By D.M. Thapa Going by the looks in Nepali politics, which we have seen so far specially after the shallow leaders have taken over the reins of government, it still may not be certain who will be the next prime minister of the country for now. The bickering among the major parties will continue and look at the so-called largest party after the recently held elections the Nepali Congress, there will be an enormous struggle within that party itself. If Sher Bahadur Deuba has not forgotten, it was in the same manner in which Gagan Thapa is challenging him now, he had come to the fore of Nepali politics by leading a small faction of the party by challenging the then prime minister late Girija Prasad Koirala and becoming the prime minister himself after some time that his political career had changed after this history. Of course, there is no doubt that Deuba had also received the help of foreign powers and he was in the good books of the then US ambassador to Nepal Julia Chang Block as well. This author had shared a smoke with Deuba when he was furtively looking for a cigarette while attending a dinner hosted by Chang at her residence in Kamaladi. Nobody knew at that time that he would be prime minister, that also six times in the future! But whoever becomes the next prime minister, it is sure the person will come from the traditional parties, as the smaller parties which have shown they have the sympathy of the people, are still being knocked around by the bigger political players and also the so-called experts and intellectuals who are behind one political side or the other. As mentioned by this author many times, the smaller parties are weaker than the traditional bigger parties, mainly because of the lack of organizational strength within their grip. For example, no matter how much political leaders may boast about how they can challenge the former king, there is no doubt that the former king will win hands down against any of the prominent leaders, no matter in which part of the country any election is held. But the fact also remains that the king has no organization like the political parties which have local-level offices in every neighbourhood and naturally also in bigger regions. So one person alone can do nothing much, no matter how good his or her intention is. But to come back to our theme of who would be the next prime minister of the country, everything still has not become clear, though again Deuba leads the race and Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and opposition leader KP Sharma Oli of the CPN (UML) are also in contention. How the big parties and their supporters can play foul has been proved by the fact that a complaint has been filed against popular TV journalist and leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party Rabi Lamichhane and he could even lose his hard-won seat in the newly elected House of Representatives. We all know everything is fair in ‘love and politics’, but putting hurdles along the forward's path of a budding person who wants to do something good for the country, is a very cowardly and unworthy act of the traditional political parties. While on this issue of ‘all is fair’, what this author doesn’t like is the manner of some people ‘hitting too below the belt', just to get some satisfaction of defeating what they consider their ‘enemies’. For example, I knew a person who fell in love with another man’s wife. The woman loved him too and things would have gone on smoothly if the woman’s husband was unaware of the relationship. Unfortunately, this did not happen and when he found out, this husband felt cheated but instead of confronting his wife or her love interest, he went and complained to a relative who then became responsible for settling the matter. This was unfair, exactly like how Prachanda is trying to take advantage of the political distance between the Nepali Congress and the UML, who were once partners in going against the former king, and also in the manner in which ‘pawn’ Ravi Lamichhane is trying to be kicked around despite his newly gained political popularity. It is the same manner in which the old parties are trying to treat the upsurge being seen by the royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), which is now being led by a dynamic young leader, instead of the old traditionalist leaders who were more occupied in sycophancy rather than being loyal towards any cause. This is a time or more importantly a political period, where we need leaders with more vision and the ability to give space to even those who they consider rivals. But we are not seeing any such trait in the behavior of a present lot of ‘big players’ in Nepali politics. It is exactly like the behavior of the small-minded husband who feels he has been cheated and must get his revenge by hurting others who may sometimes be innocent people. The traditional parties, who are in the top position even now, must not forget the long struggle they made for democracy, right from the time when they cooperated with the then king to overthrow the dictatorial rule of the Rana family. They should not depend on outside powers to run the government, instead, they must get together for the cause of a stronger and economically prosperous Nepal. The parties must work together to lift the spirit of the common public who are facing a tough time just to maintain a day to day existence of their family and close ones. But sadly, this is not happening. Instead, we are just seeing small-time bickering among the leaders and they still seem to have only their own interests in their minds and they simply have forgotten the promises they made to the people. We have already seen the results of the freshly held elections where the people have expressed their wish to see new young leaders, but what we have also seen is that the traditional parties still have a stranglehold at the governance level and this scenario should be changed by not only bringing younger or newer leaders but by leaders who have more vision and a broader outlook than what they are showing now. The statements made by some prominent leaders are ridiculous and they only seem to see an enemy in the former king and rival leaders. This attitude should change and more magnitude must be shown to encompass everyone if the people want a more secure environment and a more stable Nepal, from which people are fleeing every day just to have a better system and better work opportunities. Otherwise, like this author has said before also, forget being another Sri Lanka, we could turn up being a bigger nightmare than Ukraine.