Maoist Vice-Chairman Baburam Bhattarai’s rather abrupt resignation from his party post, nearly four months after the end of his controversial one-and-a-half-year long tenure as prime minister, has the rumor mills spinning again. When he was elected the prime minister in August 2011, Bhattarai was easily one of the most popular Nepali politicians, barring a few detractors who still harbored misgivings about his violent past.
He was popular as one of the chief architects of the Constituent Assembly who had persuaded the party leadership to join hands with other democratic parties to oust the increasingly unpopular monarchy. Apparently, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had been in favor of some kind of a working alliance with the monarchy in order to carve out greater space for the former rebels in Nepali polity. [break]
His reputation as an intellectual certainly helped, so did his rather successful tenure as finance minister: his role in increasing revenue collection and his initiative to revive moribund state enterprises were widely acknowledged. But not long after he became the prime minister, his star started to fade. He appointed the biggest council of ministers in the country’s history, which soon became embroiled in one corruption scandal after another. Against such profligacy, Bhattarai’s modest austerity measures like riding Nepal-made Mustang car came to be seen as cheap publicity stunts. By the time he left office, he might have been the most unpopular prime minister in Nepal’s democratic history.
Many analysts see his resignation as Maoist vice-chair as an attempt to reclaim the lost moral ground and waning popularity, among the public as well as the political and intellectual classes. Bhattarai has made it clear that he will not be persuaded to take up the party post he has relinquished, as his is a crusade against the tendency of Nepali politicians to cling to power until they are in their death beds. But there is plenty of room to doubt whether the chief ideologue of the ‘people’s war’ is really committed to cleaning up this truly pathetic trend in Nepali polity. This is not the first time he has quit important party positions.
In fact there are plenty even within the Maoist party who believe it is in Bhattarai’s nature to throw the trump card of resignation whenever he can’t have his way in the party. In their belief, the trigger this time was Bhattarai’s growing fear that Chairman Dahal was trying to sideline him by going into an electoral process for the selection of important office bearers. If there is such an internal election, the Dahal camp is expected to win almost all important seats, given Bhattarai’s tenuous hold on party organization. Following his resignation, Bhattarai has also been rather cagey about whether he will be in line for top government executive posts following the CA vote.
We believe Bhattarai can regain his lost standing (and there are plenty of people ready to give him the benefit of doubt) if he can convince people that his purported rise above petty power politics is no cheap gimmick. It is our politicians’ unbound lust for power and pelf that has nearly dismantled the democratic process restored in 1990. But people won’t be convinced so long as Bhattarai rules out any chance of returning to government high office, unconditionally. If he can do so, his voluntary sacrifice could inspire a generation of leaders to follow his path. And if that happens, his legacy as a politician of high moral and intellectual standing committed to serving the nation will be secured. The onus is on him to prove his doubters (including us) wrong.
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