Tagged savior one week and villain another, it’s a good thing Bhattarai is neither fickle nor easily fooled. His political goals and plan of action have not U-turned, what has though is popular sentiment.
Initially, Opinion pages across dailies as well as conversations with perfect strangers inside tempos were singing praises. Captain Bhattarai would save the day, it was said. He was admired for his decision to ride a Made-in-Nepal Mustang and to fly the 30 hours to the annual United Nations General Assembly all the way to New York City in economy class. His biggest and most honest critics at the time piped that neither displayed any great feat. To which I’d have to agree, absolutely.
You don’t need a PhD to opt for a locally manufactured vehicle or to opt out of first class flight. In any case, these weren’t indications of his greatest acts, but simply a demonstration of his character. What he does shows just a little bit of who he is. Like any politician he must act and react to develop a strong base within and beyond his party and to gain general public appeal. Consider his Mustang picking and economy-air flying as a window to his future plans.
Fast-forward a few months and suddenly the public has lost all hope of the man. In fact, they have not just lost faith in the abilities of Nepal’s once-perceived sole superhero to magically transform the country, but have also begun to ridicule his skills and capabilities. The general public, fed on paranoia pills, has plunged head first into mob mentality.
These days more than a few citizens sit smug as they list the issues they take with him. Indeed, this isn’t an attempt to offer leeway for Bhattarai’s so-called jumbo government, delay in sacking his ally Pravu Sah or spending the most till date of any prime minister on tea party. But boo-ing him on these points, just moments after aah-ing over the Mustang and plane seat, is doing him injustice.
Bhattarai is a perfect example of everything that is wrong in Nepal, the naya or purano version. My alter mater hammered “minor on the minor and major on the major” into our heads and I’m thankful for that motto because it is so sensible. Sadly, we in Nepal judge him for his wife. We judge him for his political party. We judge him for the work we see and the work we don’t. We judge him for his vox-pop. Perhaps we judge him on the minor issues and fairly so.
He is the prime minister, a public figure—and in our entertainment and celebrity-starved nation, political characters are the juice of our gossip. But how about we judge him for what he is trying to do, how he deals with challenges, how he is working to bring around the disgruntled comrades in his party (which, let’s be honest, is in all our interest) and how he continues to work on his political line, the constitution and peace process.
Bhattarai is neither Nepal’s savior not a superhero. But he can only be considered a villain when he disregards the constitution writing and peace process.
The truth is the Bhattarai on appointment night just a few months ago is still the same Bhattarai this week, just as he was years ago when waging the insurgency. He hasn’t changed all that much. Bhattarai was and will always be a communist, albeit a different kind of communist. Those who think him a “reformed” don’t get it. Bhattarai has set ideas about his communist ideology: Capital has to be fully exploited through industrialization before communism is to be served, or that a total communist state as envisioned in the early 20th century is actually unattainable. The only problem is we give much more credit to bites and quotes than to what he has detailed, elaborated and strategized.
Those who think of him as a sellout clearly never understood his line. He tirelessly advocated (and took the hits for) sticking to his line. He is one of the most steadfast ideologues in contemporary Nepali politics, even if, for the benefit of negotiation, known to have change tactics. His line, however, has not changed; it has always been constitution and peace process. (Forget the fact that his predecessors came into the political foray with no agenda whatsoever.
Sahamati ko rajniti, et al was claimed but they never took up an agenda.) There is very little he can actually manipulate to complete the constitution writing as we would all like—it’s a multi-party democracy, not a one-man show, after all. However, Bhattarai has successfully lured Prachanda into supporting him in his attempt to take the peace process to its oft-touted “logical conclusion.”
If not dismissed as a sellout, there are those for whom he will never be good enough. Of course not, but only so because he flies the Maoist flag—which may also then be restated more bluntly to say because he is not NC or UML. Never mind that NC and UML entered the national political scene as daredevils and heroes who resorted to the same kind of violence, threats and armed struggle. But the Maoists are judged on a different scale. And thus, Bhattarai, by virtue of being a Maoist, is not good enough and never will be for a lot of them.
Bottom line: Bhattarai is neither Nepal’s savior not the superhero we’ve all been waiting for. But he can only be considered a villain when he disregards the constitution writing and peace process to return to the jungle. Just take it from the man who has said his success or failure as prime minister is hinged upon the success of these two achievements alone.
Just last month we were told the prime minister is to be blamed for no progress in the peace process (CPN-UML General Secretary Ishwar Pokharel) and that the he should quit (UCPN-Maoist General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa). But those men are politicians. Do they ever say something not rife with politicking? The masses on the other hand are usually a little more sensible.
“Everyone’s doing it so you want to? Well, if everyone jumps off of the cliff, will you too?” Ah parental wisdom; who knew it would also be so applicable to weighing current politics.
Let’s just hope the same people crying Maoist party vice-chairman Bhattarai foul won’t once again pull a superficial 180 and turn into fans as they take note of the recent noteworthy progress in re-categorizing the 19,602 Maoist ex-combatants, once a painful thorn on the path to Nepal’s peace process. (You can always argue whether he is responsible for the progress. But then, you can always argue who is responsible for anything anyway.)
sradda.thapa@gmail.com
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