Many peace-loving Nepalis will shamefully carry these mental images whenever they think of the NC in the future. The party showed that it can outdo even the Maoists in creating mayhem, the crippling strike on December 19 only the tip of the iceberg that is the growing list of its undemocratic exercises. A warning for the oldest running democratic party in the country is thus in order: either reform or rot.
LOSS OF ETHICAL CLOUT
December 19’s senseless strike ruined in a day the good reputation NC steadily built since 2006. NC’s credentials as a “democratic” party that had renounced violence went up in smokes much like the fumes emanating from the tires NC cadres burnt on streets nationwide. Editorials had called on NC to call off the strike. Even US ambassador Scott H DeLesi added his voice to the clarion call. The NC went ahead anyway, proving right the Nepali proverb, khatiko bela mati hundain (wisdom flees in hard times).
Formerly highly respected NC leaders sheepishly supported their cadres’ destructive whims. Prakash Man Singh offered his justification that the attack on NC’s youth leader, who later died on the morning of December 17, had taken place “inside a prison” and so all “should understand the gravity of the incident”. True, but did NC´s violent response help things in any way? Arjun Narsingh KC dismissed DeLesi’s warning as ‘his party didn’t run on US visas’! I believe the ambassador should stand by his word and deny such NC leaders entry into the US.
By calling for bandas and seeking amnesty for war criminals the Grand Old Party is fast sliding down the democracy scale.
Further, KC called the banda a satyagraha; and thus denigrated Gandhi’s method of non-violent protest. Ram Chandra Poudel assured the nation that the strikers wouldn’t attack ambulances, vehicles belonging to the press, diplomatic missions, rights activists and those ferrying milk and garbage. Yet, two patients died in Kathmandu because they couldn’t make it to the hospital.
The wreckage of burnt ambulances, mutilated motorbikes, deformed bicycles, windshield-broken taxis, charred cars, burnt tires and blackened streets suggested NC cadres had been overtaken by demons. Will Poudel now offer restitution for all the damages from NC treasury? Does he realize that some of those burnt taxis represent life-long savings or sole purchases after sale of inherited property?
The strike didn’t affect NC leaders. Poudel used a police-escort to get to Chitwan after his mother died on the same day. To show his sincerity for the cause, he shouldn’t have travelled. Dr Ram Sharan Mahat now has another book to write, In Defence of the Banda. Krishna Sitaula, till last week, was demanding that the government declare the deceased NC youth leader, a murder-suspect implicated in 70 criminal cases, a martyr! NC leaders have certainly lost their moorings.
Dr Baburam Bhattarai, the mastermind behind the war that led to at least 14,000 deaths, has said in the past that the NC had no right to teach ethics to the Maoists. December 19 proved him right, and must have delighted him. Not surprisingly, the NC now remains mum on the return of Maoist-confiscated property, the dissolution of the YCL, and the renunciation of violence by the UCPN (Maoist) for its transformation into a “civilian” party. It had no moral authority to try to halt the strike called by “disqualified” Maoist combatants on January 5.
Cartoonists predictably grabbed the golden opportunity to lampoon the NC. Rajesh KC portrayed Ram Chandra Poudel, Shushil Koirala, and Sher Bahadur Deuba dancing along the road leading to Prachanda-path (Dahal’s philosophy of using violence to attain power). Another cartoon had the tree, NC’s electoral symbol, wielding an axe and cutting its base, while a pigeon, standing for peace, escapes from its branches. More importantly, December 19 must have dismayed NC’s loyal voter base.
BLANKET AMNESTY
How come NC now joins the Maoists in seeking blanket amnesty for all criminals among the former rebels and the Nepal Army (NA)? The Maoists have always pleaded that their cadres who killed, raped, burnt houses, and chopped off limbs during the 10-year-war should go scot-free. They justified their demand on the pretext of ridding the country of dictatorial monarchy. However, Maoist high-handedness was in no way more palatable than the king’s oppression. India’s (former) Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh once said, “You can’t have a bad terrorist and a good one!” The Maoists have tried to portray their violence as acts of “good terrorism”, and so seek the withdrawal of charges against parliamentarians with tarnished images like Agni Sapkota and Balkrishna Dhungel.
Baburam Bhattarai, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other leaders who have blood on their hands fear that they may have to face international courts for their mass murders. Thus, acquitting comrades guilty of similar crimes now is expected to eventually help them get amnesty as well. However, when even the NC sings the Maoist tune and asks for a blanket amnesty, one can only imagine how low the once bastion of ‘democratic values’ has sunk. A national daily writes, “…the perpetrators of over 1,300 enforced disappearances, hundreds of cases of rape, and some 16,000 deaths reported during the armed conflict will be pardoned.”
In agreeing to such an amnesty, the NC becomes implicit in protecting NA personnel who committed war crimes, the killers of Maina Sunuwar, the trigger-happy soldiers in Doramba, and the agents behind the disappearance of the 49 so-called “Maoist” suspects from Bhairavnath barracks. The NC has no right to declare a general amnesty without the permission of the victim families.
Surprisingly, here the UML, guilty of shielding its own goons like Mahesh Basnet, has taken the righteous stand by insisting that justice be allowed to take its course. The Maoist-NC syndicate feels confident it can win over the UML to its side; the UML shouldn´t give in.
THE DEUBA CIRCUS
As Mohan Baidya is a liability for UCPN (Maoist), so is Deuba for the NC. Deuba has already split the NC once, and in his three tenures as the prime minister initiated the much-derided Pajero culture, presided over our history’s second largest cabinet (surpassed only by Baburam Bhattarai’s), delivered to the king our country’s democracy, won back by Jan Andolan I at the cost of 25 martyrs. Yet, Deuba wants to become the PM again! He has made the dissolution of youth-wings loyal to him the bone of contention with Party President Sushil Koirala.
The Nepali public has no interest in declaring Sushil Koirala right and Deuba wrong, or vice versa. At a time the peace process and constitution writing limp along, such quarrels only show the party’s pettiness. Uniting to worship BP Koirala once a year but working to undermine each other’s credentials at the rest of the times can only delight NC’s opponents.
Deuba, who has already warmed the PM’s chair three times, should show some restraint. After all, the Maoist insurgency started during his rule after he brushed aside the rebels’ 40-point demand. In order to keep the party united, he should for once exercise some grace and let someone else form the party contest for the PM post.
While most Nepalis want the NC to once again uphold its democratic values, the initiative must be taken by its leadership. But without vital reforms, NC’s slide is likely to continue to a point where it is beyond recovery.
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