News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal In the book ‘The Strange Death of Europe’, Douglas Murray writes “Europe is committing suicide.” By this he means the civilization as Europe is being understood worldwide is eroding. The liberal values with which Europe is best known are under assault. Rightist populism is making greater inroad in global politics. In other words fascism is slowly but steadily making a comeback in a new avatar either in the form of right-wing populism or left-wing extremism. Europe seems to be returning to pre-World War II conservative era. Europe is just a symptom but the trend is global. Factors contributing to the rightist populism are multiple. Immigration, inflation, rising cost of life, unemployment and economic downturn are said to be the key culprits creating fear in the mind of Europeans —the fear to lose their identity owing to mass inflow of immigrants to Europe from Asia and Africa. This gave rise to public disenchantment while right-wing parties and politicians have add...

Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for the third consecutive term making this feat in India only after Jawaharlal Lal Nehru. Modi has been back to power but with a fractured mandate. The parliamentary elections held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1 once again confirmed Modi’s uninterrupted upward political trajectory. Since 2001, Modi is continuously at the helm of India’s political power — first as chief minister of Gujrat state and second as India’s Prime Minister. “This is the victory of the world’s largest democracy,” Modi said to party workers after the election results. Modi currently remains to be the most popular politician in India but popularity of his party -- the Bharatiya Janata Party -- has dwindled that did not win even a simple majority. The BJP won 282 parliamentary seats in 2014 election, which was conformable majority in 542-seat Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament. In 2019, Modi’s party was re-elected with even bigger majority of 3...

Yuba Nath Lamsal: As the clock was ticking at midnight on April 15, 2008, the Constituent Assembly of Nepal erupted in roars. The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly abolished Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchical system. This was, therefore, a historic and momentous day in the history of modern Nepal. Later in 2015, the Constituent Assembly came up with a democratic and republican constitution, thereby formally institutionalising a federal democratic republic. Nepal’s first president, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, promulgated the first ever constitution written by the democratically elected representatives of Nepal. Members of the Constituent Assembly stood with applause, marking the ultimate victory of the people. Despite many hitches and some hiccups in the constitution-making process that the Constituent Assembly faced for over six years, the process was finally complete, delivering a genuinely democratic and republican constitution. The bottom line of the third Jana Andolan and a de...

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Certain events mark a turning point in the history of humanity. The dropping of atom bomb in Japan in 1945 changed the course of the World War II. It ended the European era in the international power architecture giving rise to bipolar world wherein United States and Soviet Union emerged as superpowers. In the World War II, Japan and Germany were badly defeated whereas war severely weakened British might. Only two countries emerged victorious in the war —the United States and Soviet Union. Washington and Moscow drew the map of the post- World War II world. They divided Europe into their spheres of influence. The world, too, appeared divided into two camps. The divide was given ideological colour as capitalist democracy versus communism. The rivalry was more for the quest of hegemony rather than the ideological basis. Both the camps tried to consolidate their sphere of influence for which they built security alliances of different kinds. The North Atlantic Treaty Or...

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Politics is the art of governance for the greater good of the people. However, politics, of late, seems to have lost its original vigour and virtue. Politics is no longer a virtuous vocation and instead it has degenerated into a ‘vulgar game of deceit and opportunism’. As a result, public trust in politicians and political parties has sunk to record low worldwide. However, there is no alternative to political parties in the modern day democracy. Democracy without political parties is beyond imagination. In the absence of political parties, the regime cannot be democratic. Election is the soul of democracy. Election alone does not guarantee genuine democracy. Many countries in the world hold elections but not all countries are democratic. Even some authoritarian rulers and regimes hold elections to legitimise their hold on power. Such elections are doctored to hoodwink the people and international community. Elections must be free, fair and impartial through wh...