Possibility Of Rise Of Jang Bahadur In Nepal

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

As the last date of promulgating a new Constitution has been coming nearer every day, and political leaders are not serious about completing the writing of a new Constitution, Nepalese media and politicians have started speculating about what would happen if the Constitution Assembly (CA) does not promulgate a new Constitution by May 28, 2011. Some politicians have already engaged in the exercise of extending the term of the CA while others have started off creating an environment conducive to the possibility of the rise of a new Jang Bahadur. Rise of a Jang Bahadur has been the talk of the nation. Is it really possible the rise of a dictator in other words a Jang Bahadur in the current political situation?

Let us see who was Jang Bahadur.

Immediately after the killing of Gagan Singh Bhandari: the most loved one and favorite of Queen Rajyalakshmi, the queen summoned all the courtiers and nobles to be present at the palace courtyard called Kot without arms on the night of September 14-15, 1846 but Jang Bahadur came with his seven brothers and their regiments.

The queen was furious at the killing of her loved one, and she was determined to kill the suspect in killing Gagan Singh. So, she went with a sword and attempted to kill the suspect but others did not allowed her to do so without the proof of killing Gagan Singh. So, she returned back to her seat but was determined to find out the killer and take the life of the killer immediately.

Someone shouted from the audience the killer was Jang Bahadur. Instantly, one of the Jang Bahadur’s brothers shot the man dead. The confusion started and the result was the Kot massacre in which most of the rivals of Jang Bahadur were killed. That gave the rise of Jang Bahadur to not only the position of Prime Minister but also to the title of King of Kaski and Lamjung. He even won the rights to inherit the position of Prime Minister and ultimately the right to control even the king playing King Rajendra Bikram Shah off against Queen Rajyalakshmi.

Jang Bahadur had not only sent the Nepalese army to suppress the uprising against the British rule in India but he himself left Kathmandu with 9,000 soldiers on December 10, 1857, and helped the British to put an end to the uprising of the Indians against the British Imperial rule. Before leaving Kathmandu, Jang Bahadur told the public that he was for making the everlasting friendship with the British imperial government and strengthening his own position in Nepal. Thus, Jang Bahadur had shown his slave mentality and then became the slave of the British imperial government and made his successors the perpetual slaves of the British. As a loyal servant Jang Bahadur received the cash award from his British masters for suppressing the Indian uprising against the British rule in India.

Jang Bahadur and his successors had made the Nepalis slaves for 104 years until the end of their family rule in 1951. They had sucked the blood of the Nepalis for a century. They used the earnings of the people for their enjoyment, for building the western style ugly palaces and for buying jewelry for their wives and concubines. Nepalese people had remained in perpetual poverty for that period.

In 1951, Nepalese people under the leadership of the Nepali Congress put an end to the autocratic and cruel family rule perpetuated by the brothers of Jang Bahadur, and set up a democratic system of governance but the Nepali Congress led by B.P. Koirala instead of institutionalizing the democratic institutions and system had indulged in grabbing the power never holding the elections to a Constituent Assembly for writing and promulgating a new constitution.

So, the Nepali Congress had to accept the constitution given by the then King Mahendra. However, the Nepali Congress received overwhelming support from the voters in the elections held in 1959 following the constitution. In fact, the parliament could act as a constituent assembly at that time and even could write a new constitution but the Nepali Congress leaders did not grab the opportunity of institutionalizing democratic values and norms not to mention its institutions rather engaged in corruption earning the hatred of the people.

On December 15, 1960, Nepalis witnessed the rise of another Jang Bahadur. King Mahendra killed the democracy dissolving the democratically elected parliament and the government of Nepali Congress led by B.P. Koirala and his colleagues and killed many politicians that had fought for democracy to impose his direct rule. Thus, Mahendra rose to the position of Jang Bahadur shedding the blood of democrats and killing the democracy.

This time, unlike the first Jang Bahadur, Mahendra served the interest of his Chinese masters. Mahendra had dared to kill democracy in Nepal after receiving the blessing of Mao Zedung. So, in return for the support for killing democracy, Mahendra suppressed the Tibetans rising against the Chinese rule in Tibet on the border between Nepal and Tibet. In return to the service rendered to the Chinese authority, China was even about to build the East-West highway along the areas not far from the Indian borders but the then Government of India headed by Jawaharlal Nehru built it at its own cost for avoiding the presence of Chinese along the border between Nepal and India. However, China built a highway connecting Kathmandu with Khasa: the area in Tibet bordering with the northeastern part of Nepal.

Later on, Nepali Congress leader BP Koirala had realized the need for keeping the liberation army until the monarchy was tamed and institutionalized democracy in the country. He had said that if his party had only 400 liberation armies, Mahendra could not have dismissed him and mercilessly killed democracy in 1960. However, his party dissolved the liberation army after the success of the armed uprising against the autocratic family rule thinking nobody could end democracy but it proved to be wrong.

Mahendra imposed his own rule and gave his own constitution of 1962 that had allowed no political parties to function and introduce a non-party system called Panchayat. After thirty years, Panchayat became the synonymous with corruption and became ready for slaughter. Finally, Nepalis following the joint call of the Nepali Congress (NC) and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML) finished off the Panchayat system and made its leader King Birendra a constitutional monarch that needed to do whatever the elected prime minister would ask him to do.

Thus, by 1990, Nepalis had finished off the two Jang Bahadurs but that was not the end of the story.

After the end of the Panchayat, the NC came to power but unlike in late 1959s not without an opposition, by that time the CPN-UML had become powerful opposition that often challenged the NC leaders. However, forgetting the past mistakes, the NC had again engaged in the power politics rather than institutionalizing the democratic system. NC leaders running the administration had been the most corrupt. Consequently, they lost the power to the CPN-UML leaders in the general elections held in 1994.

The CPN-UML leaders could not garner the majority required for independently running a government but the king allowed them to form a minority government because they had got the majority seats in the parliament. The CPN-UML leaders also had failed in institutionalizing the democratic institution rather weakened democracy indulging in corruption and power politics. Prime Minister Manmohan Adhikari of the CPN-UML government instead of asking the parliament for the endorsement of his government dissolved the parliament and called for fresh elections.

The result was the CPN-UML leaders lost the power to the coalition of the NC and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) leaders after the Supreme Court of Nepal reinstated the parliament dissolved by the CPN-UML Prime Minister in 1995.

NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba led the coalition government. Most of the corrupt ministers of the Panchayat period came back to power. Nobody could anticipate anything good from these leaders. In fact, by that time, corrupt NC leaders had been not much different from the corrupt Panchayat leaders but might even be worse. Naturally, these guys had not been for institutionalizing democracy and democratic institutions but grabbing everything possible from the state treasury and extract whatever possible from the people.

Then, the coalition of the CPN-UML and a group of RPP leaders pulled down the Deuba government and put up a new government led by the last Panchayat Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chanda but in practice run by the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam of the CPN-UML in 1997.

In the quick development of political fortune, NC leader Girija Prasad Koirala that had lost the power to Sher Bahadur Deuba after the general elections in 1994 staged a comeback putting the most infamous Panchayat Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa back to the position of prime minister again. However, Girija did not let him be in that position for long and ultimately took the power back in his hand in 1998.

Girija held the general elections in 1999 putting forward the good image of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai for winning majority seats in parliament, as the image of Girija had deteriorated so much that he could not dare to project his own image. However, his party won the majority seats in the parliament and let Bhattarai become the prime minister but only for a year. Girija and his supporters forced him to resign and Girija was back on the prime ministerial office in 2000.

The political manipulations the leaders had indulged in had created an environment conducive to the rise of another Jang Bahadur.

Then, the palace massacre on June 01, 2001 gave birth to another Jang Bahadur. Gyanendra Shah became the last king of Nepal after the death of the entire family of King Birendra and Crown Prince Dipendra. Mr. Shah did not care about the elected prime minister and the parliament and went on doing the political business, as he wanted.

On February 01, 2005, Mr. Gyanendra Shah fired the prime minister and dissolved all the elected institutions and took everything in his hands claiming his forefathers had earned the kingdom of Nepal. Again, Nepal came under the rule of third Jang Bahadur but Nepalis of the 21st century were not the Nepalis of first Jang Bahadur not even of the second Jang Bahadur. That was what Mr. Shah could not think of; consequently, the elected Constituent Assembly-cum legislature parliament solemnly removed him from the throne and sent him to live in a bungalow amid the Nagarjun forest in May 2008. Thus, came to an end to the third Jang Bahadur.

Now, the question is whether a fourth Jang Bahadur is on the way. The transitional period is always the fertile period for anybody taking power by force. In addition, some political leaders have been deliberately working for giving birth to a new Jang Bahadur. However, Mr. Gyanendra Shah has no chance to come back as a Jang Bahadur or otherwise. It had been enough for him to be the king of Nepal twice. So, he can sleep quietly after a good dinner every night, as any ordinary folk do in Nepal.

The term of Constituent Assembly (CA) elected on April 10, 2008 is coming to an end on May 28, 2011 if the members of the CA don’t extend its term again. Nepalis had elected it to write a new constitution and promulgate it. Majority of the work on crafting a new constitution has been done but the main parts of crafting a new constitution such as taking the draft constitution to the people for feedback and then the CA passing it and promulgating it have not been done, yet.

Letting the term of the CA expires on May 28, 2011 means certainly giving birth to a fourth Jang Bahadur but as in the past, only one of the incumbent rulers could come out as a modern Jang Bahadur. In this scenario, either Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal or President Ram Baran Yadav could come out as the winner of the crown of a new Jang Bahadur.

President Yadav needs to dissolve the CA and then fire the prime minister for imposing the presidential rule and come out as a new Jang Bahadur. The question is whether Mr. Yadav has guts to do so. So far, Mr. Yadav has been behaving as one of the sincere members of the Central Working Committee of the NC rather than the president of the country and not contributing to the institutionalization of republican democratic institutions and system. In fact, Mr. Yadav had been the first to abuse the power of the president for violating the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 writing a letter to the then Chief of Army Staff and ordering him to stay on the job.

The Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 does not give the president the rights to directly write any official letters to anybody. The president has to strictly follow the recommendations of the prime minister for doing anything except for personal things. So, Mr. Yadav had already shown some characters of a new Jang Bahadur but he has not been a Jang Bahadur yet.

To be a new Jang Bahadur for the prime minister is an uphill task. He needs to remove the president first and then declare a state of emergency. In view of the current political situation in Nepal and the international political scenario particularly the uprisings against the dictatorial rules in the Middle East and the North Africa, the Nepalese Prime Minister will not be able even to think of imposing a dictatorial rule in Nepal by any means.

However, we can think of a hypothetical scenario: whether the prime minister can remove the president; yes by force; but where to get the force to remove the president from the position. The prime minister might turn to the Nepal Army but it is under the command of the president. So, the only alternative available to the prime minister is to stage a coupe with the help of the Nepal Army but it is only a wishful thinking for some politicians.

So, the chance of rise of a fourth Jang Bahadur is almost non-existent. Even in this situation of the zero chance of the birth of a new Jang Bahadur, if anybody shows up as a Jang Bahadur, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is there to quickly finish off such an adventurer. So, as long as the PLA remains, none of the leaders could venture to grab power by any means. That is one of the reasons, some political leaders not having the popular followers have been advocating for dissolving the PLA.

In addition, the international community will not allow the rise of any Jang Bahadur in Nepal. We have seen what has been happening in the Middle East and the North Africa. People have been pulling down one dictator after another. No matter what our giant neighbors want in Nepal but the international community will have a major say on the politics of Nepal, as the international community has staked a lot in the development of Nepal.

Ends