Hari Bahadur should be appointed as the General Manager, Ram Kishor Yadav must be the ambassador, and Som Pun ought to be ousted from the corporation. The minister´s man should be the vice-chancellor and the party member should be the priest of Narayan temple. This is what Nepali administration and political acts have taken recourse to. The political plans and programs are oriented by such acts of recruiting and dismissing people.
When Jung Bahadur wrote letters to Bam Bahadur, one of the most prime orders and suggestions to his brother focused on appointments, punishments and dismissal of jagires and officials. One does not accept any visionary political plans from a ruler whose prime concern was to control power. Developmental plans and programs, building infrastructures, thinking about national education and agriculture are marginal political agenda in Jung Bahadur´s letters. You are not supposed to expect any thoughtful politics from one of the shrewdest leaders of feudal times.
Jung Bahadur praises his brother for making Shri Krishna Sahi a captain and two Khatris for being made lieutenants. Chandrabir Basnet, who was on death parole, was sent beyond Trisuli Ganga! The elder brother praises Bam for such a "fine decision." There are names of those who should be spared and punished from Ramu Ale to Satram. There are instructions to his brother for Jhas and Majhis! Giving reward and suspending jagirs! Taking land and performing purification rituals!
There is a paragraph or two on ambiguous moral instructions and the remains of the letters are about strengthening his political might by appointments and dismissals. The ruler of Nepal could think nothing more than his narrow apolitical ideologies. I do not think that Jung Bahadur should be slandered for such parochialism when he was nothing more than a part of vicious feudal political system. The nature of feudal administration needed non-developmental strategies of securing political positions.
I quote a paragraph from his letter: "Write to me about Badri Narsingh´s intention to give Lakshmipati a jagir. What does Badri mean by ´On consultation with my second eldest brother, I dismissed the kharidar who has arrested Lakshimipati´? If any soldier talks angrily about me, they are to be dismissed. If your astonishing behavior will solve problems in the future, too, it will be right. If I had hankered after the office of premier, then even though I gave you the routine work, I would not have given you the right to make appointments to the Kampu. Your actions do not please me, your eldest brother, nor your two other brothers here. How can they please the common people?"
Put this letter in a present location and change the names, places and the writer. Place it in the drawer of a present political leader, a minister´s or a secretary´s drawer, it will appropriate the pattern of present administrative desires. The contents are the same if the proper names are skillfully contextualized.
The letters are the political guiding mantra whose messages work even today. Jang Bahadur had a tantrik house at Kupondol, where he practiced rituals to prolong his power, the legends narrate. The letters, to me, are the part of that tantra whose magic has overpowered our pitiable politicians even today.
The irony is that we have moved from feudal political system to democratic setups but there are similar administrative patterns still today all the way from Bahadurs, Thapas, Pandeys, Shahs, Koiralas, Deubas to Dahals. Administrative energy has been spent on recruiting and firing people and Jung Bahadur has been the grandfather of such political execution. Jung Bahadur, to my little political memory, was the master of shunting and shifting people and our political masters carry on the same lessons at the cost of many other plans and programs this nation needs.
Appointments and removals are the integrated parts of administrative mechanism when they are followed by political visions for building nations. Contemporary political systems spend phenomenal amount of time and energy on conscripting our men and dismissing their men.
Let me return to the letters again whose power inflicts the minds of the present political generation. Our political crowd is made of Jung Bahadurs and Bam Bahadurs. In the letter from England, Jung Bahadur acted upon his brother, but our political generations are both the actors and acted upon. They perform the roles of the brothers. There must be some magic in those series of letters. The letters have esoteric power to inflict charm on contemporary administrative mechanism: they can work nothing much beyond appointments and removals.
Those letters have become the model of our political system unintentionally perhaps. The present day politicians do nothing more than what the Rana ruler instructed his brother to do. There is someone next in line to rule Nepal with the invisible tantrik letter on his table!
pallabi@pallabi.wlink.com.np
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