Politics has grown so muddy, so partisan and so utterly adversarial, that there is not a single issue on which a consensus can be reached. Of course, when it comes to power-sharing and raising perks, our political leaders seem to reach a consensus easily. All we need at the moment is some consensus that will take the political process forward. A meaningful consensus eludes leaders on issues far more urgent than Parmananda Jha’s oath-taking in Hindi, Sujata Koirala’s elevation to deputy prime ministership and raising the perks of top political executives of the country.
Dahal very well knows how power-hungry autocrats at heart like GPK, who are masquerading as democrats, are to be lured and used to discredit the democratic system that the Maoists ultimately want to topple.
Short-term calculations drive political parties’ decision making. Pushpa Kamal Dahal openly espouses citizens to bear arms as if the problems arising from the gun-toting culture introduced by the Maoists are not enough. While Dahal’s propaganda machine is working full time to project the fall of the government, Girija Prasad Koirala (GPK) is desperate to pass on Koiralas’ self-proclaimed birthright to rule Nepali people to his politically-naive daughter. He is so used to enjoying power that he has already started flirting with Dahal.
Dahal very well knows how power-hungry autocrats at heart like GPK, who are masquerading as democrats, are to be lured and used to discredit the democratic system that the Maoists ultimately want to throw. Not a very long time ago, by dangling a presidential lollipop in front of GPK, Dahal received every concession that he needed to be where he is now. While Dahal is flirting with GPK and Jhala Nath Khanal and doing everything to bring down this government, the current prime minister with South Block’s support appears confident that his inability to solve the problems facing the nation cannot be the criteria for toppling his government.
People die from diarrhea and priests get kicked up and down by thugs under the government’s watch, still the government thinks its honeymoon went fantabulous. Is it a case of naïveté or political nudity stemming out of degrading political culture? The government does not have a vision, nor does the opposition have a constructive agenda. But, for sure, the Maoists are the only ones with a plan and roadmap. It is altogether a different thing that their agenda is not democratic.
While the nation is turning into a lawless jungle without a constitution, the politicians are busy emptying the state’s coffers by raising their perks. The Constituent Assembly (CA) members and other top political executives shamelessly pushed for and got their pay raised. It is not only morally repugnant but shameful on the part of CA members to accept a pay hike while the entire nation has been condemning them for failing to take the constitution-drafting process ahead as per schedule. The CA calendar of events was amended for the sixth time recently. In a country where 55.1 percent of the country’s population lives below the poverty line and survive on less than $1.25 a day, hiking one’s own perks, that too, without delivering the tasks at hand, is nothing but a broad daylight robbery.
The situation in the country is bound to deteriorate in the near future as politicians responsible for bailing out the nation are busy trying to benefit from the current situation. While Dahal and his men want to bounce back to power by creating more confusion and chaos, GPK is open to any deal making. As long as he sees the chances of him coming to power or elevating his daughter’s political stature, nobody’s untouchable for him. He will readily play the role of “useful idiot” once again.
It appears that the Maoists have learnt very well as and how to game the system. They have mastered the art of democratic rhetoric, which bears little relationship to their practice of governing. They know it very well that parliamentary control can be regained through engineered defections and backdoor deal makings. Nowhere in the world has democracy been so acclaimed, yet so breached like in Nepal. With the passing of each day, degradation into autocracy appears increasingly inevitable.
hbdulal@gmail.com
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