Democracy in the Republic of Lord Shiva

The mountains of the Himalaya is one of the abodes of Lord Shiva. This, however, is not the native or indigenous homeland  of the Lord. When the non natives Aryans   crossed the Hindu- kush mountains , thousands and thousands of years ago, then they  discovered Lord Shiva on the banks of Sindhu and Saraswati. Shiva was worshiped in the Indus valley civilization long before the Aryans  would arrive. It was the  Shiva ling that people  worshiped in the valley of   Mohan Jodaro and Harrapa of the  oldest  civilization  known to be ever found on this subcontinent . The Aryans made Shiva their own God  on the banks of rivers Sindhu and Saraswati.  When they lived   in the foot hills  of the Himalayas under the shining rays of the Sun and soothing rays of the Moon, they gazed at  the snow peaks of the Himalayas, and   imagined a new symbol Lord Shiva; Lord Shiva sitting in the caves of the Himalayas and water spring busting  from his  hair tied over his head. Thus he was given a man's full form.  

                                                                                                  

However, when the influx of the new and unfamiliar invaders from the land of the desert to the land of the Himalayan rivers began to arrive, the Aryans migrated in search of safer lands into the mountains of the  Himalayas in search of safe haven. They  made inner  mountains of the Himalayas their  new abode.  They found not only safety and security but also  seclusion amid the mountains.  They found  new kind of peace in the new land and  established Lord Shiva there too.  However, in apprehension of threats from outside to them and to Lord Shiva, they incarnated themselves as  gods of Lord Shiva to protect the lord and themselves. The gods  of Shiva  have reigned in his  Kingdom  since then. The situation has however changed for them and has become a bit confusing after the Kingdom has   become a republic .

 However, in earlier times , the god kings  either befriended the native people  or conquered them.  They  captured  their  lands  and made laws to control  water and forest. Life in the mountains gave them a new authority , the authority to contorl and regulate water  and forest. Living   in the forests  of the Himalayas where  animals live too, they gave a new name to their Lord Shiva.  He was given the name of Pahsupatinath, which  literally means  Lord of Animals. Thus he  became the Lord of the animals too.

And with him , his  kings also became  gods of   Men as well as animals.

Being the kings of the animal and man, forests and water, cities and villages, they  became all powerful. Everything and everyone used to be at their mercy . They could  get woods smuggled out of the forests, man and women trafficked out of the cities and villages,  animals killed by letting the poachers enter the forests and so on.   

By the blessings  of the invincible Himalayas and its eternal  rivers, the kingdom of Lord Shiva  is eternal . Such are the blessings  of the Himalayas and the rivers that  the land of Lord Shiva rejuvenate and renew itself  after every crisis or catastrophe,  be it man made or natural. Godly kings of Shiva  believed that like the power of the Lord Shiva,  the power of the gods would be invincible in his Kingdom. That proved to be untrue in the Kingdom.

Despite that , many  Godly rulers  in the new republic believed that   the power of  the gods  of  Lord Shiva   would be unbeatable as the power of  His earth.   This  is an exceptional thought  because in a republic the power of the sovereign  people and not the rulers is  supposed to be the supreme, the sovereign and the  invincible.Such thought  is an enigma in the  new republic. Lord Shiva might be knowing  the secrets but he would  keep them to his heart only as that is essential for statecraft.

The rulers of the republic following their predecessors  do not like conversation with the people. By living for many centuries amid the silence and seclusion of the mountains and the forests, the  rulers  have  learnt very well to maintain  silence .  They    avoid and abhor any type of noise or halla  gulla that would disturb their peace  and rule. Thus democracy is not a system that they are fond of becuse of its inherently noisy nature . They also do not like democracy because it should be run by the laws made by the people's representatives. They like ruling through the laws and strictures issued by them.   Being the god like representatives of Lord Shiva, they hate any questions raised  by their people.  And when, their  noises get  louder, they know how to silence it . They would not hesitate to kill democracy and its offices if the noises and questions would become unmanageable.  Not surprisingly,  history of democracy be it monarchical or republican has remained checkered in the abode of Lord Shiva .

But Shiva's Janta janardans are  also not less resolute in the pursuit of their earthly  rights and power  than their rulers in the pursuit of their divine power.  So democracy , if lost  or killed by the rulers,  is always restored or revived. Thus people also are blessed by  the divine  touch of Lord's divine power. So when democracy was restored recently after an interlude of two years and a decade of  bloody war , the multitudes of people got their voices and rights back . Since they  learnt to raise and use  guns in the previous war against their own rulers,  the tone and temper of their voices has become  angrier and louder.

This the rulers in the republic found  problematic . When multitudes of hungry and angry people asked for jobs, food  and money and threatened the rulers , then they were  shown the way of the  unfamiliar deserts to live the life of the punished ones. To bring the republic his time,  women also fought with guns , and when the war is over , they are taken as more threatening than the men.  So the republican state has  decided to sell them to the new masters in the desert  lands. Earlier too, the women  used to sell themselves to the brothels of the neighborhood countries for the sake of  food, education  and medicine  of their family members. It is still continuing and but is being done  in an hush hush manner. But state selling or exporting its women citizens to very different people  is something very unusual. The state is worried that children born to Nepali women of the new relations , if  would be given the citizenship of the country, then land of Shiva would be polluted. So they are making very strict rules for citizenship because they do not want to loose the purity of the man and women living on his earth.  So they do not want to keep the record of such women and if  women impregnated by  men of deserts  kill themselves or become mad in pain because they do not have any way-out , then  their family members are given some token money. The money generally so less that you can not take care off a child for a year with that money. So not much has changed for women even in a republic but this of  the  new stories of  a the Republic.

But people's representatives have become bit different in the republic. They now talk  with new vigor and power for the rights of the people.  But this again is problematic for the rulers. This time when the problem  became unmanageable,  the rulers decided to terminate  the highest democratic office of the sovereign people and their representatives. They did that in consensus but in a hush hush manner. The Prime minister declared fresh  election of the Constituent Assembly. The speaker wrote to the president  that with the death of the Constituent Assembly the  parliament  has died too.  And the President  then declared that the Prime minister has a become  merely a caretaker prime minister! All wrong acts , but done in sequence , one after another and everything has come to a stop for people. In fact ,  some magic has worked ,  the Godly  rulers felt. They  tried to show that they were capable of doing everything even in a republic.  They  tried to prove that no constitution can bind them to a system. But after some time, they have become  confused too as they are not able to see a way out  in absence of a functional constitution.  So in wilderness they are  in search of  some divine power of Lord Shiva. This time , they are angry with Lord Shiva to discover that being the rulers of the new republic, they are not endowed with any divine or magical power to solve the problems created by themselves. They are frustrated at times as they realize that  their intelligence is not working.

They have found  problems among themselves too as no god ruler  is ready to accept the other as the supreme. And when none of them is strong enough to win over the others, then the problem is  even more complex. When they do not have the divine power  to  solve the power rivalry, they need to have the parliament legally.  But they do not want the people's representatives to have power over them , so they would wait  Lord Shiva to solve their problems.  In a republic, they have realized that  their power is waning, so they are suspicious of parliament too.

In the past they did so much to keep an eye upon the  parliamentarians cum CA members  and control them. So they appointed a  speaker to  protect their supposedly godly  power and aura in the parliament cum CA. When the  speaker was not able to control the members, he decided to terminating  the Parliament cum CA. That happened to be like this:

On the final day of the CA, when the representatives of the people raised their head, hands and voices in the premise of the Constituent Assembly, the Godly leaders were angry as well as fearful. They decided not to attend the  meetings of the CA and the parliament. When the leaders decided so, then the speakers  decided not to chair the meting and thus meeting did not take place.  The CA members kept  sloganeering and  shouting in the face of the cameras  but nothing  happened.

CA members, showing their faithfulness to the CA and the people, waited till the final moment to watch the most unceremonious  but most peaceful end of the CA. Some CA members performing their duty, kept sitting in the side rooms of the main meeting hall . They saw the Marshals  standing  on their legs till midnight and they were the  only government officials to witness the demise  of the CA . They looked very sad for the CA and the CA members as the common people of the country.

But before the midnight hour crossed, the spirit of Lord Shiva rose from the deep meditation from one of the corners of the huge  CA building and decided to  walk down to Pashupatinath temple via  Singh Darbar . He  saw many cars and vehicles at the  gate of the Singh Durbar. So he  guessed that his  kings are still  in  Singh Durbar doing some serious work. But then he saw lines of motors coming out of Singh Durbar and heading towards Sheetal Niwas, the President's house. He also decided to follow them in stead of going to the Pasupatinath temple. He was worried about  his new republic and its constitution. But he was shocked to discover that the leaders have not reached the President's house and sought  for his help  to  keep the CA alive for some days and finish the constitution writing . Lord Shiva had guessed  that the leaders would request the President to order the speaker to start the meeting of the CA as there was still some time left for the meeting. Afterwards, he thought , had the President advised and asked the speaker to start the meeting of the CA, the new republic would have got its new constitution. However, the leaders have reached the President's house to request him to sack the Prime minister  and his  government for declaring fresh election of CA on his own . Lord Shiva was confused for a while but then he understood the  power games behind the hustle and rustle of the leaders during the night.   

He was very sad to discover  that the same leaders who could not bring the speaker to the CA hall to chair the meeting on time  had reached the  President's house off time. He knew that the when the office of the speaker was first established in England, no one would wish  to become a speaker because of the unpleasant jobs a speaker is  expected to do following the law.  So the one  chosen to become a speaker would be forcibly carried to the chair of the speaker to conduct his duties at least on the first day. Afterwards that practice became a ritual because of the very deep meaning it has.   After the midnight crossed, the Lord did not feel like going to the Pashupatinath Temple . He was restless and  so he decided to wander in wilderness.  He came back to Singh Durbar again and found that the speaker was busy preparing some document with his officials. He guessed that may be now the speaker would do something to save the  CA. He kept wandering from here to there till morning arrived. In the morning ,  he somehow came to know  that the speaker had written  to the President that with the death of the Constituent assembly, the 11 th session of the parliament has come to a close. It was a very clever letter written by a lawyer cum speaker. Lord Shiva kept wondering that why the speaker has not written that with the death of the CA , the parliament has died too. He could not understand the difference between closure  of the session of the parliament and the death of the parliament.  He needed some more wandering and musing  to grasp the truth. He hoped against hope that some positive news would come from the office of the President .  The very other day of that day , the president released a public notice that  the parliament has met its death and so the prime minister has become a caretaker Prime minister.

 So, at last  Lord Shiva discovered the share of his godly powers in the  president  of the republic of Nepal. His anxieties now receded as the drama was complete now. But he was worried about the fate of democracy in his Republic .

He knew that  with the proclamation of the death of the parliament, democracy has died for the time in his republic and a big vacuum has been created . But then he heard that the leaders have begun to talk about consensus instead of democracy.  Lord Shiva realized that his leaders are still not ready to work through a parliament under a constitution.  He walked down to his temple musing over something. On his way back he pondered about the idea of inventing a new  system to govern his republic.  After reaching the temple, he decided to go for a long and deep sleep as he was tired now.  He knows it very well  that his  leaders   would keep chanting the divine mantra of Consensus and work in consensus to protect themselves.   And would wait  till he would open his third eye and reveal some solution.

He knows it very well that life would continue  thriving in his   land even if there is no constitution and no rule of law.He also  knows that his Janata Janardan would wait with  patient till he  would come out of his deep and slumber sleep. So Lord Shiva would not mind going for a  deep and long sleep now.