Image: Gagan Thapa, NC candidate for Kathmandu-4 (pic: Kashish Das Shrestha)

This week is not the first time Nepalis have had to fear travelling in their own communities or country, by bus. In June 2005, a bomb attack on a passenger bus left 38 people dead and 72 injured. Many of the victims of this incident, referred to as the “mass murder in Madi”, were women and children. It was planned and executed by the People’s Liberation Army of Nanda Kishore Pun, known by his nom de guerre, “Pasang”. Rebels that Pasang trained have again, this week, been declared responsible for resuming similar cowardly acts of terrorism. During the conflict years, Pasang’s army regularly took over schools across the country, using it for his party, conducting military parades, and transforming spaces of hope and learning into the infrastructure of war. On the campaign trail, Prachanda has been lauding Pasang as an “Ambassador of Peace”. In Madi, Gagan Thapa helped build a school. In Parliament he drafted and proposed a bill that would declare schools “Zones of Peace”. In 1996, the two men decided to take two different approaches to how they would fight for Nepal. Today, both Pasang (UCPN-Maoist) and Gagan Thapa (Nepali Congress) are candidates of the Kathmandu-4 constituency. Both men are perceived as the “next generation” leaders of their parties, a role that will shape Nepal’s socio-political future. On November 19, only one version of that future will win.

In 2002, I travelled to the Maoist heartland, Rolpa, and spent a week talking to their local fighters and commanders in a village far from the district headquarters. In the years that followed, I would spend time with Pasang’s army, from the western plains to the eastern hills of Nepal. The pattern was always the same: we would march for a day or two to reach their camps. All around me I would see young boys and girls carrying backpacks filled not with books, but bullets and socket bombs. In other remote and rural parts of Nepal, I would come across the scars of war left by Pasang’s army: a destroyed District Forest Office, a bombed airport, a demolished school, blown-out electricity substations.

Khagendra Sangroula, arguably one of Nepal’s most widely read columnists, praises Prachanda as the political commander and Pasang as the military commander of the Maoist insurgency. Prachanda praises Pasang generously too: “It was Pasang that helped the movement reach this high, this fast,” Prachanda gushes. This is Pasang’s legacy.

No one calls Gagan a commander, but most people do refer to him as a leader. In the Constituent Assembly, he helped lead the process of the Fundamental Rights Committee so it would finish its work on time. When the CA extended its deadline, he was the sole CA member who proposed the extension not apply to salaries. The proposal failed, so he led by example: he was the only member who stopped drawing a salary, just as he had promised he would during the campaign.

In the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Means, Gagan Thapa led many of its most significant hearings on issues of forest management, hydropower development, agricultural policies, climate change, and the illegal mining of the Chure region. In Parliament, he planned and established the Committee on Children’s Rights, and forged cross-party participation to push issues of child rights. He was the only MP who proposed parties disengage from Nepal Bandhs. It was he who wrote the bill to stop tire burning at protests. He fought for the right to obtain citizenship through one’s mother.

The Next Generation:
There is no doubt both candidates carry the heavy weight of their respective party’s misdeeds. Which is why what matters perhaps is what either candidates are doing to change their parties.

Pasang does not challenge the party establishment of the UCPN-Maoist. His biggest endorsement comes from the Party’s Chairman, Prachanda himself. To vote for Pasang is to vote for Prachanda, the Chairman says while campaigning.

Old party leaders in the Nepali Congress (NC) have resisted Gagan’s rise, but the people have consistently thrust him into that space, and he has been delivering every time. In 2010, he was voted into the Central Working Committee of NC with the highest number of votes. On and off the campaign trail, Gagan emphasizes the need to change the old guard in his party, which is why he has been nurturing youth leaders across the country for years now. “Politics should be a service, not a job,” he tells youth as he helps them become educated entrepreneurs. Today thousands, including non-party members, have adopted that path because of him.

In their election manifestos, every party boasts an agenda of development, but Gagan Thapa made sure NC’s also took a sustainable development approach. Every manifesto promises expanded road networks, but Gagan Thapa made sure NC will address air pollution too. Every party talked about using natural resources, but he made NC view those issues through a lens of sustainability. In 2009, when I talked to the Energy Minister, a senior NC leader, he dismissed my climate change concerns. This year, Gagan Thapa has made addressing climate change a part of NC’s manifesto. He made other such progressive additions on issues of education, public health, women’s rights, migrant workers, and more; taking the lead and shaping what NC stands for.

“Their politics is the politics of poverty. My politics is the politics against poverty,” he has frequently said.

Kathmandu’s Representative:
What are Pasang’s visions for Kathmandu’s development? Or development in general? He has an opinion on what Kathmandu should be called, and who gets to run it. But even that opinion is simply his party’s. He wants to represent the Maoist Party.

Gagan, on the other hand, has produced a book-like working document for Kathmandu’s sustainable development. He has produced a similar document just for Kathmandu-4 too, along with an appeal specifically to address the youth. He wants to represent the people, irrespective of their party leanings.
Prachanda has been telling his constituency that he is Nepal’s next President. Pasang is said to want to be the next Home or Defense Minister. A victory for Pasang in Kathmandu-4 is a big step towards ensuring their dreams are realized. It also allows Pasang to assert more political influence on Nepali society. As a military commander, he would like nothing more. The question is, would you?

Full Disclosure: Kashish Das Shrestha, an independent policy researcher and analyst, has co-authored essays on environment and development issues with Gagan Thapa for several years. He has also discussed issues of sustainable development with former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on two occasions, including earlier this year. He tweets at @kashishds. You can reach him at kashish@sustainablenepal.org