By Shashi P.B.B. Malla In neighbouring India, the world’s largest democracy, the country’s two-time prime minister Narendra Modi had made it his life’s work to dismantle a functioning federal system [please see main article page 4]. Here in Nepal, the Indian establishment in cahoots with the country’s so-called leaders--quislings and like the Sikkimese Kazi Lhendup Dorji--singlehandedly and without recourse to a referendum of the sovereign Nepalese people--abolished the monarchy, the very institution that was instrumental in founding the modern Nepali nation and introducing contemporary democracy. Then, these so-called leaders--rather the Dons of powerful Mafia families--set about establishing a nascent and modern democracy or Loktantra and crafting a new Constitution based on three basic principles: secularism, republicanism and federalism. With the help of constitutional experts, the dons did manage to draft a new constitution, but in the shortest period of time, the entire system became dysfunctional, and the dons were embarrassingly exposed--like the emperor with his new clothes! Federalism did not have a chance to function properly, because the dons had no experience with democratic practice as such, nor were they interested in its proper functioning. They were fully possessed by the demons of personal greed and rampant corruption from top to bottom. There was, in fact, no attempt to start afresh and practice good governance. All the main political parties--or Mafia families--are very happy playing an unending game of musical chairs, whereby various combinations and permutations of coalitions take office, but each time taking the Nepalese people for a ride! Grass-roots democracy was not nurtured and without the peoples’ political participation at all levels, federalism was in name only and, therefore, fully hollow and a sham. Right from the start, there was no devolution of power from the centre to the other levels. The provinces became utterly dependent on the centre. For a developing country like Nepal, federalism has thus become just too expensive and a luxury--and not sustainable. The overarching fact is that the current political system constitutes an existential threat to the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity because of the sins of omission and commission of the ruling dons. They have not only lost ‘the mandate of heaven’ [because they consider themselves ‘maharajas’], but also ‘the mandate of the people’ [because they have not fulfilled the aspirations of the sovereign Nepalese people, and have no intention of doing so]. A catastrophe of Himalayan proportions can only be averted with the success of the new people’s movement of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party  (RPP) under the leadership of Rajendra Lingden. The two sides of the new coin will be the restoration of:
  • The people’s inherent rights [ which has been trodden upon by the dons of loktantra];
  • Hindu Constitutional Monarchy [this constitutes the protection of the nation’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and also the country’s ancient cultures in equality and freedom].
Only then will the nascent Himalayan kingdom be a genuine multi-cultural society. The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com