On/Off the Record

By P.R. Pradhan The nation observed 24 April (11 Baisakh) as the 16th Loktantra Day of Nepal or say the adoption of the Indo-West modality under the 12-point Delhi agreement among the seven parliamentarian parties and the then terrorist declared Maoists in the insurgency in April 2006. Even after completing one and a half decades, what the nation achieved, is a burning question now. All the Nepali leaders belonging to different political parties have been proved failed. Moreover, those carrying the agendas of federalism, republicanism and secularism have failed. To save their image and political future, they have developed electoral alliances. If the parties contest elections individually, they are not in a position to save their present position. Therefore, by keeping aloof all their political principles, beliefs and agendas, they have decided to develop unholy electoral alliances. This is aimed at ensuring the victory of the parties in alliance by sharing the posts. In fact, this is an attempt for deceiving the party workers and mainly the voters. The alliance is solely aimed at organizing daylight loot in the name of loktantra, which is popularly known as loot-tantra. The supreme leaders of the political parties in the government have already realized that the present political system has not been able to function. Three levels of elections were held five years ago. In the past five years, many of the local bodies were involved in corruption and mal-governance. Therefore, people, quoting Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda’s remarks about reaching Singhadurwar to every village, have been saying that he has been able to reach corruption and mal-governance taking place in Singhadurwar to the villages. In the past five years, none of the provincial governments was able to show their significance in better governance. The province assemblies became the venue for power tussle and change of the government. Moreover, the provincial governments were involved in the rampant looting of the nation’s treasury. They have proved that there is no need for the provincial structure except for an unnecessary financial burden to the nation. The federal government as well as the parliament was also seen as functionless. The people’s representatives either in the government or else were solely concerned about rampant corruption. Hundreds of important bills are waiting for final ratification from Parliament but neither the government nor the parliament was seen as serious in introducing laws needed in the country. The government in the presence of Parliament was found conducting the day-to-day works through ordinances. An odd practice has been started to suspend heads of the constitutional bodies if the political leaders feel a threat from those institutions. Presently, chief justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana is suspended following an impeachment case against him. As per the constitution, the House should initiate an investigation on the impeachment case but the Parliament session was ended without finalizing the impeachment case. The impeachment case was registered by the parties in the government when CJ Rana abruptly decided to look after the case filed against the 14 MPs who were responsible for splitting the UML. With the fear of a negative court verdict, overnight, an impeachment case was registered against Rana when there was no necessary majority with the ruling party to endorse the impeachment case against him from Parliament. This is not the first time that the parties have misused the impeachment provision in the constitution against the chiefs of the constitutional bodies. When CIAA chief Lokman Singh Karki tried to catch “big fishes” involved in corruption, he faced an impeachment case and was suspended from the post. Similarly, chief justice Sushila Karki also faced an impeachment case on the doubt of a negative verdict against the parties in the government. In the past five years, all the constitutional bodies, which had to be operated independently, have become the center for political recruitment. The court is operating under the setting. When the executive, legislature, and judiciary become the pendulum, what betterment can we expect from the system! Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is saying that under the present system it is impossible to bag a majority in the parliament and impossible to form a majority government. Birendra Prasad Mishra, a former chief election commissioner, has remarked that the present electoral system has become very expensive which has made the political system expensive. The nation’s treasury cannot feed such a large number of political representatives. The reason behind the negative economic performance of the nation is an incline toward non-productive political expenditure. If we will continue the present political system, the nation will be bankrupted very soon. The fact is that the agenda of Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda, Baburam Bhattarai, Upendra Yadav and others advocating federalism has already been failed and there left no option except from returning to the 1990 constitution. Otherwise, sooner or later, there will be yet another uprising.