The outcome of the 12th Nepali Congress (NC) General Convention pleased many because it elected some moral people as leaders. President Shushil Koirala may lack the oratory and charisma; but we can applaud his dedication, selflessness, and simple living. General Secretary Prakash Man Singh excels in speech-making, has a clean image, and looks relatively younger than the 72 year old Koirala.
Treasurer Chitra Lekha Yadav should’ve become the Speaker of the Parliament hadn’t the late Girijababu dictated otherwise. The presence of Gagan Thapa in the Central Working Committee (CWC) also gives hope that new ideas may now get a hearing in the Grand Old Party. Gagan and his wife set an example when they decided not to have an expensive wedding party but to donate the equivalent money to a hospital.
Personally, I believe that communist ideology, which has failed the world over, can’t really give our country the progress we need. True communism advocates atheism, the absence of God in human life. Of course, God doesn’t stop existing because the communists deny him. Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Joseph Stalin, the mass murderer of 60 million Russians, confessed: "By the time I was thirty-five and had seen something of life, I who’d been taught from earliest childhood by society and my family to be an atheist and materialist, was already one of those who cannot live without God" (20 Letters to a Friend, p. 80).
Having thrown God out of the window, atheists don’t believe in judgment after death. So, do what you like; you don’t have to answer to anyone! For some, this translates into disregard for human life. Thus, the fact that Mao Zedong slaughtered 70 million Chinese needn’t surprise us because this atheist wanted to outdo his guru, the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. I have problems when Nepali communist parties proudly display Stalin and Mao as their heroes.
A theist party like the NC remains the only hope for our country. Most in the party do believe in God who will judge humankind for deeds in this world. They should shudder when tempted to murder, steal, or cheat. To deliver, the NC will have to develop such a moral base, such a party conscience.
In our country, the United Marxist Leninist (UML) has come out as the moderate communist party. Even then, UML leaders send chills when they glorify the Jhapa uprising which killed about nine landlords. Extra-judicial killing, taking the law into one’s own hands to eliminate someone, can never bring peace and prosperity to a society.
A theist party like the NC remains the only hope for our country. Most in the party do believe in God who will judge humankind for deeds in this world. They should shudder when tempted to murder, steal, or cheat. To deliver, the NC will have to develop such a moral base, such a party conscience. Does morality have anything to do with politics? Yes, everything. Even an agnostic (a person unsure about God’s existence) like Indira Gandhi would quote the Bible, "Righteousness exalts a nation."
For the NC, this righteousness could start by ensuring that in future it won’t tolerate political killings. If the NC is serious, it can still deliver to the police some of its present CWC members who, society suspects, indulged in murder during the 2008 CA polls. One fled to India, returned "clean", and now even rubs shoulders with the former king. Another endured insults, and remained in the capital. The court may prove both innocent, but the NC has to let the law prevail over them. Otherwise, the NC follows a double standard when it asks for punishment only for Maoist criminals.
On August 30, a national daily reported, "Narendra Chaudhary, a most wanted man, was elected as Nepali Congress regional president on July 31. Police deployed to guard the venue where the NC regional convention poll took place recently, did not arrest Chaudhary, an alleged master-mind behind the murder of two CPN-UML activists in Banke five months ago. Instead, they pretended not seeing the NC leader during the convention." Why didn’t the police arrest Chaudhary? Because NC big shots had warned the police not to!
NC hypocrisy shows through when another CWC leader wrote frequently that the Maoists were hiding Kali Bahadur Kham, the suspect behind Ramhari Shrestha’s murder. He has rightly written so; but shouldn’t he also advocate that the police arrest Narendra Chaudhary and deliver him to the courts? Doesn’t the NC advocate impunity by shielding Chaudhary? With such a hypocritical record, the NC should expect rebukes. Thus, Dr Baburam Bhattarai once claimed that the NC has no moral authority to teach ethics to the Maoists. I don’t equate the NC with the UCPN (Maoists), which hasn’t yet abandoned murder and violence; but unless the NC develops its moral base for the future, its attempts to reform other parties will amount to the pot calling the kettle black.
Besides political killings, nepotism in the NC has to stop. With the passing away of Girija Prasad Koirala, the NC now has an opportunity to practise meritocracy. NC cadres should win elections not because they belong to a particular family, but because they have the ability and the character. Should we worry because many Koiralas and their relatives have entered the CWC? No, because they’ve done so through receiving the most votes. Should we get chills because a few CWC members probably murdered people, misused state-money, and still got elected? Yes. This means righteousness hasn’t prevailed, and these criminal-suspects will turn liabilities to the party later on. In Matthew’s gospel (7:16) Jesus said, "By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people gather grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?" The NC voting masses should rest assured that the "thistles" they have elected will ruin the prestige of their party later on.
Finally, financial accountability. We still have in the NC a leader who started the Pajero culture and horse-trading. NC’s past has encouraged a Maoist leader to ask a "ghost" Chinese to contribute 50 million rupees to buy parliamentarians so that Pushpa Kamal Dahal can become the prime minister.
(The legislature couldn’t even discuss this, so I just repeat what the media said.) Who’s to blame? The NC “elder brothers” who should’ve shown a better example in the past.
In the same journal, BP Koirala pledges to remain faithful to his wife in the future. Again, BP was no saint; and books by Dilli Raman Regmi, his political rival, show his darker side. Still, by trying to reform himself, the honest BP provides an example of a moral base the present NC can aspire to.
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