NATIONAL 3 -(Spotlight Weekly)

Losing Reason

Security forces are risking their lives in the fight against terrorism, but politicians are playing their old games

By A CORRESPONDENT

For a month, the security forces fighting terrorism are putting their lives on the line to make life easier for everybody else, including politicians. Instead of doing their part to help the soldiers and police on the battlefront, politicians are busy saying and doing irrelevant things in the comfort of Kathmandu valley. The cries of the people do not reach those who are in a constant quest to grab power.

Koirala addressing his partymen :Core issue under shadow

King Gyanendra, the symbol of national unity, visited Birendra Army Hospital to console soldiers injured in the military operations. However, the same politicians responsible for creating the mess vied with one another to politicize the monarchís gesture of concern.

Senior advocate Basudev Dhungana, who was a minister and pradhan pancha of Kathmandu during the Panchayat years, spoke against the kingís visit. He sounded like the mouthpiece of the main opposition CPN-UML. The Nepali Congressís Narahari Acharya, not known for a measured response to anything outside the ambit of his party, went a step further to question the monarchís visit.

Instead of doing something to boost the morale of the security forces, people like Dhungana and Acharya are vitiating the atmosphere. Worse, Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, main opposition party leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Surya Bahadur Thapa and other senior politicians are engross in backroom political machinations.

No political leader, including Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, has found time to visit Birendra Army Hospital to inquire about the health of injured soldiers. "Nepalese political leaders have lost touch with the common people," says a political analyst. "They suffer from the Afno Manche (Our man) syndrome."

While security personnel are seeking logistical support to go into villages to drive out the Maoists, the leaders are exhibiting a callous disregard to the political side of the anti-insurgency campaign. "If politicians like Girija Prasad Koirala and Madhav Kumar Nepal are really sincere to the cause of democracy and country, this is the right time for them to visit the countryside and mobilize the people against terrorism," the political analyst says. "Calling for national consensus from the safety of Kathmandu doesnít mean a thing."

No senior politician has found time to visit the people in the remote parts of the country who have been living under the constant threat of the terrorists. Moreover, those busy trying to build opportunistic alliances to gain political mileage during this national crisis utterly fail to realize that they have no moral standing to question the monarchís expression of concern for the well-being of the country and people. Had our leaders shown enough sincerity to the cause of freedom and democracy and acted in a timely fashion, the life of many would have been saved.

There is still time for politicians to play a constructive role in restoring normalcy in the country and in prove their relevance. Central to such an effort is the acknowledgement that the state of emergency was declared in response to the grave threat the country is facing. If politicians fail to grasp this core reality and still try to advance the specious argument that democracy is under threat, they may find themselves in a corner when the going really gets tough.