By Sunil KC

The three political parties are becoming more and more brazen in their opposition to former King Gyanendra’s statements. In his latest video statement on Sunday on the eve of the New Year 2082 BS the King overtly advocated for a constitutional monarchy adding that people were the source of the country’s sovereign power. In the message the King covered the whole gamut of issues facing the country and called for a balanced diplomatic and foreign policy, an economic system that will make the country self-reliant and stop flights of human capital and financial capital from the country. He also called for a political and economic situation where Nepalese living and working abroad are encouraged to return home and use their knowledge and resources for the country’s economic and social development. He also called for a corruption-free administration and to take head on the culture of impunity. In the message, the former King clearly put himself above party politics.

The King’s latest statement took the political parties completely off-guard and they are incensed. However, instead of looking into themselves what they did wrong almost every senior leader as well as the rank and file of the three political parties denounced the King’s statement, accusing him of what they call poking his nose into the country’s politics which they think as their sole dominion. They have also wrongly accused the King of instigating violence in the protest rally of Chaitra 15 and demanded that the King should be deemed accountable for the deaths and destruction. They have even threatened the King to be put in custody and ousting him from the Nagarjuna bungalow at the foothills of the Nagarjuna hills, near Balaju.

With their focus only on antagonizing the King’s statements, the political parties failed to see the bigger picture that the public backlash had exploded on them because of their incompetence and mismanagement of the country’s politics and economy. Every protest and rally (currently, there are almost half a dozen going on in Kathmandu alone) is chipping away at people’s faith in the political parties and the present political system, and that increasing number of people are not buying their politics of rhetoric about republic state and federalism.

The party leaders have failed to realize that they have become nothing more than fallen idols in the eyes of the people and that Nepal’s experiment of republic state and federalism has failed miserably with the political system becoming a tool for enriching a few with the majority of the population totally detached from the political mainstream. They are overlooking the fact that the protests what the political parties call sporadic are just not flashes in the pan but indications of full-blown mass disapproval. But the government is hell-bent on dubbing those protests as criminal activities instead of realizing them as genuine grievances of the people. The attack on the King and the parties and groups that are calling for a drastic revamp of the political structure is proof enough that the political parties, mainly the three big ones, know that the country’s political cards are slipping away from them and they are making every desperate attempt to grasp it.

Take, for example, the ongoing agitation of school teachers of the government and community schools demanding an act and regulation for school education. It has been two weeks and the teachers have said that they will not go back to the classrooms, but the government instead of working in priority to resolve the issue is dilly-dallying, thinking this protest will also hush up as in the past thinking the teachers will ultimately get tired of hitting the road. However, the teachers have said that they will not give up this time and also will not participate in the Grade 12 examination scheduled to begin next week and the schools will remain closed for the new academic year that is supposed to begin from this week. This has jeopardized the schools’ academic calendar and the children's fear of losing a year.

In the latest chapter of the long list of political malpractices, rumours are rife that there will be another change of political permutation with the Nepali Congress getting increasingly agitated with voices rising within the party against the present coalition and the government. Dr Shekhar Koirala, an influential leader of the Nepali Congress, who has been vocal against the current coalition, is repeatedly saying in public forums that his party may be in the coalition but it has not become a part of the KP Oli-led government. Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, who until recently has been vehemently defending Oli and all his acts, has gradually been doubtful of Oli’s conduct and affairs. At a programme last week, he seconded Dr Koirala’s evaluation of the present coalition government that Prime Minister Oli and the coalition with UML have been detrimental to the country as well as to his party. With the Oli government receiving flak from all sides, Deuba seems to be trying to wriggle free from his association with Oli to shirk off the failures of the Oli government in the face of the impending general election in 2084 BS and to maintain his grasp within the Nepali Congress party.

After being battered almost from all sides, including the coalition partner, the UML said it would hold a rally in Kathmandu as a show of force on Baishak 11. The party boasts that it will bring one hundred thousand youths on the streets of Kathmandu in support of republic state and federalism and against monarchy. However, the earlier show of force a few months ago had failed miserably.

Looking at the growing fissure in the coalition, Maoist Chairman Prachanda has again started saying that he was willing to support NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister if the latter called it quits with Oli and the UML. Interestingly, when PM Oli and the UML vehemently denied any fracture in the coalition Nepali Congress leaders and senior party men did not deny that the coalition has become untenable. However, every alliance among the political parties has been only transactional with the three parties’ rotating at the helm of political power as a game of musical chairs. The people know that any change in this government or the coalition is not a solution to the malaises facing the country. What the country needs is a complete overhaul of the present political format.