Parmeshwar Devkota

The major political parties have held national conventions recently. Except the Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal which campaigns for Hindu state with the kingship, other political parties have reviewed their political theories in their conventions.
The centrist Nepali Congress (NC) discussed democratic socialism at its national congress at Bhrikutimandap recently. The Communist Party of Nepal-UML spent much energy and time to pull a huge crowd at the bank of Narayani River, and tried to prove that the recent divisions in the party had no negative impact. It paid little attention on the prospect of socialism in the changed context.

In other words, it stuck to its old guiding principle - ‘People’s Multiparty Democracy,’ ignoring to chart out policy based on socialist-oriented economy as spelt out in the new constitution.
The CPN- Maoist Centre’s 8th convention is still underway at Nepal Academy in Kathmandu. The convention endorsed party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s political report with revision. The convention delegates discussed his report intensively forming 25 groups. Prachanda also furnished queries raised over his dossier.

But, if we listen to the views of political analysts carefully, we can come to the conclusion that neither the democratic socialist party, Nepali Congress, nor the scientific socialist parties - UML and Maoist Centre-- have propounded any new political line for the next five years. The interesting thing is that the communist parties used to locate their friends and foes in their political document, but this time even the Maoist Centre turned shy to identify friends and foes correctly.

In this critical time when the political ideology is facing crisis, the NC, UML and MC should join hands and start practising the socialism proposed by the great scientist of all time - Albert Einstein. Einstein, in his long article ‘Why Socialism’, pleaded socialism for the welfare of the whole mankind. He has extensively discusses the status of human beings on the planet and argues that man is a social animal, s/he needs society to live, propagate and to be happy.

To survive and to be happy, man needs food, shelter and clothes. So, ‘the needs’ of a person should be at his/her disposal. The state must put in place strict market monitoring system so that brokers should be kept at distance because in capitalism production is carried out for profit, not for use, according to Einstein.
‘This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.’

So, Nepali political parties on right or left should focus on developing robust systems for the effective deliver of goods and services to benefit the entire society. This is high time the parties shed partisan interest and delivered on their promises made to the people during the elections.