In his interview, Paras claimed he had no bank account in Singapore. He lived on the money he brought from Nepal. Wealth gathered because his father, King Gyanendra, increased palace allowances by six-fold? Has our tax money, paid during the monarchy, allowed Paras his exilic luxury (discos and videos) in Singapore? Poking fun at our plight, Paras evidently said, "The Nepalese are lucky. They have at least four hours of electricity!"
In Singapore, Paras perhaps did the only real work ever, cooking meals for himself because Himani his sensible wife returned home. Instead of joining the tumultuous Nepali politics, Paras will probably end up like Iran’s crown prince, ever pining from his American exile for the good old days when his father Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi with his secret police, SAVAK, silenced critics and murdered opponents.
People expected the end of Nepali monarchy to bring in the reign of meritocracy, when the citizen would progress on the basis of character, not on being a kid of a politician. This has not happened. The aafno manchhe (my person) of Dor Bahadur Bista’s book Fatalism and Development still prevails.
People expected the end of Nepali monarchy to bring in the reign of meritocracy, when the citizen would progress on the basis of character, not on being a kid of a politician. This has not happened. The aafno manchhe (my person) of Dor Bahadur Bista’s book Fatalism and Development still prevails. Even after Nepal turned a republic, Girija Prasad Koirala stunned the public by announcing that our country would soon have a lady prime minister, our beloved Sujata Didi.
Of course, most will welcome Sujata as their prime minister if the Nepali Congress, after winning an election and realizing her industry/intelligence, puts her forth as their democratically elected leader. We all desire a female PM, our own version of Golda Meir. Male PMs have tortured us enough. However, Sujata had already irked many when Girija appointed her as the "Minister Without Portfolio" in his cabinet. This meant she could dabble in anything she liked and control access to the PM, her father. Rightly, many claim that the NC has yet to learn internal democracy.
While the controversy surrounding Rookmangud Katawal raged on, Sujata went to the Maoist camp to request the post of the Defense Minister for herself. Girija told the NC to question her and the matter ended there. No wonder, an Indian journalist wrote that Girija was preparing for dynastic rule, grooming his own daughter as his successor; and a NC-led government could be worse than Prachanda’s which has fallen. So, as an impatient political kid, Sujata too has thrown NC’s proclaimed meritocracy into the putrid Bagmati river. Being an elected parliamentarian and a politician in her own right, she shouldn’t use her father to her advantage.
Thanks to PM Prachanda’s son Prakash Dahal, the Maoist boast of meritocracy also lies in tatters. During the last week of March, journalists photographed Prakash drunk in Dhulikhel. PM Dahal and Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai had gone there to discuss Kathmandu University and the Dhulikhel Hospital. Prakash found that too boring and decided to make merry. A fortnightly magazine wrote, "He coaxed party members, accompanying traffic police and journalists to join him. Prakash was even serving the drinks. At the end of it, Prakash was so knocked out that he didn’t even attend the dinner party." Yet, a few days later, this same Prakash joined PM Prachanda’s contingent to Norway/Finland, to "serve" as his father’s perpetual "secretary". Did Prachanda ever advertise for such a post and did his son get the job on merit? The PM spent 21.45 million rupees on foreign travel. How much of that went towards Prakash?
Using the term “nepotism” for Nepali Maoism invites a misnomer. Other parties, like the NC, practice it but not the honorable Maoists. Rather, they utilize "infiltration", this supreme type of communist aafno manchhe (my person) policy. Thus, the Maoist-led government simply infiltrated all sections of the state with their cadres, family-members, relatives or civil society’s indoctrinated sympathizers. Prakash also merely "infiltrated" into the prime minister’s office. Thanks to him and others, the United Maoist Party has proven to be no different from others.
Political kids have done similar damages elsewhere. Thailand’s crown prince has built a reputation for himself as a playboy in contrast to his parents, the king and the queen. Thais love their royal couple as much as they loathe the successor. In the model democracy of the United Kingdom, Mark Thatcher became a pain to his mother, the PM Margaret Thatcher, when the former received a multi-million pound commission in an arms contract with Saudi Arabia. Besides, Mark evaded paying taxes while living in the USA and probably funded an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea when he resided in South Africa.
In the world’s largest democracy, Indira Gandhi’s son Sanjay became an extra-constitutional authority. The Finance Minister C Subramaniam had sent Indira Gandhi three names for the post of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Sanjay appointed his own man not even on the list! Sanjay’s policy of forced vasectomy gained such notoriety that Saleem Sinai, Salman Rushdie’s main character in his novel, Midnight’s Children, finds himself a victim of such in Delhi. Men who undergo mere vasectomy can reverse it if they want children later on. Sanjay would have none of that, so his cronies simply castrated men. Saleem Sinai thus finds himself totally impotent. Towards the end of the novel, Padma wants to marry him but Saleem evades answering her.
After the end of Indira’s infamous emergency and an election, Morarji Desai’s party Janata Dal came to power. Desai had won campaigning that, among other issues, he would tolerate no "Sanjay Gandhi." How wrong he proved to be! His son Kantilal Desai became fabulously rich in no time and the urine-drinking PM Morarji Desai had to shamelessly defend his kid in the Indian parliament.
Thus, my humble plea to Nepal’s future PMs—don’t hoist your kids on our nation and our tax-money just because you and your spouses got together many years ago. Let your children join the lowest rungs in your political parties and work themselves up on the basis of merit. If not, let’s have our king back. At least, he has the "Singapore-reformed" Paras Shah to offer.
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