Stooges Admiring Mahendra And Monarchy

Stooges Admiring Mahendra And Monarchy

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

I have been receiving emails and reading news in which some sycophants including the person in the highest elected position praising Mahendra and his ancestor particularly Prithvi Narayan Shah for keeping the people under heavy thumb for 240 years, and introducing a single language and one religion for all in the name of unification, and Mahendra for saving the country from being as Sikkim or Bhutan. Sikkim has merged with the Indian union while Bhutan has been under the Indian protectorate. Today, Bhutan has a difficulty in having the diplomatic relation with China, as India has refused it.

Some of the fans including Bihari Krishna Shrestha of former king Mahendra wrote in the email that if Mahendra had not taken over from the elected government of BP Koirala in 1960, Nepal would have been either Sikkim at worst and or Bhutan at best because BP would have sold Nepal to India but the same person wrote that Mahendra overthrew the BP government with the support of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Here, the contradiction is if BP were to sell Nepal to India Nehru would never support Mahendra to take over from the elected government of BP Koirala in 1960, and Nehru would use his political power and military power to finish off Mahendra and reinstate BP as the prime minister but Nehru did nothing except for saying in the Indian parliament that the unfortunate political event had happened in Nepal. This invariably proved that BP was not for selling Nepal to India or to keep Nepal under the Indian protectorate.

Then, Bihari wrote in the email that Mahendra had accepted the offer of the Chinese government to build the Arniko Highway whereas BP rejected the same offer twice. How far it is true without the evidences remains to be seen but everybody knows that BP was the first elected prime minister to visit China, and set the diplomatic relation with China on the right track.

Now, the Arniko Highway saved Nepal falling into the lap of India was another funny notion floated in the email. Certainly, Chinese could send arms and ammunition and even military tanks using this highway to save Nepal from any external attacks but India did not need to use any military force and could have easily taken Nepal even in 1951 when former king Tribhuvan seeing the inevitable fall of the Rana regime as the result of the Nepalese fighting against the regime fled to India for saving his crown.

Nehru could have asked Tribhuvan to sign off in a document saying Tribhuvan would remain a king but Nepal would be the Indian protectorate, as Bhutan is today. Nehru had a Nepal-India Friendship Treaty of 1950 the then Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher signed off with the Nehru government that had made Nepal almost the Indian protectorate. However, Nehru did not dare to do so, as the armed movement against the Rana regime had reached the peak and nobody could stop it.

Now, what Mahendra did might be interesting to the fans of Mahendra. In 1962 when China and India went to a war, Mahendra sold the Nepalese territory Lipu Lekh to India. The Indian army post has remained in this area since then. Nepal is bordering with India and China at Lipu Lekh. While in the China visit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese prime minister signed off an agreement on running the trade through Lipu Lekh provoking a strong protest against it in Nepal. China and India had shamelessly attempted on encroaching the Nepalese territory for their trade.

Now, the fans of Mahendra have to tell the people why Mahendra never did take up the Nepal-India Friendship Treaty of 1950, and try to remove the provisions such as restricting Nepal importing arms and ammunition without the approval of the Indian government, and other shameful conditions from it. His son Birendra did not dare to do so, too. Birendra even had an eventful encounter in which Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had challenged him saying, “If you were to lose your crown you would be gone forever; if I were to lose my office I would come back.”

The issues of the wrongful Nepal-India Friendship Treaty of 1950 obviously done for lengthening the Rana regime have been raised with India only after Nepal became republic, and the eminent groups of Nepal and India have been talking to each other, and working on it for more than a year.

After the completion of the meeting of the eminent groups of India and Nepal held in Kathmandu, at the press conference held on October 8, 2017, the coordinator of the Nepalese eminent group Dr Bhesh Bahadur Thapa has said that both the eminent groups of India and Nepal have been positive to change the Nepal-India Friendship Treaty of 1950, and both the groups would develop recommendations for the respective governments to have a new treaty, the news in “gorkhapatra” of October 9, 2017 stated.

Concerning the corruption, the fans of the monarchy ignored how the Shah kings had been corrupt not to mention the Rana prime ministers: the most corrupt species in the world. They had pocketed all the national revenues denying any economic development to the common folks for 104 years of the Rana regime. This is the fact whether the henchmen accept it or not.

Now, let us see how the Shah kings had been corrupt or not starting from king Tribhuvan.

Tribhuvan sent his trust worthy man with the crown the last Rana Prime minister Mohan Shumsher had presented to him as the transfer of power from the Rana prime minister to Tribhuvan, to America to sell. The man sold it at NPR 9 million. Tribhuvan used the money for his medical treatment in Switzerland. How could the king like Tribhuvan sell the pubic property for his personal use? If anybody had a doubt about it please read the interview of the man, who went to sell the crown in America published in “gorkhapatra”.

You guys thought and wrote many articles depicting Mahendra was a great, he saved the country and so on ignoring the fact that he sold the Narayanhity palace to the State, and took the money and stayed on in the palace. If anybody doubts it there is an article on it posted on http://baahrakhari.com/news-details/12718/12khari on December 16, 2016. Could anybody imagine that the current prime minister sells the official residence at Baluwater, and takes the money? What would you say if the prime minister really does it if circumstances permit?

Some fans of king Birendra believed that Birendra was a gentleman monarch; he was a clean monarch and so on. Recently, the State Trust made for finding the assets of Birendra and his family found thousands of ropanis (one ropani=75’x75’) of land in his name. This is only a drop in a bucket. From where Birendra got the so many ropanis of land if he had not registered the public land in his name? Surely, Birendra did not inherit the land from Mahendra, as Mahendra was so poor he had to sell even the palace to the State. What would you say if any current prime minister registered any public land in his/her name?

Panchayat had been synonymous with corruption. King Birendra had been a super pancha while Mahendra introduced it in 1962.

Some former ministers had been convicted of corruption. They went to jail and served the term recently. They had been denied the rights to be the candidates for any elected offices from then on. You guys could read the news about irregularities in purchasing the land for Nepal Oil Corporation or arresting the Director General of Land Revenue Office for irregularities in redeeming the unpaid tax quite recently. Could anybody imagine writing such news and sending any ministers to jail during the administration of Mahendra and Birendra? No way.

Now, concerning the political and socio-economic development in the country. I myself was the witness of how fast the political and socio-economic development was taking place immediately after the collapse of the Rana regime in 1951. We students set up a library, a reading room, debating class, and schools, and common folks had been doing business fast and making the economic development. Social evils such as untouchables and caste system had been ignored.

Then came the December 15, 1960, Mahendra reading his address to the nation on the Radio Nepal declared that the democratic system was not suitable to soils of Nepal so banned the political parties and made the democratic system dysfunctional. Everything went back to square one.

Mahendra closed down all the libraries, stopped any debating clubs, seized the private schools, and made everybody needed to ask the administration for doing anything. All political and socio-economic development that once took up fast came to standstill thanks to Mahendra. Mahendra Mala became the textbooks for school children. Mahendra launched the East-West Highway, let the Chinese built Arniko Highway closing down the Regional Transport Office (RTO): the joint venture of Nepal, India and the US for infrastructures development in Nepal, and scrapping the highway RTO had initiated.

Mahendra squandered whatever the national resources available for development for his political purposes. He launched ‘back to village’ campaign, and sent the State officials to dig trails in villages and wasted large human resources for digging the unnecessary tracks in villages. Mahendra after his demise Birendra wasted millions if not billions for the regional visit during the winter every year. An electrical engineer received a prestigious medal for building a temporary transmission line to illuminate the royal camp for Birendra to enjoy the winter State-paid holidays in Surkhet for two months. Birendra and his spouse visited high Himalayan region on the army helicopter to open up a drinking water taps. I am the living witness of all these things.

Then, the people’s movement tore down the panchayat system in 1990. The elected government of Girija Prasad Koirala opened up the floodgates of socio-economic development. Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese youths got the foreign employments. Business people set up medical colleges, technical colleges, private high standard schools, factories, private TVs in tens, private FM radios in hundreds, and so on. Only thing the Girija administration missed was the construction of hydropower plants, fast-track highways, and drinking water projects even though the administration had developed the concept of Melamchi Drinking Water Project, and Kathmandu-Hetauda fast-track highway.

The Girija administration did not build the hydropower stations, and fast-track highways believing the private companies would do so. However the administration failed in creating an environment conducive to the private companies doing the business in the country, as the Girija administration sought commission for every decision it made. Even the finance minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat said in public that taking commission was not a vice. Some ministers caught in the corruption cases went to jail for it.

Not building any hydropower plants for more than 20 years caused the chronic power shortage in the country, not building the fast-track highway retarded the economic activities, and not building the water project such as Melamchi dragged the economic development in the country thanks to the Girija administration and the successive one administration after another.

Now, Nepal would have no more power shortage as a number of power plants have been in the pipeline to complete in the next year or so. Melamchi water is coming to Kathmandu next year, too. Nepal Army is taking up the construction of the Kathmandu-Nigzgad fast-track highway.

If Mahendra and Birendra were sincere enough to the economic development in the country, Mahendra could have done it in 1960s, and Birendra in 1970s what Girija administration did it in 1990. Then, probably, Nepal would have been on a par with South Korea today, as Nepal and South Korea were at the same level of the economic development in 1950s.

Now, some sycophants have been admiring Prithvi Narayan Shah for the unification of the country, and for uniting all Nepalis in one religion and in one language ignoring the fact that Prithvi and his descendents destroyed the power of the entire Nepalese folks, their languages and religions and culture imposing the single language and the Hinduism even on the non-Hindus for 240 years.

Even the current president unveiled the statue of Prithvi at Chandragiri Hill and admired him as the unifying personality either not knowing or ignoring the fact that Prithvi and his descendents had been the cause of the immense miseries for the common folks for 240 years. These guys had introduced one language and one religion repressing the multi-ethnic languages, and multi-religion prevailing among the common folks.

The president should know that she would not have been in that office if Prithvi and his descendents were to continue the State administration but she apparently not knowing these facts had been all the time praising Prithvi for the unification of language and religion.

Some henchmen have been for reintroducing the Hinduism in the country neglecting the common folks had already discarded it. Political parties taking up the issue of religion would face bitter opposition in the coming provincial and federal elections, as the local elections had already demonstrated. They need to brace up for the defeat in the polls.

October 9, 2017

Annex

A copy of part of the email is as follows.

Dear Dirgha Raj jee,

Congratulations on your timely, measured and powerful rebuttal to Arbind Rimal's prejudicial and irresponsible write up on King Mahendra. In addition to what you wrote about the King, recounting the many reforms and acts of national development that he had accomplished, I would like to add that King Mahendra ruled Nepal in one of the most difficult periods in Nepal India relations. As late Ganesh Raj Sharma wrote in Himal Khabar Patrika a few years ago, King Mahendra's assumption of power and dissolution of parliament and banning of political parties was in the first place instigated by none other than Jawahar Lal Nehru himself. But Nehru too passed away in 1964 and a few years later, his daughter Indira Gandhi, one of the most tyrannical rulers of India, ascended the power and remained there for many years when she engineered the dismemberment of Pakistan and annexation of Sikkim even as her eyes were also fixated on the annexation of Nepal's tarai. Dealing with a ruler like her was a very vexing task for any ruler of geographically handicapped Nepal. As written by Khagendra Jung Gurung a few years ago, she had started inviting former ex-servicemen of the Indian army from Nepal's hills to be briefed by her and then CGS of the Indian army, Gen. Kariappa. But by forging diplomatic relationship with China and having China build the Kodari road, the King ad made annexing Nepal a much more difficult task for India. While much praise is showered on BP Koirala, it must be recalled that, while he was the PM in Nepal after 2015, Chinese premier Chou-en-lai had twice offered to build the Kodari road, once on his visit to Kathmandu and another, during BP's visit to China. Both the times the much-glorified NC leader had baulked. Were there to be no Satrasaal, there would have been no Kodari road, and given India's penchant for regional hegemony (including blockades against Nepal at the drop of a hat), Nepal would have been already gone through the fate of Bhutan, if not Sikkim. In short, despite what all these corrupt politicians--who were prevented from making illicit money for full thirty years-- have to say against the great monarch, King Mahendra has to be remembered for the fact that he successfully ruled during one of the most trying times in Nepal's history and that what he accomplished during his short tenure constituted the foundation for the protection and tenacity of Nepal's sovereign status for all the times to come.

Regarding the issue of whether monarchy should be restored, there is one compelling factor in its favor. Ever since multiparty democracy was restored to Nepal in 1990, it has been a vicious cycle of corrupt politics that have governed this chronically impoverished country. Briefly, politicians make tons of money while in power and spend part of the same ill-gotten wealth to win another election, and then, once back in power, they make more tons of money. As things stand today, just about every single successful politician in Nepal remains a corrupt man necessarily, and what is worse, they are not at all ashamed of being corrupt publicly. This is a vicious cycle in Nepal's governance and there would be no respite for people and the country until this cycle is broken. So, the country's situation demands emergence of another "Mahendra" to break this vicious cycle and redefine and restructure Nepal's democracy so that such vicious cycle does not reappear and that elected officials become necessarily accountable to the people. Our world-applauded, extraordinary success with Forest User Groups in restoring Nepal's forest wealth and with Mother' Groups in dramatically improving mother and child health in Nepal has shown that democracy works when the people themselves get to play the crucial decision making role. It is to that end that our democracy has to be redefined and restructured. While our corrupt politicians know that our democracy under their stewardship is not getting anywhere, they are unwilling to make the necessary reforms, because it is the current crooked system that is working for them as "the hen that lays the golden eggs". Had Mahendra been around, he would have already shown these corrupt politicians how to behave better in politics. Historically, it has only been monarchy that had the power and authority to break this vicious cycle.

Since this debate is of great importance for the country, I have taken the liberty of copying it to a larger audience. I hope they all find it okay.

Bihari Krishna Shrestha

October 8, 2017