I believe it is common among those who know that I have worked in the acting and film industries. My footsteps in the acting and cinema industries may be traced back a decade. I can be regarded and portrayed as an individual assimilated to this business based on my professional roots and trajectory. Yet, I am not constrained and limited to a specific sector. Beyond this line, as a person, a citizen, and a member of the common people, the bits of things spinning in the country’s atmosphere are important to me. I would much rather be a subset of the universal collection of happenings and events that account for hot and cold air, as well as transitions in national events.
Politics is a comprehensive and multidimensional genre that pertains to the person, community, nation, planet, and human civilization. Every entity (philosophy, power, academia, economics, bureaucracy, culture, way of life) has divergence and is associated with each other. Politics, on the other hand, comprises the convergence of all these divergences to a certain point, whether it be utopia, communism, capitalism, socialism, anarchism, liberal democracy, social democracy, or others. The culmination of the converging point may change depending on the lens through which we look. Every individual is a political creature, although their scale may differ, which is a topic for another debate.
From dawn to dusk and dusk to the morning, a group rebels against the system and demands accountability. Gagan leads this thought in Nepali politics.
Politics is a genre with defined unlimited borders and political players in the role. So I’d want to have the identification of a political creature and be a part of the game.
The air of the federal and provincial elections is blowing across town streets and country pathways, as the nation is voting on Sunday. The election wave is stronger and more intense than the gravitational phenomenon of the earth and the moon. At this point and phase, the wave is swinging back and forth between the two polar poles of established stagnancy and anti-establishment initiatives accredited with transition and reformation. According to my political assessment, the country’s political system may be divided into three groups.
The first is the establishment’s cluster and the individuals who support the institution. Establishment comprises the individuals who have been in the mainstream of power politics for decades on end. The extraction of the democratic institutions and systems are the attributes of this cluster. The parliament of Nepal is more like the club of ex-prime ministers. All the ex-prime ministers and this club are tested and failed.
Our generation should be grateful and should forward our gratitude and homage to them for their sacrifice for the historical achievements and uprooting the regressive system. However, in the present context, it is inevitable to constrict the ex-prime ministers to look up for the dividends of their past sacrifice and fights as the club is already tested and resulted in failure.
The second group of people (independent candidates and political parties calling for alternative politics) are those who are struggling and battling against the system but the radius of mass is modest. This cluster’s conflict has begun and is being fueled by the irritation caused by the inconsistencies and lack of accountability of the cluster-establishment. Though I am encouraged and hopeful by their initiatives and acts, the gaps in their guiding ideology and perfected designs have the potholes. It can be discussed, but any movement and velocity fueled by irritation eventually results in confusion and lags behind the bright path. This cluster might be thought of as a quasi-rebellion wanting change.
The third is a cluster of persons who map and locate inside the cluster-establishment system but are not a member of it. This cluster opposes the establishment and the extractive system that has been distorted by the cluster-establishment. This cluster sincerely believes in the delivery and distances itself from the habit of having establishment-cluster profits. From dawn to dusk and dusk to the morning, this group rebels against the system. This cluster is the silver lining in an otherwise rotting system, in which any individual may rely on for reforms. This cluster has sparked optimism, whether inside partisan politics or mainstream politics.
This is the cluster represented by Gagan Kumar Thapa, or Gagan Thapa as all Nepalis call him, who was also our Health Minister from 2016 to 2017. He has been tried and validated.
To summarize, we need a person with the guts to strike and create the new castle of rule of law, governance, and delivery in this castle of glass of a rogue political system. Individuals who have been tried and proved, who work for anti-establishment causes and initiatives with ethical ideals, such as Gagan Thapa, should be given the key to Nepal’s leadership.
Individuals from the Gagan Kumar Thapa cluster should assume leadership of the country. This election is an opportunity for us. We have the opportunity to bring the derailed system back on track. We have the opportunity to replace the old and obsolete leadership with energetic and visionary leaders like Gagan Thapa.
Anoop Bikram Shahi is an actor.
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