Harka the Hulk

Hulk is a fictional character in Marvel comics who is known for his anger determining the conversion from normal human to superstrong superhero Hulk who can easily carry, break and throw boulders. He is angry and maybe destructive but does all that for good.

What we have in eastern Nepal of Dharan city, as the independently elected mayor Harka, also appears to be an angry man who has converted his anger into positive energy to carry stones to build waterways to provide water to the long clean water deprived public in Dharan. He has also started the campaign to plant trees in the watersheds to preserve the water sources.

Harka relatively (than Balen) is very active on his personal Facebook page and his satirical and angry postings are interesting and as he admits he does so to deliberately to anger his oppositions. Or to motivate or change them. He is the go getter type as he himself labors to carry stones to build the water source for Dharan and saplings to plant trees in the watersheds. He also does not hesitate to broom the streets of Dharan by himself after being the mayor.

It is not often that one gets to see a social or political leadership in power who practices what they preach. However, it has not been a bed of roses for Harka since he got elected independently and has started to set things right in the Dharan municipality. His first few actions on stopping the rampant quarries in Dharan was not taken so easily by the opposition political party’s representatives in his municipal council. On several occasions some of the disenchanted political parties have been making noise for his resignation. He was also tried to made politically accountable for a finance company’s scandal in Dharan. His office was vehemently attacked by a politically motivated mob under a leadership of a political party representative.

Harka invites and mobilizes everybody to voluntarily contribute to his actions to rebuild Dharan as the mayor like to carry stones for building the water pipeline and planting trees in the watersheds. And many people have responded to his call and people are not only volunteering for physical labour. But giving donations in cash also. Harka is an exemplary motivational leader. Writings on motivational leadership say, “Motivational leadership inspires their team (public) with enthusiasm and passion. They make people feel valued by investing time and learning about their priorities, strengths and needs. A motivated leader recognizes the value of hard work and encourages their followers' (people/public) potential through meaningful challenges and goals.” And that’s exactly what we are seeing in Harka phenomenon.

Nepal’s political drama and governance has been long drawn comically by supervillains like Jokers and Penguins. When there are too many supervillains, to save the world we need superheroes. That’s what we can hope for in Balen and Harka as motivational and independent leaders. For Nepal to change and progress we need more of men and women superheroes like Superman, Catwoman, Hulk and She-Hulk for real. We don’t need comical leaders but real ones who live by examples like Harka the Hulk and Balen the Batman. (01/09/2022)