Yadav said he will consider his options and get in touch with me. Over the next few months, I followed up my quest for ambassadorship with calls to many leaders back home, including President Ram Baran Yadav, then Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai and incumbent PM Madhav Kumar Nepal to express my interest for diplomatic assignment. All of them sounded surprised but pleased that I had considered service with the government.
Although, in Nepal, I was received with lots of courtesy and goodwill, this was not the case here in Washington.
The announcement of my nomination for the Washington position came in early February and I called Yadav to express my deep gratitude for making me such a significant offer. I arrived in Kathmandu in mid-February but the parliamentary committee hearing on confirmation got delayed for more than a month due, in large part, to the stoppage of house seating for over a month to make time for parliamentarians to go back to their constituencies and solicit opinion on the framing of the new constitution. Finally, the hearing date was set for early April.
The committee hearing went well, except for some questions on my Green Card issue, long stay outside the country and the court case concerning my maid 20 years ago. During about four hours of deliberation, I answered all questions to the satisfaction of most members except for a few who were opposed to the nomination because of my long stay outside of the country. However, I countered that I needed praise and recognition for keeping my Nepali passport and Nepali identity for 42 years when I had the option of enjoying the benefits of American citizenship from many decades earlier. The committee approved my nomination, followed by a cabinet decision a few weeks later.
However, the fall of Dahal’s government on May 4 stopped the confirmation process and, especially, the appointment of Sujata Koirala as FM made it impossible for my appointment to proceed, mainly because I had been nominated by Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) Chairman Yadav, who had defeated her in the Constituent Assembly election by a huge margin.
Although Bijaya Kumar Gachchhdar, as new leader of MPRF in parliament, could have vouched for my appointment, his bitter feud with Yadav discouraged him from siding with me. This made me virtually a persona non grata in Kathmandu and then I chose to return to Washington, which was some three weeks before the nomination of Dr Shankar Sharma as ambassador to the US.
Although, in Nepal, I was received with lots of courtesy and goodwill, this was not the case here in Washington. Based on the news that filtered through the internet and newspapers, it appeared that the entire Nepali community in Washington was opposed to my nomination. Maybe the silent majority here was positive but none—except one person I can remember, Homraj Acharya, coordinator of Washington-Nepal Group—came out in my support. Acharya was of the view that I was a good choice and had contributed much to the well-being of Nepal over many years, most especially during the country’s darkest period of Panchayat rule, when no one even talked of democracy, much less fight for it.
From the time I met late BP Koirala in the 1970s, I was the only person in this community who opposed Panchayat rule in Nepal. Many people do not know of it but my wife and I declined to attend the White House State Banquet given by President Reagan in honor of late King Birendra in December of 1982. Afterwards, Dr Bhekh B Thapa—then Ambassador to Washington—started treating me as if I had insulted his father and banned me from embassy functions. I remained in the black book of the embassy all the way through the end of Panchayat rule in 1990. The embassy had even placed me on its ‘enemy list’ and the last Panchayat ambassador lobbied hard with the International Monetary Fund that I be fired from my job because of my “political activities”.
In 1987, upon the urging of Krishan Prasad Bhattarai and Girija Prasad Koirala, I established The Committee for Democracy in Nepal and called a meeting of potential members and community leaders. But very few came to the meeting and those who came did not want to become members, saying they were afraid of harming their relatives back home. Finally, in 1989, I was able to reactivate this committee with active support from some close friends, of whom five accepted membership. This committee remained on the forefront of US support for restoration of democracy in Nepal and took out a demonstration in Washington on March 16, 1990, less than a month before the dissolution of Panchayat regime on April 9.
During the interval of about 20 years since 1990, I had been actively involved in politics and economics of Nepal while living in the US and have maintained personal contacts with all prominent politicians and leaders. In 1990, I had presented to Nepali Congress an Economic Work Program to guide the party’s economic policy, parts of which they included in their manifesto.
I then find it amazing and puzzling why a person of my background would be opposed by this community where I spent most of my adult life and maintained good relations with everyone and all groups. No one had even hinted to me that I was not qualified for the job, that I have not served Nepal’s interests living outside the country and that I was unfit for the job for any specific reason.
From the beginning of my nomination, it looked as if the entire Nepali community here had become opposed to my nomination—tooth and nail—citing reasons that were made up, acrimonious and unverified. Otherwise, my nomination and appointment would have been a cause for celebration—that at least one of them had made it to the top and that it would open the way for many others residing outside the country.
The only reason that I can conceive of as to why my nomination was so vehemently opposed by this community can be just one: I am not one of them.
This kind of exclusionary politics in Nepal has lasted for many decades and over many generations but Madhesis are now determined to get their fair share of national recognition and claim equal opportunities as citizens. Else, the consequences can be devastating for the nation as a whole.
sshah1983@hotmail.com
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