Coarsening political debate

People expressed their anger in the local elections last May by voting for independent candidates.

The November 20 federal and provincial polls promise to be among the most unpredictable in the country’s recent history. While the big parties are desperately trying to hold their ground, some of the newer outfits are giving them a tough fight, especially at the federal level. (The latest internal assessments of the big parties and some security agencies suggest the same.) As a result, parties and their candidates are making tall promises to entice voters. More problematically, in the lead up to the D-day, rather than enunciating their own agendas, most top political leaders continue to bash their opponents with unseemly accusations and characterisation. The most recent iteration of this is the competition among them to shout the loudest about who has done the most to bring back the territories of Kalapani. Be it Sher Bahadur Deuba, KP Oli or Pushpa Kamal Dahal, even basic civility towards their decades-old competitors has been missing as old skeletons are being yanked out of dusty cupboards.