Prachanda's fall
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My father remembers Prachanda as one of the smartest and most assertive teachers at Bhimodaya School in Arughat of Gorkha district. During his teaching years, Prachanda studied local politics. A master of manipulation, he was able, little by little, to brainwash local villagers into believing in the communist ideology. To this day, the magical rhetoric and charm he used to influence people with are a point of conversation in and around Arughat area. Many, including my father, saw him as someone who had the wherewithal to speak the truth to power and the charm to make things happen.
But Prachanda has neither become the man, nor the leader that many hoped he would become. Now, at 60, Prachanda is staring at a rather bleak political future. A man whose name evoked fear, curiosity and hope up until 2008 has become a subject of mockery and ridicule. There are few Nepali politicians who rose and fell at such an astonishing rate.
Desperate for an elixir to help us forget the complexity of our troubles, we sought instead for someone to soothe us and found him.
Where we needed clarity and conviction, he gave us an array of extraordinary contradictions. Some of Maoists cadres openly talk about his luxurious lifestyle even during the war years. A man who was glorified as the people's leader always needed a comfortable bed and good food even in the remote hilly terrains, where few were afforded such niceties. When allegations of misuse of money provided to Maoists cadres living in cantonments across Nepal surfaced, all hope vanished of seeing Prachanda as our statesman. His latest remarks—from quitting the Constituent Assembly to forming an armed outfit—have further proven his inability to rise above petty interests and serve as the guardian of the CA.
Prachanda's true colors were widely displayed during the vote-count phase of the second CA elections. He not only alleged vote rigging, but also asked Maoist members to leave vote count centers and boycott the count. To this day, he has not been able to furnish a shred of evidence to prove the much claimed rigging in the elections. This was perhaps the last episode that solidified people's simmering doubts about Prachanda's genuine interest to bring about meaningful changes in the country.
Prachanda's mockery of the CA procedure, the very procedure that he helped to craft, has provided fodder for NGOs, INGOs and the so-called activists to keep milking all available funds in the name of democracy and freedom in Nepal. Far too many resources are being poured into Nepal under the guise of "saving democracy and freedom" from the clutches of wannabe dictators like Prachanda.
While political chaos seems unending, rampant corruption and syndication of the economy have crippled hopes of prosperity and the high growth that needs to be achieved if we are serious about graduating from the least developing countries list by 2023. All our social and political woes cannot be attributed to Prachanda's failure alone, but he has been at the center-stage of Nepali politics for almost a decade and he could have steered Nepali politics and development to a better path, if he had surrendered to his better angels.
Almost a decade has been lost since the end of the civil war in 2006. My generation's talent and hope is at the risk of being wasted. The youth-bulge of the country is busy sweating in the sweltering heats of the Middle East. Our neighbors are growing at high single digits. We are left behind, far off. We have put everything on hold until the new constitution is promulgated. Lack of local bodies has helped in institutionalizing corruption at the lowest levels of government.
This country hasn't heard a single speech from Prachanda on development and economy. We have no idea about his views and policies on accelerating growth and creating prosperity in the country. Mere slogans of making Nepal another Singapore is not going to solve people's daily hardships. We need concrete policy and the will to implement them at a rapid scale.
A leader who fought to end feudal mindsets and expedite our economic engines glaringly lacks the fierce urgency of now to complete the peace process and embark on a long and difficult journey of nation-building. He is deep into dirty politicking; and trying to make himself relevant in post-constitution Nepal. That is why perhaps he is living in a state of delusion of the support of so-called 30-party alliance, which includes parties whose existence is unknown to the general public. It is unfortunate that Prachanda doesn't seem to grasp the changed political dynamics.
It will be for the greater good of the country if Prachanda uses his remaining soft power as a force multiplier in the current political mess. He must use whatever residual influence he has now to push for deeper discussion and dialogue to bring out a balanced and progressive constitution, no matter how difficult those discussions become.
Prachanda can only stretch his political nuisance so far. Collectively, we have had enough. And now is the time for him to sincerely accept the people's disapproval for his bad behavior. He must put his heart and soul into drafting the new constitution at the earliest possible juncture. People will evaluate his role when it comes to voting in the next election, as they should. Perhaps the saving grace for Prachanda would be to return to his role as the teacher and exude once again the confidence in the people as well as the process that he himself architected.
Whatever his current state of mind or political calculations, prolonged political chaos will not help Prachanda or his party. He will have to come out of a delusional sense of power and assume public support to restart the constitution writing process. He will have to articulate the ideas that put him on this course and prove his devotion to this country by finishing what he started by returning to the claims and dreams he gave us in the beginning.
This is the only way for Prachanda to rectify his mistakes and recover what is left of his dwindling career. We deserve as much. If there was ever a time for hard decisions and the brilliance of finely crafted words, it is now. Let Prachanda work his magic on this constitution and insist that it is finished and correct, so we can get on with our future.
Twitter: @subhash580
