King, nation and politics
Media Communications Center
January 04, 2007
King, nation and politics
BY GAUTAM G.C
Some people mature with age and experience. They lose themselves as individuals in the larger whole of which they are a part. The "I" becomes "we" and the "me" becomes "us".
The book on "Raja, Rastriyata ra Rajniti" or "King, Nationalism and Politics", by Ganesh Raj Sharma, is a transcription of spoken thoughts of the late B.P. Koirala ("BP"), veteran Nepali Congress leader and former Prime Minister, as recorded by his brother-in-law and barrister Sharma, in the period before BP's untimely demise in 1982. A very timely book!
The essence of BP's thought here is that the problems of Nepal must be solved by Nepalis within Nepal without outside (Indian) interference. BP felt that monarchy was a sine qua non or defining feature of the Nepali nation. If there was no monarchy there would be no Nepal as a sovereign and separate nation. Differences between a King and Prime Minister should be seen in the context of personal and personality differences in developing polity rather than as an irreconcilable clash of fundamental institutions. BP believed the unity of monarchy and political parties was essential for democracy. He thought that the King and Nepali Congress were complementary pillars of democracy and political development. It seems he had even begun to embrace the position that power was not everything, and that sometimes one could do more for the nation by politics of principle and loyal opposition. If so, here was a man who had begun that rare transition from politician to statesman.
What a difference between siblings? Nepal is now in the grip of his younger brother and Prime Minister Girija Koirala, an aging octogenarian with unparalleled power since Rana autocrat Jung Bahadur (1846-77). It is reported that BP had himself once dismissed his younger brother as having the mind and political temperament of a "havildar" or junior sergeant. Prime Minister Girija is the politician with the "Coriolanus complex" who thinks that the State has no validity if it does not satisfy his ego and lust for power. It goes beyond Louis XIV's "I am the State". It is much more like "the State and its systems must satisfy my personal ego and need for power and honor, or perish". To Girija politics is noting but the capture of power (by any means), and its retention and denial to others.
It is because of him that, despite big majorities in parliament, the Nepali Congress party was split and splintered, and could not provide stable government in the twelve years that followed the introduction of parliamentary democracy in 1990. It is largely due to this skillful "Chanakya" or Machiavelli of Nepali politics that no parliament completed its full term of five years, and no Prime Minister from his own party (Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Sher Bahadur Deuba), or the opposition (Manmohan Adhikari, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, and Surya Bahadur Thapa), lasted anywhere near two years in office. He saw to it that every other personality of his own party (Ganeshman Singh, Bhattarai, Deuba) were discredited or defanged, as were other parties, along with national institutions such as monarchy and the Royal Nepal Army. The efforts of the CCAA (Commission for the Control of Abuse of Authority) were treated with contempt when it tried to investigate his reputedly enormous accretion of wealth since 1990 (as a four times Prime Minister, among other things). The Supreme Court was treated with disdain when it ruled in its decision of all eleven judges of the full bench, that the dissolution of parliament in May 2002, by the then Nepali Congress Prime Minister Deuba, was legal and constitutional.
Girija continued to demand the recall of this dead parliament ("resurrection" would be the more accurate term). With help from Maoist insurgents cum terrorists, and crucial Indian support, he succeeded in forcing a beleaguered King to do just this in April 2006. Thus the "ghost" parliament came back from the dead, four years after its dissolution in 2002, and also two years after its normal term of five years expired in 2004. This "resurrected" apparition tore through the national fabric with the fury of a ghostly tsunami, destroying the monarchy and degrading the army, abolishing the national anthem and emblem, and dumping Nepal's unique status as the world's only Hindu "rastra" or State. A Citizenship Bill was proclaimed that would not have passed the full test of parliamentary democracy, constitutionalism or judicial review. It will add up to four million people of Indian origin to an already severely overpopulated country of some 24 million, suffering from massive ecological degradation, relatively little cultivable land, and abysmally poor resources.
What a price to pay for the monomaniacal lust for power of one politician! Girija's Seven
Party Alliance (SPA) of Congress and Communists grabbed power in April 2006 through the power of the streets, with crucial force multiplier inputs from Maoists insurgents cum terrorists (the United States has still not withdrawn the terrorist tag on the Maoists), and with massive cash and political support from outside, especially India. The "Methuselah" of Nepali politics has cost the nation its developing culture of constitutionalism and rule of law; its constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy; its 1990 Constitution; its unique status as the world's only Hindu Kingdom; and its distinction of being one of the few nations where the "pahadi" or people of the hills have their own sovereign State.
Meanwhile the Maoists have turned overnight from being terrorists (declared by the then government of Girija's own Nepali Congress party when it was in power in parliament in November 2001) to being coalition partners in a new political dispensation. They will not be called to account for the hundreds of billions in destroyed public infrastructure, leave alone the massive opportunity cost of an economy that they brought to its knees. They will not be called to account for the 15,000 thousand or so killed, or the many multiples of that whom they brutalized, traumatized, displaced, and extorted billions from. They have not been required to formally renounce terrorism or surrender weapons. Terrorism delayed is not terrorism denied! The net result is that in Nepal (later in other countries?) terrorism is now established as a successful means to the acquisition of political power.
The late B.P. Koirala moved from being politician to a Nepali nationalist and statesman. Brother Girija seems to go from politician to demagogue, a complaisant if not compliant aide to Maoist machinations and Indian hegemony. It is a damning legacy that might well destroy the nation. Will this Methuselah turn back the fatal tides of his creation? Can he!
BY GAUTAM G.C
Some people mature with age and experience. They lose themselves as individuals in the larger whole of which they are a part. The "I" becomes "we" and the "me" becomes "us".
The book on "Raja, Rastriyata ra Rajniti" or "King, Nationalism and Politics", by Ganesh Raj Sharma, is a transcription of spoken thoughts of the late B.P. Koirala ("BP"), veteran Nepali Congress leader and former Prime Minister, as recorded by his brother-in-law and barrister Sharma, in the period before BP's untimely demise in 1982. A very timely book!
The essence of BP's thought here is that the problems of Nepal must be solved by Nepalis within Nepal without outside (Indian) interference. BP felt that monarchy was a sine qua non or defining feature of the Nepali nation. If there was no monarchy there would be no Nepal as a sovereign and separate nation. Differences between a King and Prime Minister should be seen in the context of personal and personality differences in developing polity rather than as an irreconcilable clash of fundamental institutions. BP believed the unity of monarchy and political parties was essential for democracy. He thought that the King and Nepali Congress were complementary pillars of democracy and political development. It seems he had even begun to embrace the position that power was not everything, and that sometimes one could do more for the nation by politics of principle and loyal opposition. If so, here was a man who had begun that rare transition from politician to statesman.
What a difference between siblings? Nepal is now in the grip of his younger brother and Prime Minister Girija Koirala, an aging octogenarian with unparalleled power since Rana autocrat Jung Bahadur (1846-77). It is reported that BP had himself once dismissed his younger brother as having the mind and political temperament of a "havildar" or junior sergeant. Prime Minister Girija is the politician with the "Coriolanus complex" who thinks that the State has no validity if it does not satisfy his ego and lust for power. It goes beyond Louis XIV's "I am the State". It is much more like "the State and its systems must satisfy my personal ego and need for power and honor, or perish". To Girija politics is noting but the capture of power (by any means), and its retention and denial to others.
It is because of him that, despite big majorities in parliament, the Nepali Congress party was split and splintered, and could not provide stable government in the twelve years that followed the introduction of parliamentary democracy in 1990. It is largely due to this skillful "Chanakya" or Machiavelli of Nepali politics that no parliament completed its full term of five years, and no Prime Minister from his own party (Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Sher Bahadur Deuba), or the opposition (Manmohan Adhikari, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, and Surya Bahadur Thapa), lasted anywhere near two years in office. He saw to it that every other personality of his own party (Ganeshman Singh, Bhattarai, Deuba) were discredited or defanged, as were other parties, along with national institutions such as monarchy and the Royal Nepal Army. The efforts of the CCAA (Commission for the Control of Abuse of Authority) were treated with contempt when it tried to investigate his reputedly enormous accretion of wealth since 1990 (as a four times Prime Minister, among other things). The Supreme Court was treated with disdain when it ruled in its decision of all eleven judges of the full bench, that the dissolution of parliament in May 2002, by the then Nepali Congress Prime Minister Deuba, was legal and constitutional.
Girija continued to demand the recall of this dead parliament ("resurrection" would be the more accurate term). With help from Maoist insurgents cum terrorists, and crucial Indian support, he succeeded in forcing a beleaguered King to do just this in April 2006. Thus the "ghost" parliament came back from the dead, four years after its dissolution in 2002, and also two years after its normal term of five years expired in 2004. This "resurrected" apparition tore through the national fabric with the fury of a ghostly tsunami, destroying the monarchy and degrading the army, abolishing the national anthem and emblem, and dumping Nepal's unique status as the world's only Hindu "rastra" or State. A Citizenship Bill was proclaimed that would not have passed the full test of parliamentary democracy, constitutionalism or judicial review. It will add up to four million people of Indian origin to an already severely overpopulated country of some 24 million, suffering from massive ecological degradation, relatively little cultivable land, and abysmally poor resources.
What a price to pay for the monomaniacal lust for power of one politician! Girija's Seven
Party Alliance (SPA) of Congress and Communists grabbed power in April 2006 through the power of the streets, with crucial force multiplier inputs from Maoists insurgents cum terrorists (the United States has still not withdrawn the terrorist tag on the Maoists), and with massive cash and political support from outside, especially India. The "Methuselah" of Nepali politics has cost the nation its developing culture of constitutionalism and rule of law; its constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy; its 1990 Constitution; its unique status as the world's only Hindu Kingdom; and its distinction of being one of the few nations where the "pahadi" or people of the hills have their own sovereign State.
Meanwhile the Maoists have turned overnight from being terrorists (declared by the then government of Girija's own Nepali Congress party when it was in power in parliament in November 2001) to being coalition partners in a new political dispensation. They will not be called to account for the hundreds of billions in destroyed public infrastructure, leave alone the massive opportunity cost of an economy that they brought to its knees. They will not be called to account for the 15,000 thousand or so killed, or the many multiples of that whom they brutalized, traumatized, displaced, and extorted billions from. They have not been required to formally renounce terrorism or surrender weapons. Terrorism delayed is not terrorism denied! The net result is that in Nepal (later in other countries?) terrorism is now established as a successful means to the acquisition of political power.
The late B.P. Koirala moved from being politician to a Nepali nationalist and statesman. Brother Girija seems to go from politician to demagogue, a complaisant if not compliant aide to Maoist machinations and Indian hegemony. It is a damning legacy that might well destroy the nation. Will this Methuselah turn back the fatal tides of his creation? Can he!
Print
Email
