You don't need the Hand telling you that politicians are habitual liars. This fact of life has been learnt the hard way, through a litany of betrayal and perfidy, and the Nepali people's lack of faith in their leaders is a damning judgment. Telling the truth is pass? and open-hearted honesty old-fashioned. The axiom 'nice guys finish last' is proven by those who rise to the top in the national political arena.

It occurred to the now invisible Hand that those driven by ideology do things differently. Your garden-variety politico makes promises he never plans on keeping when angling for votes, or lies to conceal his incompetence and corruption. This behaviour, while deviant, is not from normal self-interested behaviour.

Politicians driven by Ideology, on the other hand, seem to have a different concept of truth than the rest of us. While average politicians lie haphazardly to cover their blunders, ideologically driven politicos lie methodically for the cause, which conveniently justifies whatever it takes to achieve the objective. Adhering to ideology gives license for mendacity; if the end always justifies the means, anything goes.

Look at some recent examples of fabrication and reality denial: The shooting in Lahan that sparked the tarai conflagration was perpetrated, say eyewitnesses, by a Maoist cadre travelling in a Party minivan. Comrade Deb Gurung of the central politburo unflinchingly told the press it was actually the work of Royalist agents-provocateurs, begging the question what a trigger-happy monarchist was doing in their vehicle.

In response to a report issued last month by an international organisation condemning rampant Maoist extortion of the business community, Comrade Mahara of the central politburo indignantly declared that coercion is unheard of and that the millions collected are voluntary donations. This lame defence, conflicting with the testimony of business-people nationwide, suggests he couldn't give a damn whether anyone believes him; toeing the party line is what matters.

On the off-chance Mahara actually believes his own words, serious pathological tendencies are indicated that bode ill.

Pasang Lama, caught in a sting operation purchasing arms from a radical Kashmir group, admitted to Indian police that he was a Maoist buying guns destined for Nepal, despite a ban on such activity in the peace accord. But his boss in Delhi, CP Gajurel, displayed the Party's impressive clerical skills, saying there was no such person on the membership rolls.

An organisation with a rigid hierarchy saves the most blatant lies for its supreme commander. Prachanda's recent explanation that the absent Maoist weapons were swept away by a river and/or incinerated in a blaze stretches our credibility to new limits. Reality and truth no longer matter in the national political equation.

Not much surprises the Hand but a few things terrify him. An ideologically based belief system excuses duplicity and encourages deceit to further the cause.

Ideology has been used to justify appalling crimes against humanity over the past century, from Hitler's Nazi Germany to Pol Pot's Maoist Kampuchea. Intolerance of awkward facts that conflict with the party line has historically led to the creation of a separate, manipulated truth for the masses, with disastrous consequences.

We have grown inured to being insulted by our leaders through their corruption, strikes, and treachery, but such brazen lies insult our intelligence and are thus troubling on a deeper level. In the New Nepal truth will be a commodity controlled and defined by the Party, whose version stands infallible and beyond reproach.
The Hand, who has often wondered 'how stupid do they really think we are?' now has his answer.