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Girija’s “Nose Digging” Politcs

Just a week before, Girija was lauding unequivocally that constituent assembly (CA) election would be held on November 22nd. His cabinet ministers and party workers were mimicking him A to Z in that regard. A week after, Girija disappeared like a mouse and news came out that CA election had been postponed. What a joke!  All those who could “think” little knew that Girija would not be able to hold the election on 22nd. He was still saying repeatedly “Election will be held at the cost of anything.” It is said that when too fools sit for negotiation, they get no where and situation gets worse. That was what happening between Girija and Prachanda. Those two fools could not agree to disagree and messed up the whole thing. This remind me of Girija’s decision about a decade back when he dissolved Nepali Congress majority parliament and called for a fresh election while he was still the in-charge of the party. I was puzzled back then and was not able to make any sense of Girija’s crazy move. Since then everything Girija did sounded dumb to me and I had very little hope and trust on him. By his recent act of immaturity, he proved me right.

Here is my take on his recent failure. First of all, CA election would not make any sense without Maoist’s involvement. Second, the Maoists knew CA election was not their cup of tea any more. They knew they would be defeated like the way Panchas were defeated in the first multi-party election. However, the Maoists had still the card to play because the election had no meaning without their participation and their participation had no meaning for themselves. They outsmarted Girija and forced him postpone the election indefinitely. Girija should have played little different game. He was playing the game of a coward and an opportunist.  He should have assured Prachanda that strong Maoist party was need of the time for Nepal. When the opponent is weakened and the opponent knows about it, ruling party is better off by creating situation that the opponent feels stronger and is assured of no behind the scene plot, particularly, when the opponent is irresponsible and crazy like the Maoists. Girija did opposite. He started ignoring Prachanda and the Maoists. He thought he defeated them and he could do anything. He forgot the rule of the political game that weakened opposition is much more dangerous than the stronger opposition. Democracy works when opposition is strong, not when they are weakened and they have no way out and they are treated like losers. Girija created the situation that Prachanda and his leaders felt humiliated and neglected. There was news in the media that Girija would invite the Maoists leader to the meeting at his residence and would make them wait for hours and sometime would not even see them citing his health problems. In other words, he treated the opposition just like the way he would treat his KISS A** party workers like Ram Sharan Mahat, Deuba, Khum Bahadur, Govind Raj and Arjun KC. Again, Girija did not know the 101 of democracy that opposition MUST be treated with respect and there should be no sign of them being ignored and being trapped. The Maoists were feeling trapped.

With his dumbness, Girija lost an opportunity to become a national icon and got yet another slap on his face. This guy could never learn the game of politics and always tried to extend his autocratic rule – which he imposes inside his party – beyond his party arena. This autocrat will do nothing unless something unthinkable happens between now and his death which seems to be coming closer.