Home >> South Asia >> India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal

     Email   Print 

The Election Campaign Heritage of Nepalese Politics

Prakash Bom - 4/3/2008

Just as humans inherit their genetic make-up and socio-familial collective consciousness in course of their upbringings so as the nation and its political entities carry on their influence as their heritage from the contemporary socio-political processes. How sensibly an individual responds to other individual (s) in public interaction determines his or her competence for survival because earning a humanly decent livelihood depends on public-relation. Similarly, the success and failure of political parties in democracy depends on their democratic heritage that they have inherited from else where. All most all democratic parities of Nepal have inherited their democratic heritage not far from their neighboring countries, particularly from India and specifically from the political culture of northern states of India.



Politics of Bihar and its election campaign represent the majority of people of Bihar who are among the most poor and illiterate of India. The majority of political elites of Bihar and eastern UP since the Independence of India had have always been the affluent feudal-lords despite the revolutionary political leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan (JP had like the most of the freedom fighters and influential political leaderships of India adopted Marxism while studying at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA). Unfortunately, his movement for the 'Total Revolution' for poor and illiterates did not uplift the politics of Bihar from the grip of affluent feudal-lords – 'how they run the election campaigns in Bihar during general elections and how they manipulate the individual voting rights of poor and illiterate people – packed in flock to vote wherever the feudal lords tell them to vote.



This is how democracy is run in the northern states of India. This is the sort of election campaign heritage Nepali politics has inherited. The replica of such election campaign first in the nation's politics was adopted by the institution of the monarchy under its one party system of democracy known as Panchayat system. Generally, the supporters of Panchayat system were called Mandales. Mandales were basically the most corrupt feudal-lords who could hire hooligans to run their election campaigns by throwing buffalo-parties for poor and illiterate to pack in the flock to vote on the ballots. Those who did not attend the buffalo-parties were intimidated and threatened. It was set to ripple the chains of trap that once the electorates attended the buffalo-party they were not only obliged to vote first time but they were booked for their rest of life.



Essentially the heritage manipulates the individual voting right and violates the civil liberty of people of poor and illiterate. Last twenty years of democratic practice has not changed that much the political behavior of the political parties of Nepal. If they had, particularly NC and UML cadres would have complied with the CA electoral code of conduct set by the Election Commission. Certainly, every political party is composed of some Mandale-elements. Therefore, before pin-pointing Maoist the so-called democratic parties must change their political behavior during their election campaign. Nonetheless, Maoist party is full of Mandale-elements. If not the party chairman would have morally refrained himself from approaching so-called royalist-nationalists to join his party.


It is shame onto the major political parties – SPA and other to carry on with such violent election campaign overruling the principle objectives of constituent assembly elections – to draft a sovereign nation's democratic constitution which sovereignty rest in people of Nepal. There should be no doubt about this mandate regarding any political party's overrule – communists or democrats with the projection of majority win. On the contrary, the mandate should have united the nation with greater hope for democracy, at least among those political parties which have supported the secular state and a federal democratic republic establishment. Surely, the democratic culture with the threats and intimidations, with the violence and killing cannot be practiced. In order to comply with the code of conduct every political party of Nepal has to give-up its anti-democratic heritage and influence for the wrongful tactic of election campaign. It is not normal to be thrashed, robbed, killed, kidnapped, and disappeared during the historic CA election campaign.