BP Koirala said that freedom and equality are very precious for human beings, and these can be attained through democracy and economic well-being
The 111th anniversary of Bisheswor Prasad Koirala (BP) is being celebrated with incredible fanfare all around the country. Above all, B P Koirala was a leader par excellence acknowledged in and outside the country. One of the outsiders was Willy Brandt, the former Chancellor of Germany, who showered incredible praise on Koirala for his imaginative thinking on socialism. B P thus commands a deep respect in the heart as well as the mind of the people, irrespective of their differing ideologies due to his twin fortes of political and literary attributes.
Though a multi-dimensional personality, he is well known for his campaign of democratic socialism. He said that freedom and equality are very precious for human beings, and these can be attained through democracy and economic well-being. He opined that democracy when added to communism results in socialism in a way understood by ordinary folks.
Like the Buddha or even Gandhi, he not only developed the theory but also applied it in real life. For example, the Buddha, along with his illustrious disciples like Ananda, visited neighbouring countries on foot propagating his philosophy. Similarly, Gandhi used his theory of village swaraj, or self-reliant villages, after India achieved independence. Likewise, BP incorporated the philosophy of democratic socialism in the plans and programmes of the government after he became the prime minister.
Socialism goes back to a mythic past due to its faint mention in the Rig Ved. In the West, one can see it being addressed by Plato in his Republic. But it entered into the forefront of politics after the industrial revolution. The point of departure was the emergence of capitalism, following which a person could have ownership over the physical means of production system. The intensification of capitalism created several problems, such as disparity in the income of the people, unemployment, social dissatisfaction, class struggle and the likes bringing discomfort to the peasants and labourers.
Western thinkers and scholars like Robert Owen tirelessly highlighted this problem. In the meantime, Karl Marx and Frederick Engles published the Communist Manifesto, which predicted the emergence of communism due to mounting class struggle brought about by capitalism. It was followed by the establishment of a socialist party by Lenin, who launched a revolution establishing the right of the state over the means of production. Soon after, Stalin announced state socialism, based on which a five-year plan was also begun.
However, the adoption of such twin authoritative socialisms in Russia led to the loss of freedom, indiscriminate use of resources and end of consumer welfare. In protest, countries believing on liberal socialism held a conference in Frankfurt establishing the Socialist International, emphasising on freedom and economic equality.
This wave of liberal socialism hit the Indian shore, which was practised by persons like Jaya Prakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. BP came in contact with them and accepted it wholeheartedly. Later he formed the Nepali Congress (NC) with democratic socialism as its main ethos. Under his leadership, the NC was successful to dismantle the century-old tyrannical Rana regime by launching a People's revolution.
It is at this juncture that he injected the ideals of democratic socialism in the plans and policies of his government. These consisted of abolition of free-held land, removal of lesser kings, nationalisation of the forests, land reform and the likes. Unfortunately, he was dismissed by a rather dictatorial King Mahendra in a futile attempt of suppressing or even killing his ideas.
The NC again came to power after the restoration of democracy in 1990 through a People's Movement. But it went on a spree of privatisation of several state-owned industries, citing their hopeless management marked by whopping loss. It has been alleged that it meekly surrendered to neo liberalism, by abandoning socialism, the brain child of BP, pointing at its irrelevance in the present context.
It is against this backdrop that a programme attended by people of various walks of life was held by the Intellectual and Professional wing of the Nepali Congress to deliberate on the relevance of democratic socialism with Dr. Dila Sangraula Panta, the central member of the NC, as the chairperson. President of the NC and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba graced the occasion as the chief guest whilst Gagan Thapa, the general secretary, shared the podium with several Central members and former ministers.
The programme began with an enlightening welcome speech by Dr. Dila, which was followed by a comprehensive paper presented by Prof. Dr. Govinda Man Singh Karki, highlighting the aforementioned aspects of capitalism, authoritative, liberal and democratic socialism. It was commented by Prof. Om Sharma and this columnist. Whilst Prof. Sharma focussed on the need of extensive debate on this subject, the columnist held that BP's socialism walks on two legs of freedom and economic equality, both of which are so near to the people's heart that they would remain relevant forever.
Thapa held the audience spell bound as usual defending the privatization of the industries. He said that the government should not spend time in manufacturing paper or shoes and instead focus on formulation and subsequent implementation of policies. According to him, a real tribute to BP would be the generation of employment for the foreign-bound youths in the country. The programme came to a grand end with Deuba inviting all NC members to work unitedly for the realisation of BP's dream of democratic socialism. Despite remaining in the spotlight throughout the programme, democratic socialism, however, continued to surprisingly maintain its chimeric stance as ever.
