A Decade Of Democracy

The country has successfully completed a decade of the restoration of the multiparty democracy gained after a struggle of 30 years and sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of people. This day (Chaitra 26) reminds us of the People’s Movement jointly spearheaded by the Nepali Congress and the UML under the leadership of the supreme leader of the NC Ganesh Man Singh that time has come for all of us to sincerely evaluate the pros and cons of the historical day. Though ten years is too short a period to evaluate its achievements and failures in meeting the challenges being faced by the country and whether multiparty democratic dispensation is going towards the right direction in the consolidation and strengthening of it. However, it is a day to pay our sincere homage to innumerable people who had fought relentlessly to usher in democracy so that the future generations may live in peace, prosperity and happiness. If we give a cursory glance at the decade of multiparty system except for those leaders and who have had access to power most of the people are heard complaining that the hard-earned democracy has not been that successful in fulfilling the aspirations of the general populace. It is but natural for them to have felt as such because some political parties had raised their aspirations high with false promises which cannot be fulfilled at any cost, just to lure them to vote for these parties.

Equally important is the fact that there are still some forces which are hell bent on rumouring that democracy is not suitable for the country and the illiterate people like us and it cannot meet the demands of the people. Unfortunately most of the political parties which surfaced after the restoration of the multi-party system do not seem to realise their responsibility in combating the rumour. More disheartening is the fact that most of the parties seem to have been occupied in being in power thereby projecting an image of power-hungry for themselves. This, as a result, has created an apathetic attitude towards then and through them towards democracy itself. It has become a sort of fashion to blame democracy for anything that goes wrong. But it is a reality that not democracy but the leaders who are responsible for defaming democracy due to their inept handling. It should also not be forgotten that the right to blame democracy for wrongdoing committed by the leaders is also given by the Constitution of the kingdom of Nepal 1990 AD which was the result of the People’s Movement. The three general elections and by-elections and the local elections were the testimony of the democratisation of the system which had been denied to the people in the preceding 30 years. The fault lies not on the system but on the actors who were unable to project the actual progress made during the period and deliver its message to the grassroots level.

The tremendous progress achieved in higher education, transportation sector, industrialization and infrastructure sectors and civil aviation and medical sectors and the involvement of the private sector as a result of the liberal policy adopted by the government are just a few examples of the development the decade has witnessed but unfortunately the message has not reached to the lowest strata of the society due to the inability of the successive governments and political parties in disseminating the information. Taking advantage of the w3eakness some people have been trying to defame the multi-party system itself and five years ago all of a sudden the Maoist insurgency surfaced in the form of the People’s Movement which has already killed more than 1200 people. So it has become necessary to all the political parties to sit together to come to consensus in tackling the national problems faced by the country and help nourish the nascent democracy and also work for the further consolidation and institutionalization of it.