Nepal’s Republic and India : Corridors of Power
Contents: Preface. Introduction. I. Political commentary: 1. Quo Vadis, Nepali Congress?. 2. Parliament at stake: who is responsible?. 3. Peace talks: apocalypse of truth. 4. Peace, a far cry. 5. After Hapure talks. 6. Will the bell toll?. 7. Looking beyond conceit. 8. The rendezvous. 9. Political parties and royal antipathy. 10. The royal Palaver. 11. New royal initiative. 12. Pot calling a kettle black. 13. NC’s Trojan Horse. 14. Chasing the peace. 15. Fidelity and Dilemma. 16. Leadership conundrum in the NC. 17. Pride and prejudice. 18. Benefit of doubt. 19. Chemistry and politics. 20. Government is sleep-walking. 21. Revisiting Panchayatcracy. 22. Constitutional monarchy. 23. Gone to Kingdom come. 24. Will Nepal go Maoist. 25. Squandering ceasefire. 26. Electoral rebuff. 27. Dialogue: missing link. 28. Que Sara Sara. 29. Don’t repeat the history. 30. Will the left act right?. 31. Monkeying around with peace. 32. The red alert. 33. Burning Terai. 34. CA poll: to be or not to be. 35. An idea that failed. 36. Bhutan: a lost Shangri-La. 37. Robin hood culture. 38. Spooky pre-conditions. 39. Maoists in rejection. 40. The undertaker. 41. A bee in the Bonnet. 42. Drool Maoists. 43. PM Dahal’s China Sojourn. 44. Political Rumble-Tumble. 45. Spot the difference. 46. Praxis of evil. 47. Kitsch of election. 48. Madhes is not just a Geography, It is A microcosm of Ethnic harmony. 49. Faint hope. 50. The Kitsch of Civilian Supremacy. 51. Repatriation or expatriation. II. Development Issues: 52. Plight of agricultural research system. 53. Poverty Alleviation and agriculture. 54. Quo Vadis, NARC?. 55. Reform and perform or Perish. 56. Agriculture in the Doldrums. 57. Postscript. Index.
The mainstream political parties, having set the stage for the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that looked like London redemption to Nepalis, earned their laurel as champions of consensual politics. Consensus amongst the leaders forced the king to return the usurped power to the people restoring the dissolved parliament. Later, it declared the country a Republic ending the 238 years old monarchy. The CA-1 election was held to fulfill the long cherished desire of the people to write their own constitution. Trusting that the rebels have changed, people overwhelmingly voted for the Maoists, making the Maoists the biggest party in the CA-1. But the CA-1 miserably failed to deliver the constitution even extending its life span by two stints for another four years.
The political parties used the consensus as bargaining chips to satisfy their ego and political interest of their parties. People were fed-up with their platitudinal harangues and relegated the Maoist party to the third position in the CA-II. The rout had a sense of déjà vu and was the same old lesson of political parties taking people for a ride. The Madhes Movement had genuine reasons and was not ennui when started. But the self-declared messiah of the Madhes hopelessly failed to prove themselves as leaders of the Terai inhabited by several other ethnic communities since generations. Their perception of the Madhes is not only parochial but contentious also, it one goes by logic, not by their indignation. In retrospect, we hardly find from Bhadrakali Mishra’s time till today any Madhesi leader worth their Madhesi emotions had ever mooted the Terai issue in its totality.
To bring Nepal out of festering transition, the leaders of political parties should sincerely realize the meaning of a simple message-people are more important than politics. Ultimately as a damage control effort and overall development of the country, the Prime Minister of Nepal, KP Sharma Oli tried to clear the misunderstandings between the two countries while having a dialogue with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi during his visit to India in February 2016.
This book is the manifestation on the wide range of issues and the underlying processes that are at the centre of transition in Nepal. (jacket)
