Ray of Hope for the Himalayan Kingdom

 By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

Whether we like it or not, Nepal today is involved in an epic struggle between the protagonists of the Himalayan Kingdom and those really regressive forces supporting the current political dispensation or the backward Himalayan Republic.

The current consensus government of the two major political parties – the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN—Unified Marxists-Leninists (UML) – was expressly formed in order to re-establish political stability, good governance and amend the Constitution in order to streamline the political process.

Unfortunately, the pact between the two chieftains Sher Bahadur Deuba and K.P. Sharma Oli has remained purely aspirational.

There are only critical voices.

The latest piece is by Narayan Upadhyay in the government organ: The Rising Nepal titled: “Inconsistencies, Discontent Mark First Year of Coalition Government” (July 13).

Instead of concentrating on the job, the government is feeling a sense of siege and attacking people for no rhyme nor reason.

The police thus summoned and arrested Dr. Phani Raj Pathak, the communication secretary of former King Gyenendra for using the royal title and honorific.

The government, of course, did not have the guts to ‘arrest’ HM King Gyanendra himself.

The Chief Whip of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Gyanendra Shahi, MP said eloquently: “a king remains a king.”

Moreover: ‘a king is a title given by history and no law can stop the respect that has emerged from the hearts of the people.’

Can anyone stop the people from addressing the Raja of Mustang with the title of ‘His Highness’ or anyone from calling the various Thukuri aristocrats from West Nepal

as ‘Raja Saheb’?

France and Germany today are full-fledged republics, but using aristocratic and royal titles is fully normal.

Moreover, if Rajendra Lingden and the RPP have their way, we may also have a Constitutional Monarch’ again soon.

Lingden seems to be on the right track. He is strengthening the party and consolidating his leadership for the coming confrontation with the forces of regression in the sheep’s clothing of the forces of change.

And in the meantime, Oli and the UML are facing a conundrum of their own making – the entry of former federal president Bidhya Bhandari into the top leadership position of the party, and perhaps even of the state.

Deuba is purported to have told Oli – the grandmaster of frivolity – that Bhandari’s return to ‘normal’ politics would harm democracy, federalism and the political system [if it has not been damaged beyond repair already].

In the first instance, of course, her return would be a threat to his own personal political ambition [and that of his wife!]. What about his astrologer’s prediction?

Oli himself is insidiously playing the Himalayan ‘game of thrones’. Is he secretly supporting Bhandari?

Hopefully, Lingden, Shahi and their team will soon put an end to the self-serving ‘political musical chairs’ and the frivolous politics of the Himalayan Republic and usher in a new era of a glorious Himalayan Kingdom.

The writer can be reached at: shashimalla125@gmail.com