By PR Pradhan
The Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has almost swept away the local level by-elections as well as province and federal parliament member by-elections. The NCP and NC had taken the by-elections as their prestige in popularity and political observers had taken it as a mini-referendum on the popularity of the political parties. Although, the NCP is in the government with the strength of two-thirds majority and also its governments in six provinces, these governments have not been able to demonstrate their strong presence. Voters are not satisfied with the federal as well as province governments. Yet, looking after the by-elections results, NCP has given the impression that it is still a strong and popular party. However, the reality is that compared the elections held two years ago, votes bagged by NCP has remarkably declined and NC has been able to bag more votes this time, although could not defeat the NCP candidates. After the merger of the two political parties – the then UML and the then Maoist Center – NCP has emerged as a strong political power, although, the party is losing popularity. On the other hand, due to the internal rift and visionless leaderships in the NC, people have rejected the party. Federalism, secularism and republicanism are the agendas of the then Maoist Center, which is the partner in the Nepal Communist Party. Since late Girija Prasad Koirala adopted the Maoist agendas, the decline of the democratic party started, late Sushil Koirala and presently Sher Bahadur Deuba also were unable to define on what is the NC’s present ideology. There was a strong pressure from among the party leadership for adopting NC’s fundamental agenda of constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy. Accordingly, a large section of leaders in the NC had lobbied for adopting the Hindu agenda to attract the voters, yet, the NC leadership was unable to understand the public sentiment. When NC developed alliance with the then Maoist Party in the “people’s war” under the leadership of Girija Prasad Koirala, a section of political observers had already forecast that NC was going to face the fate of Rastriya Praja Parishad, the oldest democratic party, which disappeared from the political spectrum.
Similarly, the performance of RPP, RPP United and other Tarai based parties including the Shaja Party and Sirjansheel Party were seen very poor. RPP, onetime third opposition party, has virtually disappeared from the mainstream politics. The message is that the people are not in favour of a disintegrated and dispersed political parties. The public message is that the political parties with similar ideology should stand together. If RPP and RPP United will further delay their merger with the commitment of never going to be split for petty interests of the leaderships then they will also perish. Accordingly, there is a chance for the tarai based parties – RJP and Samajbadi Party – if they stand together. Sirjansheel Shajha party was also split into two parties. Therefore, they lost the people’s mandate.
There is no future of small parties and also those leaders who are leading such parties just for self satisfaction of becoming the party chairman or party’s general secretary or central committee member. Leaders have to be visionary and they should be ready to sacrifice for the party and democracy. Otherwise, it would be better for them to quit politics. Another important thing is that to clean the party and make the party energetic, leaders have to give-up the present practice of sticking on party’s leadership position until death.
Mushrooming Christianity
Reports state that the rate of conversion of Hindus and Buddhists into Christianity has increased rapidly. If this process will continue, very soon, there will be domination of a Christian population in this Hindu nation. Currently, the Western mission is to increase Christian population in Nepal. Corrupt bureaucracy, political leaders and poverty among the people have become very favourable situation for the Westerners to launch their religion conversion campaign. The hidden idea is to finish the very rich culture, tradition, language and identity of Nepal and to rule this nation with Christian leadership. The Westerners are experimenting in Nepal. After they become successful to dominate politics through Christianity, the process will be expanded in bordering towns and villages in India as well and China also. The Westerners practiced this system in Sikkim and Darjeeling and became successful there. The Nepal government and security organs are seen reluctant in curbing such a Christianity campaign, however, it should be taken as an eye-opener by the neighbouring countries, India and China!
Onion price and the government
Whether the government is aware or not about the skyrocketing price of onions, it is difficult to say! Currently, one kg of onion is priced at 250 rupees. Since the Indian government restricted export of onions, overnight, the price skyrocketed in the Nepali market as well. The Chinese onion is priced at 80 rupees per kg, yet, the traders are selling onions at a high price. It was believed that the onion price could come down along with the import of onion from China. The basic theory of economics is that higher the supply, lower the price. However, in Nepal, this theory doesn’t apply. Where is the China imported onions, we don’t know.
Businessmen have put in a shortage on onions and hiked the price to gain high profits. If there was a pro-people government, it would have supervised the market. Unfortunately, we don’t know, where the government is!
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