The hallmarks of good party functioning are transparency, internal democracy and outreach to the people. Transparency was conspicuous by its presence and absence in the Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Centre, respectively
The country has witnessed the Central Committee meetings (CCM) of two parties, which are the members of the present coalition government ruling the country.
Barely a week back, the CCM of the Nepali Congress (NC) was held in the capital city that ended observing a hushed silence by the majority group on the Bhutanese refugee scam regarding the suspension of the former home minister and the member of the NC This was despite the court orders to put him behind bars without releasing him on bail. This is unfortunate for the supporters of the NC when it has been alleged to protect and promote corruption in the country.
Close on its heels followed the CCM of the Maoist Centre (MC), again in the capital. It has already reached its fag end, but it also appears mum on the alleged involvement of its senior member and relatives in the 100 kg gold scam. The cache was mysteriously smuggled out from Tribhuvan International Airport amidst sophisticated instruments to detect such crimes.
Both these events give credence to the sincere outburst of Chitra Bahadur KC, chairman of Samyukta Jana Morcha which is also a member of the ruling coalition.
He said that the government and the state have been involved in loot and corruption. It is certainly an indicator of the aforementioned harsh reality. He was speaking in the capacity of chairperson of the Parliamentary State Affairs and Governance Governance Committee.
This statement of KC is based on the unfortunate events that have raised their ugly heads in the past few months in particular. It started with the involvement of the former deputy prime minister, home minister and the seating secretary in the Bhutani refugee scam. Lalita land scam quickly emerged on the national scene, again with the complicity of high-level people in the government and private sector. These persons are now languishing in jail, who would otherwise have been serving for public welfare.
The smuggling of a quintal of gold has driven the last nail in the coffin of a rather underperforming government.
The CCMs of two of the largest coalition partners in a nine-party government assumes importance under the present circumstances. There are striking similarities and dissimilarities in the CCM of the NC and MC.
The similarity is that both the meetings have taken place after more than a year when the constitution provides for their regularity, for instance, every two months in the case of the NC.
Some of the CCMs of both the parties had made historical decisions. The NC in its meetings held in the forties had decided to launch a people's movement against the Rana regime to usher in an era of democracy in the country.
The CCM of the MC in the early nineties had similarly decided to wage a People's War in the country. The present CCMs have thus been incredibly dwarfed by their earlier counterparts.
The striking dissimilarity is the differing degree of transparency in the meetings. When the NC transmitted the meeting live, the MC chose not to do so when a good beginning had already been made by one of its coalition partners.
Whilst the supporters of the NC enjoyed the proceedings of the meeting live, those of the MC were deprived of this luxury which modern technology has served virtually on a silver platter.
The other glaring dissimilarity was in the form of the criticism levelled at the leadership in the case of the NC when the leadership of the MC was presented with bouquets for initiating an inquiry into several of the scams, namely, the Bhutanese, Lalita land and gold smuggling scams. But it also received brick bats for not running the party in a systematic manner.
The hallmarks of good party functioning are transparency, internal democracy and outreach to the people. Transparency was conspicuous by its presence and absence in the NC and MC, respectively. Even then the NC leadership was charged with initiating live transmission to dampen the likely criticism from the dissenting groups. However, it was said to have been spurned for the sake of confidentiality in the case of the MC.
It was clear from Sher Bahadur Deuba, the former prime minister and president of the NC, who said that criticisms were far less than expected. The MC, a communist party, naturally prevented live transmission, which was criticised by the members saying that the MC cannot head towards socialism and ultimately towards its muchhyped goal of communism if democratic tools like transparency were wished out of existence.
Internal democracy in both the parties is far from desired. The NC often parrots its democratic credentials, but it does not walk the talk given the delayed arrangement of the CCM. It has not been able to honor its constitution also in view of its failure to suspend Bal Krishna Khand when it has been clearly mentioned in the constitution that members should be suspended if found guilty of corruption.
This is against the ideals of Nepali the Congress. That the much-loved as well as hated coalition partner, the MC, has not addressed the required degree of internal democracy was clearly visible and audible in the CCM underway at the present.
The outreach of both the coalition partners has slumped given the flight of a substantial number of its voters to the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) in particular. The defeat of the NC candidate in the last by-elections held in Tanahu and Chitwan portrays this sorry flight of their voters to the RSP.
The CCM of both the coalition partners the NC and MC has taken place at a time when the country has been drowned neck-deep in corruption. Their fumble on all the three fronts – transparency, internal democracy and outreach – speaks volumes about their underperformance. Given that they are in the government. It certainly indicates a dark future in the days to come for the country.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 8, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
