Putting NC Marginal Candidates At Risk

Putting NC Marginal Candidates At Risk

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Announcing the national holiday for celebrating the anniversary of the most infamous king Prithvi Narayan Shah on the eve of the federal and provincial elections clearly violating the election code of conduct, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has put the NC candidate at the margin of winning the federal and provincial election at the risk of losing, as for most of the common folks the day has been the black day even today. In doing so Deuba has directly or indirectly contributed to the benefit of the opposition for winning the upcoming elections. Deuba knew that common folks have marked this day every year reminding the atrocities Prithvi committed and the Shah dynastic rule he introduced and then the Shah-Rana rule that had robbed the people for 240 years. Thus, Deuba has reintroduced the national holiday for reminding an injustice Prithvi did to the people making one step toward the repressive rule.

At the time when Deuba needed to recommit the inclusive federal democratic rule to attract the votes of all different ethnic, Madheshis, and the disadvantaged folks, he simply reinstated the national holiday for celebrating the anniversary of the notorious king such as Prithvi Shah that had set up the Shah dynastic rule that had enforced exclusively the one nation, one rule, one language, one religion and one dress code for all the folks of different faiths, languages, and varieties of dress code every ethnic and Madheshi groups have, and Deuba might have effectively pushed the swing voters to the opposition by his wrong action at the wrong time.

Reintroducing the national holiday for celebrating the anniversary of the disrespectable king Prithvi Shah on the eve of the federal and provincial elections, Deuba dishonored the folks that had suffered from the repression of the Shah-Rana dynastic rule, and violated the election code of conduct. The election commission might ignore such gross violation of the election code of conduct; probably, the right-thinking voters might not, causing tremendous suffering to the democrats and their candidate in the field fighting for winning the elections.

So, voters might surely be not for forgiving Deuba and his party for reviving the national holiday for celebrating the anniversary of one of the atrocious kings that had set the rule of robbers for 240 years. For almost two and a half centuries, the Shah-Rana dynastic rulers had done nothing good for the common folks except for robbing their earnings and livelihood putting them in the dare poverty.

The hangover of the robbing of the common folks has continued even today as Nepal is still a very poor country but when Prithvi Shah took over 240 years ago Nepal was on a par with the European countries in the economic and social and artistic development if not more. Today Nepal has been one of the poorest countries and the then Shah-panchayat rule had effectively sold the poverty for getting donations that went effectively for the betterment of the panchas and the super pancha the king. Even today politicians such as Deuba and his partners have used the poverty for their benefits.

Again Deuba wanted to sell the terrible name of Prithvi for securing the votes in the upcoming federal and provincial elections not knowing the voters have been suffering from the 240 years of the injustice Shah-Rana rule that Prithvi had introduced did to the people. The misdeed of Deuba announcing the national holiday for celebrating the anniversary of Prithvi might not please majority of the folks except for the Deuba’s deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa and his followers for whom Prithvi has been the ancestral deity.

No doubt Kamal Thapa is for reintroducing the monarchy and wants to be the king no less horrible than Prithvi that had killed thousands of his opponents, making another thousands of folks to fled the mother land, and another thousands to change their names to be on the safe side. Thus, Deuba has pleased such a terrible person bringing back the celebration of the anniversary of once and for all totally dead Prithvi. Certainly, it is the victory for Kamal Thapa but shame on Deuba, and probably a huge loss to Deuba.

Obviously, Deuba have made happy a small group of followers of Kamal Thapa announcing the celebration of the anniversary of the Kamal Thapa’s deity Prithvi making a large number of voters nervous about whether Deuba would move forward to the regressive step if they would vote for Deuba and his party. So, his announcement of celebrating the anniversary of Prithvi has certainly scared the logical thinking voters. This is how a leader could take his party to ruin.

Deuba could not take the clue about how folks have been boycotting the visit to the Chandragiri hill where the private company running the cable car for riding to the scenic site had unwisely installed the statue of Prithvi apparently for drawing the folks to visit the area but folks have been rejecting it because Prithvi reminds the 240 years of the despotic Shah dynastic rule that had been the evil for the common folks.

“Binas kale biparit budhi” means adverse wisdom leads to ruin. Simply Deuba reviving the celebration of the anniversary of Prithvi has been heading to ruin himself and his party at the time of the federal and provincial elections. Why Deuba needed to announce such thing before the elections. He could wait for a few days and then announce it if he really wanted to please his partner Kamal Thapa and his few followers that had been instrumental to keep the majority of folks in poverty.

Celebrating the anniversary of Prithvi, Deuba has put the country one step back. In fact, it is not surprising if anybody is to take a look at the political history of Deuba, and his predecessor particularly BP Koirala that was fortunate to be the first-elected prime minister of Nepal.

Deuba turned over the mandate he had received from the voters dissolving the elected parliament in May 2002 to the then freak king. He could not hold the elections to the parliament he dissolved rather he got fired from the king for not being competent to hold the elections. The king turned out to be the absolute ruler.

Thanks to the people’s movement that put an end to the Shah dynastic rule Deuba has another chance to be a prime minister again. Now, Deuba is honoring the ancestry of the same dynastic rulers that had been bitter enemy not only of Deuba but also of his party.

However, Deuba was not alone to keep despotic rulers alive in one form or another, as his predecessor and his honorable leader BP Koirala that had once said that he was conjoined at the neck with the then king Mahendra that had cut the BP’s neck off for the rest of the life. So BP never recovered the power lost to the king.

BP could have regained the power in 1979 but he did not dare to do so. He could not come out forcefully against the despotic Shah king because he believed that he was the part of the tyrannical kingship. BP simply could not understand how the Shah kings had hit him and his party and his cadres and even killed many of them. How dared Deuba again revive the celebration of the anniversary of the ancestor of such rulers?

BP did not serve the people going against the mandate he received from the voters in 1959 rather wanted to be one of the elements of the Shah dynastic rule earning the enmity of the then King Mahendra that must have thought how dared this mundane folk BP wanted to be the part of royalty. Mahendra unceremoniously kicked BP out of power, and put almost all political cadres in jail and forced many of them either to go to exile or accept the Shah dynastic rule.

Even before BP got fired from the king in 1960, BP thought he was invariably the embodiment of the State power.  So, he accepted the constitution Mahendra gave him rather than holding elections to a constituent assembly for crafting a constitution. BP thought, “The power is in his hands no matter what Mahendra does”. That effectively made BP the foe of Mahendra and his successors.

BP and his colleagues such as Ganeshman Singh and Suvarna Shumsher fought against the autocratic Shah-Rana family to gain the power. Suvarna Shumsher provided required amount of money and logistic for the liberation army to fight against the army of the Rana prime minister.

Once the war was won, BP went to New Delhi to transfer the power from the then Rana Prime minister Mohan Shumsher to the then puppet King Tribhuvan in presence of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru despite the opposition by Ganeshman and other colleagues.

Thus, NC leaders such as BP and Deuba must have thought that they were the elements of the royal rulers rather than elected leaders receiving the mandate from the voters for serving the people. If it were so Deuba would lead his party and him to what BP did in the past. This time not by the king but by the voters that want the inclusive rule of law rather than the exclusive absolute rule would send Deuba flying.

Thus, Deuba has essentially put the NC candidates at the margin of winning the federal and provincial elections to be held on December 7, 2017 at the risk of losing the elections announcing the celebration of the anniversary of the despot Prithvi on January 11, 2018. Surely, majority of the folks would mark the day as the black day in the history of Nepal, as Prithvi set up the dynastic rule that put back the clock of the socio-economic development of the common folks robbing them for centuries keeping the folks in the absolute poverty, which has continued even today.

After the announcement of the black day in the history of Nepal Deuba made to celebrate it as the national holiday, most of the swing voters that have set their minds on voting for the NC candidates might opt for an alternative. Thus, the Deuba’s ill-advised action of celebrating the anniversary of the tyrannical ruler Prithvi would ruin the sincere NC leaders that deserve to win the elections but unfortunately might lose to the opposition. So, Deuba is really helping the opposition to win the elections. That is a worrisome problem for the democrats.

Obviously, Deuba has been nervous about the opposition left alliance winning the upcoming elections otherwise he would not announce the celebration of the anniversary of the tyrant on the eve of the federal and provincial elections grossly violating the election code of conduct. Deuba and the NC would be saved from losing the elections only if the swing voters were to ignore his imprudent action. Thank god to make happen so.

December 1, 2017