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VOL. 27, NO. 6, September 21, 2007 (Ashwin 04 2064 B.S.)
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POLITICS
Where Is Nepal Heading?
Prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala and leaders of other parties remarks that the country is under threat generates a new debate
By KESHAB POUDEL
- “I don’t know what are there in the content of agreement signed between the government and Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities,” said prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, in a meeting with the leaders of the Federation.
- The next day he said sovereignty and independence of Nepal is in danger, but he didn’t explain from where that danger comes from? He mentioned that he had told this fact to the Indian ambassador, American ambassador and, later on, Chinese ambassador.
If prime minister Koirala doesn’t know what agreement his ministers sign and he cannot expose the force which is threatening Nepal’s independence, it is anybody’s guess who is ruling the country and where the country is heading?
Whether it was a rebuff to (Krishna Prasad) Bhattarai or his own hunch/conscience, prime minister Koirala’s sense of patriotism and sense of threat to the nation came. Koirala revealed this when his colleague and former prime minister Bhattarai issued a statement recently saying that national reconciliation propounded by B.P. Koirala is very relevant at this critical juncture.
“The country is passing through an unprecedented crisis. Any such crisis will demand collective wisdom and dedication on the part of the people so that it does not sweep away everything that makes Nepal. Late B.P. Koirala, Ganesh Man Singh came back to Nepal from India in 1976 ending the 8 year old exile with the call for national reconciliation. They were clear in their minds that a prolonged difference between the King and the democratic forces will weaken the Nepali nationalism, independence and democracy,” said Bhattarai in the statement.
In the circumstances when Maoist pulled out from the government and Bhattarai picked up the cause of B.P's national reconciliation, Koirala’s, whose previous actions has badly weaken nation’s foundation, seems to have raised the sentimental issue to restore himself as a patriotic.
“The center of lurking threat remain unexplained. Neither Koirala’s cabinet colleagues nor his party leadership had the privilege to hear that from him. Like the common people they all might have known that through the press and blaring FMs,” said a political analyst.
Although Koirala did not explain center of threat, other politicians, who are talking of the same issue in different manner, plainly disclosed the center of threat to Nepal’s independence.
One of the members of eight party alliance, Narayan Man Bijukchhe, leader of Nepal Majdoor Kishan Party, sees the threat of Sikkimization. Foreigners are showing greater interest in the elections than political parties. India is showing more interest than others. “Indians are searching a new Lendhup Dorje in Nepal,” said Bijukcche in Nepal Magazine (24 September)
Similarly, another politician Radha Krishna Mainali, who started his political career as a Naxalite and spent 14 years in prison but was the minister in a cabinet chaired by King Gyanendra before the upsurge, visualizes similar situation like Bijukchhe.
“If the present trend continues, Nepal will lose its independent identity like Sikkim,” said Radha Krishna Mainali (Sanghu weekly 17 September).
“Obviously his indication was towards India’s covert operations. The question of threat in the nation’s survival as well as the question of sovereignty has been in discussion in recent days very much. Almost all prominent politicians of eight political parties including Maoists have, at one time or another, raised this issue of dirty machination against Nepal by next door neighbor. Even journalists and non-political persons have also been found talking about this threat alarmingly,” said the analyst.
Although they see the threats, they do not elaborate about it and tell the people clearly how the threat is coming from. “ India must realize that it cannot turn Nepal into Sikkim. Prime minister Koirala as a pawn of expansionist India and reactionary capitalist America,” thundered CPN-Maoist leader Dr.Baburam Bhattarai in front of tens of thousand of public on Tuesday.
“They all talk about the threat but for their immediate petty interests they find each other as their immediate enemy. When they talk in the larger perspective, they reach into same conclusion of an external threat - the threat visualized by Girija Prasad Koirala octogenarian and unchallenged leader of recent Janandolan II,” added the analyst. “He does not mean to utter a cheap jargon but must have seriously realized the threat. But he didn’t find any body in his cabinet to share this with.”
If there is a lurking threat to independence of Nepal, only the unity and reconciliation among all political forces can prevent it. Although all politicians have been speaking similar words of threat to nation, the words of vengeance, hatred and provocation expressed by them will definite led Nepal to nowhere.
”Nepal seems to be ruled and led by blind fanatics in power who go to the contrary to their diagnosis.” The situation is that no body knows where the country is heading.
