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Committing Suicide An Option For Nepalese Politicians?
Committing Suicide An Option For Nepalese Politicians?
Siddhi B Ranjitkar
Speaking at the mass rally held at Tundikhel, Kathmandu on the occasion of the opening of the ‘Thirteenth Convention of Nepali Congress (NC) on March 3, 2016, Acting President Ramchandra Poudel said that he felt like committing suicide at hearing the criticism of the public. Mr. Poudel was right and he should commit suicide. In doing so he would declare he was a sincere politician. His statues would crop up as the reverence for his sincerity across Nepal as a matter of fact in appreciation of committing suicide for not being a sincere politician.
Not only Mr. Poudel but also all the corrupt politicians one after another needed to commit suicide in public preferably at Tundikhel in view of the public although committing suicide was the crime punishable by law, and socially and humanely not acceptable. Then, Nepalese could take deep breathe and say that at least most of the corrupt politicians had at least committed suicide because they had been corrupt, and they ruined the country beyond all recognition.
Mr. Poudel’s words of committing suicide might be the reflection on his sincerity but his deeds were not so. His words of committing suicide might be the truly deceitful camouflage to trick the voters to vote for his team in the elections to the party presidency. He chose Shashank Koirala: the lovely son of BP Koirala that led the NC to ruin not listening to the colleagues and taking decisions arbitrarily and unilaterally. BP defended the monarchy throughout his life but what he got was only the jail term and suppression of his party. However, BP believed that his cancerous neck was conjoined with the neck of the then monarch called Mahendra.
Shashank Koirala gave an interview to the BBC Nepali reporter last week. Mr. Koirala without any hesitation told the interviewer that the monarchy and the Hinduism as the national religion of Nepal might come back. Mr. Koirala was so naïve not to realize that the monarchy was dead even when somebody except for the then crown prince Dipendra killed one and all of members of the Shah monarchy at the Narayanhity palace on June 1, 2001. Mr. Koirala had been naively holding on to the idea of the dead monarchy coming back.
Mr. Koirala also was for reinstating the Hinduism as the national religion in the secular Nepal. Mr. Koirala either did not know or he simply ignored the imposition of the Hinduism on the non-Hindu Nepalese was in fact against the constitution or he wanted to rule over the people of other faith reinstating the Hinduism as the national religion of Nepal.
Mr. Koirala had been telling these things without having the deep regret for the monarchy controlling the destiny of Nepalese for 240 years and keeping them in darkness and destitute, and imposing the Hinduism on the non-Hindu Nepalese causing an immense distress to the people. Yet, Mr. Koirala wanted the monarchy and Hinduism back in the country. What sort of leader NC he would be if Koirala were to get elected to the general secretary of the NC anybody could easily guess?
Mr. Poudel was following on the path of the man called Shashank Koirala holding such erroneous ideas. He made Shashank Koirala a candidate for the office of general secretary of NC or probably, Poudel became the member of the Koirala dynastic team remains to be seen. Koirala definitely was the personification of the regressive force that had been for pulling the country back to the twentieth century if not nineteenth century. That had been at least their dream even if it was practically impossible.
If possible to reinstate everything what he had dreamt of, Mr. Shashank Koirala would bring back all those Rana prime ministers with the common name of Shumsher from the crematorium to their respective European-styled palace, as Mr. Koirala believed that only such cruel and despotic rulers could run the country not the politicians serving the people sincerely. In doing so Mr. Koirala wanted to waste the blood of so many martyrs that fought against the autocratic Rana family rule and then the despotic Shah rule. So, it would be a great shame on the NC if the team of Poudel-Koirala team got elected to the presidency of the NC. Maybe, Ramchandra Poudel would really commit suicide if his team got elected in the thirteenth convention of the NC.
The active monarchy had been the cancer to democracy elsewhere in the world including Nepal. Nepalese had removed the cancer surgically, and made Nepal a republic but in other countries such as Bhutan and Thailand, the cancerous monarchies had been making the democracy sick and malfunctioning. The elected government had been repeatedly removed from power in favor of the junta in Thailand. In Bhutan the so-called King had made the parliament his rubber stamp. The king had chased away hundreds of thousands of Bhutanese that sought nothing but humanely living as any citizen in the democratic world. The ejected Bhutanese had been spread all over the world.
Now, let us talk about the team of Sher Bahadur Deuba made for the presidency of the NC. Fortunately, Deuba did not publicly say that he would commit the crime of killing himself if he were not to get elected to the NC presidency. Deuba had been the prime minister thrice: twice got elected from the parliament, and once got nominated from the disgraced monarch in the past. Deuba must have a lot of money amassed and stashed away for such elections. That was a different story but the story now is who has been on his team. He had chosen Arjun-narshing KC: one time mortified Pancha. Deuba also had the support of other infamous previous NC leaders such as Khum Bahadur Khadka, Goving Raj Joshi, Chiranjive Wagle, and Taranath Ranabhatt.
Khum Bahadur Khadka, and Chiranjive Wagle had served the jail term for the corruption and abuse of authority while in office. Goving Raj Joshi managed to remain out of jail even though he was indicted for the corruption, too. All of these three guys had been the former ministers in the NC government.
Taranath Ranabhatt was a disgraced NC leader. He was the Speaker when former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba dissolved the parliament taking the hint from Gyanendra: the so-called last Shah monarch. Then, Gyanendra dismissed Deuba for not being capable of holding the general elections after dissolving the parliament. Surely, it was only an excuse for killing democracy for which Gyanendra paid a colossal price. Ranabhatt continued to remain in the office as the Speaker even after the death of the elected parliament. He even expected to be the nominated prime minister of Gyanendra. Poor Ranabhatt could not materialize his dream, as Gyanendra could not trust him the job of prime minister. After the reinstatement of the parliament by the people in 2006, Girija Prasad Koirala unceremoniously and disgracefully fired Taranath Ranabhatt from the Speaker.
So, Deuba enjoyed the company of the corrupt and unscrupulous politicians that would have been out of the political scene if they were in the developed democratic countries. Deuba might not represent the regressive force as much as Ramchandra Poudel did. But Deuba also had a man called Khum Bahadur Khadka that had been nervously and relentlessly advocated for the return of Hinduism and the Hindu king. However, Khadka must have been doing so to save himself from the politically drowning after serving the jail term for corruption and abuse of power. Everybody knew that one and all politicians that had been in the government were corrupt but only a few unlucky guys had to serve the jail term.
What Deuba would do if his team and he were to get elected to the presidency in the thirteenth convention of the NC was an open secret. He would bring back the discredited and humiliated past politicians such as Khum Bahadur Khadka, Chiranjive Wagle, Govinda Raj Joshi and Taranath Ranabhatt back to the political life, and give each one of them a new life in the politics again. What these guys would do was almost clear even now. Deuba would play a very dirty and foul political game to tear down the current government of KP Oli that also not so sincere and people-oriented. Deuba had the credit of sending some ministers to Bangkok, Thailand to survive the no-confidence vote brought against him in the parliament in the mid nineties.
The third team of the leaders made for the NC presidency had been the company of Krishna Prasad Sitaula and Gagan Thapa. The team claimed as the team of youths. The NC had the tradition of calling even the people of sixty and more years as the youth leaders. In fact, they continued to live as the youths until they were graduated from the youth leaders.
Krishna Prasad Sitaula was the home minister in the government of Girija Prasad Koirala elected by the parliament that got the life from the people’s movement in 2006 after the Maoists and the Seven-party alliance jointly launched the decisive assault on the then monarchy. By some accounts, Sitaula stayed in the Maoists’ camp as the ransom for the security of Prachanda while the Maoists’ supreme Prachanda flew on a helicopter to Kathmandu to talk with the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala but the popularly known story was that Prachanda, his spouse, and Sitaula flew in Kathmandu on the same helicopter. Sitaula’s contribution to bring the Maoists to the mainstream Nepalese politics was immense, and praise worthy. Sitaula deserved to be not only the president of the NC but also the prime minister of Nepal.
Gagan Thapa earned the reputation of the youth leader and earned the highest number of votes in the elections to the member of the central committee of the NC held during the twelfth convention of NC slightly more than five years ago. Gagan Thapa had the habit of speaking fearlessly and spontaneously. So, he had earned high political credibility but he had smeared his political image taking side of the mafia leader killed in the police encounter. This prop up of Gagan Thapa might be the mafia that Gagan Thapa had carelessly but spontaneously expressed. Nepalese had anticipated that Gagan Thapa might come out as a dashing leader; he would be sincere and without blemish had been the thing of past after his statement supporting the mafia leader going against the police actions. The black spot on the political career of Gagan Thapa might hurt Sitaula in his bid for the NC presidency.
Ramchandra Poudel and Sher Bahadur Deuba had been the pawns of Modi on the Nepalese political chessboard. Poudel and Deuba becoming the pawns of Indian Prime Minister Modi had supported the candidate of Sushil Koirala for the office of prime minister in October 2015. Modi tried to make Sushil Koirala prime minister for the second term with the support of the agitating Madheshi leaders, as he did not want to see the communist leader KP Oli taking the reins of the governance in Nepal. Modi and his puppets such as Sushil Koirala, Ramchandra Poudel, Sher Bahadur Deuba and the Madheshi leaders that had been fighting for their fundamental rights blocking the southern border entry points drastically failed in making Sushil Koirala prime minister again. However, none of these political guys having no shame for any sorts of corruption they had widely committed in the past had courage to apologize to the Nepalese people for being the pawns on the chessboard of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For them, it had been the business as usual. So, committing suicide might be the right thing to do for these guys as Poudel had felt recently. It was only applicable to those surviving now. Sushil Koirala had already left this mundane world for his heavenly abode though untimely at the age of 80 years.
March 5, 2016
