Baburam Bhattarai is the new prime minister of Nepal. His election to the post appears to have lifted spirits of people- as I gather it from the blogs and the news. Why not? He has always been a person people have looked up to. I, myself, in my youth, have received numerous lectures from my mom to aspire to be as studious and smart as Mr.Bhattarai. Folklore has it that he always scored highest in his class throughout the grade school and even in the Intermediate of Science (ISc). This was held in special regards because he came from a lower middle class peasant family. He epitomized the success of hard-working peasant kid: the barriers that could be navigated through, promises each child toiling the snaking trails to reach a school in the middle of nowhere held. Mr. Bhattarai did not stop there; he proved to be a grand idealist. He questioned the very society; he saw injustices, inequalities, exploitation. He devoted himself to struggle for what he envisioned as a better society. The culminating overthrow of monarchy and establishment of republican Nepal is claimed by many as a success in that direction. Now, he is not just an idol of academic success but, many claim, of political success/ideological success. It is not hard to understand why the spirits of the countrymen are high.
I sincerely wish for the success of Mr. Bhattarai. And I will gauze it only by two things: completion of inclusive constitution writing and conductance of elections for the parliament during his tenure.
But, I am afraid, the ecstatic nation is headed for a disappointment at the least. First off, the notion about Mr. Bhattarai appears to be almost fantastical, almost godlike. This is too big a burden to start with. No single person is capable of transforming a society as heterogeneous as Nepal in a magical way. Transformation of Nepali society is going to be a systematic process with all her citizenschipping in. I imagine more banal-appearing work and changes before the structures are in place for the progress of the society. But I doubt that our expectations from Mr. Bhattarai carry along this acceptance of banality, we are in for a radical overnight transformation.
Secondly, we do not fully understand Mr. Bhattarai. It is easy to wishfully imagine this man in light of his academic achievements but we do not yet have hard evidences at our hands to attest to his capablity to lead in a democratic setup. Fourteen thousand people lost their lives in the country in the bloody conflict that contributed to the overthrow of feudal monarchy. There will always be some of us who will question this as achievement, when such gory violence was used. Perhaps, many of us will be able to close our eyes and succeed in suppressing the memories of these dark days if the political process progresses to a better end. However, this much is clear, the violent political movement carried out by Mr. Bhattarai and his ilk does not qualify as a clear success. If anything, it attests to a violent inclination whatever his ideological defenses might be.
In any case, Mr. Bhattarai has been elected to a position with historical challenges and huge burden placed on him by unrealistic expectations. It is an opportunity to see this man of almost mystical image work. My sincerest hope is that he succeeds. My greatest fears are consolidation of tyrranical aspirations of Maoists. A
I sincerely wish for the success of Mr. Bhattarai. And I will gauze it only by two things: completion of inclusive constitution writing and conductance of elections for the parliament during his tenure.
But, I am afraid, the ecstatic nation is headed for a disappointment at the least. First off, the notion about Mr. Bhattarai appears to be almost fantastical, almost godlike. This is too big a burden to start with. No single person is capable of transforming a society as heterogeneous as Nepal in a magical way. Transformation of Nepali society is going to be a systematic process with all her citizenschipping in. I imagine more banal-appearing work and changes before the structures are in place for the progress of the society. But I doubt that our expectations from Mr. Bhattarai carry along this acceptance of banality, we are in for a radical overnight transformation.
Secondly, we do not fully understand Mr. Bhattarai. It is easy to wishfully imagine this man in light of his academic achievements but we do not yet have hard evidences at our hands to attest to his capablity to lead in a democratic setup. Fourteen thousand people lost their lives in the country in the bloody conflict that contributed to the overthrow of feudal monarchy. There will always be some of us who will question this as achievement, when such gory violence was used. Perhaps, many of us will be able to close our eyes and succeed in suppressing the memories of these dark days if the political process progresses to a better end. However, this much is clear, the violent political movement carried out by Mr. Bhattarai and his ilk does not qualify as a clear success. If anything, it attests to a violent inclination whatever his ideological defenses might be.
In any case, Mr. Bhattarai has been elected to a position with historical challenges and huge burden placed on him by unrealistic expectations. It is an opportunity to see this man of almost mystical image work. My sincerest hope is that he succeeds. My greatest fears are consolidation of tyrranical aspirations of Maoists. A
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