Do you've a mind to read this? If you have this will make you think for yourself and see the true picture of the political situation of Nepal, your mother land that you're so cocksure of king G Feb 1 move? Perhaps you can see in which shues you've been fitting yourself in with your gorkhaliness - selfish, fear stricken, stuborn average Gorkhalis.

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A Modest Proposal

The country has no choice but to explore the common middle ground. The press has to get down from its high horse too.

By Akhilesh Upadhyay


The symptoms of a country in a bind is perhaps best observed in the everyday conversation in the living rooms, in offices government and private, and indeed in the chiya pasals. February First, for a while, seemed to have radicalised the Nepalis like never before. There were some who cheered the King all too noisily (Radio Nepal each morning customarily celebrates the pro-King street rallies and those behind them). While there were others who characteristically jeered the royal move: ?Well, it was all writ large on the wall. You were a fool not to have seen this coming. The Armageddon is here.?

There is a real danger that the partisan debate can only get ever more polarized in the days ahead. This is a modest attempt at exploring a common middle ground.

To start with, since February First, yours truly has met countless people?bankers, university and school teachers, housewives, shop keepers, students, taxi drivers, restauranteurs?who seem more willing to give the King the benefit of the doubt compared to us journalists and the parties, perhaps two groups worst affected by the developments post-Feb. 1. To these groups, the royal takeover was always on the cards. It started for the parties in October 2002. The fate has now befallen the free press, still in its infancy. Already, the private press has seen some terrifying revenue losses and layoffs. But the worst perhaps is yet to come.

Unsurprisingly, ask any journalist or party worker, what the solution to the current crisis is and the answer is going to be simple: Let press freedom prevail, restore fundamental rights, reinstate the Parliament, and let, who else but, the parties rule. I belong to that group of democrats myself. Press freedom is dear to me (how else could I write this?) and I can?t imagine how I would continue enjoying my journalism without it. Without it, I also know for sure, the job of journalism would be a drag to scores of others who not only cherish their job as ?gatekeepers of news? but also their role as ?watchdogs.? Many of these are people I have worked with for more than 10 years and take their job extremely seriously?too seriously at times.

That explains the noise early this month when one of us (Kantipur daily?s editor Narayan Wagle) was summoned by the police to explain why his paper wrote what it wrote. And a week before that the commotion over Kanak Mani Dixit?s what turned out to be a five-hour detention. I penned a litany of grievances myself, right here on Kantipuronline (?To Free or Not to Free,? March 8), in defence of Kanak, and received some angry letters from the readers too. One letter was especially interesting, ?I somehow feel that Akhilesh has this very broad western ?democratic? perspective, though not so democratic when he chose a journalist to be his topic.? The letter then goes on: ?I seriously think he needs some refreshment course on what is democracy... that is so relative.?

Curiously, the letter in question echoes to some measure the conflict in my own mind as I grope for a narrative that would both address the democratic needs of the free press, even while giving enough space to contending viewpoints in the mass media.

Missing link

Admittedly, there has for some time been a hole in the media?s portrayal of the state of affairs in the country. In our single-minded focus to restore democracy, indeed an extremely legitimate concern, we perhaps seem to be missing a link or two. Are we, like the parties to some extent, in dissonance with the common man?s and woman?s aspirations? Are we in a denial over the state of affairs that we no longer live in normal times?

The nine-year-old Maoist insurgency has come far and it doesn?t need a rocket scientist to explain that we may soon face a possible collapse, or a state failure, to use a more commonly used expression. Do most Nepalis seriously believe that the political parties will do it right given another chance? So where do we go from here?

Let me start out with the media. We could definitely do with a dose of introspection over an important question: Did we contribute to the Maoist mayhem unknowingly; and just as importantly, have we contributed enough to bring the King and the parties together?two political forces whose synergy remains key if we are to avoid a possible catastrophe?

As for the parties, reforms within are a must. To be sure, Nepalis have had some issues with individual politicians, but they have eternal faith in democracy. In an opinion poll conducted by Interdisciplinary Analysts with ACNielsen before Feb. 1, only five percent of those polled stood for absolute monarchy; the same poll also found that only five percent don?t believe in monarchy. The poll sampled 3,059 respondents in 35 districts. The parties, however, are unlikely to capture popular imagination (recall their glory days post-1990?) without deep reforms and a language (and faces) that resonates with the masses.

PR debacle

But it is the Palace?that controls the reins since Feb. 1?which has to go on immediate overhaul. For starters, it will do well to realize that the only way it can wear down the Maoists is by having political parties on its side. There has been a lot of talk about the split in the CPN-Maoist, and Home Minister Dan Bahadur Shahi has gone on record to say that the split will play in the government?s favour. Not necessarily. If there is a vertical split in the party, there is every chance that the hardliners will prevail in one of the factions and the security situation may actually deteriorate amid warlord-ism and in the lack of moderation. Even Nepal?s staunchest allies who are aiding the counter-insurgency insist that it is not possible to score an outright military victory over the rebels. The Palace has to manage its PR better than rely on Tulsi Giri and ilk, who seem to be dismissive of everybody, including our foreign allies.

More than the military offensive, it is popular pressure that will ultimately push the rebels to the negotiating table and give the state an edge while negotiating with them. Legitimacy after all is at the heart of any insurgency and the moment it is gone, the grand Revolution degenerates into an unsustainable movement. Pol Pot?s meteoric rise and inglorious fall is a case in point.

This theory also applies to the Palace, however. It lost its first public relations battle post-Feb. 1, when it packed its new Cabinet with vestiges of the Panchayat regime.

But let?s give the new government its dues, at least as a resident of Kathmandu. The streets look cleaner, the traffic more orderly, the corrupt government officials and the ubiquitous dalals have vanished from Malpot, Kar Karyalaya and Yatayat Bewastha Bibhag. The garbage is collected on time and on a weekend trip to Godawari last Saturday, yours truly noted with some satisfaction that the park looked much cleaner.

But aid agencies also tell us that outside Kathmandu, a humanitarian crisis is looming. With the complete removal of political parties from the picture, the development workers have been left with very little space to function, squeezed between the two warring sides.

For now, the onus lies with the Palace. But in the long-term the parties, and the press as much, will do well to explore the reconciliatory middle ground. Honestly, as journalists we can?t totally absolve ourselves from the fact that we have consistently spewed anti-Palace vitriol. We got to get down from the high horse too.

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