By P. Kharel
Politics of profits
Industrial districts were one of the key features of the bad old partyless panchayat decades. The concept behind them seems to have been retained by successive regimes during the “democratic” period and now the “loktantrik” years, even as the rulers relentlessly make a mess of things much to the disenchantment of the people in general.
The latest on this front is an inexplicable delay in the push for establishing an industrial expanse in Jhapa. Not that the idea is considered unsuitable. The project venue in Jhapa has stirred the “sensitivity” of a perennially “friendly” neighbour India. To some quarters, the hitch emanates from the source of the proposal: China. As a consequence, the northern neighbour’s offer has remained gathering dust in the cluttered cloisters of Singh Durbar, apparently because of pressure from the southern neighbour.
New Delhi views Jhapa district, so close to the border, as Beijing’s jab at its exclusive claim for the lion’s share of influence on Nepal, especially on matters pertaining to its economic and other “strategic interests”. Hence the inordinate delay.
Jhapa, it need not be over-emphasised, is Prime Minister KP Oli’s home constituency. Many Nepal Communist Party (NCP) members, particularly those in the UML faction of the technicaly unified organisation, are hopeful that the idea will take off. With an eye on the pie promising rich profits, the supposedly pro-poor party members, with an admixture of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist philosophies, are learnt to have begun purchasing land close to the prospective site for industrial estate which is estimated to sprawl over an area of some 1,800 bighas. Those who have already done the deed are eagerly waiting for the time the project takes off. Among them are Oli’s lieutenants who claim to have the prime minster’s ears. They press for the project to go ahead at full speed for obvious reasons.
Even as these speculators and profteers might be licking their lips for the profits to materialise, indications are that 100,000 jobs will be generated if and when the undertaking is actually given the required enthusiasm in real earnestness. But Beijing’s competitors fear that such large project with the potential for offering six-digit jobs would boost the world’s powerful communist neighbour and inevitably lead to comparisons being made with the assistance that others claim having made to Nepal over several decades.
Wrongs weigh down
The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders have begun to show how weighed down they are because of people beginning to voice concern in strident notes that the party’s tall promises, made to the skies during their election campaign, show no convincing signs of being fulfilled. People feel waylaid. Faction-ridden as the “unified” party is, thanks to independent functioning of Prime Minister Oli’s CPN (UML) and Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s Maoists, its rank and file in general cannot match discussions at tea stalls in both rural and urban areas as to why the government with two-thirds majority hobbles around as if it did not have any vision, willpower and energy to achieve what the bad old “democratic days” under the 1990 Constitution, let alone the partyless Panchayat decades, had delivered.
Six communist leaders (Man Mohan Adhikary, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, Baburam Bhattarai and KP Oli) have led eight governments in Nepal since 1994, which is a record for communists anywhere in the world where multiparty system is in operation. In fact, seven of these governments were formed in the last one decade.
Dahal last fortnight told a public function that the government would fulfil all its pledges within five years. The remaining term of the present House is only four years four months, which means either the NCP, if it survives the existing arrangement within the organisation, would have to either return to power or the task will be baton-passed to the next government while the communists sit on the opposition benches.
Name game
In a reckless bid to snatch away the name originally held by another party, Nepal Communist Party (NCP)’s blatantly dubious has so far prevailed after the Election Commission declared that the Oli-Dahal chaired organisation’s lame argument that the “Nepal Communist Party (NCP)” carried the bracketed suffix in intials and hence a different name when compared with another party’s “Nepal Communist Party” tag.
If that were to be taken as an accepted precedent, established brand names of various national and international goods, services and institutions risk being encorached upon the coming days. Brand name poachers could simply underline famous brand names or repeat the names within brackets in small type fonts. The poachers would have a whale of a time in using the lifted brand names withjout hindrance when employing radio and television which would not have to pronounce “brackets”, “underlines” or “initials” of the alphabets.
Shakespeare might have exclaimed more than five hundred years ago: “What’s in a name! Well, in the 21st century Nepal, it means a lot, especially to communists and others.
It may be recalled that Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav, who is aiming at another political appointment after his tenure as the chief election commissioner expires next year, landed in the post on Maoist’s quota.
Without comment
Anar Singh Karki, jailed for 12 years when he was Nepali Congress member during the partyless years, in Nawa Chetana.com: If monarchy is essential for saving the country, we should accept it.”
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