The story has it that an apple fell on Newton's head and we all ended up with the theory of gravitation. The story is untrue, of course, but it is quite a good one, and gets told like it were true.
Well, the apple landed on Girija Koirala's head and he came up with the idea of House revival, and we have been stuck with it.
His latest stand is to announce the House revival once the movement has peaked. First he wanted the king to do it, then he wanted the Supreme Court to do it, now he wants the movement to do it.
If the movement does it, it will be the first in world history.
And that is why I don't see it happening. For something to be a first, it has to be cuttinge edge in some way.
If Girija had come around to the idea of an interim govenment and a constituent assembly back in the days, this insurgency would have cost the country 1200 not 12,000 lives. Girija has been so relentlessly wrong on so many levels all at once.
The logic behind a constituent assembly has not changed. It is needed now for the same reason it was needed back then. But Girija did not look at the logic of it, even when his own party had demanded the same more than 50 years ago. Girija is absurd.
He only reluctantly came around to the idea after the 2/1 coup.
The last time the movement peaked, Girija brought the house down by backstabbing Madhav Nepal who had been the consensus choice for Prime Minister. If that choice had stayed on, the movement would have continued on.
Now he is set to both not let the movement take off, and frustrate it should it take off by sticking to his House revival gun. Can the movement afford Girija? That is what I am asking.
Girija is in the way. This guy secretly feels he is the only person who can save the king. That suggestion pisses the king off. I and others don't even need to be in that equation.
Girija's idiotic stand is not for the king, not for the country, not for his party. What is it for? Girija's stand is proof there is no internal democracy inside the Nepali Congress. Which central committee meeting of the Nepali Congress decided upon this stand? I would like to see the minutes of the meeting. There was no meeting. Girija simply felt inspired one day, one fine moment, and he blurted it. That is how it came about.
Unless the seven parties come around to the three point program, people are not about to come into the streets in large numbers. You do not fire their imagination by wanting to send them back to the hellish 1990s. You need to give them a forward looking program.
Maoist, Moriarty, Madhav, Manmohan: Get Behind The 3 Point Program
If the movement does not take off, and February 8 comes along, then the parties will be in a serious ditch. This regime has to fall before February 8. And it will not fall unless hundreds of thousands of people fill up the streets, and they will not if the seven parties do not ditch the idiotic House revival stance. Plain and simple.
If the Maoists can move from an armed struggle to a peaceful transformation of the state, if they can move from a communist republic to a democratic republic, why can not Girija ditch the House revival stance?
And if Girija can not ditch the House revival stance, why can't the six parties ditch Girija? The Nepali Congress cadres will all come out in support of the three point program. They will join the movement.
Girija's stand keeps going round and round in a loop like a software bug.
Now that the Maoists have taken crucial steps, the only thing standing between this autocratic regime and full democracy is Girija's House revival stand.
Say the movement takes off, which it won't if the three point agenda is not adopted, but say it takes off, then where do you see the House reviving? How? The king has the keys to the doors, and I mean literally.
An interim government is the only solution.
Girija needs to let go or he needs to get out of the day.
I am frankly worried Girija might become interim Prime Minister. How can the singular reason behind the movement not taking off embody the spirit of the movement should it take off and succeed? That will be a travesty.
Girija is not more important than the country, he is not more important than democracy, he is not more important than the people. As for his party, it has chosen to sink or swim with him. I respect their private right to choose to sink with him.
The 1990 constitution is dead. The 1999 House was within the 1990 constitution. When the constitution itself died, it is not possible the House is still somewhere waiting to be revived.
Girija needs to become like Ganesh Man Singh in 1990, the Supreme Leader and an inspiration, but with no authority and day to day responsibilities. And the seven parties need to ditch the House revival stand. Madhav Nepal should be Prime Minister and Ram Chandra Poudel Deputy Prime Minister. Or this guy Girija is going to mess up the peace talks with the Maoists every step of the way, and then he is going to mess up the constituent assembly process.
Frankly I am running scared for the country.
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