Decentralisation
The Motivating Factors

By Mukti Rijal

MANY countries across the world have undertaken effective initiation for decentralisation. The motivating reasons behind these measures towards decentralisation and strengthening local institutions can not be explained in just one or two words. There are diverse and varying causes for it. James Manor in his book titled. "The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralisation" discusses at length about the compelling attributes for decentralisation. To this end, he has analysed the situations in different countries in the world. The first reason why decentralisation got a fillip was party due to the degeneration of patronage systems and ruling parties in less developed and developing countries. Many national leaders over centralised power in the interest of personal rule. This of ruling parties and formal institutions. Ordinary people grew impatient with the failure of governments to deliver not only prosperity but social reform. This eroded the belief of people in the charismatic qualities and even the benign intentions of national leaders. According to Manor, analysts employing public choice approaches began to see decentralisation as corrective remedy to the ever mounting failures of the central governments. It offers something resembling a free market by bringing together citizens and decentralised authorities in a setting where the wishes of the former can impinge effectively on the latter. Democratic decentralisation has been thus a means of linking political demand for services with a requirements that beneficiaries pay for them.

Moreover, democratic decentralisation offers to affload obligations from hard pressed central governments onto local and intermediate level bodies and facilities cuts in public expenditure.

The disintegration of the erstwhile USSR has been described as an important reason for furtherance of decentralisation. The failure of the Soviet model substantially discredited the notion that commandism could be effective and popular. It undermined centralised approaches to governance. It helped to open the way to decentralisation of a democratic variety. Manor writes "it eased the anxieties of rightists and centre right regimes in many developing countries about the communist threat-anxieries which had encouraged centralisation. It also eased similar American concern which had inspired efforts to prop up rightist autocracies." The shortcomings of commandism thus made democratisation and decentralisation seem more promising and feasible.

Some scholars presume that decentralisation occurs due to popular pressure generated from below. However, there is no such evidence to fully substantiate the assumption. There is some evidence, according to Manor, from a small number of countries—in India, Tanzania, Brazil and Colombia, for example-of elites at intermediate level having an impact. In South Korea, opposition parties are said to be lobbying effectively for decentralisation. However, the channels through which demands can be transmitted upward through the political system are often so poorly developed that little headway can be made. Enthusiasm often develops after decentralisation takes place. However, this is not to deny that a social and political awakening has been occuring in a great many developing countries over the last two decades. Voluntary associations and indigenous non-governmental organisations have been active in many countries. They have also their role in creating demands for decentralised governance and devolution.

In Nepal, the motivation for decentralisation can not be precisely encapsulated. During the deposed Panchayat period, it was the compulsion to prove that the system was democratic and responsive, rulers created some institutions for decentralisation and local development. But decentralisation proved to be an illusion. Following the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, several factors have been active in pushing the process of decentralisation. Failure of centralised developed coupled with the active role of local institutions has been responsible for the current enthusiasm for decentralisation. Political parties seem to be committed to decentralised governance and development but they are yet to internalise the decentralised values and norms in their behaviour and conduct. However, considering the global trend as decentralisation and democratisation are interlinked, they can not be reversed whatever the motivation for the measures directed at achieving and fulfilling them. Certain conditions need to be fulfilled for the success of decentralised system of governance. The local bodies should have sufficient powers to exercise substantial influence within the political system and over significant development activities. They should have sufficient financial resources to accomplish the important tasks in addition to adequate administrative capacity. Reliable accountability mechanism need to be developed to ensure the accountability of the elected politicians to citizens and the accountability of bureaucrats to elected politicians.

On The Occasion Of The 90th Birth Anniversary Of Poet Siddhi Charan Shrestha
Kaji Baa: Gem Of Nepali Literature

By Shaphalya Amatya

IF I remember correctly it was in the year 2006/2007 BS when I was still a school student Kaji Baa: Siddhi Charan Shrestha and his family were staying in my maternal uncle Daya Ram Bhakta Mathema’s house at Tahachal. We were told at that time that Kaji Baa was suffering from some chest problem and he was advised by the doctor to stay in a quite ventilated house in the outskirts of the city. During those days Tahachal was situated virtually far off from the heart of the city. There were not more than a dozen houses in that locality and the rest were thatched houses of the farmers. The house of my uncle was a historical house where my uncle Daya Ram Mathema, Sunder Raj Chalisey, Ganesh Man Singh, Badri Bikram Thapa and some other revolutionaries used to meet and make plans against the then Rana autocracy. My uncle’s house had a beautiful flower garden and a big vegetable field. We used to go there to pick up some vegetables at least two or three times a week.

We knew that Kaji Baa was a great poet. In school we had to read one of his poems Mero Pyaro Okhaldunga" ( My Dear Okhaldunga). My family particularly my maternal and my uncle Bhubaneshwar Amatya were both his great fans and they used to visit him at his residence at Purano Bhansar near New Road almost daily. It was just before the Popular Revolution against the Rana Oligarchy my uncle Bhubaneswar Amatya who was a dramatist and an actor wrote and played the lead role and directed a Newari play entitled "Raj Kumar Kunal". Paramananda Bajracharya, a renowned writer of Newari literature was not only his bosom friend but also his partner in this drama project. Later on we came to know that Kaji Baa: Siddhi Charan Shrestha had not only encouraged my uncle to materialise this project but also wrote all the songs for this play. This drama "Raj Kumar Kunal" was shown only in two places at Nabahil and Ombhal Kaji chowk. Once the Rana administration came to know about it they forced the organisers to stop it.

With the inspiration of Kaji Baa my uncle Daya Ram Mathema composed dozens of poems. He published some of them in the then literary magazines like ‘ Sarada’ ‘Udog’, ‘Bharati’, ‘Udaya’, ‘Gorakhapatra’ and so on. The late king Tribhuwan was a great admirer of Kaji Baa’s poems. On many occasions King Tribhuwan had used his poems for his greetings and of course my maternal uncle who was the then secretary to the late Majesty was the person behind all this. In my personal collection I have two of these poems. The greetings bore the signatures of King Tribhuvan himself.

In the period between 2014 to 2017 BS when I was a student of Tri-Chandra College I found myself in a circle of young and emerging poets like Krishna Bhakta Shrestha, Mohan Himasu Thapa, Daman Dhungana and many others. This new atmosphere in the college encouraged me too to compose poetry. In those days it was a routine affair for us to gather at some place in the college compound and listen to each other’s poems and sometimes even stories. Luckily that time Madhav Lal Karmacharya was my tutor, who himself was a renowned poet and a storywriter as well as a literary critic. I remember visiting Kaji Baa’s residence at Purano Bhansar many times. In those days young poets and writers like Vijaya Bahadur Malla, Govinda Bahadur Malla, Chitaranjan Nepali, Krishna Chandra Singh Pradhan, Ratna Dhoj Joshi and many others used to visit his residence quite regularly mostly in the morning hours.

The age factor always discouraged me from going near to Kaji Baa. My writing skills were continuously improving and by the year. 2017 BS I had already published some of my poems in some well known literary magazines like "Udaya" and "Sarada". During those days publishing poems in "Sarada" was not an easy task. Once your work was published in "Sarada" it was not only a matter of pride and glory but anybody who could do it was recognised as a poet and writer. Five of my poems were published in the "Sarada" magazine in the year 2017 BS in the month of Kartik. Many learned and reputed persons congratulated me and Kaji Baa was one of them. I met Kaji Baa at Jansewa Cinema Bhawan, which then belonged to my maternal uncle. Kaji Baa and his family were some of our family friends who got free entry to that cinema. Whenever I met Kaji Baa he made it a point to encourage me to write many more poems. I also cannot forget the inspirations that I got from Ratna Dhoj Joshi the writer and critic of Nepali literature. He is one of the persons who encouraged me to publish my poems in "Sarada".

My literary journey was going ahead in full swing. It was in 2027 BS that I published my first poetry collection named "Ansoo Ra Muskan" (Tears and Smile)". One fine morning I went to Kaji Baa’s residence to present him my poetry book. Kaji Baa was enjoying his Hukka (hubble bubble). As soon as I handed over the collection of poetry to him he started flipping over the pages.He then congratulated me and told me to go on writing. Bhuwan, the second daughter of Kaji Baa then brought us tea. I wanted to leave but Kaji Baa told me to hold back. He went to the other room and brought a copy of his recently published work "Urbasi" and asked me to read it thoroughly.

Life took a new turn for me, I joined the civil service in 2022 BS and became busy in serving the country and the people. My interest in composing poems was slowly overshadowed by my new hobby of writing essays on culture and art. Kaji Baa became the Member of Royal Nepal Academy and after that Right Honourable Member of the Raj Sabha. My friendship with his second son Ravi Charan Shrestha brought us together in a High School Management Board. The sad demise of Kaji Baa and his wife had terminated one generation of that family. Ravi, his wife and his children are closer to us. Time has changed so much but the house where Kaji Baa had spent almost his entire life has been recently demolished by one of his sons. A new house is under construction there. And with the flow of time we could as well forget that in that house once a great poet of Nepal had lived and had composed some of his best poetry in Nepali literature. The only witness to that history is the small
statue of Kaji Baa, which is placed just a few meters north next to the small temple of Lord Ganesh at the end of New Road.

Bhagawan’s Adventure

By Govinda Bhattarai

HIS name is Bhagwan. He is not a character of a fiction. He still lives, alone, in his grass-and-mud hut at a village in my home district Sarlahi.

When we were primary school children, we knew that his illiterate father was a well off person in the rural context. Pampered as Bhagawan was, he could not perform well in the school and due to his poor grades he left the school.

As the time rolled on, he got addicted to drinks and drugs (the locally available marijuana). His father moved west and he was left behind with an elderly mother. At the departure of her husband, the old woman fell ill, almost bedraggled. Bhagawan had to sell his father’s land not only for the treatment of his frail mother but also for his drink. Her health didn’t improve much to the worries of the inexperienced young man who is yet to face the realities of life. He started drinking more feverishly. Gradually the entire parental property was gone. And the result: they were soon turned into landless squatters. At last, he took his ailing mother to a small hut he built on the public land on the side of the Mahendra Highway.

This was the beginning of his new life. With nothing to live on, he began working as a labourer in the local market or in the fields of the landlords. The greatest share of the wages he received from a day’s manual works, however, went to his drink in the evening. He would not eat anything but drink the locally brewed liquor in the evenings. He would be desperate on the day when there was no work as no one would trust him with any kind of borrowings.

Few years later, his mother too joined her dead husband leaving the son alone to the hardships of life. Now no one to care and to be cared for! As he got no bride (Who would after all marry their daughter to a person like him?) he remained a sedentary bachelor. In his early thirties, he looked almost fifteen years older than his real age.

One day he heard from the villagers that he would be given one hundred rupees if he had himself sterilised (pariwar niyojan). Actually persons who undergo such operations, as per the government policy, receive the money to feed themselves with some nutritious food. Tempted by the prospect of getting the said amount, he did go there. Upon being asked whether he was married, he replied in the affirmative. He fabricated the names of his wife and children. His ageing appearance assured the health workers and he was soon made impotent forever. Happy, he came back loaded with a green note he had not seen for years. That evening, some of the villagers saw him stumbling towards home. Instead of buying fruits (a very common diet after such operations), he had straight gone to a local tavern and pacified his kindled nerves.

Bhagawan could be a typical hero of the common stories prevailing in the Nepali societies. This might create pathos in the heart of some who hear about him, but the other side of the drama is equally worth noticing. This could serve as an example of how ignorance and poverty, in our context, lead the rural people to such an extent. One would only wish so-and-so had not happened. Ironically, however, it is too late when they realise the mistake. But the solitary Bhagawan is still ignorant.