Call For Embracing Republican Virtues

To escape from convulsive political deadlock, mutual blame and suffering of Nepalis from each other’s leaders, a sensible self-introspection of scholars about the state of the nation is vital.  Politics is driven by multiple human impulses, each reliant on the other.  They together influence human conduct. Two dominant impulses of leaders are: one is self-interested passion and the other is their immediate imperative for cooperation to fulfil their electoral promises, mitigate the nation’s pressing problems and give the feeling to the ordinary people that democracy works for them. The second one is connected to the fortune of all Nepalis which requires collaboration, virtuous conduct and mutual support of the dominant actors of society for a shared and stable future. 

The unflinching passion of politics, its professional vocation and its effects are multi-dimensional, not just the partisan carefulness. Republican virtues thus justify Nepali state intervention in four areas: moderate power differentials among the people, provide public good, create institutional safeguard for conflict mitigation and advance the hope for intergenerational justice. The amplified constitutional rights of Nepalis for republic virtues of popular sovereignty deem it inalienable, indivisible and irreducible. Republican tradition rooted in civic humanism and social inclusion are widening the frontier of politics internally and politicising them about their rights.  

Social movements

Social movements, outbound migratory trends of people and planetary ecological awareness are opening the national boundary of state-centric politics to direct legislative power of people, shared rule through federalism and local self-governance affirming participatory democracy. The parliament has only delegated power of representation which in no way has supported active citizenship for reasons of party whip. The notion of human rights is further universalising Nepali identity and dignity thus turning bottom-up politics a necessity, but difficult to practice owing to the patrimonial nature of leadership. 

Neither hereditary power of leadership in politics, business and civil society, nor cronyism, nor even corruption of power and wealth bear republic virtues. An utterly partisan approach to governance has proved deficient to manage rules, norms, actors, institutions and processes and set the conditions suitable for a shift from pre-political being to the autonomy of citizenship capable of keeping due diligence on social contract. An alternative politics requires not partial, but a holistic approach which takes into consideration people's right to security, freedom, immunity and development for self-realisation.  

Republic tradition of participatory politics cannot leap forward when everything is judged either by partisan fondness to clientelism or market value of exchange where the poor are mostly dropouts unable to exercise their sovereignty. An alternative politics, embedded in republic virtues, has to keep downward accountability to the people, upward accountability to the state sovereignty and outside accountability to its commitments to international norms and values, laws of nations and humanitarian obligations and principles of global regimes of which it is a member. An alternative Nepali politics has to recapture the spirit of zeitgeist driven by human aspirations, communication and technological processes without deflating Nepalis basic needs.  

The radical and reformist delusion have reared the current crisis of the nation. It is a crisis whose resolution entails an apt management of differing impulses of popular sovereignty, human rights and constitutionalism. A collaborative approach across public institutions and political parties can utilise resource surpluses and create opportunities for the people for productive employment, build a virtuous state based on its own tax base as it has implications for leaders’ downward accountability and reduce the scale of dependence which cuts the nation’s internal autonomy and external sovereignty. The evolution of multiple poles of power entails more coordination of domestic and foreign policy, harnessing mutually beneficial interests and neutralising the unsought geopolitical spur. 

The economic aspect of Nepali politics has occupied a larger salience now than ever before. Its flip side is: it is motivated by self-interest, not public interest, which has a profound effect on public policy. The policy conditionality buttressed up by foreign aid, loan, investment and trade hardly takes into account the nation’s social reality or popular sovereignty. It only props up the dominant interests of society, elevating a bhuiphutta barga, hovering around the corridor of power for policy push which B. P. Koirala detested for its justification of any borrowed policy suitable or not. In no way it restores the republic ethos of popular sovereignty or autonomy of parliament in policy making. 

The drive of alternative politics is rooted in a regime of responsibility where power holders are accountable to the source of its legitimacy - the people. Coexistence of democracy with strong interest groups at various layers of polity and its outcome is less healthy when people are frantic to alleviate their poverty and joblessness. The only realistic option left for them is to move to the global labour market en masse, spawning a shortfall of change agents to cater alternative politics rooted in reflecting people’s priority of social transformation. The restoration of the national integrity system, revitalisation of strong checks on power and abolition of impunity for powerful elites can save the resources to be deployed in the productive sector and increase an access of ordinary Nepalis to public goods, the vital essence of republicanism. 

Only a new economic management of sustainability and equity can help Nepalis escape from the burden of existential crisis and depolarise politics and progress. It requires moral courage of leadership to enlarge the sphere of justice, social progress and peace beyond cultic figures surviving more in egoism and power lust than honing the republican virtues to serve the public. If politics is played on a game of ego-inflation of leaders devoid of public purpose, the vision of Nepalis to create an egalitarian society turns only teasing. An alternative politics calls for a shift from purely multi-party electoral competition to participatory democracy that can modernise the nation without renouncing national values, culture and identity which Nepalis prize.

 It upholds their collective rights expressed in self-determination. It links the party bureaucracy, elites and leaders to common Nepalis at the grassroots, devolves decision making structures as per the code of subsidiarity and allows them to engage in setting priorities, planning, budgeting, execution and monitoring of their worthy initiatives. Does the current generation of Nepali leaders have political will to protect and preserve the national values and character of earlier leaders who symbolised civic patriotism or relish only the insular interests bereft of moral values, social justice and national loyalty?  If the memories of builders of the Nepali nation are embedded in the conscience of present leaders, they can serve as an ideal guide to statecraft.  

Without a sovereign state upholding an ideal of social justice, the life of society cannot be organised. Ecological and social justice and cultural pluralism set an edifice of participatory politics.  An acute awareness of Nepalis about the values of forbearance to diversity and surge of spiritualism in the form of its culture may set new patterns in politics. Nepalis are also searching for an alternative politics reflective of its historical experience and changing condition of life at grassroots level. People of various races, regions and cultures are now trying to understand each other and engaging in discovering common values out of different traditions, history and the concept of future. 

The literary and intellectual discourses are increasing their fraternity. This might contribute to their cultural empowerment and artistic creativity and integrity beyond economic, political and media syndicate. New forms of social media (Facebook, X, WhatsApp, etc.), internet and webs as self-proclaimed watchdogs often lodge critique on personalised leadership for standing above parties’ discipline, statute and constitutional norms thus acting in a transactional way, hit the commercialisation of public sphere, commodification of life and corrosive effects of individualism on civic culture which Nepalis vehemently detest.

 Republican politics does not mean only a rule without monarchy and justification of the misdeeds of leaders who tolerate a culture of massive scale of corruption, bribery and arbitrary use of power. Prithvi Narayan Shah deemed “bribe giver and taker, the enemies of the state.” Even the abuse of authority is deemed inverse to its ethical code. Ranas blurred the boundary between the public and the private sphere, distributed all state posts to cronies and clients and fostered an oligarchy. This legacy bounces back with the refeudalisation of the public sphere now as an insult to republican virtues. 

The alternative politics of democracy is a revolt against the surge of authoritarianism and feudalisation of state privileges indicating the compressing choices for Nepalis. The challenge for Nepali leaders is whether it can self-define national identity and decolonise education, law, politics and policy by recapturing the intellectual heritage of the nation, indigenising and moralising politics or replace them as a prerequisite of development and enjoy borrowed existence defined by condition-reflect-action of advanced nations’ technology, ideology, knowledge, life-style, consumer goods and culture of modernisation. 

National aspirations

Those leaders, who judge Nepali culture by external standards cannot decolonise national aspirations appropriate to people’s needs, violate its integrity and wisdom and provoke indignation of people for whom culture is highly esteemed. Sensitive journalists and cultural scholars point how Nepalis of one culture celebrate the culture and festivals of others and strongly feel concerned about its growing ideological deconstruction by crass materialism. The ferocity of materialism kills the prospect of alternative politics donned by the tradition of national independence, spiritual emancipation, tolerance to pluralism, respect to the dignity of asylum-seekers, etc. that served as a basis of national self-determination for long. 

An adaptation of Nepali leaders to the yug dharma requires the virtues of satto guna, so that the state can perform vital roles in security, rule of law and penalize the law breakers. The conscience of the court, civil society and media can furnish a model of alternative politics and keep democratic dynamics in equilibrium.  Alternative politics is not entirely based on elite interests but also the welfare values of Nepali people beyond leadership and bureaucratic ego as givers and people as recipients, not sovereign claimants of rights. 

In this sense, it questions individual rationalism, conformist collectivism and dull materialism by espousing an emancipatory form of politics, a politics arising out of unfulfilled party and constitutional promises and future-conscious vision.  People’s new awareness of issues and problems expect to generate novel forms of reflective education about human condition, regenerating voice and volunteerism and inclusive organisations embracing anti-hierarchical values and helping Nepalis realize their innate potential and self-worth.

(Former Reader at the Department of Political Science, TU, Dahal writes on political and social issues.)