The historic people's movement of 2062/63 opened the door to the federal democratic republic in Nepal. After the Darbar Massacre, the autocratic rule of King Gyanendra Shah ended. Voices suppressed and marginalized for centuries began to rise.

Madhesh movement took place, tribal movements took place. The Maoists, who had been fighting for a decade in the name of people's war, came to the peace process. Accepted the principles of inclusiveness and proportional representation. The election of the Constituent Assembly was held with the resolution of going to the structure of a federal republic, fulfilling the promise since the 2007 revolution that the people would write their own constitution.

More than 97 percent of votes in the Constituent Assembly formally declared Nepal a republic. Only 4 members of the then RPP Nepal voted in opposition. Acknowledging the decision of the Constituent Assembly, the former king Gyanendra Shah left the palace. This was an admirable example of Nepal's peaceful descent into a republic.

Overcoming the complexity of the transition, after two elections and tireless efforts of the parties, the Constituent Assembly issued the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Regarding federalism, especially Madhesh and Tharuhat, some parties withdrew from the final phase of the process of passing the constitution. There was a movement again in Madhesh, violent incidents occurred. The country had to face a very sensitive and uncomfortable situation.

Happily, after entering the stage of implementation of the constitution, political understanding was established between the parties, and an environment was created in which everyone participated in the elections. As a result, elected governments at all three levels, from local to union, have become inclusive. An ordinary Nepalese citizen has reached the highest position in the country through elections. Today, the Nepalese counted in Raiti have become sovereign citizens. In terms of political change, these are not ordinary, they are achievements of epochal importance.

After the federalization of the country, the government has come closer to the people, especially at the municipal level. Many jobs that were supposed to be run by the headquarters or the capital yesterday are now done by the respective municipalities and wards. Although almost all parts of the country are unpaved, they are connected by road network. Access to transportation has increased. Modern technology has reached the hands of citizens. Many services have become connected with technology.

Power generation and supply has increased. These are things that everyone can see. International data has also confirmed that poverty has decreased, average income and living standards of people have increased, literacy has increased, and life expectancy has increased. There has been an encouraging reduction in maternal and child mortality. The human development index which was 0.395 in 1990 has gradually increased to 0.601 after the restoration of democracy. 

The country is now moving up from the list of least developed states. 

Why is public outrage brewing? 

Despite all these achievements, dissatisfaction and anger is boiling over in the country. Some groups have started heating the streets to revive the defunct monarchy and Hindu state. There is a situation where the polluting social media posts are spreading confusion among the public.

Yesterday is intended to propagate the illusion that everything was good during the reign of the king. Disinformation is increasing on progressive political ideas that party system, republic, and federalism are bad. Rather than this or that party and leader, there is an attempt to point the finger at the thought of the republic. It is necessary to have a serious review as to why there has been such an attack on the system even a decade after the promulgation of the constitution.

Criticizing and protesting the government, ideological differences, debates and disagreements in politics are not unusual. In democracy, it is more established as a right. But now the trend that is starting to grow in the politics of Nepal, there is a risk of taking the country towards extreme right-wing totalitarianism.

Now people are starting to dislike not only parties and leaders, but politics itself. There is a choice of party and leader, but there is no such thing as pushing the political system to the ground. Increasing political alienation among the people is an indication that some autocratic and fascist power is at war. It is not that the monarchy will return, but in such a situation, one cannot be sure that the invisible game will not pollute the politics any more.

Where did we go wrong?

Democracy is a system that operates within methods, procedures and methods. Rule of law, responsibility and accountability, transparency, service delivery are its lifeblood. The federal system of government is its backbone. A functioning parliament, an independent judiciary, a neutral constitutional body, a free press, and an informed civil society are its 'driving forces'.

The more active and effective these institutions work, the stronger democracy will be. But due to extreme partisanship, these institutions have been rendered ineffective and dilapidated. Whatever the appointment, they started to fall into party factional and kinship divisions. Factors such as individual's efficiency, ability, moral behavior became secondary. As a result, not only the people who reach these important places of the state, but also the institution began to lose faith. 

In democracy, it is believed that political parties, as representative organizations of the people, connect the people's aspirations and votes with the governance system. But our parties did not remain like parties, they became alliances of factions and gangs. In the absence of responsible leadership and internal democracy within the party, his political identity began to fade. The candidature in the election was based on factional division. The influence of middlemen increased due to invisible financial transactions. Even when the voter's support decreased, there was a wrong culture that the leadership should not be sensitive and accountable to it.

Our political system is based on parliamentary practice. Its foundation is raised in the culture of the ruling party and the opposition. Its general belief is that the majority party will hold power for five years after the election. Minority parties sit in the opposition and monitor the government. On the contrary, we did not have the mentality to stay in the opposition for five years or even five days. The very concept of parliamentary opposition was destroyed by the tendency of the same person to become the prime minister at home and the leader of the main opposition party at home.

On the contrary, voices are heard blaming the system and threatening the movement after being out of power. The fault lies not with the system but with the leadership. This system expects a stable coalition culture of the ruling party and the opposition. But the leaders decided to change the alliance. As a result, the government was always unstable, service delivery, development projects were all affected. There is no point in not having a government. Political leadership both in power and opposition started to lose morals.  There is no such thing as

government morality. Corruption and corruption are rampant. Instead of correcting wrong practice, it became the norm. Moreover, cases of major corruption were linked to Cabinet decisions, which began to be cloaked in political guise. The political leadership did not have to take responsibility and got immunity. Impunity flourished. Innocent people who are victims of meter-bagging, microfinance, co-operatives, injustice and exploitation are forced to come to Kathmandu and plead for justice. The matter of good governance has become a concern. Middlemen prevailed over the government in state decisions. The government has become like an agency that seals what they say.

Accountability in a democracy is the heartbeat of the whole system, like the heart of an organism. But with us, it has weakened the heart itself. When there is indifference to accountability, there is no such thing as rule of law. The law becomes a tool to fulfill the interests of those in power and to exploit the poor. Therefore, impunity for the crimes of the party leadership and its protégés has grown alarmingly. Not only is the government corrupt, but the government is for the corrupt. But it is a sad situation that democracy and republic have to bear the blame for this.

The participation of the leadership is more in the role of weakening democracy in this way. However, the role of citizens, businessmen, employees etc. is also responsible. It seems that some businessmen have taken control of the party from the back door. Apart from a few exceptions, especially the bureaucracy of Nepal has not been democratized. Because of this, the idea that employees are not the servants of the people, but the owners, is still there and there is a delay in service delivery.

A bad culture has developed where the leader blames the employee and the employee blames the leader. There is a growing tendency to blame the Federal Republic after leaving office. Corruption, misgovernance, unemployment, poverty, poor service delivery and extreme partisanship everywhere have left the country in a state of despair.

Commenting that there is no future in this country, young people started choosing foreign countries, felt the urge to leave the country. Villagers started crying. The false comment that this is all because of the republic has started gaining influence. The campaign to nullify the achievements of the constitution and prove the system useless has started to increase. 

There is a world history where democracy has continued and succeeded in facing many challenges and risks. Citizens who believe in democracy should not sit idly by thinking that everything has gone wrong and there is no future. The good thing about Nepal is that the civil society is committed to democracy, is aware and does not lag behind in making opinions in favor of democracy by putting parties and leaders in positions when necessary.

That quickness and awareness of the civil society is now beginning to manifest itself. With the exit of the old leadership and the new leadership, extensive reforms in political parties, maximum practice of internal democracy should not be delayed to develop the desired political ethics and culture of a federal democratic republic and to maintain citizens' trust in the party and politics.

We have also seen some external challenges to the surface against republicanism and secularism. In response to that, Nepali public opinion has become stronger. But in our view, the greater risk is of an internal nature. It is in the behavior of the party and the leader.

Breaking it down is not about digging up the evils of the republic and pushing it into further crisis. It is only possible to protect and strengthen the republic by ending the tendency and behavior that weakens it. Our opinion is in favor of advanced practice of federal democratic republic. It is for the development of practice and culture accordingly.