Beware of government propaganda

Abhishek Pratap Shah

After facing several allegations of corruption and feeble handling of COVID-19 crisis across the political spectrum, the KP Sharma Oli government of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has tried its best to deviate people’s and opposition’s mind.

However, the pain faced by ordinary Nepali people is not easy to dilute as Oli government thinks. The opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) would leave no stone unturned to unmask the mal-governance being served by the Oli government. We, as congress leaders, will always be with the government on the issues related with national interest like in the issue of amendment of the Constitution to update the political map and national emblem in the Constitution of Nepal.

We would now raise the question about the status of dispute with India regarding Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani. Nepali people want the land back as soon as possible. But Nepali people suspect the government’s political and diplomatic capacity to get it done.

In the above-mentioned scenario, this write-up will discuss about the real politics and roadmap of the NCP. For that it’s necessary to keep in mind the recent scuffle within the NCP where Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is being blatantly criticized by his own leaders and even by intellectuals from outside the party. As an opposition leader, I must pen this issue to make ordinary people clear about the hypocrisy of PM Oli.

Few days back during the birth anniversary of late leader Madan Bhandari, PM Oli said that “designs are being hatched to topple me down from the position of PM for releasing the new map which was adopted through the parliament. Intellectual discussions, media stories coming out from New Delhi, embassy’s activities and meetings of different hotels in Kathmandu, it’s clear enough to understand how people are active to dethrone me. But they will not succeed”.

Such immature and irresponsible statement from the PM is deplorable. It seems that PM Oli knows everything being plotted inside Nepal by any embassy. If it is the case, how can the leader of almost two thirds majority government remain mute witness to such conspiracy being hatched inside Nepal? More importantly, this statement from PM Oli is natural to him because the foundation of communists in Nepal lies in anti-Indian narrative. Even during the last elections, NCP secured massive victory by abusing India.

If the Embassy of India has hatched any conspiracy against him, PM Oli needs to prove it with evidence otherwise he has no moral right to hold the position of the PM. Moreover, in the meeting of NCP’s standing committee meeting Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ pointed out at Oli’s statement as baseless. He said, ‘It was not India but I had been seeking your resignation from both party chair and prime minister.’ Prachanda, along with other senior leaders of the NCP, criticized Oli’s statement saying that it will damage the relationship with India.

Nepal is being pulled into deep ditch due to the bad politics of the NCP. PM KP Oli is mishandling the country's geopolitics merely to cling to his post by projecting Nepal’s immediate neighbour India an enemy.

Pondering upon the political steps taken by the communist PM Oli, I remember Adolf Hitler’s ‘strategy of propaganda’. Hitler is perceived as the super-propagandist of his era. Doubt, division and fear were the ‘soft but lethal weapons’ of Hitler to endure his autocracy and self-centric politics. His purpose can be summed up in his own phrase—to sow “mental confusion, contradiction of feeling, indecision, and panic”.

[caption id="attachment_14546" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image credit: Boris Artzybasheff[/caption]

Having no pro-people agenda and facing allegations of several scams and the poor handling of COVID-19, Oli is trying his best to keep people confused and deviate from the core issues by playing anti-Indian cards. Nepal used to be and still is capable enough to deal with geopolitics on her own. But it’s the trend of communist parties to imbalance geopolitics whenever they are in power.

Nepali people would not tolerate any more of NCP’s ‘dirty politics’. We Nepali nationals are patriotic by nature and our feelings cannot be muddied by ultra-nationalism. The way NCP is creating the unwanted gulf between Nepal and India would be challenging to bridge. Nepal believes in knitting geopolitical relationship on the theory of ‘equilibrium’, rather than appeasing one while hating the other neighbour.

The way NCP and Communist Party of China held political meeting the other day is shameful. I wonder whether this time again the Chinese Ambassador will manage NCP’s intra-party dispute. Whatsoever, all the activities of Oli government are under surveillance of Nepali people.

The writer is a Member of Parliament representing Nepali Congress party.

Published on 1 July 2020