Suresh Raj Sharma and Mandale Vice-Chancellorism

There seems to be some confusion amongst our freinds on Mr. Suresh Raj Sharma. They have even claimed that they need 100s of people like Suresh Raj Sharma. Whatever may be the case, the fact of the matter is that Suresh Raj Sharma is a mandale in the garb of academician. His round kick on the stomachs of the facutly members of KU and their families by sacking those faculty members make him a legitimate mandale even after the dawn of Lokatantra in Nepal.

Backstabbing a diligent worker of 9 years shows his ruthlessness which is akin to that of Kamal Thapa who managed to spray bullets on innocent protestors via ruthlesssness of Durja Kumar Rai and Madhav Thapa. And there are some subtle differences. Firstly, Kamal Thapa wants to perpetuate servitude of the King Gyanendra, but Suresh Raj Sharma wants to perpetuate his own servitude in Kathamndu University. Secondly, Kamal Thapa employs law and order and Maoist infiltration as excuses, and Suresh Raj Sharma employs so called visionary leadership as an excuse to attack diligent professors.

Friends may claim that these are exceptions, and these alone would not be sufficient. Then, friends must know that the Suresh Raj Sharma of Budhanilkanta High School was no different than Suresh Raj Sharma of Kathmandu University. Way back in 1980s, teachers of Budhanil Kantha Highschool were rendered jobless by Suresh Raj Sharma by labelling them as anti-national, and anti-monarch. Obviously, he was somewhat brazen as that time. And this could be influence of time. Because at that time Kamal Thapa too used to wield Khukuris to intimidate innocent students of TC brazenly. And, in 2063 both Kamal Thapa and Suresh Raj Sharma are so smooth that people generally get carried away by their glib talks.

We may say that these could also be fabricated story. Then, we need to look at how this man called Suresh Raj Sharma is operating. His modus operanding is no different from those of Kamal Thapa, Ramesh Nath Pandey and all other mandales. All these Mandales appreciates king Gyanendra because King Gyanendra provided them with bread and butter and made them powerful. Probity, equity, honesty and civil rights were never taken care of during their reigns because it was also not necessary. What was the most indispensible task in their reign was the perpetuation of King’s regime at the cost of the national harmony, prosperty, peace and democracy.

On the other hand, in Kathmandu University, Suresh Raj Sharma openly demands that all the teachers and other employees must praise him because everybody owes his/her salts’ worth to him. While saying so he has grossly undermined employees’ work for which they are paid and ability of these employees to find job somewhere else. He assumed that people are in KU because of him not because of their ability. How similar mandale mindset works, just compare.

Similarly, his sole purpose in his life is to nurture and continue his obsession with the post of vice chancellor. Therefore, he is ready to perpetuate his own servitude at the cost of academic harmony, prosperity, eqaulity and academic freedom in KU. Like those mandales who distributed money to the journalist to tilt the media in favour of the despotic royal regime, he is hiring all these incompetent relative so that they would always remain in favour of his vice chancellorship.

Apart from this, another mandale trait is also there. And this trait can be understood, if we try to understand what is “Mandale Nationalism.” No need to say, the mandale nationalism conceptualized by king Mahendra was full of contradictions. While raising nationalistic bogey in Nepal, he did not waste his time to sign the treaty of 1965 which compromised national integrity at the Indian hand. His propaganda machinery at that time labelled every democratic leader from B.P. Koirala to Pushpa Lal as anti-national and he tried to fool entire spectrum of Nepalese by presenting himself as the sole saviour of the nation. The saviour, who does not hesitate to kneel down before the big brother, while accusing all the opponents of the surrendering to India. This singular action of King Mahendra gave birth to Mandale nationalism and the sole purpose of this nationalism is definitely to perpetuate his reign in Nepal at any cost.

No body has understood it better than Suresh Raj Sharma because he emulated King Mahendra and perfected the art of mandale nationalism by giving birth to “Mandale Vice-Chancellorism” in Kathmandu University. Like King Mahendra’s mandale nationalism, his Mandale Vice-Chancellorism accuses every other professor of lacking in academic spirit while he himself is busy destroying the academic spirit of Kathmandu University by imposing rampant, widespread, top-down nepotism in KU.

He claims that all other professors are incompetent to be vice-chancellor of KU, while he employs only his incompetent relatives in KU so that his competency would never be challenged. He talks and brags about academic freedom and autnomy and he writes a lengthy article in newspapers advocating academic autonomy while he continues to intimidate, threaten and terminate every righteous voice in Kathmandu University who tries to practice the academic freedom and autonomy by forming their own professional association.

Ultimately, he claims that he is the saviour of academic excellence while he imposes his and, of course, Sitaram’s, incompetent daughters, nephews and sons, on self-financing students of KU. Like “Mandale nationalism,” the sole purpose of “Mandale Vice-Chancellorism” is to perpetuate his own reign while paying lip service only to all these stuffs like excellence, professionalism, academic spirit, academic freedom and autonomy. Every mandale saw boundless democracy in King Gyanendra’s rule and they questioned every saner voice who were fed up with the king’s rule and wanted it to go. “History repeats itself” people claim quite frequenly, but the time has come to see whether the fate of such Mandale history would be repeated in KU or not.