Miss Nepal, Maoists and endangered pluralism (Nepalnews feature)
At stake here is not going to be a mere beauty competition but individual liberty and pluralism. Despite their weaknesses, beauty pageants are beauty pageants. No party should be poking their noses on such things unless they actually are found breaking some law of the land.
By Sanjaya Dhakal
The Miss Nepal Beauty Pageant this year is going to be the first real test for the Maoists – on how they conduct themselves in a liberal and plural democratic society.
By publicly stating he wants to ban such competition, Maoist leader and powerful Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara has drawn the attention of all and sundry.
“Personally and ideologically, I am totally against (beauty pageants),” Mahara told media, adding, “I am trying to stop it or postpone it.”
This year the annual Miss Nepal Beauty Pageant is slated to be held on April 7 and the state-owned Nepal Television (NTV) – which comes under the purview of Mahara’s Ministry – is planning to show it live.
Protests are nothing unusual for Miss Nepal Beauty Pageants. Every year, activists have taken to streets protesting it as a ‘parading of women’s body and their commercial exploitation.’
What is different this year is how the Maoists and their sister organisations will act as they are already a part of the interim government. The Maoists have formed a committee headed by their lawmaker Devi Khadka to protest the beauty pageant. Receiving a memorandum presented by the committee, Mahara said he would discuss with other ministers to ensure that the event is restricted.
The memorandum demanded ban on the beauty pageant saying that it has projected women as objects for promoting business. It further said the event symbolises the suppression of women and their capitalist exploitation.
At stake here is not going to be a mere beauty competition but individual liberty and pluralism. Despite their weaknesses, beauty pageants are beauty pageants. No party should be poking their noses on such things unless they actually are found breaking some law of the land. Unwarranted cultural policing could ultimately lead to Talebanisation of society. Although they have given their political interpretation and pointed at the wrongs of capitalism when protesting the beauty pageants, Maoists’ action – if they go ahead and disrupt the show as warned – would be seen as being no different than how Taleban tried to suppress women in Afghanistan or how Shiva Sena in southern Indian state of Maharastra is policing the dance bars and discos there. In a free, liberal and plural democratic society one party cannot claim to be the cultural or moral police of entire community.
The most troubling aspect of Maoist behavior is their attempt to impose their beliefs and ideologies on the whole society. “A party, that too a member of the coalition government, should not be putting forth their twisted interpretations and impose them on others,” said Yubaraj Ghimire, a senior journalist and a commentator.
Besides, in today’s world nobody takes any beauty pageant with more seriousness than they deserve. They are seen as normal occurrence with their fair share of positive and negative sides. While it does provide a platform for talented young women to earn name and fame, it also is criticised for exploiting women’s physique for commercial purposes.
However, even institutions like the United Nations have deemed it fit to use such talented women as goodwill ambassadors to spread message about serious issues like HIV/AIDS, refugees’ plight and so on. In Nepal, too, winners of Miss Nepal are not only showered with commercial proposals for advertisements, but they also act as goodwill ambassadors of organisations like WWF and take part in campaigns to raise awareness on everything from conservation to drug abuse. Herein, the Maoists and other activists’ accusations that beauty pageants are nothing but exploitation of women’s body seem way off the mark.
In the face of intense pressure from the protesters, former Miss Nepal winners Sugarika KC, Malvika Subba, Priti Sitaula and Shweta Singh have issued a statement saying, “We thought that with the building of new Nepal and Loktantra, there would not be any obstruction to programs that are conducted lawfully. But today there is a big question mark (on that expectation). It is our human rights to carry out any profession in a peaceful and secure manner.” The appeal by the beauty queens has, indeed, raised some fundamental questions, which the Maoists need to properly address. Otherwise, their credibility could suffer both internally and externally.
As one analyst put it, Nepal is as much a part of international society as they are a part of Nepal at this point of human history. So, there is definitely going to be interactions among various set of values – and a free and liberal society is always found to discard those values it deems wrong and embrace those it deems right. Unless, Miss Nepal turns into something that produces anti-model instead of role-model, there should be no reason to ban the pageant, the analyst added.
On the other hand, at a time when Nepal is passing through a huge internal churning with various groups preferring to project their ethnic identity ahead of national identity, the holding of Miss Nepal can also promote the country’s identity in totality. That is, if anybody cares to look into its positive side.
As Prof. Dev Raj Dahal notes, “In the march towards progress, we seem to be heading towards tribalism rather than becoming cosmopolitan.” nepalnews.com Apr 06 07
(Comments on this write-up can be sent to editors@mos.com.np. The writer can be reached at sandhakal@gmail.com)
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