After the restoration of democracy in 1990, BP's political philosophy was expected to make a comeback, but it was openly abandoned by the NC government although professing to follow it in words
Bishweswor Prasad Koirala's (BP) 44th Memorial Day is observed around the first week of Shravan every year following which it was celebrated with pomp and pleasure but with a difference. First, it was celebrated on the 3rd of Aswin by the faction led by acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka in National Assembly House building and then it was followed by its commemoration by the Nepali Congress (NC) led by Gagan Thapa in the same venue.
This is however not the first time that such an event has occurred within the NC. When it split forming Democratic Congress in 2002 by the Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, it was celebrated in a similar manner. Rather than highlighting on the contribution of BP, both were engaged in the blame game of holding each other responsible for the split. BP's stature has been so overwhelming that none so far have been able to understand its essence fully like the story of six blind men claiming the elephant to be like the wall, spear, snake, trunk, fan and rope by touching the body tusk, trunk, leg, ear and tail respectively.
It is probably because of his multi-faceted persona. If politics and particularly democratic socialism forms one end of the spectrum the other is his literary genius spread over novels, stories, interviews and essays. It is amazing that politicians contributing to differing ideologies, even diagonally different, consider him as the ace political statesman of Nepal despite his short duration of 18 months as the Premier.
This year however was different than the earlier ones. Instead of highlighting on BP's ideology and drawing lesson from it, the accusation by the two groups against one another dominated the program. It is because both the camps want to heap the blame on the other if at all the party splits. They do not want to go down the fate of Sher Bahadur Deuba who is held responsible for the 2002 break up and handing the democracy to the palace.
The events have come close to the fragmentation of NC after the Gen Z movement which claimed the lives of 76 people after the indiscriminate firing of the police over the protesters mostly students demanding the banning of the social media. Worse followed on the second day when many of the iconic buildings like the supreme court, the parliament, historic Singha Durbar, the residence of the President and several private buildings mostly belonging to the politicians of old political parties including that of Mr. Deuba.
Mr. Deuba and his spouse Arzoo Deuba, a former Foreign Minister was also manhandled who suffered severe wounds in the incident. The premier K P Oli in charge of the nearly two third majority coalition Government of NC and United Marxist and Leninists had to resign paving the way for an interim Government led by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki. An election was held and the Rastriya Swatantra Party won close to two third majority under the leadership of Balen Shaha, the former Mayor of Kathmandu metropolitan city and now the Premier.
The Gen Z movement triggered leadership shake ups in old parties. A faction of the NC requested for the organization of special convention with the signing of 25 per cent of the elected general convention representatives as it would be suicidal to go to the polls under the leadership of allegedly tainted leaders. The Deuba leadership turned a deaf year defying its constitution which warranted for the organization of such convention. Consequently, the special convention attended by 54 per cent of the general convention members elected Gagan Thapa as its President. It was recognized by the Election Commission as the authoritative NC. The Khadka faction filed a petition in the supreme court and it upheld the Election Commission's verdict. Consequently, many members of the Khadka faction took part in the election.
The election was a disaster for the old political parties like the NC as many of its candidates lost including its President Gagan Thapa but it still became the second largest party and fared marginally better than the other old parties which had a worse fate. Gagan resigned on the moral ground taking responsibility of the defeat, but the Central Committee did not accept the resignation. It was however portrayed as orchestrated by the Khadka camp. Whilst the Gagan faction justified the Special Convention for performing better than the other parties, the Khadka group held it, albeit unconvincingly, for the debacle in the election and that it would have been far better had the NC gone to the election under Deuba's leadership.
Both the factions however realize that democracy will be weaker in the country with the split in the NC as was justified by the 2002 event and want to bury the political hatchet. But the Khadka coterie wants the outlying 111 members to be included in the Central Committee. The Gagan camp seeks to address their concern in a different way by accommodating them in other capacities like senior leaders, advisors and several committee members rather than among the members of the Central Committee as it will be counter to the constitution.
But the Khadka team holds that the constitution does not hinder the reconciliation move for which they cite the example of Girija Prasad Koirala giving 83 seats to the Maoists in the parliament for the restoration of peace in the country and the appointment of Sushila Thapa as the interim Prime Minister. This bloc has again filed the petition in the Supreme Court challenging its earlier decision whose verdict is patiently awaited as it would decide the fate of either group.
The present war of ego rather than of ideology could be prevented upon the exercise of little flexibility. Unfortunately, the celebration of the 44th Anniversary has turned into a political battle ground of the rival teams rather than a visionary platform for the future of NC.
