nepal’s ‘cash’ and ‘dash’ maoists

8/13/2019 Nepal’s ‘Cash’ and ‘Dash’ Maoists

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became astronomical. The professional politician could not in any way meet these

obligations with his legitimate income. "ribery and corruption therefore became a way

of life.

n different societies, the level of corruption and the methodologies were different

depending on the level of development and sophistication of the economy and the

society. "ut there is a growing animosity against the professional political class who

are seen more and more as a corrupt bunch of individuals whose only intention is to

perpetuate them in power.

*e+riwal phenomenon

The most recent e$ample of this of course is the *e+riwal phenomenon.

The scion of an anti corruption movement, r+un *e+riwal, ine$plicably

but in some ways predictably, bro!e away from his -uru nna 'aare&s

campaign to force the politicians to enact ndia&s longstanding, four/

decade/old o! al "ill to counter bribery and corruption from outside

the political system and decided to ta!e the battle to the politicians

milieu by contesting the state elections for the elhi egislative

ssembly in ndia.

3ot only did *e+riwal and his am dmi arty 5 contest the

elections, *e+riwal himself decided to contest the constituency of three/

term )hief 6inister of elhi, the formidable )ongress )hief 6inister

7heila i$it in her upmar!et and affluent constituency. The ndian

political class moc!ed at &s chances and even some of nna 'aare&s supporters

e$pressed scepticism. astounded everybody by winning over 20 seats and

becoming the second largest party in the elhi egislative ssembly. *e+riwal himself

resoundingly defeated i$it in her upper class constituency. Within days the panic!ed

ndian arliament enacted the o! al aw8

When the "J, which had the largest number of 6s but still a minority, refused to

ta!e office, saying they had no mandate to form a government, the )ongress which

had a mere eight members, offered conditional support to the to form a

government. When the was reluctant, the ndian political class taunted the saying that they were afraid to ta!e office as they could not implement their election

promises.

*e+riwal called the )ongress& bluff, after consulting his supporters, and assumed office

and within 24 hours provided a 9uota of free water and subsidised electricity to the

elhi voters. The ndian political class and analysts are watching with a mi$ture of

awe, fear and relief the emergence of this *e+riwal phenomenon in ndian politics and



how it will affect the national arliamentary elections scheduled for 2014.

3epal

n 3epal also, which has not had a government for a long time

due to the politicians in the )onstituent ssembly not being able

to agree on acceptable constitutional principles, a cynical

population has grown to ta!e a dim view of the political class.

The 6aoist parties specifically, which fought a prolonged war

against the 3epali monarchy, has come in for particular criticism.

The )ommunist arty of 3epal/6aoist )3/65 are !nown as

%ash 6aoists,& because they use a dash rather than brac!ets to

punctuate the party name. :n the other hand the members of the

mainstream ;nified )ommunist arty of 3epal 6aoist5 <;)3

65= are labelled %)ash 6aoists& due to their success in e$torting

money from businessmen, among other e$tractive related

processes, if you get what mean8

:n 1> 3ovember 201?, 3epal once again elected a )onstituent

assembly. This was seen as the only way forward after the

multiple traumas 3epal had faced, ranging from the prolonged

civil war and the murder of the @oyal family by the )rown rince

in an incident which is cynically branded as the *athmandu

7olution to a dictatorship.

ll previous constituent assemblies, since the ouster of the

6onarchy in 200A, have failed to agree on a constitutional

arrangement. series of unstable coalitions have succeeded each other in power

since the end of the civil war and the 200A election of the first )onstituent ssembly.

That ssembly&s mandate e$pired in 2012, and since 6arch this year 3epal&s )hief

Justice has been running the country as rime 6inister of an interim government.

*unda i$it, (ditor of the 3epal Times and political analyst and satirist has gone on

record saying, BWe got ourselves all tangled into !nots and deadloc!ed politically for

the last five years. We need to get our political house in order.C6onarchy ousted

The Dederal emocratic @epublic of 3epal is a landloc!ed sovereign state of 14E,1A1

s9, !ilometres with a population of around 2E million people. 3early two million of

these are wor!ing in foreign lands and remitting funds to 3epal.

3epal was a monarchy throughout most of its history, ruled by the 7hah ynasty form

1EFA, when rithvi 3arayan 7hah unified its many small !ingdoms, including tithe one,



in which is located umbini, where -autama the "uddha was born, in the fertile Terai

region bordering ndia.

few years ago the descendants of the 7hah dynasty were all murdered by the )rown

rince while they were at dinner at the alace in *athmandu, and the monarchy was

ousted after several wee!s of mass protestG tithe monarchy came to an end and 3epal

became a federal emocratic @epublic.

7ince then the political class has been unable to agree on a political arrangement to

balance sectarian, caste, religious and communal differences.

Two main issues

The two main issues facing tithe current )onstituent ssembly areH how far to go in

giving the state a federal character and what form of government 3epal&s new

constitution will choose # a residential one or a arliamentary one.

The ;)3 65 wants anything between 11 and 14 provinces to be created on the

basis of nationalities spread across the country and an e$ecutive resident directly

elected. The other view is that too many provinces created on tithe basis of caste,

community and other local identities will wea!en the nation, they feel that the number

of provinces should be limited to seven.

The spo!esperson for the 3epali )ongress has saidH BWe don&t want caste, religion or

communal identity to be the basis of federalism. That !ind of federalism will destroy

both 3epali identity and national unity.C The %cash 6aoists do not agree, they sayH BDor

240 years 3epal has been a monolithic state and society under a monarchy and ruling

elite of "rahmins and )hetris, who represented only 10I of tithe people. 3ow is the

time to create a multi identity state that will represent all the oppressed nationalities,

oppressed gender and other historically disadvantaged people.C

The )ash 6aoists

6eanwhile the )ash 6aoists are having a hard time living down their reputation of

having immense amounts of illegally e$tracted cash. 'isila ami, a former 6inister and

wife of "aburam "hattarai, former rime 6inister and 6aoist ideologue, dismisses the

allegation that she is the most corrupt politician in 3epalH Blease don&t tal! about that.

&m sic! of answering 9uestions about it,C she says, referring to allegations ofcorruption against her. 7he accuses the other group of 6aoists # the %ash 6aoists& #

of spreading the canard about her. ami saysH Bctually they have more money than

us.C

"ut the leader of the )ash 6aoists ushpa *amal ahal # better !nown as

rachanda, his guerrilla nom de plume # is alleged to be a man of substantial wealth

now. 6aybe to manifest this, rachanda contested the )onstituent ssembly elections



from two constituencies and three other members of his family, including his wife and

daughter, also contested seats.

)ritics trace the source of the 6aoists& money power to 3epal&s 10 year insurrection,

sayingH BThey looted ?00!g of gold and hundreds of crores of rupees from the ban!s in

those years. They used the money in 200A and added to it in their years in the

government. (ven now they e$tort money from businessmen and common people.C

ami dismissed all this tal!, sayingH BWe want to ma!e 3epal a cash nation, a

prosperous nation. "ut we are not cash party.C

ll this tal! of constitutional arrangements and allegations of corruption against

professional politicians are almost unintelligible to the ordinary long/suffering 3epali.

They as!H BWhat does this all mean to us who can barely surviveK o you !now even

the ordinary variety of rice costs EL 3epali5 rupeesKC

7ri an!a

This growing contempt for the political class by the cynical ordinary voter is being

manifested in many ways the world over. Dor e$ample, in 7ri an!a, the opposition

Tamil 3ational lliance T35 e$ecuted a master stro!e in selecting an hitherto non/

political retired 7upreme )ourt Judge as its candidate for )hief 6inister for the

recently/held 3orthern rovincial )ouncil elections.

The )hief 6inister, once elected, reinforced this view when he, repeatedly in public,

told and retold the story of recently phoning up a friend who had been elected to

political office to congratulate him and after e$changing pleasantries, had as!ed him

what his priorities were. The stunning answer had been, %now that am in power, to

recover all the money had to spend to get elected8&

@evolt against officialdom and highhandedness

:pposition to this !ind of thin!ing is what drove nna 'aare&s o! al movement in

ndia, from which was cloned the and *e+riwal. darsh 7hastri, until recently a

6umbai/based top e$ecutive for pple )orporation in ndia, has resigned from his +ob

to +oin the , sayingH BThe mood of the people is changingG young people want

responsive government.C

The (conomic Times of ndia in an editorial saidH BThe anti establishment mood todayis strong and the has generated such euphoria among youngsters and the middle

class that ndia may be at an inflection point.C

ipan!ar -upta, a sociologist and author, saysH BThis is a revolt against officialdom

and highhandednessG it&s the same !ind of thing you saw in Tahrir Muare in )airo and

Tunisia, but not against one dictator. t&s against 1,000 tyrants that parade in the garb

of democracy.C sho! 6ali!, a 3ew elhi/based political commentator, saysH B*e+riwal



represents the anger of the little man.C

This is what drives the ;* party in "ritain, which opposes unlimited immigration into

"ritain, which sees the greed of big business for cheap imported labour, driving the

"ritish politicians to allow low cost (ast (uropean labour into "ritain. This is also why

the average 7ingaporean opposes the -overnment&s plans to allow more and more

migrants into 7ingapore to provide cheap labour for their labour intensive industries

li!e the construction sector and thereby depress local 7ingaporeans& earning capacity.

n (urope the opposition to immigrant labour is driven by the same thin!ing. The

insensitiveness of the political class to the concerns of the %ordinary man& # the am

admi of the in 'indi is the driving force. The Tea arty, faction of the @epublican

arty in the ;7, is also driven by this sentiment. There are similar political entities

driven by the same sentiment in many other countries, other than of ndia, the

;* of "ritain and the Tea arty faction of ;7&s @epublican arty. Dor e$ample

3orway&s rogress arty, 'ungary&s Jobbi!, Drance&s 3ational Dront, -reece&s -olden

awn, etc.

n 7outh *orea software tycoon hn )heol/soo is preparing to launch a new political

party to %change the paradigm of *orea&s economy&. The novice politician, who pulled

out of the recent *orean residential election out of fear of splitting the liberal vote,

has an opportunity to capitalise on the anger of the ordinary voter against an

increasingly dysfunctional government. Dor three months the *orean arliament has

failed to pass even a single piece of legislation8

Three common characteristics

-enerally it can be said that all these so/called %insurgent& political parties have three

common characteristicsH that the nations ruling elites have lost touch with the common

man&s needs and aspirations, that government is a bloated, corrupt , nepotistic , self

serving dinosaur, not at all %fit for purpose&, that government is controlled by a nepotist,

politico/business ne$us who are only interested in ensuring that corporate and their

profits are ma$imised, even allowing uncontrolled immigration to fuel the economy

with a cheap wor! force.

The cynicism of the ordinary voter against the political class is fuelled by one or moreof these issues may be in some instances combined with other more parochial factors.

Dor e$ample the whole reform movement in ndia was driven by the dilly dallying of the

political class with establishing the o! al, for 40 years, as they were reluctant to

have an independent autonomous body to investigate the corruption the political class

and the bureaucracy. (ven what has been finally set up by law has been described by

&s *e+riwal as a BJo!e alC as it is considered too wea! and not independent



enough.

:n the other hand, merica&s Tea arty has its roots in a venerable tradition of small

government conservatism. n (urope these fringe political groups are small rebellious

outfits, some from the far right. They are angry people, har!ing bac! to simpler times.

They worry about immigration. They belong to the s9ueeed middle class, people who

feel that the political elite at the top, the creamy layer and the unprincipled free

loading, social welfare, scroungers at the bottom of the pyramid, the sediment, are

prospering, at the e$pense of ordinary wor!ing people.

They also believe that the centres of national power are dominated by large numbers

of professional politicians and bureaucrats who are corrupt and constantly coming up

with schemes to ruin ordinary hardwor!ing people&s lives and get themselves re/

elected. These groups of insurgents are prospering because governments are corrupt

andNor have performed badly.

-overnments have encouraged consumers to borrow, let the ban!s run wild, instead

!eeping the financial sector on a tight regulatory leash and not crac!ed down on

corruption and nepotism. :rdinary people have paid the price for these (uropean

follies, in higher ta$es, unemployment, benefit cuts and pay freees.

refreshing e$periment

The am admi e$periment in ndia is a refreshing e$periment at restabilising the

credibility of government. The political class in all our countries have to regain the

confidence of the ordinary voters. n the same way that one analyst called for those

responsible for producing the national statistics for 7ri an!a should undergo an

internalised process and credibility e$ercise to restore their own credibility among us

ordinary mortals, who are fed their rampantly false numbers on a daily basis, after one

of their own disclosed how the numbers were fraudulently coo!ed upwards8

lso allegations of massive corruption, li!e for e$ample the 6&s office issuing letters

to get concessions for the release of a container containing hashish, do not help. 7o

also the more recent manifestation in 7ri an!a, in local government authorities, where

a revolt by the low/ran!ing elected members, against systemic flaws in the system and

rampant corruption, the benefits of which are not Bdemocratised,C has led to a series ofdefeats of local authority budgets.

7imilar hostility is reported between the %family,& the %old guard& and the %recent +umpers&

at a higher level. 'ow the development and emergence of these so/called %insurgent&

political groups will finally wor! itself out, in the political environment of these

countries, is difficult to predict. :bserving the ongoing political process will be very

interesting.



:ne hopes that at last the long/suffering 3epali people are finally blessed with a

constitutional arrangement which could fully accommodate their political aspirations,

notwithstanding the machinations of the %)ash& and %ash& 6aoists. t will help us all if

the in 3ew elhi, led by the redoubtable *e+riwal, succeeds in setting a higher

standard of behaviour for elected politicians and in this year&s ndian arliamentary

elections the can e$tend its reach to other parts of ndia. emocracy will be really

reinforced in our part of the world.

The writer is a lawyer, who has over ?0 years of e$perience as a )(: in both 7tate

and private sectors. 'e retired from the office of 7ecretary, 6inistry of Dinance and

currently is the 6anaging irector of the 7ri an!a "usiness evelopment )entre.5

nepal’s ‘cash’ and ‘dash’ maoists

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