On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
Nepal is in the group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Bangladesh was born in 1971 after separation of East Pakistan. She is the youngest country in the South Asian region, yet, she has reached at the lower middle-income country status in 2015. In 2018, Bangladesh fulfilled all three eligibility criteria for graduation from the UN’s LDC list and is on track for graduation in 2024.
In the past three decades, many least developed countries have been upgraded to the developing nations. Nepal also has set its goal for upgrading its current economic status, although, we cannot trust the government initiatives as we are not on the proper economic track.
Bhimarjun Acharya, a constitutional expert, states that there are 884 members of parliament in the country. Accordingly, there are the federal government, provincial governments and other organs along with the local governments. The government is spending hundreds of billion rupees just for the salary of the political employees. The nation’s entire domestic revenue is spent over the salary of those political employees, therefore, we totally rely on foreign grants and loans for infrastructural investment. Obviously, there are many terms and conditions while accepting foreign grants and loans. Around 60 to 80 per cent project amount of such grant and loan projects will be returned to the donor country itself. Without the investment of the domestic resources in infrastructural projects, we may not achieve the goals of prosperity as we have assumed. The reality is that we are solely depended upon foreign investment on infrastructural development projects as we are unable to manage the domestic fund for such projects because we are spending all our domestic revenue on the salary of the government employees.
Politics has become very expensive. Thus, a political leader needs to earn money to keep alive his politics by encouraging corruption. When the political leadership is corrupt the bureaucracy becomes corrupt. Not an odd, since the introduction of the multiparty democracy in 1989, Nepal has been transformed into a nation practising rampant corruption. The authorities to investigate corruption too are corrupt and highly politicized. It seems they have been constituted to preserve and protect corrupt politicians and high ranking bureaucrats. There is a strong alliance between the ruling and main opposition parties for the corruption deal.
Former minister and MP of the ruling Nepal Communist Party, Gokul Banskota has remarked that the nation had not needed federalism. It has been introduced in the country just to satisfy some political dissidents and bring them into mainstream politics. Understandably, just to satisfy Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda, Baburam Bhattarai, Upendra Yadav like leaders federalism was introduced. More specifically, to fulfil the vested interests of the foreign powers, federalism was introduced. In fact, Nepal has been declared federal, secular republic solely in the interests of the foreign powers and those actors dancing to the tune of foreigners have been advocating for the cause.
Above 90 per cent commoners are against federalism, republicanism and secularism except a few political leaders serving foreign interests. Prachanda, Yadav and Bhattarai are still dissatisfied from the present federal structure. They are advocating for inclining the number of provinces up to 14 based on ethnic identity. It is clear to understand their opinion which is intended to totally destroy our economy and collapse Nepal’s identity from the globe. Let’s imagine, when our economy is unable to bear the cost of the seven provinces, how could we operate 14 provinces!
Frankly speaking, to save Nepal and to transform the country into a prosperous and vibrant nation, we must scrap the present political modality by restoring the 1990 constitution and by introducing a strong mechanism curbing corruption. As it has already been late to launch a revolution to return the 1990 constitution, let all the Nepalis be united, let us heat the streets once again for a noble cause for the nation.
Let us be united to revolt against those outdated political leaders who are always fighting for their own share in the lucrative government positions, encouraging favouritism, sycophancy, nepotism, and corruption. Let us search for visionary leaders to lead the nation and bring economic prosperity!
Otherwise, cunning political leaders are getting reacher and we the honest voters are getting poorer.
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