Nepali Congress Faces Political Coma and Division

What was yesterday? What has the Nepali Congress become today before our very eyes? In the history of Nepali politics, the Nepali Congress itself is a bright beacon. The identity of the Nepali Congress is hardly separable from Nepali politics. But at this moment, the Nepali Congress is falling into the most terrifying political coma in its history.

It can neither become a corpse nor can political life be sustained within it. Why has the Nepali Congress reached such a state? The answer to these questions will surely come in some chapters of history. But even those who are currently leading the Nepali Congress will not be spared by these questions of history.

The Nepali Congress has never been as dim in the Nepali political sky as it is now. The Nepali Congress was born as a political light with modern political consciousness. Our elders gave birth to the Nepali Congress to seek the light of democracy in Nepali society, piercing the dark age of the autocratic autocratic Rana regime.

The sacrifices, penance, and martyrdom of true political leaders like BP Koirala, Ganeshman Singh, Subarna Shamsher, and Krishna Prasad Bhattarai made the Nepali Congress a decisive force in Nepali politics. The birth of the Nepali Congress was not just the naming of a few leaders and a mere event of party formation; it was also a cornerstone of democracy itself.

Where the indelible signatures of all Nepali people are present. To traverse many turns and paths of history, the Nepali Congress has been setting strategies accordingly, and at every turn of change, the Nepali Congress has always stood as a decisive force. For example, to end the autocratic Rana regime, the Nepali Congress chose the path of armed struggle.

For that, the leaders of the Nepali Congress, even if hiding in India, pursued war for the freedom of the Nepali people. The people had full support for it. On that strong foundation of public support, along with revolutionary campaigns and political power, the Rana regime was finally ended. With the change of 2007 BS, a new era of democratic consciousness began in Nepal. In every phase of it, the Nepali Congress remained the sole center of political hope for the Nepali people.

The Nepali Congress is a political party born on the foundation of its own unique principles. The Nepali Congress never adopted imported principles, and the Nepali Congress itself proved that politics is strong only on the foundation of principles. The Nepali Congress has etched an indelible history on the foundations of socialism, democracy, and nationalism propounded by BP Koirala. This in itself is a proud history of Nepali politics.

The Nepali Congress has never abandoned its stance on national independence. Along with balancing relations with neighboring countries, the Nepali Congress has always made the protection of sovereignty and national unity its standard. And the Nepali Congress, which has made democracy its lifeblood, is also a 'mass-based' party in itself. The party has always considered freedom of expression, freedom of the press, multi-party competition, civil rights, and the rule of law as its fundamental basis.

The Nepali Congress, strong on all these historical foundations, has now become hollow from within. Merely decorating the shop of the dreams of BP, Ganeshman, and Kishunji will no longer make the Nepali Congress the Congress they envisioned.

The Nepali Congress, which was already deviating slightly from the highway of political ideals, got further entangled in the fog of the 'Special General Convention'. It could neither see its clear destination nor achieve it. After the Janji movement, the Nepali Congress could not extricate itself from the profound emptiness and confusion seen in Nepali politics, and it further disrupted the direction of overall Nepali politics.

Some ambitious leaders of the Congress openly exposed the party's internal conflicts at Bhrikutimandap. The political coma journey of the Nepali Congress began in the last week of Poush, 2081 BS.

As a result, the Congress was stained with the most bitter defeat in history in the House of Representatives election on Falgun 21. Although the arithmetic of election results alone does not measure the height of party life, that 'Special General Convention' has now put the Nepali Congress on the path of the most difficult and terrible division in history, with no destination or goal.

The existing goals and destinations are common; the direction of nationalism, democracy, and socialism is the same. But the scattered faces are now spread all around. Especially, the responsibility to bring them back from all these scattered paths and initiate a common journey again lies with the current president and his companions; in essence, we are all common charioteers of Congress ideals, principles, and politics.

The current 'membership update' terror spread among the general workers in the name of making the party modern and technology-friendly will surely push the Nepali Congress to its most difficult juncture in history. Firstly, the party membership of the Nepali Congress is not something to be given out from the bag of a leader or leadership.

It is not a favor; that is, no one's favor is needed for any Nepali to become a member of the Nepali Congress and become a charioteer in the political journey of the Congress. Every Nepali has the birthright to consider the Nepali Congress as their own. For that, no directed principles of the party can stop or obstruct. Some systems are needed to institutionalize, run, and establish the system of the party or organization.

But that does not mean that any conditions are needed in the Congress for every Nepali to be proud of being a member of the Nepali Congress and to feel self-respect by placing themselves under the tree and the four-star flag. The way the easy and simple ownership of the Nepali Congress is being 'sold' now will deepen the distance between the general public and the party. The more it moves away from the people, the greater the danger of the Nepali Congress's existence will be, there is no doubt about it.

The greatest pain of the Congress splitting is not felt today by the ambitious or greedy leaders who split it, but by the common people, the workers at the grassroots level who have considered the tree and the four-star flag as the ideal of their political life, and those who wish well for the Congress.

The value of being a Congress member today is borne by those workers who, enduring the oppression of the 'new' ones, have stayed at the grassroots level, protecting the branches of the Congress. They have nothing to gain or lose from the Nepali Congress. They do not want to become leaders of the Congress. They do not want to contest elections. They do not want to become ministers. That is, they do not want to place the burden of any self-interest and ambition on the party.

How to preserve such pure good wishes of those workers? The leadership of the Nepali Congress needs to think about that. Because the soul of the Nepali Congress is these grassroots workers, not the selfish and greedy 'leaders' scrambling for membership receipts.

Now, should the Nepali Congress be united or allowed to split? This is not only an unanswered question in the party life of the Nepali Congress but also a painful moment in the political journey of nationalism, democracy, and socialism in Nepal. If the Nepali Congress is truly to be united and moved forward, then first of all, the acceptance of coexistence must be embraced.

The leaders and leadership of the Nepali Congress must set aside their personal ambitions, self-interests, and malicious intentions and dedicate themselves to party life. They must show the generosity of accepting each other's existence.

What that means is that the story of the 'Special General Convention' has now been brought to a conclusion by the court. Let us have the courage to accept it with ease, rather than as a victory for one side and a defeat for the other. And let us find a confluence of the leadership of that Special General Convention and the 14th General Convention, which can truly make the upcoming 15th General Convention an emotionally 'united' convention.

Let us accept the current debate on Congress membership as a form of party dynamism and mold it into a system that does not hurt the self-respect of every worker, so that every common person can proudly say they are a Congress member.

Jai Nepal... !