After
thirty three days of being appointed Prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba has used every
ounce of his cunning and skill in assembling together representatives from the CPN (UML)
and three other splinter political parties that were once represented in the dissolved
House of Representatives. Whether Deuba has become successful in forming an all party
(Sarbadaliya) government would depend on unbiased interpretation one would attach to the
word “Sarbadaliya”. It is totally redundant for us to enter into the contention.
That it is a Khichadi government of four parties, big and small, whose needs to go into
the government were more urgent than the needs of the country are utterly undeniable.
Indeed, there are quite a few new faces in this government and we would not tar them with
the brush of corruption right now but wait and see how they shape up in the coming days.
But the sad experiences of the leadership of the government leave us very little room for
optimism. And the glaring and irrefutable ground for this is the composition of the
cabinet. What is one to expect from a person who cannot even withstand small pressures?
We, indeed, cannot even visualize the constraints, which must have forced King Gyanendra
to make the volte face knowing fully well that it was sure to invite bitter criticisms.
Even though no angel need come from heaven to foretell us about the workings of the Deuba
government, we would forbear for some time and not jump to conclusions immediately.
Indeed, the top
priority for any government in our country at this time is the restoration of peace and
normalcy. And that can be possible only if we can impress upon the Maoist leadership the
utter indispensability of renouncing arms and turning to dialogues. And this again would
not only entail credibility but a lot of integrity in our negotiators – credibility
to deal with the Maoists and integrity to deal with our giant neighbor India, without
whose unflinching sincerity we will never solve this problem. As far the Maoists are
concerned, we have made ourselves unequivocally clear that it is high time for the Maoists
to realize their folly and decide to start dialogues. Of course, they have the right to
choose with whom they would like to negotiate; whether they want the King’s personal
nominees, the official representatives, persons from the civil society or ordinary Nepali
citizens. But they have to stop these killings and vandalisms without further ado. Instead
of persisting in deaths and destructions, had the Maoists concentrated in cleansing Nepali
politics of the rotten fishes that keep on poisoning and contaminating our national
politics, we would have had a very clean political pond by now. One thing the Maoists can
never afford to overlook is that Nepal’s dominating political leadership, at the
moment, is neither honest nor patriotic. And this has been proved umpteen times and needs
no more corroboration. Consequently, they must make firm resolution to deal only with
people who can safeguard the interests of the people and the country and who not only
sympathize with their concerns but would be willing to join hands with them if they decide
to pursue their goal peacefully. As far dealing with their giant neighbor is concerned,
the experiences of the last five decades must have taught us how to behave like
mature and experienced diplomats and statesmen. Despite the loud voiced deep-rooted
traditional, cultural and friendly relations between the two countries, the avoidable
hardships, difficulties and oppressions our small country has been bearing for more than
long fifty years are so evident that they need no elaborations. We can see them even
shutting our eyes. Indeed, we cannot ignore the small nation and big nation syndrome, the
India-locked geographical state of our country, the perennial gratitude our leadership
feel towards Indian leaders for striking the coup de grace to the authoritarian Rana
regime, the inherent servile attitude of our older political leaders and mortgaging their
conscience by a considerable section of our learned intelligentsia. On top of all these,
it is, indeed, very degrading to experience our statesmen and bureaucrats ignominiously
failing to defend the pride and honor of their sovereign and independent country. The most
recent and glaring example of our government trampling the honor of the country under foot
is the incident when six Indian intruders were arrested with illegal arms at the threshold
of the Nepali capital and unceremoniously released immediately and handed over to the
Indian embassy. There were no protests from our side, neither any apology from the
Indians. This is not the way international relations are pursued, howsoever close and
friendly. Since Sher Bahadur Deuba was both Home and Foreign Minister at that time he must
shoulder all the blame and come out with full explanation to the people. It is very
strange that even Palace has kept quite mum. If this is how, Prime Minister Deuba is
permitted to function we will soon be forced to believe that we would not stay the proud
citizens of a sovereign independent country. |
