Unearned victory

Everyone is contemplating the factors that carried the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML to an impressive victory in the recent CA elections. The scale of the NC and UML’s victory has surprised not only political pundits, but also NC and UML cadres. The victory came despite the absence of fresh candidates and clear messages, and wavering political commitment towards empowerment and emancipation of Madheshis and ethnic minorities. 

The debate over whether people who voted for NC and UML actually subscribe to their liberal ideals will continue to play out over the months ahead. However, the most important question that everyone should be asking is: what led to the withering of the symbolic emphasis that voters placed on the need for radical change in the first CA elections? 

Long-standing socio-economic grievances, disputes among ethnic political parties, and security dilemmas brought about by weak and unaccountable system of governance are some factors that could have led to a more pragmatic move towards the center, leaving the bourgeois Maoist populists and ‘ethnic entrepreneurs’ that hijacked and subsequently maligned the genuine need for ethnic empowerment and emancipation to fend for themselves.

The Maoists and ethnic parties failed miserably to gauge public intelligence. Their attempt at defeating NC and UML by stoking the same agendas—establishing an ethno-centric republic, building an inclusive society, administering equality and justice, etc—failed. They ignored the same issues when in power, grossly underestimating the public’s intelligence. However, the loss of Maoists and ethnic parties which are infested with ethnic entrepreneurs is by no means a death of the quest for “total equality.” It will come back to haunt NC and UML if the ideas of social justice and egalitarianism are not enshrined in the constitution. 

Having witnessed the defeat of Maoist and ethnic parties, people are now in the process of figuring out what a NC-led coalition government means for Nepal’s peace and stability. Since the current polity is one that the Maoists have defined, it will be extremely difficult if not impossible, for NC and UML to deviate from the Maoist interpretation of democracy. While the Maoist leaders have said that they will be “pragmatic and cooperative,” it would be naive to imagine that this group will abandon its basic ideology and play second fiddle to NC and UML. 

There simply is not enough evidence at this point to believe that two Brahmins—Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai—who failed to fulfill their political dreams under multiparty set-up and turned the country into killing fields will consume NC and UML’s “liberal democratic” bait hook, line and sinker! The second CA elections might have temporarily transformed the political landscape whereby moderate democrats will now replace radical ideologues and ethnic entrepreneurs, but it will not take very long for Dahal and ethnic entrepreneurs to mount a comeback if the root causes of Maoist insurgency and ethnic unrest are not adequately addressed.

The Maoists lost for a simple reason. Dahal and know-it-all Bhattarai believed that political manipulation, belligerent rhetoric and occasional violence were sufficient to endlessly sway public consciousness. Their inability to transform from a guerilla outfit to an open, viable political party that is capable of translating popular support into effective policies was the main reason behind their electoral debacle. 

While the Maoists lost because of their inability to actually transform, NC and UML won despite the absence of clear vision on how they would actually solve burning socioeconomic problems, growing insecurity, and wavering political commitment towards empowerment and emancipation of Madheshis and ethnic minorities. 

More than anything else, the victory of NC and UML is a result of incompetence on part of the Maoists and ethnic Madheshi parties, and that is where the problem lies. When the opposition’s victory is largely a result of an inability on part of the party in power to fulfill the aspirations of the people, there is a great risk of screw-ups. You tend to value things that you earn the hard way. 

If you look at the history of the people who have won big lotteries, most of them waste their newfound wealth on women and alcohol. Another classic example is of Nepali students and the diversity visa lottery winners in the United States. Students outperform their fellow citizens who have won the diversity visa lottery a large percentage. Students’ competitive edge comes from their conscious decision to be in the US and belief that hard work can conquer all obstacles.

The early signs of an unearned victory are already becoming visible. It’s been a month since the completion of CA elections, and major parties are yet to give full shape to the new CA. NC’s opposition to elections for President and Vice-President exposes its lack of seriousness towards democratic institution building. Selective preference of this nature will open the door for political perversions, which is the last thing we want at this juncture. NC’s political immaturity is also quite clear from the way it is engaged in appeasing the Maoists. 

Yes, you want them to be on board, but not through endless appeasement. The more you try to appease them, the more inflexible they will get. They would try to drag the political process down to a level so juvenile and debased that the infant democratic order could find itself in a dump. It would not take much after that to convince voters to vote them in. After all, if we look at our history, parties get back in power not because of their vision, good governance, and service delivery, but because of the incompetence and failure of those in power. 

Nepali people have, once again, given NC and UML a chance to prove their worth. It will become clear within a couple of weeks whether NC and UML’s learning curve continues to be hampered because of their self-inflicted mental block, or if these parties have actually learned from their mistakes. One will not have to wait too long. All you got to do is see the kind of people that will be nominated under proportional representation and brought in as cabinet members.

 If Girija Prasad Koirala’s protégés make a comeback, we can be pretty sure that the Maoists and ethnic entrepreneurs will have the last laugh. All that they will then have to do is keep riding the wave of people’s anger and wait for these drunken sailors to push the country into another political and constitutional abyss, which they are very much capable of doing. 

Reinventing Nepali Congress

The 12th General Convention of the Nepali Congress (NC) can be regarded as a giant leap toward intra-party democracy, which, as a matter of fact, was long overdue. By reserving seats for women, Dalits, Madhesis, and indigenous people in the central committee, the NC has taken a stride toward reforming its image as a party dominated by pahadi Brahmins and Chettris.

It would be unfair to say that the groups that now have the privilege to represent themselves because of the policy of reservation were completely overlooked in the past. Ram Baran Yadav, Mahantha Thakur, Chitra Lekha Yadav, Bijay Gachchhedar and Jay Prakash Gupta are Madhesis who were at the helm of power both within the party and outside. It is altogether a different thing that their meteoric rise in the Nepali politics cannot be termed as merit-based. It is true that they did the initial leg-work required to get to the limelight but what is even truer is that Ram Baran Yadav, Chitra Lekha Yadav, Thakur, Gachchhedar and Gupta tremendously benefited from Girija Prasad Koirala’s benevolence.

It was a two-way street. The Tarai being the base of NC, Koirala needed Madhesi faces to cater to the base. But the condition was that they ought to be completely subservient. All of the aforementioned personalities fitted the bill. At least, till the late 1990s. Unlike the two Yadavs and Thakur, Gachchhedar and Gupta, who happen to be notoriously shrewd and opportunists, skimmed the system quite well to transform themselves from lightweights to heavyweights in the NC. The relationship, however, was perfectly symbiotic.

As long as corrupt and incompetent people who surrounded Koirala exhibited their unflinching support for him, he did not care about their incompetence or corrupt ways. By the time Koirala realized their actual intent, it was too late. They had already established themselves in Nepali politics. Turning a blind eye on wrongdoings of the followers proved to be costly for the NC. The party that people once looked up as a party of ideas and vision under B P Koirala’s able leadership has been completely reduced to a party of self-serving power mongers.

With Koirala gone, the NC is at a crossroads. The recently held general convention provided the NC with an opportunity to gain its lost ground and glory. How Sushil Koirala, the new president of NC, runs the party will largely determine whether or not the grand old party will be able to reinvent itself. Sushil’s lack of desire to enjoy power reflects his selflessness, which is rare in Nepali politics. He is the kind of man that Nepali people would like to see as party bosses. But in the political landscape full of opportunists, will his idealism be able to bring the much-needed transformation? Will his idealism triumph over opportunism, which is rampant within NC? The people that made Koirala sleepwalk toward the end of his life are now rooting for Sushil. His electoral victory was necessary for the likes of Krishna Prasad Sitaula to remain in circulation in Nepali politics. Sushil’s success as the NC’s president will largely depend on whether or not he will be able to ward off undue pressure from the likes of Sitaula.

There was quite a buzz about the emergence of new faces in the NC’s district-level elections. But will this translate victory into anything meaningful for the party? Of course, it is a good thing. Especially in a country, where almost 65 percent of the population is below 30 years of age, such change will have to be engineered. NC, for its own survival, needs to promote young leaders that better understand the aspirations of Nepali youth. The failure to do so has led to mass exodus of middle-class youth that are the actual believers of liberal democracy.

NC’s reinvention largely depends on reversal of this trend and its ability to better connect with them. However, for young, newly-elected district leaders and central committee members to focus on problems confronting the nation, they will first have to be assured of their political career. For the drive for hard work to come, these youngsters have to have faith over the leadership’s integrity and its commitment toward promoting hardworking and competent individuals. So far, the youngsters in the party have not exhibited that level of independence. The votes that Bhim Bahadur Tamang and Narahari Acharya garnered during the recent convention clearly show that the youngsters are not willing to break free from clientelism and risk their political career. Will Sushil be more willing to promote competence over clientelism?

Will Sushil be able to get out of the influence of the fat cats within the NC whose insensitivity toward problems of citizens and ideological decay sunk the party this low? His first major test will be the nomination of the central committee members. It will make clear whether Sushil is truly a selfless man ready to gamble his post for greater good of the party and the nation or an indecisive politician whose lack of confidence in solving problems made him to shy away from powerful positions in the cabinet. Sushil has a greater responsibility than any other past presidents of his party.

Today, multiparty democracy, whose existence is crucial for the survival of NC, is in real danger. He needs to find a clever way of mainstreaming the Maoists and prevent the CPN-UML and ethnic parties from falling into the Maoists’ trap. His ability to solve these problems and reinvent the party will largely depend upon whether or not he will be able to operate as an independent thinker and bring in new faces with new ideas onboard.

Lessons from Bhutto’s Assassination

Benazir Bhutto gave her life for the sake of democracy in Pakistan. Was it worth it? Absolutely yes. Could she have averted her untimely death? You bet. All she had to do is, resort to a deal-based politics like the one that is being practiced in Nepal. She could have averted her assassination by allowing murderous assassins to dictate the course of her country. Her fault: she tried swimming against the tide of religious fanaticism. She courted death in order to regain political space lost to the fundamentalists, unlike in Nepal, where the so-called democrats are selling out ideology and democratic principles for the sake of political survival.

Bhutto, unlike our own "mainstreamers," refused to join hands with ideologues and religious fanatics in Pakistan. She rather chose to fight against them in order to make Pakistan a true democratic state. After living in the United States and the United Kingdom, she must have known the difference between living in a "liberal democracy" and the country held hostage by radicals. In a liberal democracy, for example India, a catholic woman from Italy is accepted and trusted to run the show. Whereas in society infested by political ideologues and religious fanatics—Pakistan—, daughter of the very soil fighting for people's freedom and democracy gets gunned down. Ideologically bankrupt politicians of Nepal should try to understand what the ultimate price could be if the brainwashed ideologues that embrace Mao's ideological fanaticism remain unchecked and are allowed to infest our society. Benazir's assassination holds grave lessons and warnings for Nepal.

Be it Mao's ideological fanaticism, which is embraced by the Maoists in Nepal or Bin Laden's brand of "Islamofascism" practiced by the religious fanatics in Pakistan, they are equally dangerous for liberal democracy. Religious and political fanaticism and liberal democracy do not go together. In Pakistan, with Bhutto's assassination, religious fanatics have succeeded in uprooting the seedlings of democracy completely. Whereas in Nepal, political fanaticism practiced by the Maoists and replicated by the groups led by secessionists such as Jay Krishna Goit and Nagendra Paswan have greatly reduced prospects of democratic consolidation. The chances of democratic consolidation appear bleaker than ever.

Out of many factors that propelled the rise of political fundamentalism in Nepal, the most important one is repeated subversion of democratic process by the political elites. The constant manipulation of people and the political processes by political gladiators has pauperized the society and wallowed the people in abject poverty. Needless to say, the never ending episodes of deal making in the dark corridors never allowed the country to escape from political instability and a cyclical legitimacy crisis.

Besieged by a multitude of hostile forces, the politicians in Nepal are politically insecure. They are so completely engrossed in the struggle for political survival that they want to subvert the genuine political processes. One recent example of such cowardice is Madhav Nepal's disclosure in Biratnagar. He wants the SPA to 'reserve' seats for top SPA leaders during the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) polls. What a mockery of democratic rights of people of Nepal.

Madhav Nepal's recent statement makes it clear that there are many politicians in the so-called mainstream political parties who want to construct a "kleptocratic" regime in which they can steal from the citizens, deceive and undermine them, even though they need them to survive politically. Don't you think these air-headed idiots need a basic course on rights of voters in democracy?

Two years after bringing down an autocratic monarch to his knees, Nepal continues to grapple with complex challenges of national reconciliation, national reconstruction, economic reform, and democratic consolidation. Sad but true, the citizenry is still anxious to see and enjoy the dividends of democracy. The political insincerity of the SPA and the Maoists have bogged down the democratic process to such a degraded level that only those who can muster and unleash enough violence and control the institutions of state can win the political wars for power.

The insensitive and autocratic monarch is sure to go. He deserves the axe that has fallen on his head, no doubt about it. People should face consequences for their actions/inactions. Only then they will start behaving like rational beings. Furthermore, what values can a shrewd king and his rowdy son add to the process of democratic consolidation in Nepal?

That said, let me make it clear that the route that the SPA has taken to unseat Gyanendra is dead wrong. It reflects political vendetta more than anything else. Deciding the fate of an institution through constitutional adventurism is a horrendous idea. The SPA should have allowed people to decide the fate of monarchy in Nepal. This is mainly because one of the major factors responsible for political instability in Nepal is the failure of the political elites to sufficiently adhere to the basic tenets of democracy and constitutionalism.

Nepal is notoriously emerging as a country where nothing works. Inability to embrace a workable political system stems from the opportunism and lack of vision of the politicians like Madhav Nepal within the SPA. They remain bereft of viable political ideology on which the nation's political future can be anchored. This bankruptcy in ideology and vision has made the SPA look more like a syndicate than a political alliance dedicated towards fulfilling peoples' desire for peace, stability, and democracy.

Today, both in Pakistan and Nepal, democracy is put on trial by brainwashed radicals. In Pakistan, by assassinating Benazir Bhutto, to some extent "Islamofacists" have succeeded in aborting democratic dreams. There is a big probability that both Pakistan and Nepal will end up as illiberal democracies. But Pakistanis have at least a reason to be satisfied. They had a leader, Benazir, who gave her life fighting for democracy. She at least tried to save the nation from falling into the hands of radicals unlike our own so-called democrats who have flushed ideology and democratic principles down the toilet for political survival.

The basic difference between Bhutto and the so-called democrats in Nepal is that, Bhutto believed in the tenets of democracy. Unlike pseudo-democrats in Nepal, she knew that fanaticism and democracy do not go hand-in-hand. She never acted as a "useful idiot" at the hands of radicals like our politicians in Nepal. She always adhered to democratic principles and had vowed to wipe them out. Scared to death, radicals had no choice but to assassinate her.

While our own Girija Prasad Koirala, who has given everything but his beloved prime ministerial chair to the Maoist radicals, is awaiting a natural death (whose death, I doubt, will be of any inspiration to those who truly believe in liberal democracy in Nepal and abroad), Bhutto died a hero, a martyr and an inspiration for many both at home an abroad. While Pakistanis are mourning the loss of their beloved and revered leader Benazir, we, the Nepali people are forced to watch painful sale of our democratic dreams.

Peace or Appease Process?

One year has passed since the April revolution, but the country is going nowhere. Some might like to call the ongoing process a “peace process” but there is hardly any peace being restored through the continuous process; it would not be an exaggeration to call the ongoing process an appease-process. The Maoists have skillfully reduced the entire peace process into an appease-process whereby the mainstream political parties have been somehow convinced by the Maoists that the peace in Nepal is contingent upon the appeasement of the Maoists and the government's ability to appall and antagonize other forces that have dared to challenge the Maoists' fiefdom, in blunt words, the Maoists' existence in the terai.

Actually, the chance to establish peace was strangled the very day the mainstream political parties bought the idea that to appease the Maoists was the only way to achieve peace. One of the many reasons why the so-called ongoing peace process is failing is that the Maoists have never taken the mainstream political parties seriously and treated them as an equal partner. It's not the Maoists' fault but the fault of the politicians of the mainstream political parties, because they are the ones that are unable to portray themselves as an equal partner. The negotiations that took place prior to the Maoist joining the government were hardly negotiations. It was a complete submission by the mainstream political parties. They have nodded in agreement to everything that the Maoists have asked for so far. When you are submissive to such an extent, there is no need to take you seriously. So, the mainstream political parties should not be grumbling now about the Maoists' unruly conducts; it is they who have been providing the Maoists with a free ride on their backs.

Whether you agree or not, it depends on your political affiliation and biases. If you put down the ideological baggage and biases you carry and think as a neutral citizen, you will agree that the nation is undergoing a deep and continuous crisis. Despite all the efforts of the Eight Party Alliance (EPA) to defend the accomplishments of the past year, there is a colossal failure of EPA's effectiveness to navigate the nation and to provide solutions for economic, social, and political problems. There are no practical dividends of democracy in sight. The general public does not have the will to wait indefinitely, for the practical changes to occur; they will eventually get fed up with their ruling elites, who had promised heaven but delivered dust so far. What will happen after that is for the people to decide and the politicians to speculate.

It is one thing to remain optimistic but it is foolish to believe that the product is going to be beautiful even if the process is flawed. Just as the morning shows the day, the process shows the product. If the lawlessness, chaos, and lack of political accountability could translate into peace and meaningful democracy, most of the African nations that are now engulfed in civil war-like situations would have been thriving democracy long ago.

If you are among those who get pleasure from comparing post-revolution French or any other Western society to that of today's Nepali society, and think like France, we too are going to become a viable democracy sooner or the later, you are comparing apple to oranges. Today's Nepal is not even remotely comparable to the then French society. The political culture, societal norms, and the desire and ability to translate unstable and bitterly divided society into a meaningful democracy among the then French politicians and today's Nepali politicians is beyond comparison. In addition, the level of political accountability was way higher even then, in France, than what it is in today's Nepal. So this false solace and wishful thinking is not going to get us anywhere.

Let's get real for once. Nepal today does not need to define democracy, since the basics of democracy have been there for the good part of the last two decades. Nepalis first need peace and stability (which is not going to come through the mere appeasement of the Maoist), a safe environment to send children to schools so that they may grow up to change the face of the Nation, and the time to grow food. A free and fearless environment to progress and develop.
The current home minister, who has miserably failed to maintain law and order situation is among many that are not further pushing the nation to the edge. Sitaula, who is known for doing the Maoists' dirty laundry, is all set to execute Prachanda's new game plan now: use the army against the rebelling Madhesis in the Terai. The latest two weeks' deadline for the talks and Sitaula's threat of stringent action is nothing but a preparatory step towards the future operation of the security forces, primarily against the agitating Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), which is the main competitor of the CPN (Maoist) in the terai.

Sitaula for one is for sure digging the grave for Nepali Congress (NC) and dashing away the dreams of Nepali citizens. He is in the advent of annihilating those very people that helped NC remain in power during the post 1990 democratic era. While United Marxist Leninist (UML) maintained strong hold in the remote hills of Nepal, it was the terai that gave NC the seats it needed to remain at the helm of state affairs. Strangely, now, the NC is silent when its home minister Sitaula is all set to deploy the security forces at the Maoists' wink. What an example of gratitude the NC is exhibiting!

Sitaula might have been convinced by the Maoists that the ongoing rebellion in terai is a law and order situation. The truth that the Maoists do not want to acknowledge is that the ongoing rebellion in the terai is the result of the apathy of the elite in Kathmandu, and their failure to acknowledge the need of inclusion of the Madhesis into the process of building the nation. Leave alone the need of inclusion, for the most part, the elites in Kathmandu have chosen to ignore the existence of the Madhesis and silently questioned their nationalism. Thus, the ongoing rebellion is the result of pent-up frustration that has been brewing for a while. This is definitely not a law and order problem.

Sitaula is all set to dig a grave for himself and for the NC too. Stop him. The idea of using security forces against unarmed Madhesis will prove a disaster for the nation and suicidal for the NC. The retaliation in kind, and the mass voting against NC in the terai, is inevitable if the security forces are used against the Madhesi people that have suffered a lot, and for too long. The killing of one Madhesi in Lahan brought down the government to its knees a couple of months ago and forced the Eight Party Alliance (EPA) to amend the constitution. Think about what might happen if the security forces in its attempt to please Sitaula indulge in indiscriminate killings of Madhesis in the terai? The Madhesis will be forced to see fellow countrymen that are pahadis as insensitive and vindictive. And what might follow after that is simply unthinkable, but probable.

Progression or Retrogression?

When it comes to the current situation of the country, the nation is highly polarized. The opinions you get depend upon the social class of the persons you ask a question. If you ask politicians you will get a response describing a rosy picture; but if you ask the general public the chances of you getting an optimistic or upbeat response are very slim. The security situation is deteriorating at an unprecedented pace, the entire nation has been turned into a open killing fields whereby the Youth Communist League (YCL) and Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha's cadres can kill anyone and everyone who dares to dissent without impunity.

People are nervous about the future like never before. During the heights of the Maoist insurgency, people in the hinterlands were the only ones that were forced to embrace the false sense of security bestowed by the Maoists. But now, with each passing day, the YCL is getting more irrational in its quest to gain control over the city dwellers to force the false sense of security. So, it's not only the rural folks that are victims of the Maoist atrocities but also the city dwellers that are forced to cope with the Maoist irrational, whimsical and cheap popularity stunts.

Everyone believed that bringing the Maoists into the mainstream would mark an end of the era of violent politics, which has now proved to be counter intuitive. The situation is getting complicated day by day. With the decaying law and order situation in the country, the numbers of armed groups are increasing rapidly. While the general public is trying its best to remain optimistic about the future, the indicators that portray peace and security paint a gloomy picture. According to the Failed State Index, 2006, constructed by the Fund for Peace, Nepal is in 20th position, which is 15 positions up from the 2005 position. In 2005, Nepal was in 35th position.

In theory, a nation that is governed under democratic principles and striving for an inclusive democracy should be moving away from becoming a failed state. But in our case, we are inching closer to being a failed state. If we see the list of the nations that rank the highest in the failed State Index, it becomes evident that these nations are either engulfed in deadly conflicts or they are ruled by dictators. But in the case of Nepal, although the conflict has officially ended, there has not been any positive improvement in indicators for peace and security. It's sad but the bitter truth of the day that Nepalese people are forced to take with a grin of salt.

While the politicians are tirelessly talking about the need of democracy and swearing on to fight for it, the nation is moving up on that list and getting closer to becoming a failed state. There seem to be an incongruity between what politicians talk and what they actually can deliver. Call it insensitiveness or incompetence on the part of politicians, it's your call, but there is something seriously wrong with the ways our politicians operate.

Instead of working together towards securing peace and stability in the Nation, the top leaders--Girija Prasad Koirala, Madhav Nepal, and Puspa Kamal Dahal of major political parties--Nepali Congress (NC), United Marxist Leninist (UML), and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) are engaged in deadly tussle of fulfilling their own ambitions. While Girija Prasad Koirala is striving for a political legacy, Madhav Nepal is obsessed with Prime Ministerial chair. The new entrant to this deadly tussle of fulfillment of ambition is, the chairman of CPN (Maoist), who wants to become the first president of, yet be declared, Republic of Nepal. While the ambitions of our leaders are on astronomical rise, the aspirations of general public are getting dashed away. The nation is caught into the vortex of violence.

Among these three politicians, Girija Prasad Koirala is the one that is not at the receiving end. He gambled his six decades of his political career to join hands with the radical communists, Maoists, for the greater good of the nation. But now, his partner of the peace, the Maoists, are busy blaming him for the failures and threatening to walk away from the government. The political lefts' gauntlet is out against Koirala. The only option, he has at hand, which would help him establish a legacy is to unite Nepali Congress (NC) and Nepali Congress (Democratic). This would help energize the democratic base and might ensure a decent outcome in favor of the NC during the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections. Instead of focusing too much in grooming his daughter as a successor, he should work towards reviving the NC's base. If she has the capability, she will emerge like Indira Gandhi did in Indian politics or else she can live a mediocre life like the siblings of former prime ministers in India such as Chandra Sekhar and Viswonath Pratap Singh. Koirala should not gamble the future of the Nepali Congress just to establish supremacy of his daughter. Many people besides Koirala clan have shed their blood and sweat to get the NC where it is now. So, instead of focusing too much on keeping reign on family member's hand, Koirala should work towards establishing a political legacy. Out of many things, time is definitely not on his side. Except for putting a bold fight against despotic monarch in the April, 2006 revolution, there are not many positive things younger generations know or would like to remember about the octogenarian prime minister. The accusation of grooming corrupt politicians will not simply go away. Many of his cabinet colleagues of the last 15 years are the biggest “Rags to Riches” Story. They skillfully improved their living standards, which would have been impossible if done through legal means. Koirala might not have enough time at his disposal to get rid of tainted faces from the party, but what he can do and should do is, unite both the factions of Nepali congress and let the leadership evolve on its own. Nepalese people will eventually take care of corrupt politicians by voting them out.

As far as Madhav Nepal is concerned, nobody takes him seriously except for his own cadres. He neither has consistency, nor clear vision and agendas. The only agenda, he seems to have is to, become a prime minister. And, all he knows and does is spit venom on others, especially Koirala. He neither appears like a prime ministerial material, nor carries himself like one. He needs an extreme make over on all fronts. He needs to work on his outlook, his position on issues, and his level of consistency on political issues. The days are gone where peoples' opinions were shaped by vernacular weeklies like Bimarsha, Deshantar, Drishti, and Janastha. Now, people are smart enough to figure out the level of competence politicians have and hidden agendas they pursue.

Puspa Kamal Dahal's ambition of becoming the president of, yet to be declared, Republic of Nepal is more dangerous than that pursued by Nepal. Nepal's tongue lashing is much less harmful than Dahal's calculated move of using YCL to silence dissents and provide false sense of security. There is nothing wrong in having an ambition but the steps he is taking to get there is anti-democratic. The killing of a Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D) district committee member by the Maoists in Humla district and YCL's unabated highhandedness clearly shows that Dahal is using YCL's muscle as mighty ladder to fulfill his presidential ambition, if the nation of republic Nepal ever realizes.

The current chaotic situation begs for a question: Are we really progressing or regressing? The politicians might not care, whether they be a president or the prime minister of the failed state Nepal, but the people do care about it. They want a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic nation for themselves and the generations to come. The April revolution of 2006 was for democracy and prosperity, not to fail as a nation. If our goal was to fail, we would have failed sooner at the hands of King Gyanendra. Thus, the Fund for Peace's Failed State Index should be perceived as a wake up call. It is never too late to right wrongs.