Arpan Gelal

The general conventions of CPN-UML and Nepali Congress (NC) reelected former party chairs for the next tenure while the CPN-Maoist Centre concluded its convention handpicking the central committee members by Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda. Subsequently, Prachanda has been reelected as the chairman of the party.

The timely intra-party election is the cornerstone of any democratic party. However, open and meticulous discussions on the party’s ideological orientation and vision for the country’s prosperity and evaluation of its set strategies for the achievement of the same make the party ideologically vibrant. The lack of debates on the ideological direction of the party and rigorous discussions on the party’s further political roadmap within the UML and NC conventions signal the ideological vacuum within them.

Maoist Centre chair Prachanda brought into discussion the party’s vision and further strategy. However, it was criticised by the convention representatives claiming it to be incomplete and it failed to analyse the current national political concerns. Further, Prachanda remained silent on the counter proposal tabled by Dev Gurung and dissenting views forwarded by other few leaders.

The failure of Prachanda to answer the issues raised by the discussion groups upon his ideological and political report indicates the growing dissatisfaction of party cadres with their leadership including the issues of lavish lifestyles of Maoist leaders and their relationship with big contractors and businessmen.

The common pattern among the three major parties is the consolidation of the ruling elites in the leadership, sidelining the principles of inclusion in the selection of officeholders. This is visible among the nominees for UML’s top positions and elected the leaders candidates for the NC leadership. Although the NC tried to make its structure inclusive through the reservation system for various identity clusters in the positions of deputy general secretary, the candidates from minorities, female and other unrepresented groups got largely defeated in direct elections for various party posts.

However, the selection of youths in the top party positions within the UML and NC can be seen as a positive move. The appointment of new generation politicians like Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwo Prakash Sharma as the General Secretary of Nepali Congress, Gokarna Raj Bista and Yogesh Bhattarai as Secretary of CPN-UML, among many other youths in various central positions, is a positive step to transfer the party leadership to the younger generation.

Except for the NC, the lack of democratic norms within the intra-party politics was vividly surfaced during the conventions of the major three political parties. UML chairman KP Sharma Oli’s motive was to appoint all leadership positions and central committee members through consensus, restricting dissent and competition. Although he was challenged by Bhim Rawal for the post of party chair, Oli handpicked most of the central committee members and office- bearers.

Oli’s strong disregard for democratic practice, ideological discussions or political programmes in the disguise of consensus politics and his desire to be appointed as the unchallenged party president, signals his authoritarian dynamics and institutionalisation of his cult personality within the party. Furthermore, even at the Maoist Centre’s convention, democratic elections for the party positions were sidelined in the name of appointing the office bearers and central committee members through consensus.

The Nepali Congress selected its office-bearers and central committee members through democratic practice. However, its general convention was focused entirely on the election of the central committee members and office bearers, failing to open up the platform for ideological debates and discussions of the party’s vision and further strategies.

Ideological crisis
Surprisingly, no political reports were presented in the general convention from the leadership leaving no grounds for discussion on the party’s ideological dynamics. Although candidate for party chairman Shekhar Koirala and candidates for General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma put forward their concept papers on their vision, priorities and party’s further direction, there was no formal space for discussion on their proposals. This gap testimonies the escalating ideological crisis within the party which claims to be the largest social democratic political party in Nepal.

Such a mounting ideological problem within the political parties, lack of vision and clear action plan, disregard to the democratic norms in the selection of party leadership and sideline to the issues of inclusion as envisioned by the Constitution of Nepal leaves ample grounds for suspicion on ability and intention of political parties to institutionalise the nascent republican system of governance and direct the country towards the path of prosperity.

(Gelal is a senior researcher at Centre for Social Inclusion and Federalism (CESIF) Nepal. gelalarpan@gmail.com)