P Kharel

In spite of Kathmandu’s ever fertile rumours mill, the spate of Nepalese leaders dashing to Delhi one after another this winter presents an intriguing development. Having lost its quiet since some time, New Delhi is reviewing its neighbourhood policy. Its first focus of positive outlook might begin with Nepal.

That should explain why Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited former King Gyanendra for a meeting on January 21 in New Delhi. At least one senior minister and Modi’s security advisor Ajit Doval are also reported to have meetings with the royal from Nepal. The hosts quietly leaked bone-dry information for building anticipation and precluding shocks among the seven parties, including Nepali Congress and CPN (UML), which signed the infamous 12-point agreement under New Delhi’s auspices in 2005.

Something concrete came up during the Modi-King meet, which led to several political leaders calling on New Delhi, but without giving any details about the visits that Doval hosted. Shekhar Koirala (Nepali Congress and the party chairman-in-waiting and hopefully for him, prime minister-in-waiting), Pushpa Kamal Dahal (chairman of Nepali Communist Party), ArzuDeuba (wife of Nepali Congress Chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba) and Swarnim Wagle (Rastriya Swatantra Party’s high-profile former member of House of Representatives) are among those who made the separate trips. The visits to the Indian capital by a number of others, including from Bidya Devi Bhandari’s clique in the UML, are also being connected as political in nature.

Monarchy’s popularity, Gen Z protest movement, security situation and army’s role, political parties and the forthcoming parliamentary election were discussed, with the hosts asking the questions and the guests answering.

By now, New Delhi has weighed and gauged former King Gyanendra as a more popular and credible force to reckon with in Nepal’s political landscape. Apart from several fringe parties over which it has extensive influence, New Delhi can depend on a galaxy of leaders from almost all major parties that made their numerical presence felt in the national legislature these past two decades since the traumatic movement in the spring of 2006.

Ramchandra Poudel, accompanied by Minendra Rijal, landed meeting with Adityanath two years ago before he was elected to the House of Representatives and within a short spell was catapulted to the presidential chair at Shital Niwas.

ANGER& UNCERTAINTY: Even if the din and dust kicked off by the September outpourings, better known as Gen Z movement, might have been cleared on the surface, the seething fury just below the surface is far from over. For the first time in the country’s legislative history of 67 years, including the decade-long Maoist war, the Nepal army is being mobilised 100 days ahead of the March 5 general election.

Consequently, speculation is rife over what might happen next on which issue brought forth by which quarters and when under what circumstance. The certainty is that there is intense uncertainty. On the surface there everything seems normal. Recently a group of retired senior security personnel assessed the situation as the debris of an unfinished work.

Many sections of youth in various urban centres outside Kathmandu Valley are reported to be rankled by the manner in which the Gen Z movement’s latent spirit has been given short shrift. They question whether early election was the justifiable to the deaths of at least 74 persons during and in connection with the traumatic event four months ago in some 25 districts.

VITIATED ATMOSPHERE: In retrospect, most Nepalese were fed assurances by the major political parties that everything was normal under the existing system that they claimed was rooted strong in an irreversible course of peace, progress and prosperity. In the musical chair-like power equation, coalition partners and their rank and file brooked no criticism.

Critics were labelled reactionaries or anti-republicans or radicals who chased controversies and courted instability.  The intellectuals, who the mainstream media usually filtered as their choice of experts,had for long compromised their sense of independent views.

Deep and heavy penetration of partisan elements in the various units of society created total breakdown in communication. After all, civil servants, school teachers, university academics, analysts, artistes, journalists, engineers, medical doctors, trade unions, gender and human rights activists, among others, have split society vertically and horizontally. This is a fact that only an atrociously notorious few might dare deny.

May the last Hope Fate prevent any sequel to the September inferno that recorded 75 deaths and witnessed more than 550 venerated state buildings, police posts and private homes, mostly belonging to political figures and their associates, damaged or destroyed. 

CALL FOR CAUTION: Even if the general election in March were to take place without any major incident, what would the outcome be? Will it be any different from the previous ones? Big promises were made in 1991, yet dissatisfaction blew all over. Yet stronger vows came forth in 2006, and what have we today?

Six communist parties on January 3 issued a joint statement declaring the boycott of the coming election, terming it a farce and pressing for a new government replacing the “puppet” Sushila Karki government. Although the lot are fringe parties, their combined strength as a militant force cannot be discounted.

Efforts are essential to ensure that last autumn’s incident that made news headlines across the world does not get repeated. If there were to be another movement of similar nature, it could be worse than what the nation suffered four months ago.

Of necessity is an absolutely candid review of what went wrong all these decades, followed up by appropriate action. Retrieve the vitals lost in the mess and melee of the so-called 2006 democratic movement brought about. In the name of change, something worse was thrust upon the people. Turn to the essentialsof democratic governance, national security and political stability at double speed to avoid a disastrous tsunami becoming inevitable.

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