Narayan Manandhar
First, an anecdote from Late Ganesh Man Singh. He got many. I must have read this in one of the Nepali tabloids, in the wake of Jana AndolanI in early 1990s. Here goes the story:
In a certain jungle, the lion king was challenged for an open fight by no other animal than a water-hog or a pig, to use Nepali derogatory word sungur. For a lion, this means sitting for a breakfast or a meal. Obviously, he accepted the challenge. (Watch out, I have deliberately emphasized the word challenge here). All other lesser known and unknown animals or their representatives in the jungle were informed about the fight, the venue, the time and the duration.
The day arrived. Literally, the lion king did not do anything for the preparation. He simply had a bath and combed his floppy hair, as if he is going for a dinner party. At the arena, there were crowds of animals gathered, coming to watch the fight. Lots of cheering and hooting going on. As soon as the lion king entered the arena, he was, literally, shocked to see Mister Sungur waiting for a fight. Mister Sungur came prepared, with his body smeared in human shit. Had it been cow dung, there would be some respect. Now, our great lion king is in a dilemma: If he fight that pig, his hands and floppy hair would be dirty, smeared with human shit. If he does not, he loses the fight!
Mister Oli must be in a state of similar dilemma. He has not just been toppled by a hooligans of youngsters, he is being challenged by a youngster of his nati’s age (grand children), that too, at his very home district. He is moving like a raja maharaja all over the country. Even his spouse is challenging Oli, doing door to door campaign at his very front door.
If you want to change, you have to challenge. That is the mantra this youngster carries. He thinks, with his black shades, he just been popped out from one of the Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator movie series. BTW, I happened to read an ad in the last page of Kantipur daily, in 1994 or 1995, a club in Naxal, as a part of their fund raising program plus celebrating Crown Prince Dipendra’s birth day, public viewing of The Judgement Day!
I just read a twitter that, after his departure, including his bodyguard, there is a post jana andolan like feelings of relief inside KMC.
Mister former Prime Minister Oli must be in a great dilemma: Should he accept the fight and dirty his hands or refuses to fight and loses the battle? Ke Garne? This is the common expression one hears from every frustrated Nepali. I suppose, similar to Japanese management, when faced with a difficulty of knowing “what is the problem?”, you should stick to understanding “what is not the problem?” So Oli should better stick to Ke Nagarne? rather than Ke Garne? Since the fight is already declared and he has already entered the fray, it is better Oli stick to ke nagarne than ke garne methods.
Let me conclude with a message: This is a generational fight. Nepali society is, basically, a hierarchical society. When in a hierarchical society, people at the bottom challenge the authority at the top; when youngsters challenge elderly people, obviously, there is going to be a big shake, a topsy-turvy situation. Only option left is to stay cool. Let the bunch of thugs run the show. Did not we wait 30 years of dark rule by panchas? They are pointing 35 years of misrule. Prachanda says these are the flowers of republic. May be, he forgot to mention the types of flower. Some flowers are not only rapacious, they are outright poisonous as well.