KIRAN PANDAY

There is something about Sujata Koirala that makes everyone uncomfortable. It's not her lineage. Other Koirala women hardly evoke the same hope, fear and frustration. It's not beauty either, though she looks quite striking for a grandmother.

If birth and beauty were decisive criteria for success in politics, Manisha Koirala should have been reigning in Kathmandu rather than slowly fading from filmdom in Bombay. Despite her much publicised forays into Rautahat, the glamorous granddaughter of BP Koirala has failed to make her mark in politics.

For all her intelligence and gravitas, Nona Koirala's hold over NC politics was felt, but seldom seen. Shailaja Acharya was a visible presence with a history of struggle and sacrifice. But she wasn't, ultimately, able to influence her party's politics. Sidelined from the mainstream, both these 'women of substance' died dejected.

Sujata Koirala insists on being seen and heard. She wants political power and she will get it. It's her grit and determination that NC bigwigs find disagreeable, but what they hate most is how she never misses an opportunity to remind them that they are where they are today simply because of the Koirala clan. For those who pretend to be popular in their own right, this must be painful.

Republican royalty is an oxymoron, but it thrives in some form or the other in most democratic societies. With uncertainty the only certainty, politics is the battlefield of the determined and the desperate. Scions of political dynasties may have a launching pad at their disposal, but they are at heart no different.

Unfortunately, shows of resolve and ferocity do not often endear one to people. That's why successful politicos have more followers than friends, though also more critics than outright enemies. Sujata is no exception: she probably realised early on that courting controversy was the shortest route to success in democratic politics. It's her recklessness that gives her companions and competitors the creeps. But whoever said hardcore politics was a popularity contest?

The chattering classes of Kathmandu love to hate Sujata for different reasons. For them, she is an upstart from the periphery. She didn't even attend St. Mary's, after all. But she dresses better, has more men half her age following her, and she gets what she wants, almost all the time.

When as foreign minister she refused to accompany PM Madhav Nepal on his visit to New Delhi, the entire political class in Kathmandu accused Daughter Koirala of sabotaging the anti-Maoist coalition from within. She dealt with them with a clever mix of innocence (she claimed to have fallen sick) and defiance.

Now that she has got what she wanted, Sujata would do well to reflect on whether the prize has been worth the price. She has called the bluff of Team Hypocrite at the helm of her party. But for once, Baluwatar has clearly outsmarted her father.

PM Nepal has managed to make his foreign minister one of his two deputies without stepping on the toes of his unwieldy coalition. He also insisted, initially, that a formal decision of the NCCC was necessary to promote Sujata. Lured by their newfound influence upon the government, NCCC members then defied their Chair and insisted on holding the Grand Committee meeting from November 1-3 in Kathmandu instead of concentrating on preparations for the General Assembly scheduled for March 10-14, 2010. This probably means that the latter will not be held anytime soon and the UML will continue to maintain its primacy in anti-Maoist politics well into the next elections. Once this was established, PM Nepal simply went ahead and promoted Sujata.

Tactically, it was a masterstroke of realpolitik on the part of PM Nepal. The only problem is that he and his co-conspirators in the NC have no strategic aims other than keeping the Maoists out of power for as long as possible. Koirala is aiming higher - he wants to take the peace process to its logical conclusion. In this war of wills, may the better-intentioned win.

READ ALSO:
Risk-taking for dummies - FROM ISSUE #472 (16 OCT 2009 - 22 OCT 2009)
Family matters - FROM ISSUE #472 (16 OCT 2009 - 22 OCT 2009)