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Whom to Believe?
Whom to Believe?
Siddhi B Ranjitkar
All political leaders set off on the campaign trail to earn the people’s mandate in their favor in the upcoming provincial and federal elections to be held on November 26, and December 7, 2017. While on the campaign trail, political leaders have said many incredible things whether common folks would believe them or not they did not care about. Some leaders got confused others have been swimming against the mainstream politics. The transparency international published its corruption index risking its credibility.
Chairman of CPN-Maoist-Center Prachanda said that the left alliance would run the country for 50 years. Previously, he had said the left rule in the country would be for 10 years. If Prachanda were to be truthful then folks would need to believe the warning of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba that the left alliance would impose a one-party dictatorial system. The reality is that both the thoughts of those political leaders are hypothetical and hard to be true.
To counter the claim of the left alliance to win the elections for a number of years Deuba said that he would be the prime minister for at least next three terms means another 15 years but not for 50 years as Prachanda said by which time most of the folks currently voting in the elections would totally disappear. Deuba had been the four-term prime minister thanks to the unstable governments, and the fast turnover of the governments. By the time of the last term of his three terms he claimed he would be the prime minister, he would be 86 if he were to survive until then. He is 71 now, according to the information on the wikipedia.com.
As usual Prachanda is very optimistic and he is leading the very cheerful election campaign. Positive thinking is good for everybody. Probably, it would contribute to convince some swing voters to vote for his party. He is a smart speaker. He has avoided criticizing anybody and any political party except for expressing a strong averse to the cancellation of the memorandum of understanding on the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project his government had reached with the Chinese company. The Deuba government had rescinded it on November 13, 2017 scrapping the implementation of 1,200 MW power project. Chairman of CPN-UML KP Oli said that the next government after the elections might overturn the entire decisions the Deuba government had made, as the Deuba government is only a caretaker one.
While saying the left alliance would impose a dictatorial political system, Deuba has engaged in the fear campaign. It is surely the negative campaign. It might harm his party and him too than benefit, as most of the voters would certainly be reluctant to believe him. Rather he could have take up a positive slogan such as eliminating corruption that would be the most attractive one for the voters as corruption has been killing every possibility of the fast-track economic development.
His spouse Dr Arju Rana Deuba purchased a house at NPR 30 million in the far western constituency from where she has been running for the House of Representatives. She bought the house as if she was buying a bunch of green leaf vegetables at the vegetable market in Kathmandu. She did not bothered to disclose the income source for such an amount whereas any common folks have to fill up a form stating the source of money when s/he deposits NPR 500,000 or above at any bank in Kathmandu.
The irony is that none of the political leaders has unleashed the slogan of curbing corruption. Probably, they are afraid of getting backfired from it as most of them have been heavily involved in the corruption and they would continue to do so in the future. Political leaders are sure to continue the corruption no matter which political parties or a party wins the election and comes to power.
Chairman of CPN-UML KP Oli said that India would always seek to split away the southern flatland of Nepal forcing Nepalese to amend the constitution. Neighbors or any international political bullies would try to do whatever is possible to assist one political leader or another to have their influence on the administration. However, splitting up a country is not so easy. It would not happen as any country or individual wishes for. For example, Catalonians have voted for independence from Spain in a referendum only to lose whatever autonomy they have had. The international media have it that the Russians have influenced the referendum on independence of Catalonia in favor of Catalonians to destabilize the western democracy.
The world has seen how the Russians have influenced the American presidential election in 2016 and the sure-to-win candidate got defeated at the last moment. So, political leaders need to take account of the possible external influences in the coming elections rather than blaming one neighbor or another for the distant possibility. Some folks belonging to the Indian intelligence agency RAW have been diligently and invisibly working in Nepal even today. They have been very concerned with the left alliance.
Chairman of Rastriya Prajantra Party (RPP) Kamal Thapa has been saying on the stump that he is for the BP’s slogan of reconciliation. NC leader BP Koirala had come back from the self-imposed exile in India in 1977 saying he was for reconciling with the then political system and with the then king that had no respect for democracy and the rule of law. NC then and now is a political force that could change the political landscape. In fact, it has changed the political landscape totally and the country is the republic now. So, what Thapa has been saying does not make any sense in the current political context. Thapa got confused about the political situation.
Thapa has been saying that he is for restoring the monarchy and the Hindu state but he has had a strong disagreement with the former king Gyanendra. Thapa did not show up to Gyanendra to receive his blessing on the 10th day of the great Hindu festival called Dashain this year pretending to be sick. Certainly, Thapa is not for reinstating Gyanendra but he would wear the crown himself if he were to reinstate the monarchy.
Leader of another RRP-united Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani said that he was for making the king the head of State. He could get the majority in the federal parliament and then elect anybody he wants to be the head of State called president. That is called democracy not the bigoted panchayat that did not tolerate democrats and any opposition. Dr Lohani did not dare to say to reinstate the monarchy, as it was next to impossible. He knows it.
Leader of RPP-democratic Pashupati Shumsher has totally abandoned the monarchy and has been holding up the restoration of Hindu State that most of his colleagues of the ethnic origin in his party don’t believe in. He talked about restoring the Hindu state hoping to draw the votes of the Hindu fanatics while distancing the ethnic people and others that are not for the Hindu state. That will be more harmful than beneficial to his party and him, too.
Some of the RPP candidates particularly of the ethnic origin on the campaign trail have been saying that they don’t care about the monarchy and the Hindu state they really care about the fast and sustainable economic development. They have set aside the reinstatement of the monarchy and the Hindu State, and they are for putting the country on the fast-track economic development. These guys are prudent and realistic, and they might garner some votes in the coming elections.
Now, our southern brethren loved to call themselves Madhishis have been saying on the campaign trail that they are for amending the constitution to suit their need, and they have been blaming CPN-UML for not being able to amend the constitution in the past. They knew and know even today that without the support of CPN-UML they would not be able to amend the constitution. Now, the CPN-UML is in alliance with all the like-minded left political parties including the CPN-Maoist-Center. So, Madheshi brothers would be well off to be with either the democratic alliance or with the left alliance but the amendment to the constitution would be the reality only after both the alliances would agree on it.
While most of the political parties have aligned with either the left alliance or the democratic alliance, Chairman of Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party (NWPP) Narayan Man Bijuckchhe remains aloof. His party and he could stand alone no doubt about it but what he would be able to do with one or two directly and one or two indirectly at the maximum elected representatives to the federal parliament. In the world of 275 representatives of the federal House of Representatives his party and he would have no voice. Probably, because of it, he did not dare to run for the House of Representative this time. His lifelong stand against India has been only his political career. Another specialty has is his party and he have never been in the government.
Dr Baburam Bhattarai has been another political character that has been swimming against the mainstream politics. He had smartly set up a new political party called Naya Shakta, which means a new force. He even boasted that Naya Shakta would be in power in 2018. Every day, clock is ticking, soon it will be 2018 but nowhere to be seen that Naya Shakta would be in power. In fact, Dr Bhattarai would have hard time to get elected to the federal House of Representatives not to mention other members of his party including his dear spouse. He got lost in the political wilderness taking his spouse with him.
By the way Prachanda and KP Oli have said that they have already assigned the portfolios to different political leaders in the cabinet to be formed after the provincial and federal elections being so sure to win the majority if not the two-thirds. However, they have not revealed who is getting what portfolio. We could guess only. The guess is KP Oli is selected for the president so that he could live without speaking much for five years, Prachanda for the prime minister so that he could run the administration at least for two years, and then transfer the position of power to another person probably Madhav Nepal. Prachanda loved to transfer power.
Prachanda disclosed that he and former Chairman of CPN-UML Madan Bhandari had agreed on talking to explore the possibility of unifying the left political parties but Bhandari died a few days before they were supposed to hold talks. The jeep Bhandari was traveling on fell down in the Trishuli River. He managed to come out of the jeep but he could not swim to safety and unfortunately drowned. His colleague traveling with him drowned in the jeep fallen in the river. Following the conspiracy theory, it was a staged managed accident.
What Prachanda said is that he would have united all left political parties long ago, and the country would have been under the left administration rather than under the administration of the chaotic jumble of political parties of various colors; and NC would not have run the country for such a long time. Prachanda must have said it to make the NC leaders particularly Deuba more nervous than used to be after the left alliance on the eve of elections.
In fact, NC had won the majority twice: once in the general elections held in 1991, and another in about 10 years later but both the majority government could not serve the full term. NC president Girija Prasad Koirala was the prime minister of the first majority government in the early 1990s but he dissolved the parliament and held general elections only to lose the majority to CPN-UML. Then, NC won the second majority under the banner of making Krishna Prasad Bhattari a prime minister but he could not hold on to power for more than a year and had to surrender the power to Girija Prasad Koirala that also surrendered the power to Sher Bahadur Deuba after the palace massacre on June 1, 2001. Deuba got a second chance for holding power.
Another interesting piece of news Prachanda has disclosed is that Deuba has said to the Biplav Maoists to declare a people’s war hinting at the possibility of Deuba declaring a state of emergency and postponing the upcoming elections indefinitely. That is nice to believe for Deuba.
However, tossing bombs aiming at the candidates belonging to the CPN-Maoist-Center later on a NC candidate, too while on the campaign trail has been the frequent news in the Nepalese media. So far, none of the candidates or any folks have died but some cadres are injured. Some people think that it might be the work of the State administration rather than the cadres of Biplav Maoists either to tighten the security or to frighten the left alliance candidates while on the campaign trail.
When Prachanda Maoists split up, Vaidhya Maoists came to exist. Vaidhya Maoists gave birth to the Biplav Maoists. Vaidhya Maoists have been participating in the elections in the name of a different party even though they say that they don’t accept the constitution and the political system it has set up. Biplav Maoists want to continue the people’s war and set up the Maoist regime. Is it not a nice dream for the Biplav Maoists to have when the country is moving fast on the republican path?
Now, the report of the Transparency International, it has put Nepal at 130 out of the 170 corrupt countries, according to the local media. The lower the country is in the corruption index of the Transparency International the higher the corrupt the country is taking one at the top with almost no corruption.
The question is what position the United States of America has taken in the corruption index of the Transparency International. Surely, America is nowhere near Nepal or India means well above them means the less corrupt nation in the corruption index of the Transparency International.
However, if we were to believe the American media, the current American administration is no less corrupt than the Nepalese administration. The current president does not care about the code of conduct any American presidents followed in the past. Is America not a great corrupt nation?
Speaking at the UN Assembly in 2017, US President Donald Trump had hinted at obliterating North Korea as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iranian President from 2005 to 2013 once said that he would erase the State of Israel from the world map. Are not Trump and Ahmadinejad on the same wavelength, and voters that voted for Trump and Ahmadinejad? Are they not extremists?
“Okay, it’s official. President Trump wants to upend 230 years of constitutional history and principle to run the U.S. justice system like a banana republic, or perhaps more aptly like what now passes for the rule of law in the country he aspires to emulate, the Russian Federation” wrote John Podesta in “The Washington Post” on November 15, 2017. Obviously, Podesta has said that the Trump administration has been pushing America to the category of the worst developing countries including Russia.
(John Podesta, the chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, served as counselor to President Barack Obama and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, according to “The Washington Post.”)
November 18, 2017
