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The announcement of the polling date to the Constituent Assembly by the eight party government should have come as the most welcome news to all the countrymen and filled their hearts with joy and hope. But the bitter experiences of the last fourteen months, the total disregard shown by the government to take the people in confidence and generate trust in their workings and the blatant discrimination against the so called overwhelming non-collaborators have only contributed to make them apprehensive of receiving any justice and fair-play, have made them skeptic towards the announcement. Moreover, the total absence of law and order throughout the kingdom, the hush hush timing of the polling date which is most impractical, not giving any orientation to the uneducated millions about the constituent assembly and most important of all the undemocratic behavior of the government to deprive the millions of opposition of their voting rights have only turned the announcement into a farce. It is a great pity that the greatest democratic countries of the world have shut their eyes towards this naked murder of democracy in Nepal. Moreover, the impracticability of the polls being accomplished successfully is crystal clear. With hardly five and half months left for the polling date and the country facing the rainy season and the national festivities, how the Elections Commission will fulfill its commitments is difficult to visualize. If only good will and wishful thinking can achieve the impossible, we will take over hats off. Moreover, the polls to be concluded in one day seems another juggernautic problem of providing ample security. There will be tens of thousands of polling booths and under the circumstances prevailing in the country, it will be nothing but foolhardy, even to think that polls will be conducted peacefully without the supervision of fully equipped security forces. Do we have enough security to man all the booths apart from maintaining law and order in the country and guarding the borders. Or is it the ploy to invite foreign troops in the country? Looking at the portents in our political sky, it does not seem to be very improbable. And our pliant and unscrupulous politicians do not possess very strong knees and are prone to kneel down whenever it become necessary in their own interest. Even though there are few who are optimistic that the polls well be held at the stipulated date, can we hope the Election Commission will set an example by staying just and impartial? Former Chief Justice Viswanath Upadhyya has shown the way how a non-committed citizen should behave. All honest and patriotic Nepalis should not be shy to follow his step.
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