The Country Cursed by a Widow

(Courtesy: Krishna Giri)

I don’t think any Nepali will raise their eyebrows when they hear- “SATI LE SARAPEKO DESH”. Right from the unification, Nepali have witnessed ongoing severity in terms of governance. Power snatching by any means has become style in Nepal. I don’t want to go back to 17th century to dig the past. Rather I will go back to the recent past. 20 governments in 20 years; that's pretty impressive, and with all due respect, Maoist supremo has presently announced that another unity government is coming in weeks. Will Maoists allow MK to stay as a buffoon PM for next few weeks or they want MK to continue with his bizarre funny political career until the festive season? This remains a mystery as the ball is in Maoist court. Not just MK but UML is an amusing party. They don’t have any leaders to lead the party; at least, none who can win peoples hearts and votes. Enough assessments have been done about CA performance for various including former DPM to current PM and I should waste no time. The UML Party - neither capitalist nor communist. Simply, lost in ideology and leadership, particularity, after the rise of Maoists.

Successive failures to act in national interests have plunged the country into utter chaos. Having 20 PMs and almost 1000 ministers in past 20 years did not help to produce some appealing leaders. These couple of decades of democratic transition should have taught leaders to act above personal and party interests. How long is adequate for a democratic transition will remain a question in Nepal’s history. No one can escape from their moral obligation as all national parties have run this country in some stage. But why they failed and subsequently we failed? We can’t always blame our geographic features and neighbours. Being a Hindu Kingdom until recent past, is this is the nation that was really cursed by a widow? If yes, what is coming next? Astrologers failed to forecast the end of 240 years old Monarchy but can someone help us to find out when this anarchy is coming to an end? Is the curse going to diminish since the country has been already declared a secular state?

Raiding dance restaurants and casinos is not enough to maintain law and order in a country. Witch hunting has stretched to looters and abductors. People have lost faith in law and security imposers and started to take laws in their own hands. Lynching and beating of culprits may sound a relief for victims but is it the way a country should be operating? Who is to be blamed for? Who preached these teachings? What have become breeding grounds for up to 80 armed insurgent groups? What was the cause for which 15000 people died? And what were the reasons for the abolition of - Monarchy, Hindu state, Daura Suruwal to Nepali language?? There are thousands of questions to be answered by state. This country has been cursed by a widow but this can not be answers to all, can it?

Maobadi tried to tussle with big brother and the obvious result was the fall of the government. People knew that conventional fact long before Prachanda admitted honouring them, 'Bideshi Prabhu'. Even in his departing speech, he could not spell them out but rather, he identified them as god. Soon after their exit from government, their performances have gotten better; bringing the country into standstill, from streets to CA chamber. I beg your pardon but what an elegant way to exercise democracy. It has just been weeks since the fall of last government and we have already started to perceive new game about Tibet. Is it just India matters for us? Can’t we play a positive sum game between India and China? What are the consequences if China is annoyed? Is this is the pretext to fall yet another government? If a government can not sustain a year, what prosperity can we expect? Is this really is a democracy that we are exercising? We do not have any local governments for more than a decade and may remain the same for many years to come. This is the fundamental breach on norms of democracy. If we lookup to our main democratic figures, one should not be amazed by the fact that they all are autocrats. Why everything looks so wrong? Why this horde of people can not agree on national interests? Why they can not come together for economic and social prosperities? Why they can not agree to hold free and fair elections in all levels? Why peace and security of this country is not important to all? Is it because, “YO SATILE SARAPEKO DESH HO”?