Senior Nepali leaders from major parties have been queuing up to visit India and China ever since the election government comprised of former bureaucrats was installed four months ago. First, it was Prachanda, followed by Sher Bahadur Deuba, Madhav Nepal, and now Sushil Koirala. In retrospect, Prachanda must be regretting his India visit for his failure to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi, whom the other three top leaders had the privilege of calling on.
Surprisingly, Nepali leaders visiting New Delhi have made meeting Gandhi the main barometer of success. In any case, the likes of Deuba, Nepal and Koirala seem to take it as remarkable achievement. New Delhi has given visiting leaders more or less similar treatment and conveyed a consistent message: Hold CA II election on schedule and show the maturity expected of a democracy. However, our leaders, despite their pledge to hold the polls on November 19, do not seem committed to it. If they were, they would be visiting their constituencies rather than India and China. [break]
For the public, these visits were no more than photo-ops for our leaders with Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Apart from regretting the timing of his India visit, Prachanda has—perhaps inspired by Chetan Bhagat’s third novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life—disclosed three other big regrets of his life: Preventing the late GP Koirala from becoming the first President; trying to remove the then Army Chief Rookmangud Katawal; and failing to resolve controversial issues in CA I. Hopefully, he will admit more of his mistakes in due course.
Undoubtedly, Prachanda’s vacillation on controversial issues kept CA from writing a constitution. People had catapulted Prachanda’s party, beyond their wildest imagination, to the largest in CA I, and given him the opportunity to become a national leader. But he squandered the golden chance. Once in government, Prachanda and his colleagues should have worked to strengthen democracy and freedom, alleviate poverty, create jobs and bring investment. But they pursued their goal of amassing power, enriching themselves, all the while promoting extortion and other criminal activities by their cronies.
Currently, the Maoists seem more confused about polls than any other party. Some argue that the sagging popularity of the Maoist parties, unfair distribution of wealth among Maoist leaders and their lack of confidence to face election, are the main causes of this confusion. Others are still unsure whether the Maoist split is real. They believe that if CPN-Maoist leaders get a fair share of their mother party’s fortune, their differences with UCPN (Maoist) could be sorted out.
Indeed, UCPN (Maoist) is worried about losing the vote badly if CPN-Maoist boycotts and/or disrupts polls, as the latter has promised to do, or it participates as a separate party. CPN-Maoist does not want to go into election until it is able to extract a pound of flesh from mother party. Both are buying time. The confusion among the Maoists has taken the nation hostage and pushed it into further uncertainty.
Nepal has already become ungovernable. If election cannot be held as scheduled, it will be even more chaotic. Corruption, lawlessness and uncertainty are at an all-time high. In the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, Nepal is ranked 139th of 176 countries. Billions have been squandered due to inept and careless management. Leaders have given away public land to their cronies. The only good work—the expansion of city road in Kathmandu—done by the Maoist government headed by Baburam Bhattarai has been hampered by time overruns.
Extortion, smuggling, murder, and other crimes continue unabated. Criminals move around with impunity under political and police protection. The ones who are apprehended are soon released. Worst of all, the Regmi government, on the lame and absurd excuse that the Baburam Bhattarai government had decided not to take action, has refused to arrest the Maoists accused of murdering Krishna Prasad Adhikari, 17, and other innocent victims.
Political and economic uncertainty is pervasive. CA II election is uncertain; economic activities have slowed; growth stalled; the price of basic goods has skyrocketed. Unemployment is rising; unskilled youth are leaving for the Gulf and India; skilled ones are headed to America, Western Europe and Australia. People have lost faith in government and judiciary. Thugs and criminals rule the streets with impunity, as if there is no government.
Nepali people removed monarchy with the hope of political stability, economic development along with decent representative government. But contrary to expectation, we have instability, erosion in confidence in political leadership, lack of development, sectarianism, tribalism, and skirmishes and violence arising from parochial and primitive instincts.
Nepal wasted four precious years from 2008 to 2012, without any substantial gain. Political parties failed to write a constitution, the main objective of CA I. The period witnessed enormous squandering of scarce resources, runaway political corruption, and increased pain to people. With the advent of republican democracy, people had longed for improvement of their lot; instead, only political leaders seem to have benefitted from the changed situation.
Nepal remains directionless, like a young and energetic vagabond squandering its potential. There is crisis of trust among political parties and even among the leaders of the same party. Dr Baburam Bhattarai’s resignation as UCPN (Maoist) vice-president was owing to his mistrust of Prachanda. There are differences among Sushil Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Ram Chandra Poudel in the Nepali Congress. Jhalanath Khanal, Madhav Nepal, Bam Dev Gautam, and KP Oli of CPN-UML are always at loggerheads. Madhesi Parties have as many differences as there are party members.
Timely polls are essential to sort out these differences, to put the country on a more certain path, and to write a new constitution. The one and only priority now should be holding election. Those who say they want election should prove it through their action. Those so-called democratic parties opposed to the vote should negotiate and get ready for the ballot. People want freedom from fear, hunger and bad governance, not endless bickering among leaders.
One way for political leaders to demonstrate that they are serious about November 19 election is to begin to visit their constituencies and stop their useless foreign junkets. It is a shame that the political leaders are going on foreign tours when the deposed king has been visiting and assisting helpless flood victims within the country. All this raises a serious question: Do the leaders really want the November 19 vote?
The writer is former
foreign secretary
bhagirath_51@live.com
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