Democracy's Chance To Rejuvenate In Nepal

Democracy at stake in Nepal by Baburam Bhattarai

Democracy's Chance To Rejuvenate In Nepal

Democracy is not in danger in Nepal, the corrupt political parties that have ruled the roost for three decades, primarily the Congress and the communists, are. The constitution of 2015 that was a document of betrayal to the Madhesi revolution for federalism and inclusion that was waged four separate times is in danger, but the interim constitution birthed by the April 2006 revolution stands to be resuscitated to give birth to a new constituent assembly, and hopefully, a new constitution that does have federalism as it is meant to be, and can be seen in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Sikkim.

Baburam Bhattarai's most impressive master stroke in politics might be his entry into the Terai-based Janata Samajwadi Party. The prime architect of the 2015 constitution that was a total betrayal of the Madhesi revolution managed to become a top leader of the Madhesi party. He imagines himself to be the Ambedkar of Nepal, someone who will still be talked about as the primary author of the country's constitution 200 years from now. His current political stand is an ego issue because all indications are the country's constitution is on a suicide mission. It will likely collapse. If the parliament stays dissolved, and new elections are not held within six months, presidential direct rule starts. Six months after that, the constitution ends and the interim constitution of 2006 is back. That interim constitution will birth a new constituent assembly.

Bhattarai's supremo Prachanda is the single and primary reason why the first constituent assembly of Nepal failed. Prachanda spread the red scare far and wide by trying to fire an army supremo who was to retire two months later anyway. It was seen as an attempt at state capture from which the Maoist supremo never recovered in the capitals around the world. In the aftermath, in his drive to achieve what he called "consensus," he shifted the constituent assembly to the living rooms of shady characters who thought the 1991 constitution was the best in the world, and could never imagine a Nepal without a monarchy. Otherwise, the first constituent assembly had the arithmetic to give the country a constitution that the Madhesi revolution wanted. As Prachanda's second man, Baburam Bhattarai can not escape responsibility.

Baburam Bhattarai is a smart, well-educated man. He is socially progressive. But ends up it is not his brain, but his appendix that ends up making decisions for him. At the end of the day, he is just another prejudiced Pahadi who called Mahanth Thakur, the Madhesi president of the JaSaPa, a "stick" when it looked like Thakur just might become Prime Minister and save the day. Baburam Bhattarai is not any better than Sher Bahadur Deuba, or KP Oli, or Madhav Nepal, or Prachanda. Today he is just a faction leader hellbent on destroying the Madhesi party.

The constitution he is the primary author of is incapable of amending itself. And its demise would be a good thing. That is the only hope the Madhesi have.

India is like Planet Jupiter. Nepal is like one of its moons. That is just geopolitics. I don't know who the Governor of Tibet is, or, for that matter, any province in China. But I could name and identify most Chief Ministers across India. RAW did not make me do that. The governments of Nepal and India did not put me in that position. But it is because both Nepal and India are part of the same Bharatvarsha.

That Mithila is two today just like Bengal and Punjab and Kashmir is British divide and rule heritage. During the Mughal era, the Madhesi were Indian citizens. Bhutan has no Terai. Nepal was like that. I have never thought of India as a foreign country. I was born in India (Darbhanga, Bihar), my mother is Indian, at least half my relatives are Indian. There is an open border. At some future date, I hope for a political unification of Nepal and India, like France and Germany dream of, definitely a much earlier economic union. France and Germany are proud countries. They see no loss of identity in such a unification. Why should Nepal?

Mithila as mentioned in the Ramayana used to stretch from the Himal to the Ganga, from River Koshi to River Gandaki. The first rulers of Kathmandu Valley were the Gopalvanshi, Yadavs from the eastern Terai. Lichhavi Nepal is still considered the golden age in the country's history. It was a republic of grassroots democracy, superior to anything existing today. Lichhavi Nepal did not think of China as a more powerful country and was co-equal to other kingdoms across India. There were no powers in America and Europe at the time. Lichhavi Nepal was the Germany of its time if you will. The Lichhavi were people of Mithila. The Mallas who succeeded them still used Maithili as the court language.

Refugees from Rajasthan ruled for a few hundred years. The current rulers are Brahmins from Karnataka. But the people of Mithila today struggle inside Nepal for basic identity. The ruling class refers to the crowd as "Palestinians," such is the political destitution.  

The rulers in Nepal today (and Baburam Bhattarai is one of them) remind me of the Malaysians of Lee Kuan Yew's time. They simply do not believe in political equality. They are not Marxists, they are medieval. Don't let their flags and symbols fool you. There is a system in Nepal. It is not democracy. It is a two-party plutocracy. It is deeply institutionalized corruption. It is crony capitalism of the worst kind. Used to be the king of the country had total say over the country's budget. He took out for himself as much as he wanted, no questions asked. Now there are a few political parties and a 10,000 strong crowd of party cadres doing the same thing. They live what is called the "lifestyle."

The constitution of Nepal promulgated in Nepal is so wrong, you could not even patch it. It needs at least 100 amendments right away. But that has been true since its promulgation. Article 76 that has been causing so much drama is not even that complicated but it helps to take a close look to see how bizarre the constitution is. The Prime Minister of Nepal lost a vote of confidence. Subsequently, he was sworn to the office all over again on live television where he proceeded to dictate to the woman president which phrases in the oath he would like to skip. The world was surprised. The world thought this guy lost a vote of confidence in the parliament. In their attempt to give "political stability," architects (and Bhattarai is one by training, at JNU, of all places) like Baburam Bhattarai have engineered paralysis and dysfunction, enough to trip the entire constitution into non-existence. That is what he fears. That is what I fervently hope for.  

Baburam Bhattarai: Man In The Middle: JaSaPa
बाबुरामले जसपा फोड्ने भयो