Alternative Politics In Teething Trouble

Nepal’s political parties are led by septuagenarian leaders, and they have been holding on to the leadership position invariably for the last many decades. This phenomenon has largely more or less occupied the entire political milieu in Nepal. The dominance of the elder generation in party leadership, better termed as gerontocracy, has ruled the political roost and dictated the political course of action for several decades. However, ageing party leadership is gradually facing the challenges of retaining its relevance, acceptability and legitimacy. The challenges to the senior generation of leadership have become more articulate and vociferous after the elections held two-and-a-half years ago. Even within the communist parties like CPN- Maoist Centre and CPN-UML, internal dissent is brewing to pose a challenge to the leadership.

The people's frustration and discontent with the political parties and their leadership had been expressed through the vote a well. This had found clear expression as the independent candidates triumphed in the poll, especially in the mayoral positions in different cities in the country in the last elections. According to the report, over thirty-five independent candidates had won the top executive posts for the rural municipalities and municipalities. The emergence of young leadership at local government can be construed, among others, as an indicator of the growing aversion to and disenchantment of the voters, especially in the urban areas, with the conventional modus operandi of politics executed by ageing political leaders in the country.

Independent candidates

The success of independent candidates in the polls had worked as a catalyst and thus motivated and inspired the new generation of youths to join in the electoral politics to challenge the established order of the party leadership. Mention in this context can be made about the move of the popular TV programme host Rabi Lamichhane, who launched the new political outfit called Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). This surge of new politics won the appreciation and support of the people, as a result of which the party was able to muster 21 seats in the federal parliament, which was an incredible political feat of its own kind. 

It was a quiet political transformation executed through ballots in which young political aspirants made their way to the apex seats of the parliament. The new political outfit, led by Rabi Lamichhane, forged together a new set of lesser-known youth aspirants and initiated and baptised them into politics. The young political aspirants used their agency to defy the conventional order of party leadership and established a new benchmark in the politics of the country. However, RSP is under stress because its founding leader, Rabi Lamichhane, has been charged with a cooperative fraud scheme and sent into custody for prosecution. The future of the party is contingent upon how it defines its course of action for the upcoming days.

Like RSP, experimentation with a new political group had been tried out around a decade ago. Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai, who was one of the masterminds of the ten-year-long Maoist insurgency and also headed the country's executive government for almost one-and-a-half years, had started a campaign towards building a renovated variant of alternative politics immediately after the promulgation of the new federal constitution in 2015. Dr. Bhattarai had branded his party as Naya Shakti Party, targeting to dislodge the existing conventional political parties, articulating the narrative that the country needs the new party to give leadership in the changed epoch of the twenty-first century.    

Dr. Bhattarai had plunged into the theatrics of the politics as the gallant critic of the Maoist party that he had led and nurtured, contending that its agenda no longer holds sense and logic in the changed political epoch. Dr. Bhattarai used his new party as the alternative political platform, weaving narratives to challenge the corrupt political practices and values through progressive transformative praxis.  He had boiled down his ideas into five key political formulaic aphorisms, which, according to him, had been translated into action through prosperity, inclusion, good governance, participation and federalism. However, despite his propensity to write novel narrative and commitment to these much-avowed ideas, he was not able to take the notion of new politics further and turned to the fold of regional–communal groups for political salvage. 

Credibility

As a result, he lost his political charm and allowed to have room to question his credibility and diligence. Currently, Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai is leading the new political outfit called Nepal Samajbadi Party (Naya Shakti), whose organisational base seems to be leaner.  Dr. Bhattarai, once a popular politician, seems to be pushed to the brink and appears to be trying to find a new legitimacy and identity for his role in politics. Dr. Bhattarai’s political zigzags and setbacks in the career of Rabi Lamichhane, offer some clues to the proponents of the new political outfit committed to capitalising on the popular frustrations with the conventional parties. 

These examples indicate that starting a new political outfit seems not very difficult, but designing a unique selling point, giving a proper shape and getting the messages across the masses is an uphill task.  Undoubtedly, the evolving political scene in the country is propitious and ripe for the new politics. However, domain knowledge, skills, temperament and character to shape up a new brand and sell is a precondition to foster such initiatives. As the upcoming elections are almost two years away, enterprising leaders and aspiring youths can take the initiative to launch new political outfits. However, announcing new political platforms is not a big deal but giving it a solid foundation requires solid preparation with careful consideration.  

(The author is presently associated with Policy Research Institute (PRI) as a senior research fellow.  rijalmukti@gmail.com)