Kathmandu: The near total closure of the country this week manifests the increasing inability of political authority to provide the requisites of the government in the face of any street campaign. It also manifests the degree of desperation among the opposition Left that compels it to demonstrate its presence regardless of the inconvenience to the lay public of a campaign that shuts-down the provision of all the basic necessities four days in a week. The congress clearly is unable to prevent disorder and the Left can’t but promote disorder. The state of the nation is thus out of order.

Amidst the threat and attraction of cadre generated by the Maoists campaign, amidst the disorder a state of limbo hangs in the country leaving people squarely out of the political process making a mockery of the participation demanded from the people by democracy. The prime factor here remains the political organizations that must be nurtured by government resources and so the street campaign is likely to escalate on part of the opposition organizations’ while the government organizations’ must insist on controlling these resources citing the legitimacy by a majority in parliament in our electoral democracy.

One major happening gleaned from the street campaign is the clear division in political strategy between the Left and other political organizations in the country. The UML campaign has succeeded in garnering the participation and moral support of all Left organizations while the non-Left parties-the RPP and the Sadbhavana along with the congress remain opposed to the street campaign. Of course, the Maoists have their own agenda outside the street campaign and so their presence in the current agitation appears only understandable.

The RPP must of course maintain its own presence and so it has called for the resignation of Prime Minister Girija. This is not bereft of its own ambitions to be flipped into government. In case, Girija babu does not resign and the congress is unable to back another congress leader wholeheartedly, it is presumed that the RPP chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa could also be blesses with the essential external support that today assumes a major role in making of the Nepalese Prime Minister.

It is this external support that must be watched. As Kathmandu rumor mills go, a sudden stop-over at New Delhi by foreign minister Chakra Bastola prevented, it is said, a Girija resignation and secured the necessary assurances that prompt his adamant stand today. Prime Minister Girija has parliamentary majoruty and so he can remain the constitutional head of the government regardless of the street campaign against him. As widely accepted perhaps even the anti-corruption authorities have refrained from involving him (explicitly) in the much talked about Lauda corruption case. To boot, Girija babu is now set to prove through the anti-corruption authorities themselves that the opposition, the UML, is as corrupt as they allege him to be by taking up the China South West airline case. The public at large, on the other hand, is not beyond comprehending the nature and scope of corruption in the political process. It is they who are more exposed to the corruption at the grass roots in which all major political parties are involved one way or the other. They are, however, aware that it is these political parties that hold monopoly of the political process. Given the breakdown in law and order, even minor movements have succeeded in closing traffic and shops in the country. The success of the UML program is to no one’s surprise. The only difference is in the continuous closure for so many days.

If anything this week demonstrates both the breakdown of law and order in the country and the degree of desperation in the political organizations. These key indicators by no means bode well for the country. The collapse will perhaps be more sudden than expected.