People's supremacy: Our fake slogan

By Narayan Prasad Mishra

Our history shows we had the Rana regime (1846-1951), ruled by the Rana family according to their wishes until 1951 (B.S.2007). That was the autocratic rule under the Rana Prime Minister, the hereditary ruler of Shree Teen Janga Bahadur Rana (1817-1877). The ruler was also called Shree Teen Maharaj, and the King was Shree Panch Maharaj. Shree is a word used before a person’s name to honor the person. The word Shree is always put before the person’s name when writing names in Nepali, as it is customary to write Mr. or Mrs. in English. In general, only one Shree is written before a person’s name. According to the then custom, the King deserved five Shree in front of his name. So, he was called Shree Panch (five) Maharaja Dhiraj. The Ranas made the rule to put three Shree before the Rana Prime Minister’s name and got the Shree Teen (three) Maharaj (the honorific word for the word King). They became a king within the King. Taking military power in hand, the Rana Prime Minister made the King only the ceremonial head without power, and they ruled the country with full autocratic power, which ended in 1951. We call the Nepali day Fagoon 7, the seventh day of the Nepali month Fagoon, Democracy Day. We still celebrate that day as Democracy Day. That was the day we became independent from the Rana regime. If we count from that day, our democracy is 73 years old.

During the Rana regime, our lives and property were in their hands. We had to obey what they asked and wished. They were our masters, and all others were their servants. All the powers of the state–the executive, legislative, and judicial–were vested in them. The words from their mouth would be the law. If we compare the changed political system from that point on, there is undoubtedly a lot of difference, and it is incomparable.

We enjoyed democracy starting 73 years ago. However, that democracy could not bring any tangible change to the nation’s development and welfare of the people. After that, we have adopted many political systems. After the first general election in 1959 and multiparty democracy, King Mahendra introduced a new political system called the Democratic Panchayat System. This system existed for about 30 years. However, people became irritated with it. The system was thrown out in 1990 and replaced with a multiparty parliamentary democracy under the Constitution of 1990. This system got the new Nepali name Loktantra instead of Prajatantra, though there was no difference in meaning–democracy. Blaming that system for not developing the country and not working for the people’s welfare, we adopted another new system–a republic without the King with the Constitution of 2015, which replaced the Interim Constitution of 2007. Under this system, too, most independent people think we do not see any notable development, and in most cases, the country is going downhill in all sectors. The change always came only for the few in power, not for the people as a whole. I also feel the same way.

I vividly remember that just after the election of 1959, Dr. K. I. Singh, the leader of the United Democratic Party, filed a case against the Nepali Congress for rigging the election. At that time, the Supreme Court was in the present Ratna Park area near Rani Pokhari. While speaking in court, he talked about the democracy under the Nepali Congress Party and said the party propagated democracy but worked only for themselves. Just the same way the present republican leaders, especially the communists, talk about the people’s supremacy, they work for their own supremacy. They are doing anything to achieve their supremacy—right or wrong, righteous or unrighteous. We have clearly seen them in their bribery scandals. The communists or Democrats are all the same–as the Nepali proverb “Uhi Dyangko Moola” — a radish from the same field. I have not seen more than that in my eight decades of life experience. Based on my experience, I wrote the following poem titled People’s Supremacy (Janatako Sarbochata) in Nepali, which was published in Janasatta Saptahik (Janasatta Weekly) under the chief editorship of Ram Chandra Neupane, the former chief editor of the Gorkhapatra Dainik on June 6, 2009 ( 2066/2/23 ).

Poem in Nepali

Poem translated into English

People’s Supremacy

My ear aches

My headaches

How much to hear

The appreciation of democracy

The admiration of the republic

How much to see

Democracy and republic’s

Faked models

Democracy and republic’s

Faked heroes

How much to see

Unwanted confrontations

Deceits and conspiracies

Frustrating dramas

How much to hear about

Civil supremacy

Military supremacy

Authoritarianism

Various supremacy

Various systems

In practice, all have

Their own supremacy

Their own party, group, and

Relative’s supremacy

I would like to see

People’s supremacy

Hunger’s supremacy

Food’s supremacy

The supremacy of the system

That provides the bread, clothes, and shelter

The supremacy of the environment

That provides pure drinking water and pollution-free fresh air

The supremacy of good governance

Which provides electricity to all

The supremacy of transportation

Which provides easy transportation

The supremacy of education

Which provides free education

The supremacy of health service

Which provides free health services to the patient

The supremacy of employment

Which provides a job to hard workers

The supremacy of security

Which protects the life and property

The People’s supremacy

Which centers on the poor and helpless

The supremacy of this country

The supremacy of this nation

Where all nationalists are respected

The supremacy of the Motherland

The above poem was published 14 years ago. Instead of working for the development of the country and the welfare of the people by improving their lives and living with good services of food, drinking water, electricity, shelter, health services, educational services, etc., the leaders have not stopped talking about the supremacy of democracy and republic. For them, democracy and republics mean only the slogan, not the service. How can we change their minds and educate them if that is their meaning? If people also accept their meaning of democracy and republic and enjoy the slogan but do not expect more than that, what can we do? The religious scriptures say you carry the results of your good and bad works for your reward and punishment when you die. So we all should do good to all that we can from our conscience for the welfare of all. According to the following proverb, we should do our best to travel to heaven in business class. To do or not to do is our choice.