Ajaya Babu Shiwakoti is a vocal youth leader in Nepali Congress. Elected as the central committee member through the 14th General Convention in 2021, Shiwakoti has been watching Nepal’s political landscape closely and is worried that political parties, including his own Nepali Congress, are losing their public credibility. What is the root cause of this? How should the parties and their leaders conduct themselves if they are to win back people’s trust? The DMN News spoke to him on a wide range of political issues.
To start with, why are political parties losing their credibility in recent times? Why is Nepali Congress, the oldest democratic party of the country, also losing people’s trust?
It is with sorrow that we, the democrats, have to say that the political system that is said to be democratic has not become democratic in a real sense, because of the conducts and behaviors of political parties. It’s democratic only in principle and constitution. And the sad thing is even the political parties and the leaders who are the votaries of democracy have not been able to make it democratic enough. Look at my own party, Nepali Congress.
The party is legally and constitutionally obliged to hold a general convention once in every four years. Even for this, we have to be constantly pressuring the leadership and reminding them of this compulsion. We have not been able to hold the general convention within the four years’ time frame. Even something mandated by laws and policies does not happen. The Mahasamiti meeting proposed that the convention should be held by December 2025. But there is no readiness and willingness on the part of the leadership to act out on issues which are mandated by the laws and constitution.
I sometimes wonder what may be the situation within the not-so democratic parties while the situation in democratic parties like Nepali Congress is like this. Our political actors have not conducted themselves according to the democratic norms and values. They have made a mockery of democracy.
Do you suggest that the erosion of democracy in Nepali Congress gave space for the new parties?
Exactly. Because we have failed in translating democracy into action and delivering the services as per the norms and values of democracy, new forces have come up and they appear to be more popular than us though in reality they are not. And because the leadership is not accountable enough, the question has been raised about the entire party system, political system and even democracy. This is really a worrying situation for those of us who believe in democracy and who want it to be thriving and functional in the real sense.
Nepali Congress is the party with a long legacy of democracy. We were the ones who led the fight against the Rana autocracy in 1950, against Panchayat rule in 1990 and against the direct rule of the king in 2006. We were actually the ones which brought the warring Maoists into the peace process. In our history, we have remained steadfast in democracy, human rights and fundamental rights.
Despite this proud legacy, why are people frustrated with Nepali Congress then?
That’s because, like I said, we failed in delivery while in power, which is why the people are blaming us. People have been holding us responsible for the current state of political chaos and we have not been able to satisfactorily answer them. You need to understand that not all the cadres and leaders of Nepali Congress are responsible for the current mess. Because certain individual leaders have failed in their duties, the entire party has been bearing the blame and public criticism. In other words, the inefficiency and ineptness of individual leaders has posed a threat to the system itself.
People are leaving the country in hundreds every single day. There is a deep public discontent and frustration. What triggered this?
It is the complete lack of trust in leadership that is pushing people in hundreds every day to leave the country. Youths see no hope and future in the country. The public frustration which is intensifying day by day is going to be really costly for the country if the leadership does not take it seriously and works in ways that deliver something tangible on the ground.
You can take the example of Bangladesh. What started with a student protest took the turn of nationwide anti-government protests which finally overthrew the Sheikh Hasina regime. What is even more worrying for me is that our leadership in the country does not seem to have taken the incident of Bangladesh seriously. They seem to be thinking what happened in Bangladesh will never happen in Nepal and they can continue with business as usual.
But political parties, including your party, keep saying they are working for the people.
Mere lip service for reforms is not going to work here. Our leaders have promised reforms several times in the past but have always balked. Think about what they promised during the 2006/7 revolution. They made a commitment in public that they would mend ways, that they would be better committed to reforms and actualize reforms and they would work for the wellbeing of the people and only the wellbeing of the people. People believed in them and supported them but soon they forgot their promises and returned to the same old ways of doing politics. This has actually generated mass public frustration. Nepotism and favoritism are dominant in leadership and this has made the people feel betrayed.
Public perception about the leadership has gone totally negative. People have lost faith and trust but there is no realization among the leadership that public perception has gone negative about them. People today believe in new and untested forces and deride the established democratic parties. Sadly, this does not become the subject of discussion among the parties. Our party only discusses the internal feud and disputes but does not pay attention to this really serious issue. No party discusses the real issues of public concern. While such are the problems facing us, the party leadership is not even thinking about the solution.
In your view, how should political parties conduct themselves so as to win back people’s trust and to become trustworthy political institutions of the country?
Those in the leadership of the parties and the government need to be really serious and need to think about the solution. But like I said, those at the helm of the party and the government do not seem to even care what the problems are, what the people are thinking about them and what should be done to address the situation. Or they seem to be totally undermining the situation on the ground.
The tendency among the big parties is that they do not want to correct themselves or mend their ways of doing politics and they are finding faults with others, especially the new forces. The best course would be to correct themselves first and seek accountability and transparency from the new forces. The opposite is the case at the moment. Another glaring issue is this tendency among the top leadership in the parties including in mine, to sideline, corner, or subdue the few reformists who have been raising voice for overhaul and reforms. Again, this is not going to take us anywhere. Nepotism and favoritism take precedence over meritocracy in appointment and promotions. Look at the cabinet and our party structure. It is not inclusive. There is no representation of Dalits and only one or two women in the cabinet. Some of us within the party raise voices against this but often we are not listened to or totally ignored.
Our system has become a rule by leaders (netatantra) rather than rule of the people (loktantra).
How can we come out of this trap?
First, it has to start with reviving hope among the people. In the party, the leadership has to revive the hope among the cadres that the future is here in Nepal and it is possible. The cadres need to feel the sense of justice within the party. Then the cadres take the same positive message to the ground and it will go out to the wider public. The government needs to revive hope among the people and youth by delivering something tangible. And when a leader becomes a minister s/he has to start by delivering something tangible such as bringing out policies that make people’s lives easier or working with zero tolerance on corruption.
Unless we do something tangible people are not going to believe in us. It is getting late for us to revive hope in the system. The clock is ticking.
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