Arzu is donning double hats at the present. On the one hand, she is the central committee member of the NC. On the other, she is the first lady of Nepal, being the consort of Prime Minister Deuba. She holds the unique advantage of making optimum use of either of the roles as demanded by the situation
Never before had the Nepali Congress leader, Arzu Deuba Rana, come into political limelight as she has since the last one year. It began with the brotherly knot, popularly known as rakhi, that she tied on the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party's foreign affairs department Vijaya Chauthaiwale during his visit to Kathmandu.
Recently, she managed time to hob knob with the Indian leaders when she had gone for a health check-up to India. It strangely coincided with the visit of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist Centre (MC) chairman, to India.
She also occupied the front stage during the visit of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to India as the first lady and later during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, to mark his birth anniversary this year.
Arzu is donning double hats at the present. On the one hand, she is the central committee member of the NC. On the other, she is the first lady of Nepal, being the consort of Prime Minister Deuba. She holds the unique advantage of making optimum use of either of the roles as demanded by the situation.
The political activism of Arzu lends credence to the rumour that Prime Minister Deuba has a motive to catapult her to the seat of the Prime Minister as her successor. The coalition with the MC and support extended to Renu Dahal in the last two local elections is considered as part of the grand design to secure support for Arzu for her prime ministerial berth. This will lead to a turn by turn assumption of the prime ministerial post by Arzu and Prachanda. This could be the indication of Prachanda's recent assertion that the MC should lead the country, failing which Federalism would head for a limbo.
First ladies generally perform five roles. These are those of the hostess, teammate, champion, policy advocate and executor. Sita, the consort of Rama of Ramayan and Gandhari, the spouse of the blind king, Dhrita Rastra, of Mahabharata fame, were mere hostesses, so much so that Gandhari opted to remain blind by tying a strip of cloth around her eyes.
In the Licchavi era, Rajyabati, the mother of King Man Dev, a late 5th century king, was like a teammate, according to the Changu Narayan inscription of the year 464. Ganga Rani, the spouse of 17th century King Shiva Singh Malla, acted as a champion by promoting religious activities at the Pashupatinath Temple. In the Shah period, in the 19th century, Lalita Tripura Sundari called the political shots like an executor.
Queen Aiswarya also spiked her activities towards the end of her life, which was marked by the tragic royal massacre. So many conservatives attributed it to the crowing of the hen, which is considered as a bad omen in traditional Nepali society even now. In fact, a crowing hen is slaughtered immediately to prevent the unbecoming from becoming.
The promotion of the spouses, or the daughters, has been quite frequent in politics in this part of the world. Lalu Yadav, the Chief Minister of Bihar state in India, ensured the dramatic ascent of his wife Rabri Devi to the post of Chief Minister when he was put behind the bars on charges of graft. She ended up performing this job thrice. She is currently the leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. This is a great leap forward given her background of a traditional housewife. She came under harsh criticism for her lack of prior experience in politics and also of education.
Arzu, however, is poles apart as she holds a rare doctoral degree by a woman in Nepali society. She has performed several social activities to her credit while running several non-government organisations.
But at times, she has been found to make speeches unworthy of her academic and political stature.
In one of the political rallies held on the eve of the local election, she has reportedly said that the government headed by the NC at the centre will not allocate budget if they vote against the NC candidate in the election. People were so disappointed that her party had to face an embarrassing defeat in the election in the native ward of the Prime Minister as well as her own.
Ladies have made a way to the Prime Ministerial route only after the demise of their husbands or fathers by riding on the crest of the sympathy wave. The triumph of Khalida Zia and Sheikh Hassina in Bangladesh is a burning example.
Indira Gandhi also occupied this coveted chair primarily because of being the daughter of Jawahar Lal Nehru. It will be an unusual feat if Arzu succeeds in securing the prime ministerial berth, making Prime Minister Deuba the first gentleman.
It may also head towards a disaster, given that the astrologer has predicted a seventh prime ministerial term for Deuba. Very few doubt his forecast because of his unbelievably accurate prophesy in the past.
Imelda Marcos earned a very bad reputation as the first lady when Ferdinand Marcos ruled the country for almost two decades.
Arzu is also alleged by some to have siphoned huge amounts of money through corrupt practices.
Political activism of African ladies has been found to have appropriated and abused power for their personal aggrandizement, according to a study made by J Ibrahim. It is difficult to predict the outcome of political activism of Arzu as the first lady due to paucity of such studies made in Nepal.
Even in the history of the world, there are no examples when the wife donned the head of the government's robes following the husband. Hillary Clinton came near to performing this miracle, but she faced defeat at the hands of Donald Trump. It will be remarkable indeed if Arzu makes it happen.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 25, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.