Whither
Nepalese Politics?
Many people have defined
politics in different fashion perhaps all suiting to their political interests and
inclinations. Moreover so the political scientists consider politics as the politics of
the State which is true in essence. It is these political scientists who study, analyze
and criss-cross the events that are political in nature and arrive at a conclusion which
others adopt later. However, there is a set of scholars, who consider, writes W. Phillips
Shively in his book "Power and Choice" that politics is often "considered a
corrupt and debasing profession that no self-respecting person would consider
entering". Whether it is a debasing profession where only the corrupts come in to the
national scene is debatable as there were a host of other school of thoughts who would
summarily reject the above-mentioned school of thought. Politics, for example, for those
who have plunged themselves in to this noble profession should have come as a reward if
the person practicing this profession belonged to the ruling party. Those who belonged to
the opposition at a particular time, perhaps would also console themselves as it has been
rightly said that the opposition is the "’government in the making". This
clearly means that politicians belonging to both the domains possess a chance to enjoy
from politics. While the former is currently enjoying, the other has to wait some time.
More so practicing politics in
the developing world, especially in this part of South Asia, has become a fashion for so
many seen and unseen reasons. For example, even in our own country, the entire population
appears to have become political since the restoration of this political dispensation.
Apart from the declared
politicians running the system today, a special phenomenon has been that Nepalese
bureaucracy too has followed the suit and is apparently serving the interests of the
political forces as per its affiliation. One could find political leaders in the
university, schools, film actors association, and federation of Nepalese journalists, bar
association to the extent that even the Supreme Court judges have been found indulged in
party politics. If it was not so why then some political parties or for that matter some
leaders possessed special love for a particular judge or judges at time of their
promotion? The judiciaries in the past deliberate or otherwise, had been dragged into
politics much to the displeasure of the common laymen and to the detriment of the
credibility of the judiciary itself. Recall the verdict of SC Chief Justice who overturned
Prime Minister Adhikari’s wish to go to the polls. And recall how Prime Minister
Thapa’s wish to go to the polls was summarily rejected by the competent Supreme
Court. In both cases the judiciary had to witness furore against its sacrosanct verdict.
Nepalese politics appears to have matured enough to the extent that our leaders even not
spare the courts and suspect the motives of the judges as and when there is a verdict of
national importance.
There have been some instances
wherein the SC judges have given dissimilar verdicts on almost same political events that
had hit the media headlines in the recent past.
No one can remain aloof from
politics, it appears. As such, it has been pretty difficult for me to find over these
years’ person or persons who possess an entirely independent view on any particular
political event. Here again, some scholars argue that there could be no situation wherein
one could remain independent in an overly politicized society such as ours. Some even
disown the word independent, as it is simply "impossible" for a human being to
remain independent true to the spirit of the word. A man has been described as a
"political animal" by the science that governs politics in today’s world.
Thus the word independent becomes redundant. This means that a person whatsoever his claim
might be can’t remain neutral or independent on a particular political issue. He
would definitely take a side and that would be considered politics.
Nepali politics is interesting.
Here Sujata Jost, a German lady is allowed to intervene into "internal affairs"
of this country. Our lawmakers have become political for the protection of their special
rights and privileges. They are not interested in Nepal’s genuine national interests.
Nepalese media men to have been playing politics and possess some political masters whose
guidance could be seen in their reporting. No body writes for the nation. The whole
atmosphere has become political. Politics for personal ends, not for the country. Some
lawmakers reportedly ran brothels. They did politics to save themselves from police raid.
Even police officers are playing politics either to promote themselves to higher posts or
with a view to refrain from going to the Maoists affected districts out of fear.
Without politics one can not
live in this country. Forget independence and neutrality. Align yourself and enjoy the
benefits perennially. The sum total of ten years of democratic system except a few
tangible gains indeed. How Nepalese politics has faired all along these years, Dr.
Pandey’s interview in this issue would definitely reveal. After all it is this lot of
the political scientists who analyze the events based on established political theories. |
