The present generation will curse the Nepal Communist Party, the party they elevated to power with overwhelming vote, if leaders fail to deliver on their promise and deceive the people.
Nepalis are used to with making and breaking of governments. The young democracy that Nepal introduced in 1950 was nabbed by King Mahendra only after a decade in 1960, imposing a party-less Panchayat system. People revolted and restored democracy after three decades in 1990. But another three decades of democracy after that spawned more than two dozen governments under different political parties.
Unfortunately, many of them could not last even for a year. And the reason for this political chaos was not big; primarily, it was lust for power among our power mongers. Sadly, this has remained the hallmark of our political history which has been shaming us across the globe. However, with the introduction of a two-thirds majority government formed after the merger of former Maoist and CPN-UML, the people had hoped optimistically that Nepal would come out of political gridlock.
From the very beginning, ruling Nepal Communist Party has been going through ups and downs as differential equations and dimension have been emerging at the behest of various factions within the party. The biggest challenge has been the power tussle between its two chairpersons KP Sharma Oli and Puspa Kamal Dahal.
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The tug of war between Oli and Prachanda has been posing political threats not only to their party but also to the nation. The incumbent Prime Minister is driven by arrogance, ego and bullying attitude who hardly listens to anyone’s suggestion. Dahal, on the other hand, has been flexing all muscles and mobilizing all his near and dear ones to prove Oli a failure so that it paves the avenues for him to grab the power. Amidst their political drama people and the country are suffering.
Oli has failed to understand that another political quagmire will lay the ground for greater risks. Dahal does not seem to care that national interests should be above all else. In their lust for power, both Oli and Dahal are undermining the people. What an insult to our votes!
Understandably, the parties of all hues have their internal feuds and wrangling. Differences have to be discussed within the parties and solutions should be found from within the parties. But our leaders are so much passionate about the power that they do not miss the opportunity to fish in the turbid water and cash in on the weakness of others instead of going for course correction.
Recently, Oli and Dahal decided to form a six-member task force to resolve internal feuds and bickering. As the confrontation is rooted nothing beyond their ego and petty interest to cling to power, the task force will just be a politics of eyewash. The question is why do we need to form a task force when we know it will not meet its set objective?
The existing political situation reminds us of a saying in Hindi ‘Aasman se girey, khajoor pe atkey’ which literally means ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’. This century-old adage can be substantiated in the following paragraph.
After a decade’s struggles, we overthrew the tyrant and despotic monarchy and heralded a new dawn of political institution. We believed that the end of king regime will mark the new era of progress and prosperity. We also expected that our leaders will end misrule and poor governance and come up with better future agendas ensuring lasting peace and sustainable development. And it seems this was too much to ask for.
Now, we have democratically elected leaders who are no less than the despotic and tyrant kings. They think themselves like former kings and act like they are above the law of the land. If our present leaders do not mend their ways and abandon their ego and bullying attitudes, they will meet the same fate as the ousted arrogant monarch.
The generation of the 1990s blamed Nepali Congress and its leaders for poor governance and rampant corruption that, according to political pundits, laid the ground for the emergence of decade-long bloody conflict. The present generation will curse if the NCP elected with such an overwhelming vote fails to deliver on their promise and deceive the people in one or other pretext. The same people who elected NCP withdrawing their support from Congress can easily disapprove NCP if it continues to play around with people’s sentiment.
How can such a situation of internal feud be ended? The solution is already there and staring us calling for its implementation: What our leaders need to do is just abandon their arrogance, ego, attitude and behavior for the sake of greater interest. As the nation is transitioning, the internal bickering and misunderstanding within the party is inevitable. But such differences should be cornered to move forward. Most importantly, the people have given them the mandate to ensure political stability and not to precipitate political impasse. If they realize and practice this universally accepted principle, the nation can be saved from possible political risk.
Pokharel and Senchurey are Kathmandu based non-profit professionals
