Exploitation of poor by rich, rural by urban ones and uneducated by elite groups have weakened the base of Nepalese nationalism

-Lal Babu Yadav, Patan Multiple Campus, T.U

He is friendly to all. He is helpful as well. He has been closely watching the political ups and downs since day one of this newly restored order in the 1990s. He wishes to see a fully democratic Nepal in which the leaders manning the system exhibit their total allegiance to the system now in place. However, he gets frustrated at times when he if forced to watch ugly scenes in the nation's politics. He is pro-poor and thinks that unless the marginalized sections of the society are well taken care of by the establishment, the word democracy would only remain rhetoric.

Lal Babu Yadav currently teaches at the Patan Multiple Campus. He did his Masters Degree in the discipline of Political Science from the Tribhuvan University.

Yadav hails from Terai. Precisely speaking, he belongs to the Rautahat area from where UML stalwart Madhav Nepal too hails. However, he is independent in his political thinking.

Lal Babu possesses vast experience in research activities. For example, he was associated with the processing of Household Survey conducted in Lamjung; Political parties and Parliamentary process in Nepal, DANIDA/Polsan, 1992; Impact of Seventh Plan on the life of the people in Nepal,CEDA/NPC 1992; Collapse of Panchayat Regime: A Fifty days of pro-democracy movement in Nepal 1990, CEDA 1991; and Farmers and their existing organizations: An evaluation of the farmer led small irrigation USAID/CEDA 1990.

He has also some publications to his credit. "Power to the People" in promoting participatory democracy in Nepal; Republican State: Continuity and Change in political parties and parliamentary process in Nepal and "Political Communication: A Nerve of polity" are some of his publications which elevated him to the ranks of Katmandu's circuit of intellectuals.

Yadav is currently affiliated to few professional societies such as executive member of the Polsan; and Vice chairman of the Rautahat development trust. Lal Babu Yadav teaches Modern Political Theory and Nepalese Politics and Public Administration.

Last week we approached this "friendly" scholar for an exclusive interview. Below the results: Chief editor.

TGQ1": How do you characterize Nepal's current political situation?

Yadav: The country is heading towards multi-faceted crisis. Economically, population growth has out-stripped food production, privatization and liberalization for rent seeking caused the closure of many factories, job lay-off, decline in national revenue and stagnation of agriculture sector. Socially, crisis in livelihoods have caused social disintegration, aggravated social tensions, specially on linguistic, ethnic, racial and cultural grounds, increased the exploitation of poor by the rich, rural by urban areas, uneducated by elite groups and as a result, weakened the base of nationalism, social capital and harmony. Politically, we are facing a crisis of governability. This crisis stems from

(a) lack of ownership of government and its policies,
(b) deteriorating the performance legitimacy of the system,
(c) revivalist and ultra-leftists trends in politics,
(d) undemocratic and authoritarian tendency of ruling political class,
(e) polarized bureaucracy and, and
(f) slavish tendency of civil society and intellectuals.

These trends have left the donors in a horn of dilemma: if they support the political class with their assistance programs it will only perpetuate the status quo, a status quo which according to K.P.Bhattarai is controlled by Mafia and criminals who were responsible to destabilize him and his reform programs. Alternatively, supporting the opposition is undesirable option. Donors' twice warned about the grave situation of the country to Prime Minister G.P.Koirala in the past which were unheeded by him. And now the same person is in power whose decisions on a number of issues, such as Tanakpur, Dhamija, labour act, citizenship act, and work-permit for non-Nepalese were nullified by the Court declaring un-constitutional. A man who does not understand the spirit of the constitution is prone to be anti-democratic. Many ill-famous ministers who were sidelined by K.P.Bhattarai have taken hold of key ministries. This denotes that crisis will further mount in the governance in the country.

TGQ2: What measures do you suggest to solve the current "crisis of governability in the country"?

Yadav: Nepal needs a series of national debates of sustained kind in order to improve the governance underway. Many things essential for descent society, such as human touch to the poor, protection of their dignity, promotion of social justice, good education and public action have to be created so that a political culture of parochialism, extrinsic governance and the negative effects of patronage political economy can be overcome. A society which celebrates individual competition, while weakening the institution's protecting public goods is bound to unleash terror in the long run because individual gains discount the environment, gender justice and social sphere. A culture of national consensus ought to be evolved among the political parties of multiple hues, sustained democratic dialogues of political parties should be promoted among themselves and with the civil society, parliament must be made effective in three fronts: representation, policy formulation and conflict resolution so that opposition moves do not take extra constitutional posture etc.

A crisis of governance is a crisis in the personal life of the Nepalese citizens. To check the ever growing crisis, the  government of Nepal must take initiatives in multiple fronts and try to delink one crisis spilling over or causing to another crisis. Secondly, constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal must be made a visionary document to steer the behavior of all the relevant social actors. Thirdly, those transcending constitution practices should be brought to book and be subjected to court trial. And finally, distributive role of the state must be expanded so that class hegemony in politics combined with caste features stopped and social integration process become key to the formation of political community and nation building process. This is the way to check both alienation politics and aspirational maneuver. A lack of real democratization process and establishment of civic culture has caused the current crisis in Nepal. As political parties are the keys to governance they must be democratized as per the vision of the constitution.

TGQ3: What roles do you suggest for the opposition political parties in bringing the politics of the country in a right direction?

Yadav:  Opposition political parties have enough roles to play in both governance and development process. We have in Nepal three kinds of oppositional politics: first, the main-opposition political party CPN-UML is placed in the political spectrum of "third way" between radical Maoist political party which is waging People's War, the relatively less radical CPN-ML and small anti-system parties on the one hand and the far right Rastriya Prajatantra Party-RPP and the centrist NC on the other. In this context, in the fight between Bhattarai and Koirala camp in the establishment, UML can neither support either of them fully because the objectives of both the camps are to stay in power by any means, sell national wealth for private benefits and concentrate power in their coterie and families. This is the reason why they are weakening Local Self-Governance by initiating "B.P with the Poor", "Ganeshman Peace Campaign", and "Janjagriti" etc. Secondly, out of ten years of democracy they remained in power for eight years and we can see the effects of damage in series they have incurred in the fronts of poverty, debt, dependence and others. The radical opposition party to the NC will surely tarnish the image of CPN-UML and possibly revolutionize the population. This situation has helped the Maoists' to engage in rural politics in order to fill the spaces left vacant by centralized politics of main stream political parties and consolidate their base. CPN-ML's lack of any roles in the parliament or in concrete political space outside it has projected its "agitational role", which is helpful not to establishment but to the Maoists' to erode the base of main stream parties without expanding its own. In this context, the best course for the CPN-UML is to make a joint front with nine left parties, enter into a coalition with the RPP and play a role of stable opposition so that people consider that real opposition is the CPN-UML. Then it should pressurize the government in solving the problems faced by the people. The three points raised by the King regarding ensuring free and fair elections, solution of Maoists problem and promulgation of act on political parties must be seriously taken care of and persuade sincerely to respond to it.

TGQ4: Is Maoist problem tractable, if it is , what are the desirable strategies in your opinion please?

Yadav: In order to solve the Maoists problem one should know what caused it. Without cause, there is no effect. Political neglect of the people of far-western Nepal (which now appears a stronghold of Maoists' activities) by the government and then the main stream political parties and the institutions' of governance alienated the people of the area. Secondly, centralizing economic, political and social policies of the government weakened any possibility of development of this area and even caused death by hunger, disease and underdevelopment. Third, cut in subsidies due to "minimalist" state policies further undermined the distributive, regulative and penetrative capacity of the government while the overuse of police in law and order projected the image of the government as "repressive" to popular needs and aspirations. This provided fertile ground for the "young Turks" Maoists' to reflect on the situation of the people and dedicate themselves in articulating popular demands in the beginning and after official repression to jump into radical movement.

One must learn the lesson of JVP movement of Sri Lanka, which grew in proportion to the cut of the subsidies. The current dilemma is: should the government step up food subsidy to the people or increase police profile and their armaments to crush the human rights of the people. A democratic regime opts for the first option while dictatorial regime opts for the second option. Once this is decided, only the dialogues set for the resolution for the problem makes some sense otherwise, negotiations ends in the negotiations, agreeing to disagree and achieving nothing except the wastage of time, resources and money.

TGQ5: What role media can play in improving the political situation of the country?

Yadav: Media has tremendous role to play in improving the governance provided it serves as watchdog, rather than a lapdog or a walk-dog. It can help in three ways: first, by establishing the constitutional right to information; second, educating and informing the public; and third, helping to check the harmful activities of the government and speaking truth to power.

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