Nepal : Welcome to Democracy !

The remarkable electoral revolution has happened in Nepal, our tiny neighbour in the north. I have been keenly watching Nepali politics for the last ten years or so; along with that of Sri Lanka.


From the time, the Maoists there offered ceasefire and the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) took on the King in the streets for more than two months of continuous, intensive demonstration, I was amazed at the spirit of the people there. That roller coaster has now finally reached a stage where the till-now-armed Maoists have been elected by the people to rule them !

Amazing and I never expected that they will sweep the elections as they did. Here is the Maoist Chief voting in the elections - not seen in public for more than fifteen years till recently !


I was already coloured by the reports in our magazines during the last six months about how the erstwhile revolutionaries have become used to the luxuries of living in Kathmandu etc. There were articles mentioning Prachanda, the chief of the Maoists is very fond of food and wine and what not; that he has put on weight; that his vehicles are posh; and all that stuff.

Probably, it was true, and our past experience with revolutionary leaders has not been good either. But people of Nepal thought that their party is better than the other so-called democratic political parties.

Common man's judgements are often very difficult to understand for outside moralists. Read this news item below for example :

Among the winners was Baban Singh, who is in the Police's "most wanted criminals" list. Singh secured 9201 votes while his rival Gupta got 6588 votes. Singh has been living underground after police began hunting for him for his alleged role in the Kathmandu bomb blast of September 2, 2007. Three persons died in the explosion.

Singh is still underground and had filed his candidacy through his representative.

And he won. How he campaigned and what hopes people had on him ?

I am also thrilled to read their unadulterated aversion to the King; that they will abolish monarchy immediately ("within a month" to quote Prachanda); and if the King resists, he will be "punished". To have Kings with executive powers in this modern day is absurd, to say the least.

But, I am keeping my fingers crossed about the future prospects. Democracy is a double edged weapon as well. The small States of Goa and Pondicherry, which were Union Territories for long and became full fledged states recently, are witness to the chaos our democratic leaders can cause. Till the system matures. In any case, this is better than the Maoists cadres and the Army on behalf of the King fighting each other and killing whole lot of people.

Let us pray for the peaceful future of Nepal.