On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
UML held its 10th national convention in Chitwan by exhibiting a human sea in support of the party. The sole goal of the national convention was to reelect K.P. Sharma Oli as the chairman. All the national convention participants had projected Oli as God! Similarly, the Maoist Center is scheduled to hold its national conclave. The Maoists believe Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda as God, therefore, they are unable to challenge him. Prachanda is leading the party for over three decades.
The Nepali Congress is also preparing to hold its 14th national convention. There is a strong fight between the Sher Bahadur Deuba camp and the Ramchandra Poudel camp. We have seen different sub-camps in the oldest democratic party. All the camps have been established to capture power.
The supreme leaders are performing different strategies to capture the power and to join the government turn by turn. There is a syndicate of the supreme leaders who are running the government turn by turn. The national convention of a political party should be abided by the principles, ideology and agendas. We didn’t see such agendas except spending money for demonstrating the crowd on behalf of the party.
At least the Rastriya Prajatantra Party is holding its unity national convention with the agenda of restoration of the Hindu Kingdom. What are the agendas of UML, Maoist Center and NC, we are not aware! They may say that they have the agendas of federalism, secularism and republicanism, unfortunately, they are not functioning and the leaders have no new prescription to function the system they have adopted.
During the elections, we saw different political parties’ manifestos with big claims for making the nation and the people prosperous. Oli is always lauding the slogan, “Prosperous Nepa and Happy Nepalis!” However, he did nothing for transforming the slogan into reality. The elected local bodies are completing five years by mid-2022 and the provincial council and federal parliament are completing five years by end of the year 2022. The political leaders, after joining the government, totally forgot the commitments made during the elections. They focused on daylight loot on the government coffer.
The Commission for Investigation on Abuse of Authority or the Commission for Money Laundering and other constitutional organs have become totally defunct. The independent body Supreme Court is engaged in controversy. The fact is that the political leaders in the government tried to recruit their men in all the sectors. As result, the court has become controversial, the foreign ministry is confused about its foreign policy and the defence ministry is confused about its national security. The concept of separation of power has already been ended. On the other hand, political leaders are running behind influential Indian leaders and gurus. Just recently, we were ashamed to see the sitting prime minister and two former prime ministers at the inauguration ceremony of an Indian controversial Yoga guru Ramdev’s two television channels which were established by violating Nepal’s laws. In Nepal, foreign investment in media is prohibited. What can the nation expect from such leaders, who are running behind the Indian guru who is doing illegal business!
The country’s economic indicators are negative. The general public is suffering from poverty as the market price of daily consumable goods has been skyrocketed. One patient committed suicide after he failed to clear just 21 thousand rupees worth of medical bills of a hospital. In the meantime, political leaders are visiting foreign countries for their treatment. Presently, the political parties are holding their national convention by transporting people paying money from different districts. It is said that each participant present at the inauguration ceremony get two thousand rupees along with lodging, two-time meals and transportation facilities. If the political parties had used the fund in the productive sector, they could have contributed to the nation for its prosperity. Similarly, if the political leaders had undergone treatment in local hospitals, they could boost the morale of the medical doctors and the hospitals could add more sophisticated equipment from the medical expenditure made by the political leaders abroad.
It is shameful to state that the government doesn’t have the original document of the Sugauli Treaty and also the 1950 treaty. When the sitting foreign minister discloses such fact, we can assume the sorry state of the nation. The government has the resources and it can easily investigate or search the original documents of such important treaties. Instead of doing so, the foreign minister has disclosed the confidential matter of the government. It is shameful that the government even cannot save important documents.
Those leaders are found claiming for making the party as No 1 from the upcoming elections. Oli has proclaimed to form the UML government after the elections. Prachanda has claimed that he is going to make his party the No 1. It seems they are shopkeepers of Barmjhiya in the Saptari district along the Mahendra East-West Highway who all are claiming that the Penda (sweet) from their shop is genuine. We don’t know, which is genuine!
To conclude, repetition of the same face from the national convention is not a positive sign for the nation. Moreover, we cannot expect good leadership from the present political system which has made the election procedure very expensive from where those fraud people only can get elected. For the betterment of the nation and the people, we need to abandon the present system imposed by foreigners on their interests!
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