It was a full day spent with Gagan Thapa.
What is he like? The guy is flat out hilarious. Every other sentence he speaks he is cracking jokes. And they are not jokes from the jokebook. He is just talking, relaying stories from here and there. It is just that he gives this funny twist to events and circumstances. He is smart. He is very smart. He speaks easily. He is extremely social. He is very comfortable around people, all sorts of people. He is agile.
The lunch in Jackson Heights was to be at 11, and I showed up on time. I called Anil. He did not pick up the phone. I called Sanjaya. He said the place is not open yet. I later learned Anil had mistakenly put out the time to be 11 when it was to be more like 12.
So I got off the train. I walked around trying to find the place. A young, pretty woman approached me. She had a small handwritten card that said she had children, if I could please help. I waved no, I was on the phone. Then I got off the phone. She spoke. She spoke English.
"Where you from?" I asked.
"Bosnia."
She talked me into giving some money. I said I had no change. The smallest bill I had was a five. She talked me into going into a store to break the bill. I came out saying the line was too long.
"Give me the five bucks," she said. I was not expecting to hear that. That was blunt. She talked me out of five dollars.
"Do you have children?" she asked.
"No."
"Why don't you have children?" she said with a broad smile.
"I am an unlucky man."
Then another woman approached me. She also had a card in her hand. I swiftly walked away. I had not taken the train to Jackson Heights to file for bankruptcy.
The first person to show up was Deepak "Nepe" Thapa. He is the fiercest republican at Sajha. We talked for a little while, then we walked into the restaurant after it opened, and we talked some more. People started streaming in. A roundtable was full before Gagan showed up.
I was hungry. I had started eating even before Gagan showed up. I was told there was no protocol, and it was okay. People at the table must have felt sorry for me. I really was hungry. For dessert I had eight or so gulab jamuns. I think Gagan, who was sitting opposite me, noticed. Well, Gagan, chill. I don't remember the last time I had that many gulab jamuns at once. These ones were just so warm and nice.
Gagan talked expansively. He touched on many different topics. People around the table participated, but it was mostly Gagan talking.
He brought up the topic of internal reforms inside the parties. Madhav Nepal is no better than Girija Koirala when it comes to treating the student organizations with respect, Gagan emphasized. Party leaders interfere in the internal matters of the student organizations when there are no provisions to do so.
There was a broad discussion of money and politics, the lack of transparency inside the parties, the lack of legitimate financial opportunities for aspiring career politicians.
Pramod Aryal called in. He was asking for a transcript for Gagan's talk from the previous day. He is the ultimate Mr. Telephone man.
After lunch we went sight seeing. Sanjaya's car and Prateek's car were put to service. Gagan got to get off for the Statue of Liberty viewing, Ground Zero, Wall Street, the Seaport, and the park near the UN where the September 16 rally was held. It was during some of those walks that I really got to know Gagan. There were a bunch of fun conversations.
I tried taking several pictures of Gagan with the Statue in the background, but to our frustration the Statue would not grow in size as I pointed the camera at it. The Statue that Gagan got as a gift yesterday looked bigger to the one he got to see. There was no time to take the boat.
He is a people person. He has to meet you before he can feel comfortable emailing you back and forth. He is a face time person.
He relayed many stories. Stories from his current tour, stories from his street appearances, stories from the past few years. He is full of stories.
"This is not a movement for you and I to become martyrs," I emphasized at one point. "This is a movement to throw the autocrats out, and get the democrats into power. If anyone does end up a martyr in the worst case scenario, it will be King G, not some democrat. Caecescu style."
I really wanted to make this point. We need to be working for an orange revolution, a velvet revolution. There should be no bloodshed. Even for the king I wish a soft landing. The confrontation has to be political, not physical.
You get half a million people to come out in the streets and stay in the streets. No need to try to cross the police lines. No physical confrontations. I know that is hard to do if the police come attacking, as they often do. But the goal has to be to just get the large crowd out.
The goal has to be to turn Nepal into what Ukraine was during the winter of 2004.
Gagan has laid the case for a republican Nepal like noone else. 95% of the 30,000 and more college students in Nepal who voted on the issue voted for republicanism. Gagan speaks for them.
Deepak Thapa who I have nicknamed the Gagan of Sajhaland kept making the same case. The widely quoted Nielsen poll from late 2004 that claims more than 60% of the Nepalis are for a constitutional monarchy, and less than 10% for a republic is at fault, Thapa claimed. There was a small sample of only 3,000 people. And the question was misleading. The question was as to what kind of monarchy the people preferred, and more than 60% said constitutional monarchy, a little over 20% said executive monarchy. The question if the people want a repubic or not was never asked in that poll. And 2/1 has had a major impact on public opinion. That same poll does not say the same thing for the college student age group that the referendum does.
Deepakji has a point. Recently all district chiefs of the Anandi Devi Sadbhavana also pushed for a republic. Looks like cadres in all parties are for a republic. Only the leaders are not coming forth openly. Is it some sort of a fear factor?
Just like "multi-party" was the phrase that ignited the 1990 movement, now "democratic republic" might be such a phrase. If the seven parties and the Maoists can come around to that two word agenda, people will fill up the streets. The civil society movement has been getting a much better response than the parties, and it is because the civil society has a stated goal of a democratic republic.
The king has been unrelenting in his excesses. He is leading the country to a decisive bipolarization. The country might be going through the birth pangs of a democratic republic.
Gagan's approach is not to do with polls. He makes a clear case for a republic, and then asks for the political consciouness in the country to be raised, because that is the right thing to shoot for.
"We sharpen the agenda and the program of the seven parties," he said. He is not trying to start his own party. He is not trying to leave the Nepali Congress. His goal is to stay engaged and work for internal reforms inside the Nepali Congress. I commend that pragmatism.
Gagan thinks the movement will really take off after Tihar.
Back at Sanjaya's place I initiated a discussion on the endgame scenarios for the movement. What do we want? What options do we have? I got the impression the endgame will take care of itself. The work at hand right now is to get the seven parties to come around to the slogan of a democratic republic. Because that is the right thing to do, that is what the people want, that is what is good for the people.
Gagan relayed the story of the first corner meeting after 2/1. It was an act of superb organization.
Then there was the ride to the airport. We just assumed it was JFK. It ended up it was the Newark airport. We were already near JFK by then. Good thing Anil was driving. He knows the city like the back of his hand. We barely made it on time. And for most of the ride Gagan was busy on the phone. There were all these goodbyes that needed saying. It was Kiran Sitoula's phone, Gagan told me. Sitoula the nuts and bolts man.
Gagan was off to London for a week. Then it was off to Nepal.
"Be safe," I said and huggged him goodbye.
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