The just concluded election for the office bearers of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), the apex body of Nepalese media people, clearly reflected the high level of politicisation within the journalism sector here.

Apart from the fact that the two main candidates belonged to the ruling party and the main opposition, the actual political infighting at the national level, could also be seen during the election.

For example, though the Publicity Committee of the ruling Nepali Congress announced Tej Prakash Pandit as its candidate for the prestigious post of the president of FNJ, Kishore Nepal, the Press Advisor to the Prime Minister, openly gave his support to “independent” candidate Suresh Acharya. If this is not a reflection of the tug-of-war that has been taking place between the government and the party, then what is?

It was also alleged in a Nepali Congress leaning vernacular weekly, that Kishore Nepal even joined hands with some extreme Left journalists, just to ensure the defeat of official candidate Pandit. Eventually, it was “independent” candidate Suresh Acharya who won. But insiders say Left-supporting journalists, were also enticed to vote for him when it looked like Pandit would win.

Meanwhile, in an interview with another newspaper on Tuesday, losing candidate Pandit has said that he will file a case in the court, as he had proof that proxy votes had been cast during the election. He alleges that out of the total number of 536 eligible voters, 37 were absent, yet it was announced that 526 votes were cast. “I am going to the court with proof of foul play during the election,” Pandit told in the interview.

Earlier, he had openly accused Kishore Nepal of going against him for personal reasons. Pandit had said, “How could I win when the Press Advisor of our own party’s Prime Minister, went against me and sided with the Leftists?”.

Not that there were no rivalry within the Left Front. Like the wide differences that exist at the political level within the Left parties, the journalists are also divided. Yet, just before the election, they got together, the UML supporting scribes, the ML supporters and even extreme Left leaning ones. However, this “unity” proved to be a superficial one, with groups and individuals going their own ways when the actual election took place.

The Left presidential candidate was badly drubbed, allegedly because a group of his supporters voted for winning candidate Acharya at the behest of Kishore Nepal. Similarly, the Front’s candidate for the General Secretary also lost when he was ditched by his own group. The Leftist could get satisfaction only in the election of the executive members, where four of their candidates won. It is some sort of a message that from the Left side, Maheswor Dahal, who won the contest for secretary, received the highest votes from their side – 224 – and the candidate for president, Gopal Thapaliya got the lowest number of votes – 138. Kishore Shrestha, who also lost got  181 votes.

How much real professional scribes can expect from the motley crowd of “political” journalists, is a serious question, yet, as mentioned by a senior journalist who was not a voter, “Just the fact that all the candidates were speaking of professionalism, is a step forward”.