Moreover, and whatever one may say, India is Nepal’s largest trading partner by far, and though regrettable that Nepal runs a huge trade deficit with India touching US$ 1.73 billion, it is also true that India is well ahead of any other state in terms of being Nepal’s number one export market. Nepal and India must be excellent friends, it is incumbent on all of us to make sure this happens. On the other hand, we must immediately stop the various attempts being made to corner the Maoists.
The large numbers of Maoists who have descended on Kathmandu are first of all Nepalis—they are not a different animal from the rest of us who wish to see a prosperous and stable Nepal. It is amusing that so many of us still dismiss the massive Maoists crowds as simply people who have been coerced to participate, or as people who are merely satisfied to see Kathmandu for a few days in exchange for their participation in Maoists rallies and assemblies.
Or finally that all these people have been paid to come. This kind of condescending attitude is a shame and betrays the underlying mind-set of some sections of Kathmandu who still have not seen the world, much less their own country. What makes us think that our brothers and sisters on the streets today have no long term concern for their future, that they are so simple as to waste precious time on the streets faithlessly supporting a political party in exchange for several thousand rupees. But that is not the feeling I get when I see our compatriots on the streets.
What I see in the crowds I pass are the people who represent the greater sentiments of our country. Set aside for a moment their affiliation to a particular political party, these people are drawn from the back-bone of our country and they must be respected—at the least we must make an attempt to understand them.
We are all ultimately on the same boat. One elderly man I passed yesterday was wearing the same type of tattered Nepali topi that my great-grand father Krishna Prasad Koirala had allegedly sent to the then Rana Prime Minister as proof that his political writ was ineffective and that it had not dented the pervasive poverty of the time.
Things have not changed much it seems, and Kathmandu is still ridiculously insular, in fact it is what we may call mired in ‘cosmopolitan poverty’—that though Kathmandu represents a pocket of wealth in Nepal, and in spite of the fact that Kathmandu is a nodal point in this world as so many international flights come in and out of this city, it is still very much provincial on account of a frustrating intellectual poverty.
Because what we witnessed on May 1st at the Maoists assembly was not only a massive gathering of people, but also a line-up of Maoists who spoke with energy, conviction, clarity and purpose. We must try to understand that nearly every single one of the men and women who spoke on the dais the other day have evolved in environments quite different from the Kathmandu milieu, yet they brought to bear an impressive level of energy that contrasts sharply to the jaded politicians of the other parties who have spent too much time in the capital and lost touch with the country-side.
It is not my purpose here to dissect the Maoists rhetoric of May 1 st, it is true that some inflammatory comments were dropped such as ‘Paris Commune’ should be revived in Nepal and so on, and these kinds of ideas are not in the best interest of the country. Rather what I am getting at is that, why is it that our country, post-Girija Prashad Koirala, has yet to throw up a leader who has the charisma and level of energy to go toe-to-toe with a natural leader such as Pushpa Kamal Dahal?
I am not referring to a military man who can call upon the strength of a national army or bring to bear military hardware to exert his authority. I am referring to someone who can gain the genuine confidence of even those who have currently brought Kathmandu and the rest of the country to a grinding halt.
Is it that difficult? It appears to be in light of the fact that there is such a sharp polarization between the right and the left, and this is nothing new to point out, but what is so distressing is that even in a party such as the Nepali Congress, we fail to see the emergence of a leader who can bulldoze his or her way through not only its troika structure (which itself is feeble in the larger scheme of things) , but who could also quickly pick up the pieces left behind by GP Koirala and forcefully pull the right and the left toward the center. Because that is essentially a ‘sacred location’ in Nepal which elements on the right or left simply cannot contend with, and is precisely the position occupied by both Bisweshor Prashad Koirala and GP Koirala, as also by our wise late King Birendra. This central space is called Socialist Democratic.
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Any individual who recognizes that it is really the center which naturally draws the vast majority of Nepalese, or that it is from the center where Nepal will ultimately stand to gain the most in terms of Nepal’s ability to promote national development and prosperity, would be genuinely pleased to witness the manner in which the Maoist have been successful at emboldening and rallying the forces on the left.
Because the right has always been preponderant in Nepalese politics, it is a boon for forces situated in the center that a sturdy left has emerged in Nepal, but now it falls upon someone with a big enough heart and courage, to seek a reconciliation which draws on the particular strengths of Nepal’s political spectrum to create an outlet which all are able to pass through.
But it is a real tragedy that those forces presently arrayed against the Maoists have gradually appeared to stiffen their positions instead of embracing our Maoist brothers and sisters and convincing them that it is possible to work together in Nepal, that there is enough space for all of us to coexist.
For the sake of Nepal, for the future of the children of this country, a person of such extraordinary charisma and vision would not fear going down this path even if it were true that the real intention of the Maoists is to capture state power, because this person would stand convinced that that center of gravity of Nepali politics lies in one place only, and that is precisely in the middle. A middle which is actually consistent with the very nature of the Nepali people.
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