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Will sentiment for change materialise?
- nc general convention
...I am not much hopeful that the party or its formula will change
KATHMANDU, AUG 24 -
The Nepali Congress (NC) stands at a crossroads. After its six-decade-long routine political evolution, the party, for the first time, seems to be abuzz with a single catchphrase: CHANGE. The word has become the central theme for all contestants vying for the party’s leadership in the 12th General Convention slated for Sept. 17-21.
As a party undergoing a post-Girija Prasad Koirala transition, it is also a testing time for it to correct the earlier accusations from within the party that the leadership stood against the party’s institutionalisation and nurtured a “personality cult,” with many ills like nepotism and favouritism.
However, it is not yet clear which faction will cash on in the growing “change sentiment” in the party, and more importantly, whether that sentiment would materialise later in the party’s policies and programmes. Both “hope” and “doubt” characterise the mood of the NC constituencies ahead of the party’s crucial convention.
While a sizable chunk of youth leaders in the party is upbeat that it is the new “third faction” led by leaders like Bhim Bahadur Tamang and Narahari Acharya that would cash in on the sentiments of change, many others claim that the real competition would again be between the two traditional dominant factions—the establishment faction led by party’s Acting President Sushil Koirala and the faction led by Sher Bahadur Deuba. It is again up to the same leaders whether to
fuel new energy and outlook in the party or to continue the “old image”.
The claim that the “party is going to shed its old skin this time around” has to be taken with a pinch of salt, say some youth leaders. “Though there is some hope that the party will get some new faces, I am not much hopeful that the party or its formula will change,” says NC youth leader Gagan Thapa. “The contesting eaders seem to have taken the election as an end in itself. There is a complete absence of policy debates on how the new leadership visions to address the problems of the whole nation in the long-term.”
There is a “hope” that the party would get at least some new and young faces in the 85-member Central Working Committee, if not in the party’s top position. “But this would not suffice to trigger the change,” says Ram Hari Khatiwada, another youth leader. This hope comes from the fact that the recently held district- and constituency-level conventions of the party across the country saw a marked increase in the percentage of youth leaders (estimated to be around 40 percent of the total 3,000 constituencies), women (500) and a proportionate number of Dalits and Aadivasi-Janajatis, who are entitled to vote in the General Convention. These newcomers are for change and therefore expected to disrupt the tradition pattern of voting along a certain panel. But youth leaders like Thapa also concede that these new young faces “are yet to be tested” how firm they stand for change against the pressures and temptations of all kinds including of power and money from the dominant panels.
Some senior leaders claim that the party’s election would see votes along two major panels. Leaders including Ram Saran Mahat, for instance, don’t believe that the convention would bring about changes as it has been anticipated. The voters, he said, will ultimately polarise along the two panels.
Posted on: 2010-08-25 08:09
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