E-Kantipur

The only voices missing from Nepal’s political sound and fury since the 2008 CA elections seems to be those of the people. MPs receive salaries and allo-wances—and vote for this and that when told to do so.  Some sit on committees to draft this or that clause of the forthcoming, increasingly impossible, constitution. The media has its own cacophony of voices, often to advance one or another group’s agendas. But the common people’s agendas and voices have gotten lost in this environment of noisy distrust.

And the more vociferous among party leaders trade charges and counter charges within their own parties and across parties on real and imaginary issues, never forgetting to vouchsafe their own patriotism and integrity.  For them, Nepal has become a coy bride vulnerable to threats from all sides, in danger of imminent ravishment from alien forces.  Some say India is Sikkimising Nepal.  Others claim China has stepped up its activities and conspiracies.  Yet others blame the EU and the United States for their own kind of conspiracies to Christianise Nepal and play the Asian Great Game.  In all this, where are the interests of the Nepali people, who have been abandoned in darkness?  How and when are they going to be led out of the tunnel?

India does indulge in covert manipulation and obvert arm-twisting in Nepal, as proven in the scandals during its Ambassador Rakesh Sood’s tenure. China is indeed bent on stifling Tibetan aspirations everywhere, most certainly in Nepal.  The EU and US may very well be involved in containing the unfolding of China’s unpredictable might in the coming decades even if we don’t believe in their agenda of religious conversion.  But why shouldn’t they?  Look at the laundry list of monetary demands PM Bhattarai is taking to New Delhi. 

External powers pursue some of their activities for legitimate reasons in order to advance their genuine interests, as diplomacy essentially is the game of promoting national interests without warfare.  But other activities may not be legitimate, often pursued by covert means to achieve nefarious objectives.  Sounds very conspiratorial but global and regional realpolitik in the past leaves little doubt about their veracity. 

No matter, the responsibility to allow legitimate activities and disallow or discourage the illegitimate ones rests primarily on the shoulders of the political class.  But what has happened in Nepal since 2008 is that the political class—UML, Congress, Maoists and the Madhesis—has indulged in activities themselves that undermine democracy and sovereignty while shouting slogans for both.  Once a political leader or a party loses power, politicians make a hue and cry about democracy and sovereignty while secretly undermining it.  I am not talking here only about their phone calls with northern donors to buy MPs or their frequent trips for health checkups to the south. Most harm to both democracy and sovereignty has occurred because the political leaders have failed to manage and resolve differences democratically within their parties and across so that the country can move forward and people can begin to live fully. 

The media has for the most part refrained from taking sides in this constant bickering, giving equal space, for example, to both Baidya’s outrage and Bhattarai’s commitments.  In Maithili, there is a saying for such effete neutrality: Gaiyogaabhin ta hun; bardogabhin ta hun (Is the cow pregnant? Yes, Sir.  Is the bull also pregnant?  Yes, Sir.)  This sort of neutrality is encouragement to the myopic politicians’ obfuscation and prejudices.  While journalists just report, many of the columnists have functioned as mouthpieces of parties and specific interest groups.  And many have spread untruths about the marginalised, thereby exposing their own ignoranceand prejudices about issues and misleading the public.

Since March 2009, when I began writing in this paper, I have become a voracious consumer of print media.  Every day, I scan at least four Nepali newspapers, four Indian English dailies, a couple of British and American dailies, besides two Indian English weeklies and four Nepali weeklies.  My goal always remains to be informed, assess opinion pieces and their writing styles and educate myself. 

What makes Nepali print media unique is that many UML, Congress and Maoist leaders and occasionally other politicians write regular columns.  It is seldom that their columns are illuminating.  With one or two exceptions, they are filled with jargon, bland prose and partisan arguments; most often the columns become a platform to advance their party line and criticise the opponents on flimsy grounds.  Self reflective, analytical and original pieces are few and far between.

It is one thing to allow politicians occasional op-ed pieces to put forward their point of view to the public but to let them write regular columns and spew partisan political attacks is quite another.  But it could be taken as a unique feature of Nepali print media, trying to chart its own original path in a country where the people’s political education has to build momentum fast, especially when the traditional classroom offers little help in teaching critical thinking and analysis.

I have also come to a conclusion about the editorial boards of leading Nepali print media.  They fall short in line editing, vetting sources, demanding fact-checking and sound arguments on prominent issues from their writers and their editors and run tall in allowing freedom to them and their prejudices. I myself have made unintentional (egregious nonetheless) errors on a few occasions. If fact checking, vetting sources and line editing were improved, Nepali print media would not be far behind media anywhere, with all its merits and partisanship.  And this is a remarkable achievement of the private media in the last two decades in the free era. 

In my view, however, the media does need to have a point of view, an institutional as well as individual memory, and a sharp scalpel to see through the smoke and mirror of

politicians and partisan intellectuals who very often want to spread falsehood and prejudices about other ethnicities and political ideologies with blind adulation for their own. Journalists must function as independent antidotes. Only then can free media create a vibrant public sphere and lead the country toward pluralism, equality, justice, tolerance, and democracy—and away from paranoia, falsehood, hate and fear-mongering.  Otherwise, powerful vested interests, and this includes party politicians, are always there with their sinister goals and vendettas served by the media at the expense of the public, in the name of the public.

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