The recently concluded general convention of the Nepali Congress was keenly watched as much for the intense leadership battle as for the new ideological course the party would devise for itself for the next four years. For the party president’s post, there was a three-way contest which was easily won by the three-time prime minister and a long-time factional leader Sher Bahadur Deuba. Besides the expected candidacy of then-acting party chief Ram Chandra Poudel, outgoing general secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula was also in the fray.

What caught many by surprise was not the electoral drama that involved Sujata Koirala’s exit from the race a day after her announcing her plans to fight for the top party post or Gagan Thapa’s challenge for his father-in-law Arjun Narsing KC in the general secretary position but the sheer lack of policy agenda of the contenders. Besides the old Congress rhetoric of safeguarding democracy, achieving undefined socialism and the stock agenda of implementing the newly adopted constitution, there was no vision on display for driving the party or the country forward in the face of emerging challenges of disunity and polarisation of the Nepali society surrounding the adoption of the new national charter.

Changing ideologies

However, it is not only the NC that appears bereft of principles beyond the immediate goals of winning elections and remaining in the government. The second largest and ruling CPN-UML and junior coalition partner UCPN (Maoist) have also ceased to appeal to the masses with their political agendas. Moreover, the two communist parties face such an identity crisis today, as a decade after the Maoists joining the mainstream politics it is hard for cadres on either side to outline their strategic differences. And the question of the guiding principles of the smaller and regional parties is less important here.

Has this void of theoretical differences resulted from the pressing agenda of embracing the new national principles of republicanism, federalism, inclusiveness and secularism, which have already thrown the country into disarray six months into the adoption of the constitution in September? Have the new orders been so weighty that the parties can no longer carry their old ideologies? Or are the new issues so urgent that the original agendas deserve no mention?

Whatever the causes, it is an opportune time for our political parties to redefine their goals and continue their decade-long journey of cooperation to tide the country over its present challenges. Since the second people’s movement that sowed the seeds of the present political changes, there has been a blurring of ideological line dividing the major political forces of Nepal. In the process, there has also been a give and take of the party agendas. It may be recalled here that the three major parties demonstrated their innovative character by improvising their old beliefs: the NC redeemed its old revolutionary image and the Maoists accepted parliamentary democracy while the UML did not require much manoeuvring.

The NC move was a departure from the policy long harboured by the late BP Koirala who believed that communists were unreliable for partnership even when the intolerant monarch crushed the divided political parties. In the decisive fight against the king’s Panchayat system in 1989, the late NC leader Ganesh Man Singh employed a strategy of waging a joint struggle by encouraging leftist forces to form their front. It was the late GP Koirala who took another step forward to form an alliance with the Maoists and the CPN-UML that ultimately overthrew the monarchy.

Post constitution, the staunch Hindu royalist party of Kamal Thapa, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, also made a courageous U-turn by embracing republicanism though still carrying the Hindu state agenda.

Way forward

With the abolition of monarchy and the old establishment overthrown, one phase of revolution has been over. The second phase, which is more important, is the country’s prosperity—from the present state of an impoverished nation sandwiched between two fastest-growing Asian giants. There can be no better moment than this for us to assert our independence especially that we have just learnt hard lessons about the perils of making ourselves totally dependent on a country we are so diversely linked with.

To this end, our political parties should now be guided by the agendas of economic progress, leaving behind import-based revenue and remittance-driven economy, towards a free, just and equitable society where there is no oppressor and the oppressed. They should follow the principle of equal distribution of wealth including the scarce land for shelter, industry and farm. They should make free movement of people and goods possible through wide road, rail and air connectivity so that a better intermingling of people from different geographical and racial backgrounds leads to more profitable understanding and tolerance.

Putting the nation on a growth trajectory, setting up an education system that produces a workforce capable of steering the country towards advancement, modernising agriculture along with the tapping of river water that has hitherto been wasted, installing an efficient and affordable healthcare system and extracting the country’s mineral resources to feed industrial needs must be the primary agendas of all the political parties. They could look back on the road they have travelled and chart a future course that leads them as well as the people to the summit of success.

With this transformation, even if the parties are left with no separate principles other than the sole goal of leading the nation towards development, they might be forgiven.

Guragain is a senior sub-editor with The Post @GuragainMohan