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The Eternal Wanderer of Nepali Politics
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, aka 'Be Right Back' aka BRB, was once famous in all chiya pasals in the country back in the early 90s. Every Ram, Shyam and Hari and Sita, Git and Meena knew his name even though in those days, you really didn't have any access to somebody's profile picture because we didn't have internet and The Rising Nepal was all black and white!
What was BRB famous for back then? Well, our uncles and aunts knew him as the 'Board First' wallah. Nowadays, TikTok stars get all the fame even if it's for 30 seconds but back then, the SLC (now SEE) results were the biggest thing than the Oscars, Grammys and the Nobel Prize awards combined!
And whoever came first then was the talk of the town, well, more like the talk of the whole country. Imagine 14, 15 year-old's name being splashed across all dailies and in the news and if your local neighborhood boy or girl stood first, then it was time to hold a big party not only for the tole or the district but the whole Anchal as well!
Baburam in the 90s came to the fore as the 'intellectual communist'. But by the late 90s, he was more of a Robin to Prachanda's so-called Batman ego! A decade later, 17,000 lives lost for no god damn reason. Even Prachanda nearly killed our 'board-first' wallah if it weren't for the strict 'don't do it or you will pay' orders from our neighborly RAW folks across the border.
I always wonder, who really funded the Maoists back then? Who gave them assault rifles and satellite phones when our Nepal Police had WWII rifles and sometimes no landlines in police posts across the country?
Well, our comrades did loot a lot of banks in those days, mostly outside the Kathmandu Valley and other urban areas. But was that loot enough to fund their 'uncivil' war? Baburam went to a school in Gorkha where an Anglo-Indian Christian was teaching. And during the so-called People's War, many schools were burned to the ground by BRB and his crew!
BRB then went to India for his further studies and later did his PhD from JNU, the 'communist' heaven in Indian academia! He had lots of 'comrade' friends across the border. He thought he could change Nepal by killing teachers, wealthy landowners, and members of other political parties, mostly in rural areas, instead of going after the corrupt netas, hakims and shady byaparis then. After all, the corrupt ones actually happily volunteered to donate to his cause so that they would not be harmed!
And now, he is in the news again for officially leaving his latest political party to become a 'freelance' communist! BRB was our Finance Minister once and our Prime Minister as well. His only accomplishment is widening some of our roads in Kathmandu and driving around in a Nepal-mai assembled Indian vehicle when he was once living in Baluwatar!
BRB left the Maoists and started his own political party that went nowhere. He then joined another and then another and he has quit this one this time, but we never know if he will join or form another political alliance so that he can use his spare time attending party meetings and still talk about the revolution that failed not only the Maoists, but their rebels and the country as well when they came to power!
I wouldn't be surprised if he decides to join Harka's party, but I don't think Harka brother will give him the top post! We already have Sudan Kirati, a former Maoist, joining the Mato party. I don't think they will be space for another one!
Anyway, BRB is now in his early 70s... the man who could have done a lot, and we did expect him to do so when he became our PM, could not do much because he was loyal to his own political party rather than the country. He could live till 90 because he doesn't drink or smoke and only eats two rotis and a plate of saag for dinner.
The Maoists had their chance, and they screwed up badly. Let's not even talk about the Nepali Congress, the 'original' chor party of the 90s and the UML, which got a second chance to rule after the Maoists decided to no longer stay in Noida and come back to Kathmandu!
Balen is here. The RSP has the mandate and the seats to govern the country for the next five years. Balen could become our LKY. Baburam missed the boat, and history will only know him as once a 'Board-First' wallah and then someone responsible, along with Prachanda and Deuba, for the loss of 17,000 lives in our once beautiful nation.
Some of us still view him as a 'Padantey Neta'. We know he was never a corrupt person like Prachanda. But when you are a second man to a con artist, then you belong to the same 'pickpocket club. Maybe, BRB should join KU as a Visiting Professor and teach undergraduate students on what he knows best, not finance, not politics, but some 'regional development' stuff without a Marxist analysis!
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