The issues at stake are far too serious for frivolous candidature

  By Bihari Krishna Shrestha The cavalcade of "independent" candidates amidst a fluid situation Following the wins of the two major mayoral independent candidates in the recent local elections, Balen Shah in the capital city of Kathmandu and Harka Sampang in the foothill city of Dharan in eastern Nepal, there has been a cavalcade of independent candidates announcing their candidature for yet-to-be-announced election for federal parliament and provincial legislatures. For instance, in Kathmandu constituencies alone, one Pukar Bam has announced his candidacy for constituency 1, and others doing so are Harisharan, Akarshan Pokharel, Ranju Darshana, Abdus Miya and Suman Sayami for constituencies 3,4,5,6 and 8 respectively. What is interesting too is the fact that some of them are or have been members of a political party until recently, now deciding to launch themselves as "independent". Clearly, they believe that with Balen and Harka's success, "independence" now sells better among the voters, a vast segment of whom, going by the two city elections, seems to be irreparably disillusioned with the corrupt politicians of the corrupt political parties. A popular TV persona, Ravi Lamichhane, has chosen to launch his independent candidature by launching a political party itself with the name, "Rastriya Swantantra Party" or the national independent or non-aligned party. Then, Suman Sayami, one of the many mayoral candidates in the last Kathmandu election seems to have a second thought on his individualized "independent" status and is quoted to have recently said that to be effective against existing parties, the independents too should be organized as a party. Apparently, he too is making a parallel bid to form another party of independents. Since this new development is attracting increasing attention from the people of Kathmandu at least, someone like Ranju Darshana has already come under scathing criticism on social media for her behaviour that seems to take people for granted. While Darshaha had contested Kathmandu's mayoral election five years ago as a Bibeksheel Sajha candidate losing it by a wide margin, she had reappeared on the scene only lately to endorse the Nepali Congress mayoral candidate against Balen Shah. And now she seems to have severed her ties to her party to launch herself as an independent. The point is that this emergent population of independent candidates remain heterogeneous in composition, some more lightweight than others. The problem with the "Independents" What the early bird "independent" candidates seem to have in common is their lack of any political agenda that would appeal to the voters that are now sick of these corrupt politicians. They seem to think, rather most naively, that declaring oneself as an "independent" candidate would be a sufficient qualification to sway the voters in their favour. While a number of these "independents" have been former Bibeksheel Sajha party candidates in the 1974 election, this time around they sense better prospects at the poll by shedding their party baggage. None of them has said anything about why they decided to delink themselves from their parties. While they surely seem to draw their inspiration from Balen and Harka's successes they seem to have failed to recognize that the duo are possessed of some of the most attractive competencies necessary for their job. In Shah's case, for instance, he, besides being a highly popular rapper easily connecting with the Kathmandu youths, also happens to be a qualified and experienced engineer and, has, in terms of his election undertakings, focused on resolving the chronic garbage problem of the city. Similarly, Sampang for his part, after badly losing his earlier mayoral bid, has dedicated himself completely to helping the Dharan citizens with their personal problems with corrupt officials besides being single-mindedly focused on the acute drinking water problem of the Dharan denizens. Thus, both Shah and Sampang have much more going in their favour than just being "independents". Structural nature of issues at stake Ever since its 1990 restoration, Nepal’s multiparty democracy has been on a steady decline, characterized by brazenly corrupt politicians holding the nation in their ever-tightening stranglehold that has only delivered the country increasingly hopeless governance even as just about every single politicians worth their salt remain a corrupt man or woman. The paradox of Nepal’s multiparty democracy is that it had set out by unleashing a chain of wanton corruption under NC’s Girija Prasad Koirala who has made his name in history as the architect of Dhamija and Lauda Air scams in particular. While those scams then probably dealt with the illicit money only in crores, the ones authored by his recent successors, the current Troika of mega corrupt, Prachanda, Oli and Deuba, reportedly involved tens of billions. However, another paradox of Nepali politics is that while forms of government have changed rather radically in Nepal during the last three decades from constitutional monarchy to federal republicanism, what has remained unchanged are the aforementioned rulers themselves. The problem lies in the persistence of the feudal order that thrives best in the predominantly and chronically rural setting of Nepal. In rural conditions, Balen Shah and Harka Sampang would be impossible phenomena. It is the rich high caste despots locally known as thalus or the lords that remain the near-hereditary leaders of political parties who constitute the support base of the corrupt politicians in Kathmandu. Come election time, these corrupt leaders extend all necessary support of money and muscle to their local Thalu henchmen who, given the widespread poverty and illiteracy of the local masses who mostly come from the disadvantaged janajati and dalit groups, manage to buy votes for their parties during elections. While there would be occasional swings from NC to UML and back, there is going to be no third force to emerge from such a setting. Thus, Nepal's democratic practice has been a vicious cycle of the corrupt making illicit money in increasingly large sums and using the same to get reelected to make even much larger sums. It is this structural problem that remains traditionally ingrained in Nepal's rural and feudal setting that the "independent" political enthusiasts are called upon to address. Naïve independents Going by the utterance of at least one prominent "independent" candidate, Ravi Lamichhane, it does not augur well for the country nor the candidate himself. While announcing his swatantra party lately, he had announced that they were there, only to change the "abastha" or the condition of the country and the people and not for changing the "byabastha" or the political system. But as explained above, the failure of Nepal's democracy has been systemic in nature. Unless you bring about systemic reform, there is going to be no change in the said "abastha". Unless these naïve independents realize the intricacies and viciousness of the problem, their bid to provide "alternative politics" is sure to amount to nothing more than their exercise in frivolity that is going to mean one more frustrating fiasco for the country.