On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
In the Nepali context, leaders in the present loktantra, believe that they are the supreme boss of the people. In fact, in a democracy, the leaders are those who serve the voters. The Nepali Congress is a democratic party but its supreme leader Sher Bahadur Deuba believes, he is the boss of the entire Nepali Congress and party workers are the slaves. He, by forgetting the murder and killings of thousands of party workers by the Maoists tagging them as “class enemy”, “feudal” and “exploiter”, has become a very close aide of Maoist supremo Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda. For Deuba, Prachanda’s daughter Renu Dahal’s victory is more important than the victory of the NC candidates in the local elections. Deuba, executive chef of the government, by keeping pending all important works to be done by the government, was in a nationwide election campaign. Moreover, he spent one night in Chitwan to warn the NC workers to vote for Renu Dahal, a candidate for the post of mayor in the Bharatpur Metropolis. Deuba asked all the NC supporters to vote for Renu Dahal. Deuba instructed to suspend those NC candidates and NC supporters from the party who have challenged the common candidates of the five-party alliance. Deuba has performed the role of a dictator which has flourished in “loktantra”, popularly known as “loot-tantra”.
Deuba appreciated Renu Dahal for doing an excellent job as a mayor. The reality is that Prachanda by exploiting the government treasury had diverted maximum government funds for the Chitwan district, his electoral constituency. If other metropolitan cities and municipalities had also received such an amount of funds, they too had performed such an excellent job.
Maoist supremo Prachanda, going one step ahead, had warned the voters saying that if the Chitwan people will not cast vote on hammer and sickle and if his daughter is defeated, the country would face an unfortunate accident. Indeed, such an argument Prachanda had expressed in favour of his loving daughter. Such an act has exhibited the height of the Maoist Center’s supreme leader.
Chitwan has become the epicentre of the five-party alliance as Prachanda’s daughter is contesting the election there. Prachanda is worried about the possible defeat of his daughter, more than that, Renu’s victory has become a prestige issue for Deuba, who has become the prime minister with the support of Prachanda and other parties in the alliance government. The gathering of high profile leaders Deuba, Prachanda, Madhav Nepal, and Ramchandra Poudel, among others, in Chitwan for the campaign of Renu Dahal itself is an example that how the leaders are keen to establish their family dynasty! Deuba wants his wife Arju to lead the NC and a silent understanding has been developed with Prakashman Singh, son of Ganeshman Singh for bringing Prakashman’s wife into politics in the capacity of the mayor of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. Meanwhile, without missing the chance, Upendra Yadav of the Janata Samajbadi Party has tried to lift his son as the deputy mayor of the Biratnagar Metropolitan City. Sekhar Koirala, who was leading the rival faction in the NC and who was opposing the electoral alliance with the communists, addressed the public assembly supporting the five-party electoral alliance. When his nephew got the election ticket to the post of the mayor in Biratnagar Metropolitan City, overnight, Sekhar became a supporter of the electoral alliance. Ramchandra Poudel has supported the electoral alliance with the dream of becoming the President by succeeding Bidya Devi Bhandari.
Understandably, the present five-party-partnership is an alliance of those who want to enjoy and exploit power by establishing a political syndicate.
The arrogance of the leaders in the five-party alliance has reached the extent that they have started to feel like the supreme authorities. Deuba’s wife Arju had warned the voters in Dadeldhura, the electoral constituency of Prime Minister Deuba, saying that she is not going to send the budget if the voters don’t cast vote for the NC candidate! Enough is enough but such a type of democracy we can see only in Nepal.
The Election Commission with the consent of all the political parties had issued an election code of conduct by restricting the leaders holding the government posts for the election campaign. But the prime minister and ministers and chief ministers are openly seen campaigning for their candidates. It seems, the country’s laws, rules, regulations and code of conduct are only for those weak political parties but not for those parties in power.
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