By Prakash Bom in New York
Change with the changing time: ‘Everyone must change with the changing time.’ This is the statement of the Prime Minister and the president of Nepali Congress [the party’s name should be Nepali Congress (Traditional) for its policies] prior to the signing of the peace accord agreements. There are few prominent party cadres behind Girija Prasad Koirala who are against the current of the changing time. On the other hand, the youth leaders of Nepali Congress (T) are demanding the abolition of monarchy and establishment of Democratic Republic.
The recent meeting of the Nepali Congress (Democratic)’s district committee presidents recommended the party to go for a federal republic order. General Convention of Nepali Congress (D) is expected to endorse it. How long would it take to Nepali Congress (T) leadership to understand the demand of the changing times? How about following the path of Nepali Congress (D) or as per one of the NC central working committee members Narahari Acharya’s call for the General Convention of the party to democratically process the changing time?
It is absolutely necessary for eight political parties to democratize their party organizations if they see the urgency to change with the changing time. The historic change will not be effective in the long run if eight parties advocate Democracy yet lack in democratization of their party organizations.
Establishing the ‘Rule of Law’: Nepal celebrated the end of the Maoist insurgency after the government and the rebel signed a historic peace accord recently. The world community has supported the agreement. It is indeed a historic national achievement of eight political parties for people of Nepal. The nation desperately needed dissolution of the feudal oligarchic government establishments of two hundred fifty years old institution of monarchy with which the norms and principles of democracy cannot be reconciled. The fundamental cause of the sufferings and backwardness of people of Nepal has been the policies opted by the monarchy at various times including regressive actions. Democracy has been a threat to monarchy, civil liberty its enemy. Anti-democratic measures were demonstrated nakedly during the people’s movement II the king and findings of High Level Probe Commission proved that. The time has ripened for people of Nepal, for eight political party leaderships to establish the rule of law by acting on the HLPC findings and implementing its recommendations.
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Comments
15 responses to “Nepali Congress Go For Change”
For “Rule of Law” to be adopted, there must be Another High Level Probe Commission to find excess done by Maoist and State After Feb 13, 1996.
Otherwise, whatever done on unilateral way, it will be only “Law of Rule” not “Rule of Law”.
Prakash Boom,
You are in New York and you maybe expecting country like Nepal should be run like that kind of democracy where people are equal and people will get equal opportunities. But scenario of Nepal is totally different, where leaders and their activist can only get the chance to enjoy the democracy. The rule of law whether existing or not even becoming doubtful to the people even after Janaandolan-2. Also, you might not know the strategy of the maoist to abolish the monarchy system and merging the PLA into NA. Girija, although not a good leader, he maybe knowing the future of congress and democracy. He might be trying to play safe game for the existence of the congress and democracy to balance the maoist’s so called socialist democray, that might be same as mentioned by Lenin in USSR before communist rule.
NEPALI CONGRESS (DEMOCRATIC) AND NEPALI CONGRESS (Traditional/Koirala)
Nepali Congress should definitely be called as Nepali Congress (Traditional) as it has not been able to come out of the sad legacy of Family Politics and corrupt system of politics. Lot of people call it as Nepali Congress (Koirala), which seems a right name for it as well.
Whether its Nepali Congress (Traditional) or Nepali Congress (Koirala), we all should remember that Nepali Congress (Democratic) was formed due to go against the sad legacy of family politics which had infected Nepali Congress.
Lets face the fact, most of the second generation leaders and young leaders of Nepali Congress supported Nepali Congress (Democratic) as this was thought to be a party which would break family politics and sad traditional legacy.
Though Nepali Congress (Democratic) has really established itself as a party which is open to new ideas and thought provoking open discussions, which can be seen by its recent meeting of District Committee presidents, even Nepali Congress (Democratic) have not been entirely successful in being a fully democratic party.
What is needed is a full democratization of bot Nepali Congress (Tradititional/Koirala) and Nepali Congress (Democratic).
I think the first step to follow even before democratization is to clean the party of corrupt leaders and activists.
Let Sujata Koirala, Govinda Raj Joshi, Khum Bahadur Khadka, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Chiranjibi Wagle, Bal Bahadur KC, Gopal Man Shrestha, Prakash Man Singh and all the corrupt leaders retire. The party should in fact kick them out.
Bid adieu to them then only Nepali Congress (Democratic) and Nepali Congress (Koirala) will earn respect of the people.
Otherwise both these parties might face their worst outcome should an election to constituent assembly ever happens.
Well both Nepali Congress (Democratic) and Nepali Congress (Koirala) have many more dedicated leaders who have fought against the Panchayati regime and stood the test of time during democracy as well.
Bring these leaders to the forefront and see the process of democratization grow in Nepal.
Otherwise, both parties will be nothing more than synonym to corruptionized democratic parties.
Poor Bom.
Nobody likes to comment. Did not he stretched his importance too thin to moot over his articles by advising Nepalese here in home from that cozy American residence? Or did the bloggers took the articles of Bom and other NRN as tributes to NRN for their hospitality by UWG staffs in their foreign trip to take these articles seriously?
Its perhaps Nepali Nature, we like to talk against each other, and there are more comments when people get a chance to disgrace others.
However, when people give constructive criticisms to institutionalize democracy, then people get awe-struck.
I think its high time that we should promote thougts as have been presented by Mr Bom, though I think he should write a bit longer version of this blog.
Prakash Bom-you are so correct about Girija’s party being, after the Maoist party, the most undemocratic in Nepal. I thank Girja for bringing the Maoists into the mainstream but I curse him for ruining the Nepali Congress with his family first ways.
About the enemies of democracy the worst enemy is not the king or the Maos but the so called democratic leaders and their so called democractic parties.
Hello bloggers,
Since Mr. Wagle did not publish the whole article here is the original one that I emailed to him.
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Change with the Changing Time to Democratize the Peace Accord
Establishing the ‘Rule of Law’:
On a historic day of the successful peace accord agreements whole nation celebrated the end of the Maoist insurgency. The world community has supported the agreements around the globe. It is indeed a historic national achievement of eight political parties for people of Nepal of whose leaderships have honestly dedicated their mind and hearts to the cause that needed national solidarity and reconciliation.
The nation desperately needed dissolution of the feudal oligarchic government establishments of two hundred fifty years old institution of monarchy with which the norms and principles of democracy cannot be reconciled. The peace accord has successfully established this fact as ground reality of the contemporary political issues of the nation.
The fundamental cause of the sufferings and backwardness of people of Nepal in this twenty first century have been the regressions instigated by the leaderships of this monarchy with its fanatic nuance to discriminating religious values and feudal oligarchic government executions.
Democracy has been a thread to this institution of the monarchy. It has despised civil liberty and initiated measures for human rights violation with its executive practice. Such anti-democratic measures were demonstrated nakedly during the people’s movement II by the leadership of the current monarchy. The evidence proved with the findings of High Level Probe Commission’s Reports.
The time has ripen for people of Nepal, for eight political party leaderships, for the interim Parliament and for the interim government to establish the rule of law with the fact finding reports of HLPC and its recommendations for legislating the new law in the interim constitution. This will justify the people’s aspiration for the democracy and the rule of law. This will as well reinforce the agreements of the peace accord.
When the political party leaderships, the Parliament and the government are going to implement the rule of law under the oath that nobody is above the constitution is yet to be witnessed. But the day such premise of the constitution is seriously executed in the land of Nepal it will completely transform from its rotten political tradition of hierarchical feudalism. After shock will bury the tone of religious forgiveness under the rule of law.
Change with the changing time:
‘Everyone must change with the changing time’ – this is the plethoric statement of the Prime Minister of Nepal and the president of Nepali Congress (Traditional) prior to the signing of the peace accord agreements.
The President of Nepali Congress (T) GP Koirala as a Prime Minister of Nepal has made the history in his political career with his honest comprehension of the urgency of the nation’s political reality that needed immediate transformations.
However, it seems there are few prominent party cadres behind him with their traditional overtone in the party against the current of the changing time. Obviously the changing time shell is going to wipe out the doggedness of the attachments to the easy way-surviving network of feudal tradition.
On the other hand, the youth leaders of Nepali Congress (T) are demanding abolition of the monarchy and establishment of Democratic Republic. Perhaps youth leaders are able to see the time shell reaching to the point where Democratic Republic for the nation is inevitable.
The current meeting of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) party’s district committee presidents recommended the party to go for a federal republic order. Soon the General Convention of Nepali Congress (D) would get together to endorse it. This is how steps could be taken democratically in party organizations with the changing time.
How long would it take to Nepali Congress (T) leadership to surf on the wave of the changing time of the modern-day politics of Nepal? The Prime Minister and the President of Nepali Congress (T) said that Nepali congress is studying the situation and it is the tradition of the party to consider national and international salutations.
How about following the path of Nepali Congress (D) or as per one of the NC central working committee members Narahari Acharya’s call for the General Convention of the party to democratically process the changing time?
NC (D) has made its party stance clear by calling district presidents’ council meeting to decide on current fundamental political issues like ‘republic or ceremonial monarchy’ with democratic process. NC (D) has initiated fundamental changes in its party organization from hierarchical structure to the democratic process.
It seems NC (D) is far ahead with democratic process from NC (T). It is time for NC (T) to follow the path of NC (D) in the area of party organizations with democratic process. However, NC (D) must not follow at this point the footsteps of NC (T).
It is absolutely necessary for eight political parties to democratize their party organizations if they see the urgency to change with the changing time. The historic change will not be effective in the long run if eight parties advocate Democracy yet lack in democratization of their party organizations.
The recommendation of the district presidents of Nepali Congress (D) for federal democratic structure is praiseworthy in the changing time of the modern-day politics of Nepal.
All in all, the changing time has won the heart and mind of majority of Nepali people for democratic republic state. Hopefully soon people will come to the realization that ‘Federal Democratic Republic Structure’ is the way to restructure the nation.
Ultimately people change with the changing time in order to choose those political parities whose party organization is more democratic. Simply such a choice guarantees people’s civil liberty and their human rights protections. People who strive for Democracy will not jeopardize their civil liberty.
Dear Mr Bom,
The earlier blog that you posted was a nice one but I did felt that it was rather incomplete and requested you (decently) to post a longer version.
Nepali Congress (Democratic) is of course very liberal with democratization of it party, which can be seen by their recent activities. The party is also blessed with 5 Past Presidents of Nepal Bidhyarthi Sang, and if you look at the list of its District Presidents of Nepali Congress (Democratic), you will find clean and unsung heroes of democracy, most of whom had fought for restoration of democracy in the country and suffered from Panchayati System.
It is worth mentioning that Nepali Congress (Democratic) Kathmandu District Committe Convention held nearly a year ago (when Deuba was in Prison due to Shahi Ayog) during Kings Direct rule pioneered to decide and recommend that party should go for repulicanism, and it seems that the idea is gaining popularity, thanks also due to success of Jana-Andolan.
However, I am very sure that Girija Prasad will continue to rule the Congress Party with his own oligarchs. Sad to say this, but majority of people who are still in Nepali Congress (Traditiona/Koirala) have got no choice but to be puppets of Girija and Sujata Koirala.
Prakash Bom
There is no party in Nepal such as Nepali Congress(T), nor Girija Prasad Koirala is president of that party. The only trouble with royal supporters like Shahs, Ranas, Thapas, Mallas and Boms is to accept Koirala leadership of the country. They egged on Deuba to split Nepali Congress, the main obstacle to the monarchy, without any ideological reason and nurtured him till he was an useful pawn. Where were people like Prakash Bom before the April revolution? Parading in anti-Nepalese people rally organized by ex-Mandales under the then Nepalese ambassy auspeces.
Now when GP Koirala brought this country from chaos to this peaceful position, he wants to discredit Nepali Congress and GP of behalf of Deuba(who was never for a solution and who had only one disgrunt till now with the monarch that the monarch dismissed him and jailed, though he did all what the monarch ordered him to do). And what is Nepali Congress(D) without Sher Bahadur Deuba and his royalist supporters? As one swallow doen make a summer, a few resolutions here and there do not make a party democratic or revolutionary. They should have a history of struggle for the cause. So, dear Bom! Please,don’t devaluate Nepali Congrsss with a history of long struggle comparing it with another, promulgated as a Shahi Congress on the monarch desire, and don’t use D and T to parallel them.
Mr Raj,
You said that GP Koirala brought this country from chaos to this peaceful position. Could you please tell me who was the architect to bring our country to CHAOS to begin with?
Toppling down its own majority government, Sidelining/marginalizing opponents within and outside the party, politicising at rank and file, encouraging corruption by promoting corrupt leaders, etc were the reason how Maoist got the fertile grounds to grow.
Congress will never change until this party is democrtized. So far it is running under the family coterie of Mr Girija who is agile (85+) who wants to die while on chair and he does not want to take sin by displeasing his incarnation of Vishnu (Gyane in this case) and go to hell. Believe me problem to democrize this country is due to congress. They are only pseudo democrats so sar and Girija is the feudal lord.
Hey Raj,
I happened to be with the family name Bom. But do not try to put each and every individual in the same basket.
This is call stereotype attitude or in legal term discriminative calling. Learn to be politically correct in using terms on ethnic groups.
Remember Thir Bom Malla, the martyr.
Where I was before and during Janandolan II. Two times visited Nepal meetings friends to fight against the terror of the illegimate king Gyanendra. I advocated that the Gyanendra is illegimate the way he became the king. He has by force took the crown. He has staged the late king Birendra family massacre.
During Janandolan I have published articles against the king with direct criticism of his dictatorship on Kathmandu Post daily.
(You can read my articles on http://www.nynepalitimes.com/ , http://www.nepalhorizon.com and other internet blogs)
In New York I participated almost in all programs, protests and I even met the President of Nepali Cogress (D) Sher Bahadur Deupa at Columabia University program.
I was actively involved as every Nepali people who did not sleep, rest and eat well before knocking down the monarchy.
Do not say that only you and your Nepali Congress (T) fought in the Janandolan. But all Nepali people participated in Janaandolan as much as they could.
There may be few even in among New York Nepali residents they supported Gyanendra, especially from Ridgewood, New York. There was rumour that they were paid by the royal government.
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So coming to the point that I have not tried to defame the Nepali Congress (T) for being regressive without changing in changing time.
The call for everybody must change came from the Party President GPK and yet no attempt for change means hypocritical.
Nepali Congress has already dismantled the ceremonial monarchy during its cetral memebers meeting. But now time to stand with the people’s aspiration for democratic republic is the change that Nepali Cogress (T) needs.
This is inevitable whether Nepali Cogress (T) change or does not change even calling everyone to change.
But at this point and time Nepal Cogress (D) must not merge back to Nepali Cogress (T). Rather it should lead the Democratic movement for Federal Republic of Nepal.
You need the geniune Democratic force or public support to establish the working democratic institutions in Nepal.
If we do in a right way Nepal can be prosperous country in South Asia. You many not see this but it is feasible. From every aspect of economic developments.
raj is one of the glorious SPA. Hail to thee!
Raj,
Please update your information before commenting on anything.
You seem to be totally ignorant of Nepalese Politics. Where were you during Jana Andolan, the time after Royal Takeover and Jana Andolan 2?
Nepali Congress broke up into two faction because some SELFISH ELEMENTS in the party (namely Sujata Koirala, Sushil Koirala, Arjun Narshing KC and rest of the puppetary team) urged Girija Prasad Koirala, the most corrupt Nepali Politician and a disgrace in the name of politicians not to support his party’s own leader.
Girija Prasad Koirala should have supported his party’s elected Prime Minister i.e. Sher Bahadur Deuba who was elected by the Member of Parliaments of Nepali Congress but instead he chose to oppose his party’s own leader. Majority of Mahasamiti members opposed the move of Girija Prasad Koirala and decided to go call a new convention of the party. The scenario that folded led to rise of Nepali Congress (Democratic).
Nepali Congress (Democratic) is not just about Sher Bahadur Deuba. It consists of a thousands of ex-members of Nepali Congress and hundreds of leaders who have been fighting for democracy since 2017.
NO PARTY WILL BE ABLE TO DEVELOP ITS ORGANIZATION SO RAPIDLY JUST ON THE SUPPORT OF DARBARIYAS. NEPALI CONGRESS (DEMOCRATIC) HAS OF COURSE BEEN THE TARGET OF DARBARIYAS (MANDALES) AND MAOISTS.
IF YOU THINK THAT SUPPORT OF DARBARIYAS WOULD BE ABLE TO FORM A PARTY OF CALIBRE OF NEPALI CONGRESS DEMOCRATIC, THEN WHY IS IT THAT ALL THOSE SMALL PARTIES UNDER SURYA BAHADUR THAPA, KAMAL THAPA, RAJESHWOR DEVKOTA, KUBER SHARMA, PASHUPATI SHUMSHER RANA AND SO MANY OTHER DARBARIYAS NEVER FLOURISHED.
I BELIEVE GIRIJA PRASAD IS THE WORST CRIMINAL IN THE NAME OF DEMOCRACY AND STRONGLY SUPPORT THE ACTION TAKEN BY BRAVE DEMOCRATS TO GO AGAINST HIM AND HIS CORRUPT DAUGHTER SUJATA KOIRALA.
LA-UDA……GIRIJA LA-UDA…..SUJATA…LA-UDA….SUSHIL ….LA-UDA…I HOPE THAT SOON NEPALI CONGRESS ACTIVISTS WILL HAVE THE BALLS TO KICK TO KICK THESE OLIGARCHS FROM PARTY.
By the way, what’s our friend Thomas Marks up to? It appears he’s decided to fix his sights elsewhere.
PEACE IN OUR TIME: Munich in the Himalayas
By Thomas A. Marks
You have to hand it to the “Fierce One.” A man oversees the greatest crimes Nepal has ever experienced, and now he’s being hailed as a peacemaker?
What has to be watched, of course, is what happens now that the paper has been signed. “Talk’s cheap,” as the saying goes.
This is how it was with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Daniel Ortega was the smiling face, and behind the scenes the behavior of the Sandinista version of “Maoism” alienated tens of thousands by stealing their land and meager belongings in the name of “socialist” solutions. They poured into the resistance movement called the contras.
The left to this day tries to portray the contras as a creature of the CIA. They can’t deal with the reality: the Americans couldn’t even run fast enough to keep up with the popular upheaval. Literally, say my friends (both American and Nicaraguan) who were involved in the campaign, the American effort simply could not arm all the peasants who showed up demanding the right to fight the regime.
In Nepal, a similar popular upheaval looms. For promises have been made to the Maoist cadres and militia which simply cannot be kept — there aren’t enough belongings to steal from those who “have” in order to pass out to those who “have not.” The Maoists have already displayed their way of dealing with this reality. Thus the rampant lawlessness which has afflicted the land.
Where does the crime come from? From grand promises that can not possibly be kept. Hence Maoist-inspired young people “take,” following the violent methodologies that continue to be sanctioned by the movement itself.
At some point, reality always must set in. The Maoists are split, and they have, in positions of power and in command of rejectionist factions, some very ideological, very nasty types who continue to be purveyors of violence. In their minds, they haven’t engaged in struggle to be consigned to the lower end of the pecking order. They expect positions, jobs, money – and they can only get these from others.
In other words, for Nepal, the question looms urgently: how to “give” when there’s nothing to “give”? The Maoists have convinced their following that there really is gold “in them thar valleys,” if only they assert the right of those from the hills to seize the “ill-gotten wealth” of those in the valleys – and to take the land in the hills themselves from those who have it now. That there are objective reasons for Nepal’s poverty is a message lost in the Maoist cant concerning “exploitation.”
Why should the beliefs of the Maoists matter in an era of loktantra, of “peace in our time”?
The phrase is that used by Neville Chamberlain as he waved his paper, signed by “Herr Hitler,” in which the Nazi leader promised – for a mere country (it was Czechoslovakia) – that he would behave. He didn’t, the world vanished in the flames of the Second World War, and Chamberlain died in disgrace.
There are many contenders for the Chamberlain role in Nepal. What to think, for instance, of the investigating committee who, gazing out at the charnel house their world has become, tries to lay the blame not at the feet of the Red Nazis but of the hapless monarch? Can it really be forgotten that it was the same “peace in our time” Koirala whose feud with Deuba incapacitated Nepali democracy, even as the Maoists ran rampant and destroyed everything there was to be destroyed, even the innocence of Nepali youth? What had the king to do with any of that?
Was his crime that he fought the criminals? True, “peace in our time” demands that no such awkward discussion occur. Editors in Kathmandu’s “periodicals of record” have ordered just this, lest “peace be endangered,” as one was heard to state. No one especially is to mention the heinous crimes committed by the Maoists! Or the disgusting pseudo-revolutionary verbiage of the UML! Instead, we are to focus on the lathi charges of the police during April!
Faced with the awkward reality that there are no laws that make the acts of the “202 and the monarch” crimes, the esteemed committee has suggested that appropriate statutes be passed hastily so that charges can be rendered. In such shameless action, we see the face of the looming new order. Not surprisingly, the same approach was used by Mao himself, who made Hitler look inefficient as a butcher.
As we have discussed before, the Maoists see themselves as accepting the surrender of the old-order, not as having reached a compromise agreement.
There will be no “demobilization” upon their part as we would interpret the word. There will be a thuggish infiltration of all elements of the system in an effort to neutralize the remaining power of the old-order from within, in particular to destroy the army.
The Maoists still have as a goal to cashier the entire NA officer corps and to replace the individuals with their own people. They give press conferences claiming this is an objective.
They are not sure what to do with all the NA enlisted ranks, but they do know they must integrate their own manpower into the existing forces in such manner as to be able to checkmate anything the government does.
What Nepal has stumbled into, of course, is an unwillingness to grapple with specifics. Instead, the demand is that vacuity be embraced, with specifics (aka “reality”) left until later.
What is necessary now, since the “peace in our time” deed is signed (turning over the keys to the house, so to speak), is for the government to have clear in its mind a framework into which actions are to feed – and a plan for what to do as the Maoist violations continue.
It must further make at least a feeble effort to move beyond the politics of personalism and to articulate a vision of democracy that stands in contrast to the worn socialist solutions being advanced by the Maoists.
As a useful start, “peace in our time” must be used as a political rallying point to hold the Maoists to account. Astonishingly, the Maoists keep claiming to see coup preparations by the old-order, when they should be looking to the streets and recognizing the self-defense wave that is mushrooming.
For they cannot have it both ways. Either they are “in control” and can “deliver” their followers to a peaceful solution. Or they are not in control. The claims that the rampant criminality is “exaggerated” or “concocted” only serve to tar them as powerless, clueless, or shameless prevaricators.
A coup is not the issue. “Civilian supremacy” is accepted by the security forces. But the way “the street” is playing itself out is very dangerous. For the government is not even talking to the security forces as it makes concessions that, should the present trajectory continue, ask the security forces to go as lambs to the slaughter.
That is being scripted by the Maoists, in speech after speech. For every attempt at soothing words, there is a chilling diatribe reiterating the themes of societal “reordering” that have been the Maoist mass line all along. It is significant that Prachanda in Nepali knows precisely what NOT to say in English, and vice versa.
Bhattarai is even more pointed, his message invariably boiling down to: “You fools of the old-order have demonstrated an inability to develop the country — now it is our turn. Give us the power, and we will see what comes from it.”
That’s a pretty lousy basis for anything lasting.
The midwife of all this, New Delhi, I suspect is congratulating itself at having supposedly dodged the Sri Lankan bullet. Unlike the IPKF experience, South Block has avoided casualties yet to stand at last on the threshold of domination of Nepal. Formal absorption is not desired, with all its attendant problems, just a Bhutan-like lapdog with no irritating displays of independence: a “union territory” in all but name.
Neither can anything be expected from the international “mediators,” any number of whom (in their role as “the foreigners who would be gods”) are longtime, self-professed haters of the “old regime” — and the NA, in particular. “Process” is the name of the game with them.
Regrettably, “process” is simply another way of using “hope as method.” There are no t’s being crossed, or i’s being dotted. That is very bad — unless one wants to be a Maoist and relive the dreary and nasty fantasies of the Cold War left.