Nepal: After all what’s in a name?

Give it any name. Rose is rose and mud is mud. The aroma of rose and the stinking stench of the mud can in no way be compared. Rose is rose and the mud is therefore sludge.

Any system is not that bad as it is interpreted by some. Looking back into the preamble of the erstwhile Panchayat regime, the population were guaranteed by the4 constitution that they will henceforth will live in the state which would be at par with what Lord Rama had in his era.

Panchayat miserably failed not only because it was an authoritarian system at the fist place, however, what also added to its collapse was the men handling the system itself. The men who had been trusted by the then King were all political duffers who had nothing to do with the welfare of the countrymen but always concentrated their entire efforts aimed at amassing wealth for themselves.

Thus the entire system collapsed like the house of cards. Thanks that the late King Birendra consoled himself some how or the other and facilitated the ushering in of yet another system which was considered to be one of the best system prevailing in the globe then.

Sixteen years this new democratic system survived in total. It was definitely a better system than the erstwhile Panchayat one. However, this new system too apparently went to the dogs not because of the fault of the lay men and the largely illiterate population residing in the remote and inaccessible parts of the country, but its utility was made redundant by those who were told to manage the country under that very particular democratic system.

This democratic system too had lacunae aplenty which is only but natural. Firstly, the managers of the system were not only corrupt and incapable ones but also remained instrumental in disfiguring the very good name of the system. Secondly, the politicians who steered the country did not think it appropriate to bring the element of “inclusiveness” into the system in the absence of which the people once again concluded that they were not a part of the system. In other words, the people were largely ignored and they have had no participation in the functioning of the system. It was this non-availability of their participation in the decision making processes, which forced the lay men to conclude that the system in place, were not for them but meant only for the elites comprising of the Brahmins and the Chettris and the likes. It was this discrimination meted out to the oppressed, the neglected, the rejected, the poor lot and the dalits and the Janjatis by the democratic system is perhaps had remained instrumental for the birth of the Maoists insurgency. When the system could not deliver to the people who awaited for long then and then only the discriminated ones came to the streets and threw the democratic system to the oblivion to be replaced by completely a new system, perhaps a copied one, called the Loktantra.

No body knows as to what are the differences in between the previous Democratic system than what we have now. Let us not boggle our minds in such trifling matters. Let the Nepali academia debate over this change-of- name- syndrome. However, what is for sure is that this system now in place will also meet the same fate as its predecessors did.

Look at the tragedy. The managers are all old hats. These old hats are practically all corrupt who in effect disfigured the last system. The leaders upon whom “we the people trust” are non-elected ones and hence they do not remain accountable to “we the people”. Further, it is these corrupt who have quite often been “invited” by the CIAA and later the apex court too has approved the decisions that the leaders be sent behind the bars. Even if they were elected ones, that was a matter of distant past. The voting pattern must have changed undoubtedly. Think it.

Now let’s come to the Maoists. They have got a super-duper bumper prize. Straight from the jungles, (one doubt they were really in the jungles looking at their handsome faces and the sound health they all possess save the poor and illiterate young boys and girls) they have entered into the parliament and that too without being elected. Their number is at par with those who were elected even if it were a matter of years and years back. Fiery lectures apart, so far they too have not done any thing that could be taken as some thing tangible and substantial. Yet, we must give them hundred days at least as a matter of tradition. Whether one liked it or not, the congress and the UML are elected parties and the people still follow these parties. It is altogether a different matter that these two parties too have lost their original charm what the people possessed for them. Still, the process of love and hatred continues in a democratic system and thus let’s suppose that these two parties still command respect and honor from among the people, more so among their voters.

Finally, with the same old and frustrated leaders of the bygone era are once again supposed to rule us. The second generation of the Nepali leaders upon whom we the people count too is above sixty. What one could expect from the sixty above people is any body’s guess.

Prime Minister Koirala who is above mid-eighties still considers that he can rule the country for years and years. If this is the general psychology among the present day first and second generation leaders then keep your fingers crossed and ponder as to when the turn of the third generation will come to rule the country. Not in our life time perhaps!

The fact is that no system is in itself bad. No system aims at devaluing its citizens. No system denies development. No system in itself is that bad as one would prefer to interpret. However, what is bad is the man told to manage the system but not the system. Those who are told to steer the country if cheat the lay men, the fault should lay on the one who cheats the people but not the system.

Let’s hope this “Lok-Tantra” brings in men from the newer generation and the old hats are dumped by the “we the people”.

After all what’s in a name unless one performed?

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