assembly and in the election for the Chairman of the CPN-UML. Some political analysts believe that some national and foreign financiers must be behind Mr. Oli otherwise he would not be able to show so much of political strength.

The UCPN-Maoist leaders have been in dilemma what to do next. Their legislators have taken the legislature hostage for more than forty days demanding to debate the unconstitutional action of the President but have not broken the record set by the CPN-UML legislators for 57 days of taking legislature hostage but could not bring any positive results from it. However, one thing they have learned is that a government could survive with the blockade of the legislature.

The UCPN-Maoist leaders have launched a peaceful movement protesting the President’s unconstitutional action on directly writing a letter to the army chief overriding the decision of the then Prime Minister on firing the army chief. However, such a peaceful movement also does not bring an immediate positive result as anticipated by them. Some political analysts say that the UCPN-Maoist leaders need to understand that such a movement will bring the result only during the elections.

Political analysts believe that the positive aspect of the UCPN-Maoist leaders is thy have not indulged in buying legislators to form a new government, yet, despite the hint given by CPN-UML and NC leaders to do so challenging them to have the majority of 301 at the legislature to form a new government. The disease of buying and selling legislators have infected the hung parliament in the past and to the current hung legislature. Political analysts believe that most of the current legislators supporting the man defeated in two constituencies to make him a Prime Minister have received a handsome payment.

Despite the majority in the legislature, the UCPN-Maoist leaders have not been able to steer the peace process and writing of a new constitution properly. Political analysts believe that playing the parliamentary game of the main opposition in the legislature is the main mistake of the UCPN-Maoist leaders; they needed to follow the consensus politics rather than trying to use their strength of the majority legislators in the legislature for trying to bring down the President for his undemocratic and unconstitutional action on directly writing a letter to the army chief.

Political viruses have also infected the UCPN-Maoist leaders. The viruses have struck them hard not making them successful to what they wanted to do peacefully and democratically. So, they need to hit the viruses hard rather than hitting everybody.

Unknown viruses have hit the Nepalese political leaders, too. So, most of the political leaders behave abnormally. They say one thing today only to correct tomorrow. Some politicians claiming to be democrats believe that the unconstitutional move of the President on directly writing a letter to the army chief is the most democratic one; others believe that the government headed by the man defeated in the two constituencies is also the democratic and elected government. These are surely the symptoms of mental diseases they need to be treated for. So, we need to treat most of the political leaders for the unknown viruses that have made them irrational.

In order to remedy the sickly democracy, Prachanda, Girija Prasad Koirala and Jhalanath Khanal need to remove the viruses such as the President and the Prime Minister from their position, let Girija Prasad Koirala take the most honorable position of the President, and let Prachanda or Jhalanath Khanal take the position of Prime Minster. These three political guys working together and sincerely could bring a lasting peace and complete the writing of a new constitution and share a noble peace prize that Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has recommend for Girija Prasad Koirala.

Nepalis appreciate the UCPN-Maoist leaders for taking up the issue of Indian encroachment on the Nepalese territory but they need to follow the protocol of the diplomacy that brings positive results rather than trying to bully the neighbor. People’s power is unlimited and nobody can defeat it are true; however they need to use it properly for making positive impact on what they want to do otherwise such valuable resource will be wasted.

China has been our immediate neighbor after the People’s Republic of China took control over Tibet. The Government of Nepal has been following the one-China policy means Tibet and Taiwan are the integral parts of the People’s Republic of China even though the Dalai Lama and his followers are not recognizing the Chinese rule over Tibet, and Taiwan is not in a mood to join in the Mainland China.

Indian encroachment on the Nepalese territory and the Indian Border Security Force harassing Nepalis commuting between their homes and the Indian border towns have been the nasty facts. However, the Government of Nepal headed by the man defeated in two constituencies has not been able to talk to the Indian authorities fearing of antagonizing them forgetting pleasing foreign leaders cannot save the position of a Prime Minister in the country. So, the UCPN-Maoist leaders have been charging Madhav Nepal of being truly a flunky Prime Minister.

China has emerged as one of the economic super powers overtaking Japan to be the second largest economy after the US. Economic analysts have predicted that China would overtake even the US in a few decades.

India is still a developing country moving at its speed of economic development. However, India claims to be one of the largest emerging economy and soon-to-be one of the largest economies in the world. Despite the dictatorial nature of the political leaders India claims to be a largest democracy in the world.

Nepalese political leaders need to understand the emerging political and economic situation in these two neighboring countries, and should be able to take the maximum benefits of their political and economic development rather than shying away from talking to them about the encroachment on the Nepalese territory or other issues.

Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Pachanda has correctly proposed a high level mechanism of China, Nepal and India to resolve any issue concerning all three parties. So, Prachanda must be skill in diplomacy to bring both China and Indian on board such a high level mechanism he has foreseen. If the representatives of these three countries could sit together and debate any issue concerning them they would be able to resolve many contentious issues. Then, Nepalese leaders would be able to talk with the authorities of both the large countries in equal terms.

However, political viruses in Nepal have been killing all the opportunities of cashing in the advantages of the growing economy in the neighboring countries and in Nepal, too. It would not have happened so if all the Nepalese political leaders have followed what US President Obama has said, “Serve our nation not our ambition.” Unfortunately, most of the Nepalese political leaders doing just the opposite of what President Obama have said. That is why they have been political viruses killing democracy and the rule of law in the country.

February 5, 2010.