News, Views From Nepal

  Yuba Nath Lamsal The national congresses of three key parties – CPN-UML, Nepali Congress and Rastriya Prajatantra Party or RPP are over now. The other party CPN-Maoist Centre is also set to hold its congress in two weeks. There are some marked similarities in the congresses of the three parties. The congresses of all parties began with fanfare and hullaballoo and ended in a fuss. The parties had been expected to debate issues having direct bearing on the people and the country and come up with the policy tools to address them. Nothing such happened. The principal focus seemed to be on how to capture the leadership and secure party positions. Given the way the mega meetings were held, it is clear that our political parties are devoid of ideologies and principles. No debate was held on ideology, policies and programmes. Parties have become orphans of ideology. There has been marked dichotomy between principles and practice. None of the political parties practice what the

  Yuba Nath Lamsal Even as liberal democracy is said to be what Francis Fukuyama says ‘the default from of the government in much of the world’ a new study has revealed that more and more countries are experiencing a marked erosion in the state of democracy and are reverting slowly to authoritarian trend under the facade of democratic set-up. According to the study of International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) on the state of democracy, 70 per cent of the global population currently lives either in non-democratic regimes or in democratically backsliding countries. Similarly, the Freedom House, which studies the health of the democracies in the world, says in its 2021 report that democracy is in a long recession. It says, “In every region of the world, democracy is under attack”. The Freedom House concluded that democracy declined in 73 countries in the world including India, while it slightly got better only in 28 countries. This global democra

  Yuba Nath Lamsal A season of political jamborees has started in Nepal. Parties are set to hold mandatory national congresses. All major parties are doing their homework for their gala meetings probably within a couple months. CPN-UML seems to be ahead in this process. The UML is holding its national congress in Chitwan this month in which it expects to pull a crowd of at least half a million people on the bank of Narayani River. Other parties are to follow. Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Centre, too, have announced plans to hold their national congress soon. As a precursor of the mega event, a political jamboree of the UML called the statute convention was held sometimes ago in Godavari, Lalitpur with pomp and fanfare. UML chairman KP Sharma Oli might have been carried away and thrilled by the presence of a large number of diehard loyalists and display of his big cut-outs in the conclave. However, he should not be mistaken by the presence of a few thousand people as a g

 Yuba Nath Lamsal A political party is a collective expression of people having identical interests, values, principles and commitment to certain cause and mission. Greek philosopher Plato in ‘The Republic’ talks about factions and groups in politics of ancient Greece, which, in a way, can be termed as the early version of political parties. However, the history of modern political parties goes back to the early 19th century with the formation of the Conservative or Tory Party in the United Kingdom in 1823 followed by Democratic Party in the United States in 1828. The birth, growth and development of the political parties went along with the development of democracy. In multi-party democracy, political parties and democracy are like Siamese twins. Political parties are the principal basis, without which democracy cannot survive, grow and prosper. Democratic polity, thus, is inconceivable in the absence of political parties. Politics is a public domain and its sole objecti

  Yuba Nath Lamsal The government headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba has completed the first hundred days in office. The first 100 days that is also called as the honeymoon period cannot be taken as the yardstick to judge the performance, success or failure of any government. However, the government sets its tone during this period to get into action based on which one can presume where it is heading towards. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba came to power at a time when the country’s politics was in the midst of uncertainty. The scene of uncertainty had loomed in the Nepali political landscape after the first dissolution of House of Representatives in December 2020. Despite reinstatement of the House by the Supreme Court, neither new government could be formed nor did Oli government prove its majority in parliament. As uncertainty persisted, KP Sharma Oli dissolved the House second time in May 2021, to be nullified again by the Court. With the formation of the present governm

  Yuba Nath Lamsal Ideology, values and principles have taken a back seat in the post-industrial societies. What constitutes prominence in the present day politics is the interest and profit. Even in politics, everything is being judged and calculated from the matrix of interest, profit, and loss. In the age of market politics, market has emerged as the principal determinant, where money plays bigger role than anything else. This is not an isolated trend of a particular country or region but a global phenomenon. Politics is for power. For ancient idealist thinkers like Confucius, Plato and Aristotle, politics is struggle to attain power through ethical means while realist philosophers like Niccola Machiavelli are of the view that politics is ‘the ruthless pursuit of power’ to be achieved by hook or by crook and ethics has no place. In the book ‘The Prince’ Machiavelli even suggests the use of deceit, murder and war as legitimate means to attain power and maintain grip on

(First published in The Rising Nepal daily on September 21, 2021) Yuba Nath Lamsal Former American president and one of key actors in writing the US ‘Declaration of Independence”, Thomas Jefferson back in 1787 said: “Societies exist under three forms, sufficiently distinguishable- without governments, under governments and under governments of force”. Jefferson’s assertion was based on his observation of European society as he was serving as American ambassador in France. This speaks of the political and social conditions of different European nations and their behaviour. There were still some countries in Europe that had as Jefferson said ‘governments of wolves over sheep”. At times, other continents were much better and more prosperous than Europe. Asia (China and India combined) accounted for more than half of the global GDP until early 17th century. The industrial revolution that began in Europe made the situation ups and down from which Europe emerged as dominating w