By Shashi P.B.B. Malla   It was symptomatic that our country celebrated “Republic Day” last week not with pomp and show, but muted and with a whimper. It was a grave travesty of the genuine feelings of the common people and the sense of unity, that it was concomitantly termed the nation’s “National Day”! By what reason and by what measure? Nepal’s rightful national day is on Poush 27, “Day of Unity”/ “Prithvi Jayanti”, in honour of the Great Prithvi Narayan Shah, the founder of modern Nepal. No Rationale for Constitutional Amendment The need for substantial constitutional amendments highlights the demise of the Constitution and reflects the certain extinction of the Federal Republic. The Constitution has become untenable and discordant – even to the so-called ‘fathers’. Right from the start, the Constitution was hollowed out – not put into actual practice. Federalism did not take off as expected. There were provincial elections and governments – but these were just appendages of the central government. At the village and district level, there were no functioning institutions. Political participation was non-existent. We have now reached the crossroads – the beginning of the end of the old era of pseudo-republic, phoney federalism, sham secularism and contrived democracy. So much so, that Loktantra has become a dirty word! Analogy of the ‘Ship of State’ The Himalayan Republic can be compared to a ship of state that is handicapped on several levels:
  • The engines and instruments have become rusty with disuse
  • They have not been maintained properly
  • The mechanics and engineers have not been trained properly and are, therefore, ill-qualified
  • There are several people who claim to be the ‘captain’. Thus, there are severe difficulties with ‘the chain of command’.
If this ‘ship’ attempts to leave the harbour, it will face untold dangers, especially since the ‘helmsmen’ are constantly quarreling among themselves. In this state of affairs, the passengers have no other choice than to ‘mutiny’ and take the affairs of the ‘ship of state’ into their own hands! In real life, this means that the people can no longer tolerate the ‘Sheikh Hasinas’ and the ‘Gotabaya Rajapaksas’ of the Himalayan Republic at the helm! Such a people’s revolt must be peaceful – unlike in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh – but the security forces must remain completely neutral and merely observe the struggle between the forces of change and renewal and those of abject regression.  The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com