Nepal heads today to arguably the most consequential election since 2008. Then, as now, the hope was for the birth of a New Nepal. Then, we were choosing a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution to replace the one handed down by the king. We are now contemplating a new government in the aftermath of the Gen Z revolt. It was the hope then that the mainstream parties would be true to their word of having turned a new leaf and together with the Maoists usher in a Nepal transformed in every sense. Similar is the hope now, but for some old fogies like myself, having had expectations repeatedly belied, with more than a hint of scepticism.

The revolutionary force back in 2008, the Maoists, are now part of the sullied establishment and do not even have the name to show for it. Of the two other older parties, the Nepali Congress is touting its new avatar under a newly anointed president, Gagan Thapa, whereas the CPN-UML is forging ahead under the same old KP Sharma Oli but generally acting as if he, too, had been laid at the wayside. Besides one, the other parties do not really appear to be in the game, although when the final tally is announced, there could be players with the numbers to tip the balance one way or another.

The momentum currently appears to be with the newish Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), fuelled partly by the silent enigma of Balendra Shah, the former mayor of Kathmandu and the party’s declared prime ministerial candidate. I have serious doubts about where the country will be headed under the RSP, which has neither a functioning ideology nor what amounts to a coherent position on any number of issues facing the nation. The only thing going for it is that they are not the Congress, the UML or the Maoists. Not to mention, the still-inexplicable Balen factor despite his record of a half-hearted and half-baked tenure as the capital’s mayor.

No more a fiesta

Commenting on the 2008 election, anthropologist Mukta Singh Tamang had written, “All elections are like festivals….” He described the CA election thus: “If you could have added dohori songs, the CA election would have resembled a real jatra,…where people arrived dressed in their best.”

It struck me that the one major difference between the two elections is how boring they are now. The entire campaign period is so sterile. No doubt, for the better, since our environs are certainly neater and the day after will not result in a big headache for the municipal authorities. Lacking, though, is the infectious exuberance of the past. Thanks to the killjoys at the Election Commission, the festive atmosphere that swept the country until election day is a thing of the past.

There are no mass meetings with rousing speeches blared through loudspeakers that enabled the candidates to spew rhetorical nothings. No shrill blasts of messages from campaign vehicles competing for our hapless ears. Neither are we inundated by rival election posters jostling for every available public space. Slogans are not painted on walls to remain there for months, reminding us of promises made and unkept. Party flags do not festoon the roads in a dizzying maze of symbols and words. In fact, unless completely clued in, one would be hard-pressed to name those vying for your vote. But for the unsolicited messages that pop up on your phone at regular intervals, even major parties’ candidates would be quite unknown to the general mass.

From what one can see, all that excitement has moved to cyberspace. That is where the action is, even if it means sifting through the information, misinformation and disinformation that is easily accessible, swipe after swipe. In that space, the politicians do not even have to perform; everything can be scripted or created artificially. And the electorate is left to fight it out with opposing individuals or team up with the like-minded in the solitude and anonymity provided by the phone.

There is not the same feel to such an important national event that happens, but periodically. Not even for an election that will define this generation for better or worse. That is what the future is, though.

Two main battles

I think we can all agree that a win or loss for the victory of former Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda is immaterial either for the country or the party. The country has had enough of him and his antics, and his party will most likely fade away into irrelevance with every subsequent election cycle. The RSP president, Rabi Lamichhane, could score a victory this time and even become prime minister, but his term in office is likely to be quite a disaster despite the very low bar set by those who went before him.

Unlike in previous elections, I can discern just two main battles that are likely to have a lasting impact. The first is in Jhapa, where Balendra Shah is squaring off against KP Sharma Oli. The best part of this contest is that only one of them can win, thus sparing the country of at least one of a duo that have more in common with each other than each perhaps realises—hubris, penchant for populism, distaste for criticism, lack of attention to detail, hubris again, and many others.

The other fight is between Gagan Thapa and Amresh Singh in Sarlahi. There is every possibility that Thapa’s gamble of foregrounding the Tarai by takin on against three-time winner Singh will not pay off. Were that to happen, the Congress president should take that as an opportunity to overhaul his party and be ready for the next round in five years—or earlier. The Nepali Congress (and the UML and Prachanda’s outfit and the many that have been around for years) is sorely in need of a do-over, and in politics, five years will just zip by. For the good of the country, it is not only Gagan Thapa who needs to be prepared but also the party he leads. Let me end with George Orwell’s words that should resonate with Thapa: “The mistake you make, don’t you see, is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself…One’s got to change the system, or one changes nothing.”