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At least two authors’ assertion in this daily that Sher Bahadur Deuba’s candidacy for premiership against Pushpa Kamal Dahal was mere symbolism has befuddled this simpleton, who usually believes what politicians say. However, if NC put forward Deuba merely for the sake of acting a symbol, it has shot itself in the foot again.
Secondly, by putting forward Deuba, the NC gave the impression that it has run out of new ideas and new people. Koirala-Deuba, Deuba-Koirala has been the age long combination the NC has offered. Why not Narahari Acharya or Ram Chandra Poudel or Dr Ram Sharan Mahat? So, Deuba for symbolism turned out to be a sign of NC’s decay and decadence. As a Christian, I deal with symbolism regularly. For example, the tiny bit of bread and a sip of Frooti in church stands for Christ’s body sacrificed and his blood shed for the salvation of humanity. However, politics for some people and parties thrives even more on symbolism. King Tribhuvan’s assurance of CA and perhaps a republic arising from that became the first, major post-1950 symbolism that kept political leaders’ head spinning until the former died. With hind-sight, we now know that Tribhuvan’s promises also served as the first step of our monarchy towards oblivion, which took place in 2008. King Mahendra, a self-acclaimed poet famous for stealing others’ ideas, fed plenty of symbolism to the Nepali population of his day. While stashing the country’s money away in Swiss banks, Mahendra could preach nationalism to the population. As a patriotic Boy Scout, I gulped in eagerly Mahendra’s advice, "Think not what Nepal can do for you but think what you can do for Nepal" until I realized the goggle-wearing dude had stolen it from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech. His another slogan, "We should do in 10 years what other countries have done in 50" stirred my imagination wild. Ironically, his Panchayat system did for the country what no other philosophy could do for other nations: keep Nepal in the Stone Age for 30 years. Even his death, proclaimed as a result of a heart attack, became a symbol of his deception because he actually committed suicide. King Birendra sat on the throne distributing symbolism, while at the same time, like his father, he swelled his Swiss bank accounts and raped female servants in the palace. Birendra inspired us to take our country to the South Asian standard in so many years. He had an innocent-looking, smiling face that helped hide his deception even more. Democratic PM’s too have had their symbols which people believed in until the novelty faded. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, a self-declared bachelor but "not virgin", aspired us to a Singapore within 15 years. GP Koirala made sure that Bhattarai didn’t remain in the PM’s chair for even 15 months. Thus, according to some local, witty, tea-shop, perpetual inhabitants, Nepal didn’t become Singapore, but 'Jhingapore', a city of flies! Now, Bhattarai has a tiny Singapore of his own, near Godavari, and the mysterious Kapali lady at his side. Koirala has mastered symbolism. He claims his "yes" to be "yes", a "no" really "no"; but what about his frequent "yes-no"s (lies)? He went to the SAARC conference, Colombo, to announce his thanks to Gyanendra for "allowing" republicanism to take roots in our country. Nagarjun was too far. The Maoists, now in the hot-seats of the government, have always excelled in symbols. They have quietly discarded the "10 year Switzerland" dream, but otherwise symbolism flows in every sentences they utter. Thus, for the umpteenth time, they have promised to reform the YCL hooligans, make them vacate government/private buildings, return confiscated property, stop taking parallel taxes, send away child soldiers, and disband concentration camps/kangaroo courts. The public regards these promises as symbols for something else, indications of the real new Nepal in store for us. In the attempt to digest Maoists’ symbols, UML suffers dysentery. Thus, Bam Dev Gautam will not accept a position less than that of the deputy-PM. Then, the "resigned" minister Pradeep Nepal, who symbolically visited the China Olympics and returned just as quickly when he saw his "team" not close to a medal, insists that UML shouldn’t ever join the Maoist-led government. Both UML leaders are throwing symbols around to ultimately milk the Maoists as dry as they can. Meanwhile, Baburam Bhattarai has already made the deputy-PM’s chair warm in Dahal’s absence. However, the Sadbhavana party tops all in symbolism. Have you counted the number of times the party chair-lady, Anandidevi, has gone through symbolic kidnappings? How often did Shyam Sundar Gupta make headlines abducting and then releasing her, offering the same treatment to a NOC lad as well? Once Anandidevi claimed her absence was a long medical visit. A few days after Gupta declared her suffering from dementia, she chaired her party’s meeting. Sadbhavana’s symbols stand tall! Under Deuba’s leadership we had a jumbo cabinet with 26 ministries and over 40 ministers. All his "relatives" of some sort got in. Under Maoist’s progressive PM, we will have 24 ministries. I suggest we add just one more please, Ministry of Symbolism. The incumbent minister will do us all a great favour by warning us before a candidacy or tantrums, "Don’t get excited, this is mere symbolism!" Published on August 30 in TKP Newer...
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 31 August 2008 ) | |||
First of all, why waste time and go through the motion/emotion of voting just for the sake of symbolism? The NC could have simply not voted and declared it wanted to stay in the opposition. The country would have believed it mainly because it has fewer liars than the other parties. Dahal himself could have boasted that all the parties supported his candidacy for the sake of "unity".
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