By N. P. Upadhyaya Nepali
Telegraph Nepal
Kathmandu: Troubled Nepali politics awaits more
trying dilemma in the days ahead. Neither the State exists nor the state
sovereignty, this is what is the general mass feeling. The President is just
ceremonial who acts only when he gets instructions from above, it is widely
rumoured.
Moreover, the campaigners of the Republican
order instead of settling down their intra and inner party disputes appear more
interested in replacing the “caretaker” government being led by the JNU veteran
Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai with the sole objective of being in power once again.
The lust for power.
The Nepali Congress though possesses the right
to claim, as a matter of fact, the command of the next national unity
government, but the party’s inner wrangling doesn’t allow it to nominate the
candidate for the next Nepal PM for fear of
inviting a serious confrontation among the host of PM aspirants inside
the party. Dr. Shekhar Koirala is one more additional PM aspirant among the crowd.
The NC has, as distinctly visible; three
competing aspirants for the PM post, for example, Sushil Koirala, Sher Bahadur
Deuba and Ram Chandra Poudel.
The NC’s internal squabble for the PM post has
doubled the interest of the UML party which claims that if the Congress can’t
nominate its PM candidate then the party should endorse the UML party candidate
for the next Nepal PM post. Logic is there.
UML leader Oli is right in New Delhi now. May be trying his luck.
But the NC and the UML forget the fact that
unless PM Bhattarai vacates his present Chair, the parties can do little to
bring him down to the foot path. Thus the NC and the UML have collectively
approached the Nepal President and advised him to manage the ouster of PM
Bhattarai by using his special prerogatives. However, no such extra
constitutional powers remain under the sleeve of the President whose own
legitimacy has come already under questions.
Perhaps it is this Presidential helplessness
which has been providing PM Bhattarai to continue in office for long.
And why should Nepal President sack the
incumbent PM? What if Bhattarai pounces back on him under this or that pretext?
To boot, PM Bhattarai, July 23, 2012, made a
telephone call in the morning and congratulated his former mentor who has now
become the 13th President of Indian Republic. But he claimed the
other day that he is the President of all. Is he talking of the entire region?
The telephone talk between the two does speak
that both were in good terms. So why Pranav Mukherjee should put his extra
efforts in replacing the one which could be “used and overly used” in serving
the Indian security interests? He is not that fool to change the present day
Arabian horse.
As regards the Nepal President, mind it that
the new President of India has already tested the political acumen of Dr. Yadav
when the former, as a mere minister in Dr. Singh’s cabinet, had threatened Dr.
Yadav, May 3, 2009, ordering the latter to reinstate the sacked Nepal Army
Chief, Rukmangad Katwal.
This has set a precedence which by extension
mean that if the Indian high placed authorities instruct Nepal President to
sack Bhattarai then Dr. Yadav will beamingly exceed his constitutional limits
and act as per the Indian instructions and perhaps this is the prime reason as
to why he is not listening to the combined plea of the NC and the UML plus
other meagre parties wherein they have been repeatedly asking the help of Dr.
Yadav to get rid of the JNU political creature.
Now let’s talk something more interesting.
Dr. Shekhar Koirala, a NC leader together with
Krishna Prasad Sitaula who primarily managed the ouster of King Gyanendra with
the tacit support of RAW and the Maoists then residing in New Delhi is back
from a weeklong New Delhi trip.
His going to Delhi is no news. But what is
news, indeed a juicy one, is his secret meet with Indian Queen, Sonia’s
International relations Advisor, Dr. Karan Singh. Singh is a close relative of
Nepal’s sidelined King Gyanendra who had stood as a witness at the last minute of
the 2006 uprising when a document (presumably) was signed in between the seven
party alliance and the King wherein it had been apparently stated that “the
King will give a new lease of life to the then dead parliament and that
Monarchy in Nepal will continue sine die”.
Dr. Koirala’s meet with Muni and Sita Ram
Yechury assumes no significance in that these Indian nationals have already
become a foot path commodity who neither can provide wise counsels to Dr.
Koirala nor could have a say in the future politics of Nepal. They both could
be taken as failed Indians but then yet they damaged Nepal to what they longed
for. Yes Dr. Koirala’s meet with the would be King of Kashmir (unfortunately he
couldn’t and later reconciled his fate) must have some meaning. It is presumed
that Dr. Singh may have reminded the junior Koirala to listen to the now
sidelined King’s assertion that the document that had been signed at the last
hour of the conclusion of the last movement be honoured.
The Koiralas’ may not agree, arrogant as they
are that by sidelining the King, the Maoists have accomplished their primary
agenda. The agenda-2 of theirs is definitely to wipe out the parliamentary
forces, mainly the Nepali Congress. And look the present day status of the NC.
Some even opine that it remains no longer a party. Others say the party is decaying fast and one
fine morning it will cease to exist and this is what the Maoists wish.
The Janjati issue has already plagued the UML.
The Koiralas and the Nepali monarchy were never
in good terms in the past yet both needed each other for a variety of
compelling reasons.
Matured analysts suggest the NC leaders that if
they want to exist as a “democratic party”, as they claim for themselves, must
revisit late B. P. Koirala’s reconciliation theory and act accordingly or their
political extinction is approaching fast. A mid way theory.
Late BP though recognised the Nepali monarchy
as a feudal and antidemocratic institution but yet also had sensed that the
King can be made to follow democratic norms and also felt the need that the
Nepali monarchy was a must in Nepal given the instability in this part of the
world. The Sikkim annexation made late B.P. to realise the importance of
monarchy, matured analysts opine.
The situation apparently is still valid.
However, this should not mean that we at this paper champion the case of the
return of Monarchy. Whether it returns or remains in oblivion will make no
difference neither to this paper nor for those analysts who were with us at
this paper. To analyse is our main job.
But what is for sure is that the NC can’t
survive as a party if it doesn’t revisit BP’s reconciliation theory.
Yet the interesting part of the whole story has
been that Dr. Koirala left for Delhi around the time when Mohan Baidya left for
Beijing. Oli remains still in Nepal’s Mecca. Maoists leader Dharmendra Bastola
is also in Nai Dilli.
Notably, reports have it that the Chinese have
become extra sensitive observing Nepal’s fast political decaying phenomenon.
High placed sources claim that wherever Baidya went in Beijing and whomsoever
he met, all expressed their anxiety over the continuing Nepali political
fluidity and its possible way out.
Moreover, the Chinese enquired from Baidya
about the increasing threat to Nepali nationalism and Nepal’s territorial
integrity and sovereignty.
This does mean that the Chinese have already
guessed in advance that Nepal may soon come under the grip of an unprecedented
political mayhem which may eventually hit its own security interests to which
she perhaps may not tolerate. Chinese sensitivity is for real.
It is widely believed that Baidya will be back
in Kathmandu, today, loaded with meaningful assurances from China. Yet another
“strong nationalist” team is heading for China, informed sources claim.
But will peace and tranquility prevail in Nepal
only with the likely support of China ?
Some matured analysts forcefully claim that
both India and China in some way or the other have converged together in
providing political stability in Nepal as an unstable Nepal neither will be in
the overall interest of China nor of India.
Chinese concern is genuine for some
understandable reasons.
No wonder then the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal,
Yang Houlan met with the chairman, Sharad Chandra Dhakal, of a meagre political
party in the recent days and asked about the likely course of the politics of
the nation after the death of the CA body.
What transpired in between the two is not clear
yet what we have been informed is that the Chinese envoy forwarded several
questions mainly related with ‘ifs and buts’ and Mr. Dhakal answered his each
and every question wherein he is supposed to have told the Chinese authority
that a roundtable conference including the sidelined King’s participation was a
must now or the country is sure to approach a precipice soon.
This event could very much be linked with how
and what the Beijing authorities may have talked with Mohan Baidya. How Baidya
explained Nepal’s present day situation is any body’s guess.
For the road: Former Indian Ambassador Shyam
Saran was here in Kathmandu, July 11, 2012. He was on his way to Bhutan for a
seminar and had made Kathmandu a two day transit. He was spotted by some
investigative Nepali journalists at Hotel yak and Yeti and out of fear, Saran
took the flight to Paro the next day of his being spotted.
During his mysterious trip to Kathmandu, he met
with Chairman Prachanda and forced him to be soft towards the Indian regime, to
which he complied with, while presenting his 40 page long report presented at
the “disturbed” seventh plenum. Apart from this, Saran had a lavish luncheon
with Nepal’s veteran politician Amresh Kumar Singh.
In the process, he met with Sushil Koirala and
Ram Chandra Poudel. On July 12, 2012, Saran met with Chairman Khanal and Madhav
Nepal.
Yet for no fault of Mr. Yub Raj
Ghimire, he pounced upon this senior Nepali journalist and made the latter to
apologise for what he wrote about his presence in his weekly
paper. This speaks of the highhandedness of the Indian diplomats, even retired
ones, who wish to tame the Nepali journalists as and when they prefer to do so.
Our sympathy to the mentally tortured one.
In sum, Nepal is awaiting a political cyclone
sooner than later.
# For further details of Shyam Saran's Nepal
secret visit, read the Jana-Ahwan Weekly dated July 13, 2012. It is a
front page story.
Courtesy: Telegraphnepal.com
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