By P. Kharel
Civil Code chaos
Press and privacy tug-of-war is on, raging like prairie fire. Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders attribute it to the little time allocated for wide scale public discussion, though drafting the document is said to have cost Rs 120 million. Persistent complaint is that the document was available for the public to go through for a year.
While elaborating on how the government gave ample time for public discussion, the KP Oli team shies away from the dubious decision the Sushil Koirala-led coalition made when the 2016 Constitution with drastic changes: People were given not even three days to debate on the pros and cons of the fundamental law of the land.
If the public right to discuss the Constitution draft at length was cast off so casually and cruelly, little wonder that the government lay quiet without engaging the public in nationwide discussion on the Civil Code and Criminal Codes. The aspects of public interests and probe the political class of the powerful type are so scared of can be gauged from the manner in which they want legal protection for something that does not tally with the norms prevailing in democracies they love to quote whenever it suits them fine.
They envisage wide restrictions on the press in the name of privacy. It shows how vulnerable they feel when questions are brought about regarding property details, educational qualifications, date of birth and what not. These are times when law takes you right up to the bedroom at your most vulnerable self. Yet lawmakers seem jittery when legal provisions are implicitly focused on them, which can be clearly seen in the restrictions placed on the right to information and dissemination the loktanrtik Constitution provides for so explicitly when compared with the constitutions of some of the most successful democracies, including the United States, not to speak of the world’s “largest” democracy, India.
Shamelessly ‘responsible’
For the umpteenth time in as many years, Tribhuvan University exams question papers leaked and wreaked havoc on the Education stream’s students’ schedule last fortnight. The individual concerned came to his own defence, “I accept the responsibility for the leak.”
A few days earlier, National Sports Council Member Secretary and Nepal Communist Party (NCP)’s UML faction activist Keshav Bista, too, owned up “responsibility” for the disaster at the Jakarta Asiad, in which Nepal collected but lone silver after fielding record-large contingent that participated in record 29 of the 40 disciplines at stake.
The irony is that the late Sharad Chandra Shaha might be having his last laugh from his heavenly abode to note that the eight bronze medals collected in the 1986 Asian Games is this country’s best ever performance in any major international competition. With less budget and much politics caused partly by his own flaunting of power but largely because of the political hostility against the establishment by the future power-brokers in the Nepali Congress and communist parties . In the last 29 years, UML and NC appointees bled the sporting bodies white without any vision or reason, save their personal interests.
In 2022, when the time comes for the next general elections, i.e., if the ruling party does not split in between, Oli or his immediate successor can claim “responsibility” for the failure to deliver the promised performance. Misgovernance and irresponsible dismissing their “responsibility” in mere words make those in power so shallow and hollow to the core in script that bores one and all.
TU mess
How the once reputed Tribhuvan University has found its image so steeply declining is a sad story seen and told again and again today! The academic institution was embroiled in outright politics since the 1990s. Free academic discussions are a norm. At least that is the principle everywhere. Incompetent officials at the top, one after another, have led to the university’s present status. Those close to political parties wangled the posts and got involved in giving affiliations to new campuses amid charges of money having changed hands under the table. No one bothered to investigate.
Even in the recruitment process, individuals were hired generally not on the basis of qualifications but on the basis of party loyalty. Earlier, faculty toppers used to get teaching placement in an almost automatic fashion. That has stopped long ago. Getting to the top through political proximity and misusing the positions thus acquired are the chief causes of the mess that the country’s first university is in.
Rahul on pilgrimage
Projected by the main opposition party Indian National Congress’ prime ministerial candidate in next spring’s general elections, Rahul Gandhi landed in the Nepalese capital on August 31, when Modi was still in Kathmandu. Rahul was on his way to Mansarobar, an abode of Lord Shiva. He did not, or could, not visit Pashupatinath. Thirty years ago, his father Rajiv Gandhi and mother Sonia took umbrage at the visiting premier’s Italian-born Catholic spouse not being allowed entry into Pashupatinath Temple premises.
According to reports, the Indian Embassy did not give much deference to Rahul. After all, BJP is in power and embassy staff would not dare go out of the way, except for the bare minimum. A career diplomat, Ambassador Manjeev Singh knows which way the wind blows, or, shall one say, which side of the bread is buttered.
Without comment
Nepali Congress General Secretary Sashank Koirala, on what he learnt from his father Bisheshwor Prasad Koirala, as quoted in the Furshad section of Annapurna Post: “Try to be good, not big.”
Login to add a comment