Parallel State

Editorial

On the face of it, we have a functioning democracy. We have a multi-party system, an elected parliament. A decisive majority runs the government. The judiciary and administration machinery exist for the past seven decades. All this exists under a national constitution that is the product of a supposedly seven decade old demand for an elected constituent assembly. In sum, goals that were so politically set for an emergent, forward-looking Nepal has all been achieved. We even have a functioning free press and the streets resound one way or the other with public action. So what more do we need? What is the source of all this disgruntlement when we are supposed to have achieved and accommodated political demands set as targets for modernism?

Fundamental questions of these sorts emerge in public interviews. Unfortunately, the answer must inevitably focus on one word: ’function’. We have forgotten to function. The structures that we have so enthusiastically embraced as modern mean nothing is we do not induce them to function. Unfortunately, current disgruntlement revolves around the non-functioning of the system itself because the government is not functioning. Analyses as to why this is the case cannot but acknowledge that our political parties are not performing. It is they in government and opposition that must perform. Our analysts will come closer to the truth when they admit this and begin their probe as to the whys. After all, for thirty years throughout the Sixties and on it was for this that much politics was done. So what is wrong with our political parties the right to which was deemed a fundament of our democratic rights?

It is only when we begin a sincere analysis of our political parties that we can make conclusions about their formations. What is the source of leadership? Leave aside their ideologies in this age of the ‘demise of ideologies’. What are their sources of finances? What were their programmes for the state? How democratic are the parties themselves? What are their obligations to the state? Digging into these fundamentals will result in one outstanding conclusion. Over seven decades in existence, these primary sources of our functioning democracy fail in even transparency. And, we have bestowed upon them, or they have successfully taken up the sole responsibility of running the system and state. They have thus, only naturally, assumed the role of masters of the state. This is to the extent that the party has become synonymous to the state. That is why there is a parallel state in the country. The state can be ignored. Politics is in the parties. The state need not function.

People’s Review Print Edition