By Devendra Gautam
After a severe burning of vital organs of the state under the hazy gaze of a myopic and reactive political leadership that had become synonymous with scams, incidents of looting and gory deaths of scores of youths during an urban uprising against chronic nepotism, corruption and bad governance that toppled a government with a comfortable majority in the Parliament, where are we heading, as a nation?
In the wake of utter chaos and anarchy, a caretaker government has taken shape under a former chief justice in close coordination with the national army and under the stewardship of the head of the state.
Who set a country on the brink on fire and for what end? The question remains unanswered at this point, but our competent defense-security and intel authorities might find out in the due course of time with pictures and videos posted online offering vital clues along with intel inputs.
With the damage already done, there’s a raging debate on whether timely mobilization of state security apparatuses through a quick declaration of emergency could have saved lives and properties. Such a debate can continue till the cows come home in a laidback nation under a political leadership known more for skills to remain in power somehow than for a long-term vision for the nation and a short-term sense of urgency.
A functioning state remains ever awake but Surya asta Nepal masta has become the norm rather than the exception in this home of the free and the land of the brave. Life’s been one long party for Nepal’s ruling elites after their ascension to power following regime changes in the 1990s and the 2000s, so waiting till the sundown for the party to begin is rather regressive, isn’t it?
Allegorically, there’s a Nepali folk tale in which seven villages go under water even as boatmen engage in a vigorous discussion on how to deal with pouring rains and floods. The tale has become a reality once again, even under a political leadership that seemed to know about anything under the sun and beyond.
In the end, it appears that the leadership did not know how to govern.
Whatever remained of the parliament, the state organ supposed to represent the will of the sovereign people, is now gone, though the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the chair of the National Assembly will remain in office along with the head of the state, who happens to be the enforcer and the protector of our dear Constitution and a part of the parliament.
With the judiciary barely functioning and a premature demise of a popularly-elected parliament—granted, that these organs had largely failed to act as bulwarks against a government that was clearly showing tyrannical tendencies—are we in a more enviable position than we were yesterday? Or have we just landed into the fire from the frying pan?
Even when the parliament was ‘functioning’, it was doing the will of the executive at the expense of the nation and her peoples, with lawmakers associated with different political parties submitting to party whips rather than their conscience, as if they were some beasts of burden. Even before blazes consumed most of its physical infra, political intervention, including through controversial appointments, had done extensive damage to the judiciary, the state organ tasked with reining in an executive with a tendency to ride roughshod over civil liberties through the strength of a majority in the parliament.
As a barely functioning state struggles to rise from the ashes of death and devastation, what awaits the laity? An ordinance raaj that will further curtail national sovereignty or something better?
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