Nepali democratic aspirations in 2008: the inevitable rise of Sujata Koirala
It is rumored by close NC supporters that Sujata was once actually told by BP Koirala that he felt she might one day carry the Koirala mantle paving way for national reconciliation. BP’s forecast for Sujata Koirala finally seems to have come true.
By Surya B. Prasai
Recently, the seven party leaders have gone on an aggressive pro-CA Poll drive giving scheduled appearances in Biratnagar, Dhangadi and Janakpur. The UN Mission in Nepal’s tenure in Nepal has been extended by another six months giving it potent political drive from the UN Security Council Permanent Members, and the Chief Election Commissioner seems all geared for action to hold the polls on time, despite the Madhes wallas still agitating for rights and proper electoral representation. However, one major soothsayer and ardent supporter for Nepal’s CA polls and the powerful daughter of the Koirala family, Sujata Koirala (Jost), has gone low key all of a sudden and not seen recently giving ardent pro-democracy speeches in public. Both foreign diplomats and the seven party leaders have been trying to figure out the next move out of Baluwatar, trying to see if they can get a glimpse of Sujata Koirala, probably Nepal’s most powerful leader at the moment. The media last saw her by her ailing father’s bedside when Prime Minister’s Girija Prasad Koirala’s was recovering from a lung and respiratory infection. Just like she was instructing doctors and nursing the Prime Minister back to good health at Baluwatar recently, Sujata has ardently taken a new role instructing other ministers in government and wooing Nepal’s various political parties, media and civil society leaders for her next possible great role as successor to the Koirala dynasty. It would be difficult to ponder Nepal’s democratic aspiration in 2008 without focusing on the next move of Minister without Portfolio Ms. Sujata Koirala who has suddenly become a cautious heavyweight national power player.
Many in Kathmandu will have remembered July 6, 2005, when Ms. Sujata Koirala, organized one of the biggest wedding parties at the five star Everest Hotel in Naya Baneswore in honor of her petite, accomplished, and tech savvy daughter Ms. Melanie Koirala Jost and handsome Bangladeshi husband to be, Mr. Rubel Chowdhury. There were 3,500 official wedding guests invited but in the end, in typical Sujata fashion, the pool side function was opened to the public as well. Such is Sujata’s hidden generosity known to only a few family friends. According to those who know her well, neither does she care about money splurged for a good cause nor differentiate between the rich and poor when it comes to enjoying life’s best moments. However, she does expect friendship to be based on mutual reciprocity and re-payment of kind deeds. Although the Maoists main leaders shrewdly did not attend that particular event, they did send some activists to observe keenly on what was happening behind the scenes in the multicultural Koirala household. After all, even the smallest Koirala get together can turn out be a mass soiree as the wedding at Everest Hotel vindicated that evening. While everyone seemed to be having a ball of a time, some noteworthy Sujata invitees from South Asia’s leading media houses were busy enjoying their scotch and wondering whether if ever, she became a Nepali Minister or the country’s future Prime Minister, she might be able to liven up Kathmandu’s all party scenario reminiscent of the old Kathmandu of the mid sixties and early seventies when every night out in town was a party get together of some sort, excepting political parties!. Some also reckoned, Sujata might one day be able to refresh that old, drab tasteless garrison like brick quarter known as the Prime Minister’s House in Baluwatar, and convert it to a more lively celebrity status mansion. After all, many previous occupants had spent time in solitude counting the number of days they would be able to live the good life there as Nepal’s Prime Minister starting with day one.
Preceding the strange turn of events leading to Sujata’s recent appointment within the ruling Nepali Congress party, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala (aka GPK) had been known to be pondering deeply for the past few months on who would be able to continue with his political lineage and add weight to his only partially accomplished work in fostering national reconciliation and democracy through the now toned down Jan Andolan 2 spirit, the historic event which is still widely misinterpreted as a sobering republican call rather than an effort to reconcile national political differences arising out of the 11 year old Nepali civil conflict. GPK also wanted someone who could bear the ideology of his late cherished brother BP. In fact, GPK idolized late BP Koirala a lot, which is evident from his recent interviews to Kantipur TV, now stopped due to some recent controversial remarks. However, many elder generation Nepalis still do remember the ever green Indian socialist party leaning, charismatic former Prime Minister of Nepal, BP Koirala from the Madhes. BP was known to brood on British and European political philosophy while spending sunny but lonesome days incarcerated in beautiful Sundarijal jail, the majority of time spent in reminiscing and recounting his younger student activism days at Benares Hindu University combined with definitive contributions to India’s own freedom struggle particularly in the northern states. Prior to Sujata’s current appointment, GPK had rightly forecast a few weeks before, that Nepal would have a powerful woman minister if not a prime minister in the near future. Was he perhaps hinting at his confident, beautiful, likeable and street smart daughter? Sujata after all is now all set to succeed GPK according to astute Kathmandu and foreign based Nepal observers; SHE has the BLESSINGS from none other than the GRAND OLD MAN in Nepali politics, her father!
Thus, not only is Sujata Koirala now a Minister without Portfolio but also the minister at large, the most powerful Nepali politician after Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Also for Sujata, serving as minister without portfolio does not imply that she cannot override assignments in other weak ministries particularly HOME which she was known to be coveting earlier! In fact, after her appointment, Sujata immediately has worked towards consolidating her power base both at Singha Durbar and Baluwatar. She also has been weaning clever support to her cause among Nepal’s shrewd eyed, seasoned and astute foreign diplomatic corps. For instance, the Germans and Europeans take her as one of their own by marriage and her child’s European lineage and citizenship, the Americans find her a useful, knowledgeable, attractive and to-the-point person to do business with and push forward their commonsensical foreign aid and democratic governance principles, the Chinese respect her equi-distant Panchasila policy stance and exhibition of politically correct “fair judgment on some important national issues”, the British are just too happy to continue bestowing West Minister’s finest political adage to the new shining star of the Koirala clan and whatever she does certainly is attuned to quoting Churchill and Shakespeare, the love of good Scotch Whisky, and toned down East Chelsea fashion. Similarly, the clever Japanese admire her pro ‘look east for more genuine aid’ philosophy; respect her pro- environment eco-tourism statements, and love of Japanese cuisine and sake. And finally, the Indians naturally adore her as a daughter of Shanti Niketan, founded by none other than the great Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore who ironically taught about simple living and high thinking. Sujata has actually spent a considerable amount of her academic life following Tagore’s beliefs and continues to maintain influential friends and contacts in Indian politics, art, literature and the multinational scene sprung from her deep association with India’s prominent arts and cultural quarters, particularly in New Delhi.
As for her hold on domestic politics it is rumored by the investigative Nepali media, that the Nepal Army also finds Sujata comfortable to do business with, having informally won the NA officers’ respect for having taught civil-military relations to aspiring future colonels and brigadier generals in recent past. It is also considered within NA’s unofficial reckoning that she is one of the few Nepali politicians who truly understands the fragile national security situation, Nepali geo-political realities and the CA botched polls which were postponed thrice due to political bickering among the ruling seven party alliance. Sujata is equally well liked by the Nepali bureaucracy who actually moves the country on a daily basis. She is neither considered too pushy nor a couch potato; she knows cultivating respect among the senior bureaucrats and appreciating the noble profession of civil service is as important as being able to understand the burning issues and their policy interlinkages whose non-solvency might affect her own political survival. For instance her main concerns appear to be: ill managed Nepal Airlines with no planes and a sad Yeti made to forcibly hold leftist flags at New Road gate, the effects of rising kerosene prices on a poor Nepali woman’s simple quest in serving a plate of hot dal bhat to her hungry children and beloved laboring husband who has toiled whole day in the cold Nepali winter, and the need to refurbish the quickly dwindling national coffers with stronger tourism revenues, less foreign borrowing talk and more national homework, amidst the seven party’s consistent wake-up calls for the April 2008 CA Poll rendezvous expected to cost Rs 3 billion! Thus, Sujata, known to be otherwise frank, open, democratic, unpretentious and a multicultural personality has much to concentrate on in the next few months as Minister without Portfolio. Precisely, she now has to prove that Nepal’s CA polls can be held on time, in this Trans Himalayan strategic belt largely the fault of its weak politicians. Or, maybe no CA polls at all!
What is the secret to Sujata’s inevitable rise amidst Nepali democratic transitions in 2008? Sujata has been very close to her father ever since the death of Aunt Nona Koirala last year, who was Prime Minister Koirala’s most respected confidante to date. Nona’s death left a big vacuum in GPK’s life making him appear tragic and lonely. To reach the position of the Prime Minister’s chief adviser, Sujata had to carefully brush aside family criticism that she was a party goer; also that she was serious and going one step further than the rest to prove that if Koiralism is nepotism akin to any other ruling Asian political dynasty, what was it that the others were practicing all along, Asian democracy? Sujata herself has recently countered that such inheritance is common throughout the South Asian horizon! The trend of daughters wearing their father’s caps have included Mrs. Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, Mrs. Indira Gandhi in India, late Mrs. Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, and Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka. In fact, she recently had to play a suave cat and mouse game with cousins Dr. Shekhar, Dr.Shashank and little sister Manisha Koirala (whom GPK sometimes detests for her daring Bollywood statements and antics imported into Kathmandu) to emerge as the chief confidante of her father. Therefore, while Ms. Sujata Koirala might have been a prominent happy go lucky socialite figure in Kathmandu in the past, now she has had to quickly transform herself to a more serious, likeable, ‘all caps on’ Baluwatar manager whom some also believe is standing in as NC’s official goalkeeper-cum-BP’s chief liberal ideological proponent after the late CK Prasai, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and now GPK.
In context, Sujata has also recently run into media controversy for what is considered her open defense of constitutional monarchy when in fact she was seemed to be only re-cycling BP’s three pillar theory of Nepali democracy (i.e. Nepal’s survival is hinged on democracy, monarchy and nationalism and no one dare attempt to shake any of these intertwined support structures, or else the whole house will fall like a pack of cards). The Maoist leadership duo, Prachanda and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai even allege that Sujata is cleverly using this concept to propel herself further to be the future Prime Minister through a ‘democratic coup’, while others within NC and UML circle believe that she is alternately working towards forestalling the CA polls to slowly revive the 1990 Constitution which was borrowed heavily from mainly western democracies that invested heavily in its enactment, but whose spirit got lost due to the frequent clash between the communist and democratic forces in Nepal during the past two decades. Despite Sujata being portrayed as the chief defendant of either scenario, wider policy opinion abroad believes that she might just reinstate the 1990 Constitution which was the best Nepali political transformation move ever made in Nepal’s modern history according to her father. GPK believes that the 1990 Constitution guaranteed constitutional monarchy, multiparty democracy, and people’s full fledged sovereignty. The 1990 Constitution, truthfully a model democratic constitution, was heavily borrowed from the US-British-French-Indian-Sri Lankan and Spanish versions talking a lot about Nepali people’s political and economic rights, but with very little practice in truth. Also despite Dr. Baburam Bhattarai’s assessment of his opposing NC colleague, even he acknowledges indirectly that the quintessential public opinion fielder within GPK’s family and at Baluwatar in the past has been none other than Sujata. Other lesser well known leaders also compare her to the Nepali version of Hillary Clinton on an ascending political wave, but with two or three serious political blemishes in the past. Hearing all this, Sujata has been quite astute in the past year wooing everyone who matters in Kathamndu be it former PMs, deputy prime ministers, ministers, parliamentarians, leaders of political parties, heads of diplomatic missions, security personnel, civic society and other self-appointed human rights advocates, government civil servants, social service luminaries or anyone else who chooses to pop in at Baluwatar doors. She has also been the darling of the Madhes rights advocacy experts. The media has been no exception in casting their opinion about her open ambition, since Sujata knows maintaining excellent relations with Kathmandu based editors and publishers goes a long way in harnessing personal power.
The other side of Sujata of course, which only a few know, is the consternation and apprehension surrounding her contacts and personal relationships some of which has been counter productive to her father. She has been criticized as always behaving like a Prime Minister’s daughter, mixing elegance with arrogance, having expensive tastes and habits, and yes, sometimes riding rough shod over colleagues who oppose her in Baluwatar indoor political sessions. In the larger NC united, Sujata along with Dr. Govind Raj Joshi are also known to be two rebellious, reformist, pro-monarchial Turks who lead the Gang of 40 that believes that GPK ought not to have signed the various 12 and 23 point agreements with the communists, without first consulting them. To the NC Turks, the King has proven a better friend than Nepal’s divided communists.
Also, for Sujata, the Interim Parliament is nothing new; she would probably like to see a real Parliament resurrected in place soon, where she can turn herself into a rhetorical bombshell. However herein lies the big question for Nepal: will or won’t Sujata Koirala be able to deliver on her father’s democratic promise? Sujata’s past views on democracy have been strictly molded by BP Koirala’s ideology and her family’s past. She also knows the fate suffered by her cousin, Ms. Shailaja Acharya in being too pro-Monarchial who was a fathom closer to the PM’s post, since she served as a former deputy PM. But Sujata has so far beaten all her cousins in the influence game in the current race, the only exception being her elder estranged brother Prakash Koirala who has his own Nepali Congress Nationalist party and once served as a full minister during King Gyanendra’s direct rule. Another important question: will her cousins let her rise any further in her political quest? After all, Prakash’s daughter, Manisha Koirala, who once wanted to serve in Nepali politics left due to intra-Koirala family politics. She now leads a solitary but exuberant life in Mumbai as one of the Hindi screen’s all time biggest attractions, a former UN Goodwill Ambassador, and still, money making powerhouse actress who commands strong global public audience through her two decade old Bollywood ties. However, Sujata will also have to learn another lesson from Manisha’s blemished example. When King Gyanendra executed a bloodless coup two years ago attempting to provide the Nepali people direct salvation to cure the public disgruntlement due to rising inflation, fuel prices and ineffective local governance, Manisha had tried drumming up public support for him but failed chiefly due to everyone, including her, miscalculating proper external backing for such a move. Also Sujata must learn from Manisha’s self-defamation as a result, that the younger generation can burn her popular movie posters and that a different democratic and pro-liberal quest has engulfed Nepal’s young 'orange boom' generation. They are now truly globalized citizens living in a transitional state located between the world’s two largest emerging powerhouse economies. They are not willing to take any further political nonsense in the guise of democracy. The dream of Western education, Indian and Chinese food, Thai and South Korean fashion, and Japanese high tech gadgets is all that matters to Nepal’s young. However they need jobs to fulfill the material ambition. In fact, Sujata Koirala’s official entry into the PMO’s office in Singha Durbar and the interim parliament does signify a tell tale sign that indeed political reform is now the order of the day at Baluwatar and it does not hurt to inject a few more young generation crowd pulling Sujatas into the Nepali political mainstream. Who knows, Sujata might go a long way in the next few years. After all, she does not hold personal animosity for long with any of her cousins and political enemies. Right now her main worry and concern is her father’s health and also that the CA polls will be conducted on time, provided that all the dissenting political voices come together within the next one month or so, if the current burdensome electoral exercise is not going to be cancelled one more time by the National Election Commission citing politicians’ lack of serious political homework!
As for those who criticize Sujata, here is the definitive counter in her own words -- even Prachanda’s son is in politics, Baburam’s wife Hisila is a minister, and everyone else has got their nearest and dearest in there (meaning the cabinet). Be it wives, daughters, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, nephews, nieces, or daughters, they are all there according to her. Sujata also claims that she has worked hard for Nepali democracy, and actually has amidst all the past partying and clubbing, helped her father successfully win two democratic election campaigns that catapulted him to the PM’s job. She also returned back to Nepal in 1990 before Jan Andolan 1 took place leaving her German husband working at the UN, opting to be dogged instead by her father’s public glare trying to portray herself desperately as a devoted NC walla and a serious first daughter.
Also, her first political statement upon recent appointment as minister has been largely misconstrued: it was indeed an “official” salvo” in supporting monarchy and the need to give the Monarch a break just like everyone else for their past mistakes, which she insists were all committed in a certain political and economic context. Sujata just won’t budge on the issue of Monarchy and BP’s national reconciliation principles. It is now clear that Sujata is also going a step further to flush out some if not all of her father’s advisers at Baluwatar and that she might actually be talking to the press more on monarchy and BP's founding philosophy than anything else in future. She is the undisputed NC spokeswoman and heavyweight in Baluwatar right now. It is also likely that she will patch up differences with the former rival Deuba camp, since she is a friend of Dr. Arzu Deuba who wields a lot of assimilative clout particularly over Mr. Deuba’s influential PHD advisers who, in turn, motivate the inter-Nepali Congress dialogues and prevent further party dissent particularly on the Madhes issue. Sujata has also been quietly treading the political rapprochement road with other pro-democratic political parties including RPP, RJP, and some of the leftover Terai factions, which she believes must be accorded proper national respect before the CA polls are actually held.
It is rumored by close NC supporters that Sujata was once actually told by BP Koirala that he felt she might one day carry the Koirala mantle paving way for national reconciliation. BP’s forecast for Sujata Koirala finally seems to have come true. Of course, there are many other jealous contenders both to BP and GPK’s legacy in the NC bandwagon that promises further NC disability from within. Certainly Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba might not be happy with all this, since he is considered by inner party workers and the Nepali media as the rightful claimant to GPK’s position. Add to this the fact that Maoist chairman Prachanda has predicted very difficult times ahead for Nepal in the next three months – until the constituent assembly polls are held, suggesting that given the instance of the murder of late Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, some groups might even attempt murder of senior leaders to set the stage for what he terms a 'democratic coup.' He has also warned that the Nepali Spring of 2008 could alternatively see another form of ‘democratic coup’ like in Bangladesh where the military force has backed the civilian government.
Adding to these and other rife Nepali speculations, there are also plenty among Nepal’s ‘guessing’ media who like to criticize Sujata for her Bollywood hairdo, her expensive bags, perfume and whatever comes by way of their indulgence and imagination, down to her stiletto heel shoes. But the rise of Sujata testifies to the fact that she has finally made it into the inner circle of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who treated her merely as a daughter until a few years back, never seriously taking her views until he came to realize that she knew one big hidden Nepali truth that absolute democratic governance exemplifies itself through the family meritocracy while absolute power corrupts absolutely within the NC.
Meanwhile, one should note the truthful statement made by US Ambassador to Nepal, Ms. Nancy J. Powell in Pokhara recently that a true and lasting peace in Nepal will require more than the CA election; it will require national commitment and meeting the overarching challenge in restoring robust economic growth that is inclusive and equitable. Certainly having a woman Prime Minister at Baluwatar in the days ahead might be one conducive way to correct the past political imbalances including gender under representation in Nepali politics while fulfilling the Nepali people’s quest for peace, democratic stability and economic progress. One can be assured that a large number of Nepali voters in future will be women. Whichever party can woo the Nepali woman’s heart will likely see itself being placed in Baluwatar. But on another plane, could Sujata be the one to fulfill the Nepali quest to seek our own version of Hillary Clinton at Baluwatar in 2008? The guessing game is on!
(The author is an independent global strategic communications, media and international development consultant based in Maryland, US and can be reached at just_1_idea@hotmail.com)
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