Today, ideological spirit is increasingly being subsumed by personalized authoritarianism, parochialism and embedded political culture of the past. Parties are on the process of decline due to dilemma of transformational change. Other parallel trends such as the rise of ethnicity, regionalism and community-based politics have also diminished their status. It seems that political parties’ credibility is suspect with major parties – Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, Maoists and some other new regional parties – taking their turns in power but subsequent failure in living up to the minimum aspirations of the people. NC’s politics of compromise has never been successful till today, nor could it blaze a trail of genuine democracy by initiating socio-economic reforms despite it being in power several times. Authoritarianism, lack of vision and ideology and its leaders’ inability to comprehend the emerging dynamics of Nepali politics has taken NC to a political abyss.
NC’s octogenarian leader Girija Prasad Koirala, whose dominance is now slowly eroding, and his likely successors seem to be incapable of understanding the guiding spirit of today’s politics.
Ideologically, NC has been hit hard by its failure to be a strong advocate of social justice and transformation. Its claim that it saved the country from a Maoist takeover by using the president to force the Maoist-led government to quit is not likely to convince the general people. The Maoist struggle that is being waged against the presidential action in the name of restoring civilian supremacy and its criticism that NC continues to stand for status quo while the CPN-UML’s position on the issue of genuine democracy and radical reforms is dubious would eventually benefit it.
Although the Maoists move of sacking the army chief without the support of other parties boomeranged, if it does not falter on the agenda of democratic commitment, it may be rewarded in the long run. The erosion of NC’s base in the Tarai and hills in addition to its loss of credibility in intellectual and professional circles may not enable it to come back to power as a top party. The NC’s comeback trail will depend on how much it can revamp its democratic image by embracing the agenda of social justice based on popular sovereignty where institutions rather than individual leaders prevail to set political agendas befitting the transformational aspirations of people and, above all, its ability to cobble together all forces through sincere commitment to democratic principles.
The image of the UCPN (Maoist) as a party that can bring qualitative changes in the life of the Nepali people is also increasingly being questioned but compared to the other parties, it still has a better standing as it is yet to be truly tested in power and pluralistic politics.
Parties like the NC have to give up the conventional style of doing things if they want to enhance their image among the people. NC’s democratic credentials are suspect as it has not been able to cope with newer challenges for setting its own socio-economic progressive agendas. Any party’s survival would from now onwards be determined by its performance and not by hackneyed claim that it was/is the real protector of freedom and democracy. NC’s octogenarian leader Girija Prasad Koirala, whose dominance is now slowly eroding, and his likely successors seem to be incapable of understanding the guiding spirit of today’s politics.
Meanwhile, Left politics will be more conflict-prone in the time to come. It seems that the largest party – UCPN (Maoist) – is finding it hard to retain its present position with the somewhat dubious ideological posturing of being committed to pluralistic system and “people’s republic” without detailing the attributes of the latter. Such an ambivalent position cannot continue for long but its helplessness is understandable in view of the intra-party controversy on whether a revolutionary party should or shouldn’t go all out to adopt liberal democracy of the Western variety.
The mixed election system that prevents any party from getting a majority and the lack of confidence to work together for stability and progress would do nothing but help in continuing the politics of uncertainty and crisis of governance in Nepal.
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