One more time, we are going for a Constituent Assembly elections. One more time we are hoping we shall succeed. And who knows, we may, as most of the happenings and mis-happenings in Nepal in the past have been caused by chance rather than design. Yet, given the track record of these several-times-proven incompetent bunches of people, our hopes resemble insanity.[break]
Elizabeth Tiwari, MD at Pilgrims Book House, resumed work a month after she had undergone a Caesarean section.
Keshav Thoker
Well, almost.
For those who get ‘touchy’ with Indian intervention in our country’s internal affairs should cool down a little as there is nothing new in that. In fact, things have improved considerably.
Here is what an Indian Government Communiqué read on December 8, 1950, less than two months from the date of our proud monarch King Tribhuvan fleeing (November 10, 1950) out of Kathmandu to Delhi on an Indian Air Force plane.
Among other things, the Indian Government’s public notice said, “that a constituent assembly composed entirely of popularly elected members should be brought into being as soon as possible to draw upon a constitution of Nepal”, “pending a meeting of the constituent assembly mentioned above, an interim government which will include persons representative of popular opinion and enjoying public confidence (read Nepali Congress) should be established. Apart from an adequate number of public representatives, this government will include members of the Rana family, one of whom should be the Prime Minister. This government should function as a cabinet”, and most importantly, “In the interests of the peace as well as stability, His Majesty King Tribhuvan should continue to be the king of Nepal.” And so came King Tribuvan back on February 15, 1951 to a great welcome, flashing his letter of appointment from the Indian Government.
It did not stop there. All other political forces, namely, the Nepali Congress, Communist factions with a million names, and more recently the revolutionary Maoists, have all played hide and seek with the Indian Government and us the people of Nepal by sometimes instigating us against India, and most times selling their conscience to whoever in India they chanced upon.
The Indian Government, represented by their politicians and bureaucrats, is supposed to serve Indian interests, and so they did, with good success. We can only blame our own politicians who invariably compromised Nepali interests. We can blame our own intelligence as our politicians befooled us by playing the same pranks again and again for some six decades. Surprisingly, some of us still get amused by the most recent players of this prank, a.k.a. Baidyas and Gajurels of our world when they agitate to ban Indian TV soaps and movies. Sanity demands that instead of indulging in conspiracy theories, and chasing the ghosts, we look inside – towards us, and invest all our energy in making ourselves smarter to thwart nefarious designs of whosoever.
Well, given the timing, and all the joyous preparations for yet another prank-playing on Nepali people, read the new Constituent Assembly elections, we are left with no option but to witness yet another repetitive episode of this long saga.
Yet, in all possibility, and in the light of the fact that there are major differences in the political forces in the kind of ‘state’ they want their constitution to design for them, another stalemate looks imminent.
Besides, no matter how much we want to avoid the elephant in the room, the ethnic divide has come to become the new flavor of conflict in Nepal, and is likely to be on show in full vigor during and in the aftermath of the elections. History teaches us that among all conflicts, the ones fuelled by ethnicity last the longest, and are the most dangerous. Sanity demands of us to read the writing on the wall, and proactively manage the brewing ethnic conflict in whatever capacity we can.
Even a superficial observation of the theatrics of Nepali political parties brings us to the conclusion that most of them are overly driven by dogma. A little more careful analysis finds some of them, read Communists, frozen in their professed political beliefs that would have been possibly considerably amended by their proponents themselves had they been alive in this age and time. The Greek conception of Nomos (Law in English) was much different than the Roman conception of Lex (again Law in English). At various times in history, the ‘state’ has been seen as a machine (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill), as an organism (Jean Jacques Rousseau, George Hegel, Thomas Green), as a class (Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin) and by some of the great thinkers humanity has ever produced.
Great works as they all are, none of them, however, were/are perfect. Sanity demands that we the believers in any of these greats, or a combination of them, apply these political philosophies with the pragmatism of the 21st century, rather than wasting time on winning inconsequential arguments.
Quite some others, read Madhesi parties and those championing the cause of indigenous ethnicities, are obsessed with history, and the historical injustices meted out to their brethren. Much of what they are saying may be right – though sketchy availability of history makes it hard to prove their account of history to the skeptics.
The fact that these skeptics – largely among the Khas-Pahadi community – have a fervent ‘want’ to refute these counterclaims on history – they rather want to believe the Mahendra Mala version, making it even more difficult to bring any conversation on this subject to a congenial end. Sanity demands that history be taken, at best, only as a reference, and nothing more than that.
The only rightful purpose of history and its million variations and interpretations, at this point in time, should be to help us not repeat those ‘historical’ mistakes. History may help us avoiding the pitfalls. Yet the peace and prosperity of the current and future generations demand a futuristic and progressive vision. Excessive reference to history may make us crawl to darkness at a time when we all want to leapfrog to the sunny side of life.
Many of us who think we are doing more important things than politics need to think harder. We are only cleaning the tracks so that when the train called country arrives, it finds smooth tracks to roll on.
Unfortunately, the country is off its tracks, and only a miracle can bring it back on it, given its current drivers. And if the country does not come on the track, it is nothing but insanity to be maintaining the tracks. Sanity demands of us to start working toward a giant coalition of smart people of all ethnicities with a vision of modern development and democratic bent of mind.
Sooner the better.
(prashaantsingh.wordpress.com)
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