A Bed Time Story for Prachanda

(Courtesy: Shakun Sherchand Leslie)

I had a Dream.

I lived in a land of great myths. The myths were as great as the majestic mountains and as deep as the soul which carried them. Gradually the soul lost the power of the myths and everyone walked like hungry ghosts.

My dream turned into a nightmare when the seeds of aspirations were soaked in blood and there were guns floating sans water. Sixteen moons have circumambulated Jaana Andolan II and what we are forced to see through tainted politics is a “pipelined” democracy, eclipsing all our fundamental human rights. Nepal feels like a land, contracted to various ogres casting a spell on Lilliputians.

Prithivi to Prachanda Path: A king was born in Gorkha. Two hundred and thirty nine years ago, he consolidated all the little fiefdoms with the might of his sword and called it Nepal. What his sword could not accomplish, his words humbled the differences of caste and creed with his wise adage of hoping to see Nepal as a garden of, “Char varna, chatish jaat ko fhoolbari” (four castes and thirty six indigenous species). His poetic analogy could not be carried out by the system of Varna (caste-based), which integrated the conquests, subjugating the rights of the indigenous peoples.

In 1854 the Muluki Aian (legal code), legalized the caste based state policies and discriminatory laws, infringing the rights of 74% of the people. Disciplined cultivation of habits and aspirations followed concept ional boundaries, deist religiosity without traditional sensitivity, associated with religious doctrine in establishing “one king, one language, one religion and one culture”; solidifying the rule of caste over the rule of law thus perpetuating disharmony by suppression of cultures, languages and religions.

In 1960, King Mahendra’s Bumisudhar (land reform), imposed forced slavery by mohini hak (by which the land ownership of indigenous groups dropped from 100% to 25% ownership), empowering feudalism to the hilt. B.P. Koirala had the golden opportunity to be the peoples’ voice but his will was sabotaged by the spirit to perpetuate one caste rule. The Panchayati prajatanta (one party democracy), in 1970, thrived on the threshold of the “hazoor” sycophancy and the word for corruption were upgraded from “jaal –paan” (tea- coffee) to “gush” (bribery).

1979 saw the emergence of bahudal- nirdal (multi-party democracy), incorporating the infighting for power politics which entrenched a system that had gradually impoverished a socially handicapped society for a democratic nation. 1990 Jaana Andolan saw stalwart Ganesh Man Sigh, warning the citizens of caste-based supremacy in the name of democracy. Hence forth, Nepalese experienced another 17 years of political musical chair of 15 prime ministers deconstructing democracy and Nepal as a nation state.

The sum of the Nepali discontent, initiated the Maoist guerilla war in early 1996. The so called “people’s war”, a faction of the communist party, ignited the Prachanda path. For name sake, Pushpa Kamal, who was born to a Brahmin womb, called himself Prachanda, the “bright light”. His ideology, a cocktail of Marxism, Maoism and Swissism, intensified by his ego, became the Prachanda path. The desperate and the hopeless walked his path in the hope of land, jobs, rights and dignity. In ten years, he with his hench-man, Babruram, was successful in establishing violence as the prerequisite to power. They piggy-backed genuine social issues and were able to monopolize the grievances of an expanding disgruntled society, that was fast losing its patience with a system that was totally contracted on corruption and unaccountability. Ousting a disadvantaged king and suspending him in mid air in the April of 2006 brought them in close proximity with the “Brahmin brotherhood” of power.

The Prachanda path had helped rethink the social values and politics in a more radical way. The translation of accumulated historical problems, unattended and ignored, was engineered on consistent violence, coerced collection of funds and destruction, diminishing citizen rights to the intimidation of human rights. The Nepalese values of resilience and desire for peace was at the mercy of the “middle universe” (reference, Stephen L. Mikesell), an interdependent support system among caste-based communities between households and the larger society which was terrorized by the Maoists and consequently penetrated by the heavily caste
based state mechanism.

The Janajatis, Madeshis, Dalits and the marginalized groups watched in terror, the 7 parties and UNMIN ushering the Maoist take a cake walk to power. Amidst peace talks there was more bullying in parliament to wrangle the state power in their hands to set up a totalitarian government but the authoritarian rule of GP Koirala had his own vested interests. His senile move was to suspend the king and seduce Prachanda by family alliances and remain an octogenarian PM until death.

Questioning Maoist supremacy was challenging the Brahmin leadership. The peace process became merely a process of contradictions, with UNMIN as a willing referee, who simply could not detect the nuances of the caste games. Issues of demands from the Janajatis and Madeshis became hydra-headed, giving birth to splinter groups of ethnic bases of power- MJF, JTMM, MTG, UTNF-N, JMS.SLS etc. with their own independent thinking, clamoring for power representation.

The 8 parties’ interim government has become a rudderless ship steered by the jiggery pogery leaders, who are lip-syncing the issues of social injustices without any serious analysis. For example, Act 4 under constituency and election procedure, states 1/3 women by proportional representation. An appendix of the same act says 50% woman representation. Are we to be given reservation or representation? According to proportional representation of caste/ ethnic distribution the sum total should add to 100% not 116.2%. How are we the citizens to trust the inconsistencies and who is going to explain to us the reality of double standards?

The story of Angullimalla: While Mr. Dahal is preparing another clever stint of evading the election for reasons he best understands, he is once again misleading the Janajatis and Madeshis to snuggle up with him in the cold war of politics.

One question I would like to address the Prachanda path is; when he went against the grain of supporting the demand for proportional representation by UML, what was his ulterior motive? When he cake carves Nepal into 14 regions, and approves 12 Brahmin leaderships, is it unintentional calculation of caste indifference or a matter of coincidence? What message is he trying to give the Madeshis and Janajatis? The people’s war kills people and not the super structure infested with parasitic bureaucracy. Reorganizing the benefits of what suits him best has helped to establish a war of terror. He hops, skips and jumps issues like a flea, high on rhetoric.

The list of the violence continues to be long in total impunity, mocking human rights to a fig leaf status. Those who planted the bombs on 2 September, killing two girl students and injuring 2 dozens was morally, socially and politically wrong. How can we trust him to go to the booth without the bullets? How can the Janajatis and Madeshis trust that they will not bear the brunt of this power mongering warfare? This election, if it will ever take off, will be a farce in Nepalese history as a battle of ballots and bullets. Voting is an act of participation for a system promised to its citizens. We have not reconciled with the politicians yet.

They need to go to the people, building trust like Angulimala, a Buddhist yogi, who lived in the times of the Buddha, some 3ooo years ago. Angulimala established a reign of terror when he was blamed for sexual misconduct with his Guru Mata (woman teacher). His denial vented in anger and he went on a blind killing spree. He killed hundreds and wore their fingers as a necklace and drove the message of revenge and brutality. When the story reached Buddha and in a discourse with the enlightened soul, the Buddha convinced him, that man had the right to take only what he could return. Since no man can give back life, he does not have the right to kill. He recommended mukti (salvation) for Angulimalla by asking forgiveness to all those homes he had brought sorrow by his senseless destruction. He was sent back by the Buddha repeatedly in humility till the families were willing to forgive him. Forgiveness as Angulimalla realized, was not just an act of repentance but also the bearing of consequences of healing in the right conduct.

Peace: The end product of Himsa, (violence) is more violence. Without the state reassuring the dignity to its people through the ballot, Nepal will be a country of bombs and bullets. Peace has an infinite quality but finite incidents empower the process of balance between peace and justice.

A hybrid model of truth and reconciliation will not solve the problems from within. Till the bodily practices of representations are not corrected, calling Nepal secular is akin to calling Pakistan a military democracy. Abstract ideas are not opposed to embodied practices. When the Jananajatis and

Madeshis demand federalism and proportional representation, they have all experienced the lack of performatives and not constatives. To give virtue to the Nepali nationalism, Nepali citizens want the state to correct the bodily practice to live their respective identities in the pursuit of national identification.

Fragmented as they are in their respective dichotomies of ideologies, one clear voice that rings with clarity is that they will not be objects of individual interests. Their conviction of federalism as a desired state system and proportional representation as the formula to establish the integrations of a pluralistic society with equity for all and a prerequisite for genuine independence is their unstinted demand within the state.

Sum of the Eight Parties:

The differences within the tradition is a blessing and if the political parties are to take a cue, they would be mindful not to only hand-pick their Janajati and Madeshi puppets but the restoration of people’s rights spelled out by the popular will. If only the multi party democracy in 1990 had done the right thing, seventeen years later we would not be in the political cross roads, demanding the same leaders to fulfill the same national requirement of equity. The rule of law cannot be subject to political expediency by the blind application of uniformity to all.

The April uprising in a deeper level was the call to have envoys of various communities who agree to study the idea of forming ethnic/cast wide community by regional integration. The head of the State’s job is being an example of how to avoid representing one caste and to build a team of representation for all castes and ethnicities. He has to be open to create an alternative future from legacy of impunity and terror.

Donor Affliction: The interim government is only a transit lounge to make sure that the Constituent Assembly takes off. Sitting in business class lounge is not going to assure the passengers that the flight is going to take off. Donor afflictions of pouring money in the right power equation are not going to clear off the obstacles. The right evaluation and intervention of international donor agencies, focusing in empowering the right issues will gradually shift gears to a possible democratic Nepal.

Road Ahead: The road ahead is rough with many pot-holes. All Nepalese are caught in issues of identities, politics and survival in a nation state. Ethnic and Madeshi demands are easily misunderstood by misinterpretation. Just the other day, I was touched to hear a Chaudhary explain to a Brahmin that by proportional representation, the Janajatis and Madeshis are not diminishing the rights of the 13% Brahmins but interested in uplifting the rights of the 17% Dalits, empowering them. We need to work our ways by demands and responsibilities. Each Nepali has a stake in this peace process while we face the bullets and the ballots.

Unanswered questions: What bedtime stories should Nepali mothers tell their children while Prachanda’s elusive dreams belittle our lives in a nightmare country?

Is there still a chance for our children to have a future?

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http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/06/nepal-decaying-nationalism.html

Nepal: Can We Ever Reconcile Our Relative Truths?
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