A library equipped with ICT facilities. A yoga center. A rainwater harvesting system equipped with a large storage facility. Wider roads, bigger boulevards, a well-functioning mass transit system that serves this end of the valley. A relatively fail-proof local street lighting system. A CCTV-based community safety and security system. These and many other problems surfaced, once again, at a town-hall meeting one recent Saturday morning. The meeting of minds, lack-of-minds, halfwits and many others on the margins of these broad categories was quite intense and interesting, pointing at a vibrant democracy that we have at the grassroots around here.

For one thing, the meeting again showed how vibrant and diverse our small community is. It revealed that it is full of experts of different kinds, giving individual and collective confidence a big boost.

For those outsiders looking for news in every event, a major news was this: Our own mini-polis abutting the hip and happening metropolis of Kathmandu did not have a town hall of her own! This lack of infrastructure was a real smack in the face of the old guard that had gotten the popular mandate to run the municipality once again. But then such things happen in our polity every now and then, making our governance system a unique one and giving our state a unique identity. All those seeking a bright future in this country must get used to this, for the sake of their mental, physical and spiritual health. The absence of a town hall and the unavailability of other appropriate venues meant the organizers had to make adjustments, which they did. They held the meeting at a private house. The tea served at the meet tasted great and so did the cookies. The venue was spacious enough for about 100 people. For 50-odd, it provided quite a lot of breathing space. The owner of the property moderated the session all too well. Between the cup and the lips, another news came to the fore. A meeting of the coterie that mattered revealed that an inter-ward coordination committee meant to act as a bridge between local communities and the municipal office had already taken shape the other day. Who all were in this committee? The moderator cum house-owner, of course. His neighbors. And his neighbors’ neighbors. And what was this committee meant to do? A kind of policy adviser, it was to report problems facing the communities to respective ward offices and work out solutions. That day’s meeting in which yours truly was taking part was meant to inform the communities that one such committee consisting of birds of a feather had just come into existence. Well and good. After all, that’s how ‘democracy’ has been working in this part of the world for decades, despite waves of political change. Let’s shed a bit more light on this. After the ‘political transformations’ of the 1990s and the mid-2000s, an informal system has been ruling this country, dashing popular aspirations for peace, progress and prosperity. In common parlance, it is called ‘setting’. What is it? It’s all about filling the organs of the state with people that are loyal to the rulers. They don’t need to be exceptionally bright or qualified. Not possible? Then how about putting the right people in the right place, albeit differently? How about putting people, whose morals are questionable and loyalties up for sale, in positions of power? Still not possible? Then smash the organs that do not do your bidding, for even without these organs, a state can run as per the whims and fancies of despots donning the garbs of democrats. In recent days, the judiciary has come under repeated attacks from the all-powerful executive, much to the former’s detriment. The legislature has become a tool that does the bidding of the executive. Crack a whip and all the lawmakers fall in line to do their masters’ bidding. The country is in crisis, but these people have been partying. That’s why it’s hard to find lawmakers even during discussions on issues of utmost importance like citizenship laws. That’s why the government does not land in soup even after a massive scandal involving preparation of fiscal budget. The years after the political change of the mid-2000s have seen this system of settings ruin the country further and further. Like the fish, our political system has been rotting from the head and the stink is getting unbearable. Was the town-hall meeting yet another indication of a polity stewing in its own juice? Was it a serious indication of polity metastasis spreading? Most probably. I would be all too happy if this analysis of the town-hall and other goings-on in this country proved far-fetched. But I doubt it.