Olitics in doldrums

Even his diehard fans have made this slogan to chant: boli ali piro ho, Oli hamro hero ho. English version will read like this: He might be a bit foul mouthed but he is our hero.  

The hero I am referring to is none other than Respectable Honourable Prime Minister Mr Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli of Nepal aka KP Oli.

In the biography, maintained by the Starsunfolded.com, under the Educational Qualification section, PM Oli “appeared BA exam for the first year only” and under the College section, it is written “Not Known”. Elsewhere, this scribe has read him having two honorary PhDs from relatively unknown universities. But he is an all-rounder. He is fluent on both scientific and non-scientific issues. Pull out a topic from the air and give it to him; he will lecture you for hours. He is a genius of a kind – a guru who knows everything. In his absence, Nepali media find nothing to entertain. Just read the cartoons, literally, he has unleashed their imaginations.  

He started his second term with multiple big bangs; literally, they have now turned into whimpers. He came with an ambitious vision of making “rich Nepal and happy Nepali”. Unfortunately, by the end of his term, we are ending up with more poor and sad Nepali people. His commitment to have “no Nepali has to die of hunger” has turned into a national joke. He boasted so much about having “two-third majority” that by the turn of his third year, it has reduced to one-third. Completing full five-year tenure is now a mirage. He guaranteed us to have a stable and secure government yet he has reshuffled Cabinet for 19 occasions during last three years. Within less than six months he dissolved the parliament two times.  

The genesis of the present day political crisis rests with the creation of two-headed monster called Communist Party of Nepal. When his opponents criticized for this two headed creature, he has this to reply: “This is not like driving a three wheeler tempo; flying a jet plane requires two pilots.” No one is sure he is still flying a jet plane or riding on his branded bullock-cart? It is the bickering between two pilots that has brought the current political disaster.

Olitics-politics is a kind of politics that operate with a surficial, fake coating of extreme ethnocentric nationalism and development. However, the real motive underneath is to hang onto power - by hook or by crook. To hang onto power, Oli is ready to sacrifice anything, anybody. The President has been needlessly dragged into controversy. Similarly, the repercussions of his stubbornness at the centre have been felt at the almost all provincial governments. Due to indiscriminate appointment of henchmen, almost all constitutional bodies and state-owned enterprises are being made to defunct. The arrival of Olitics-politics have given birth to Oli-garchy, political-Oligopoly, Olilology and Olism. Given the way security forces are behaving, it sounds even the word “Police” contains “Oli” inside.    

Others have pointed Olitics-politics as having a holier than thou attitude; ready to break but never to bend before the opponents; to be besieged by a flock of yes-men like in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes. In the classical story, the emperor paraded naked among the crowd, here all his advisors and consultants are shamelessly walking naked with him.        

There is a saying, “action speaks louder than words”.  But in Nepal it is the other way round. Politicians never do what they promise; and they never promise what they do.  Listening to PM Oli leaves an impression of no connection between his mouth and mind. Recently, he made an undiplomatic comment to the BBC. Urging Covid aid from UK, he reminded his counterpart to “acknowledge the sacrifices of Nepali Gurkhas who served in their army”. Hopefully, Nepal’s poverty will be solved if we can just sue British and Indian governments for the compensation payments for great sacrifices of Gurkha Army? In the gathering of foreign journalists, recently, he made similar quizzical remarks, "the residents in Lipulekh-Limpiyadhura will not have a right to vote in the coming elections because they are under the control of a foreign country."

Late British PM Margaret Thatcher used to say, “Either you drive from the left or right, it does not matter. But someone trying to drive at the middle of the road will have chances of being hit by the traffic coming from both sides”. One may question the applicability of this traffic analogy to Nepali politics. But overnight switching of foreign policy from pro-India to pro-China and again to pro-India at one’s convenience only results in greater possibility of being rejected by both countries.

Published on 16 June 2021