A very good commentary by UNN








Baburam, Jhalanath, Krishna and Rambaran,

We have read several statements made by you in response to King Gyanendra’s views on current status of Nepal. There are many serious issues that the nation faces and you cannot deny the existence of those problems.  In such circumstances, both King’s statements and your statements are being carefully watched and analyzed. In general, people have optimistic views for the King’s statements and pessimistic views on your statements. The reasons are quite obvious. Current status of Nepal poses several questions. Some of them are listed below.  Please try to respond.

1)    What is the legal status of your post as Prime Minister or President? What is the legality of any political offices or officers after the CA expired?  Are you legally holding the post of PM and President? With the dissolution of CA, does your post remain valid? If the Assembly expired, what is the basis of your post? Where does it say that CA will expire the posts created by the CA will never expire? Your post expires automatically as well.  Since you are illegally occupying the offices, in what way does it authorize you to run the government?

2)    Do you believe in freedom of speech? Do you know the definition of freedom of speech? If you do, define it. If you don’t, ask for help and someone will volunteer to teach you.

3)    In what way does King Gyanendra’s interview violate the freedom of speech doctrine? Explain.

4)    What is your authority to speak on behalf of the people of Nepal? Who are you? Even if you argue that people had elected you in 2008, it must be reminded, people had elected you for two years, not lifetime. After May 2010, what is your basis of assertion that you are an elected official to speak on behalf of the people? When did people give you the power to use the word “people”?

5)    How do you ascertain that only what you speak and believe is correct and that is what people want? Do you have a formula or an algorithm? If you do, please share.

6)    What is your answer to millions of people supporting monarchy’s return? What is your reasonable estimate what percentage of people want or do not want monarchy? What method did you adopt in this estimation? Please share the algorithm.

7)    Do you believe in making citizens happy? If you do, are millions of monarchy supporter your enemies? Do you not care about them just because they have a different political view than yours? Do you believe in collective nation building regardless of political differences?

8)    Even if you are successful in drafting the constitution, how do you plan to satisfy all the quarters? What makes you think that constitution will resolve the entire current crisis? There was a constitution in 1996 too when you started the war. Did the constitution stop you from rebelling? In the end, you will need to decide whether you want another revolution because the people certainly are not happy with the performance of interim republic created by the interim constitution.

9)    Do you believe in roundtable dialogue by assimilating different views and eliminating personal differences? If you do, why don’t you, other political personalities, business consultants, monarch or his representative, religious leaders, education experts, sit on a table to negotiate? It is evidently clear that republic system has failed in Nepal and monarchy was not unquestionable either in some form or the other. However, comparatively, monarchy has a much upper hand than republic. People’s frustration, suffering , and the slogans of ‘Come King, Save the Nation”, “Our King and Our Nation are dearer than life” makes their views clear. If you don’t sit for a dialogue and ignore the voice of common people who are strong supporter of monarchy, nation will see an internal rivalry again. So, why not give everyone a space?

10) Lastly, take the pictures of roads and infrastructure of Nepal from 1996, 2003 and 2012. Compare them. You will see what people are talking about.

There are several other questions, equally as grave as the ones listed above. We’ll hold on to those for now.

Obviously, the most educated one in the group could choose to reply.

Best Regards,

UNN