On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
In general, politics should be aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty, independence, maintaining law and order and good governance. Besides, politics should be for the economic prosperity of the nation and the people. In principle, all the political parties have mentioned these words in their party statute with special emphasis, however, different political parties choose different paths to achieve these goals.
When we talk about the present democracy, coined as “loktantra”, we find many oddities. In 2006, Nepal adopted the present “loktantra” following the 12-point agreement drafted by the Indo-West block in Delhi and signed by the seven parliamentarian parties and the then Maoists in a ten-year-long bloody insurgency in Nepal.
The first constituent assembly ended its tenure without writing a constitution. The second constituent assembly drafted perhaps the largest constitution in the globe dividing Nepal into seven provinces and 753 local bodies. During that time, we had compared the new constitution with a camel. Indeed, we were correct as, during the seven years of its promulgation, it has been proved that the constitution is non-functional and it is against the country, the citizens and our ancient civilization. As long as we wish to continue the present constitution, surely, we are going to declare the nation as a failed state.
The leaders of the major political parties have been saying that under the present constitution, to bag a majority by a single party is impossible. Therefore, they are advocating for an electoral alliance between different political parties, which is against the norms of the multiparty system.
Look at the global and regional scenarios! Due to the Covid 19 outbreak and later the Russia-Ukraine war, the inflation rate has been skyrocketed. The global dependency on petroleum products and the Western restriction on the use of petroleum products from Russia has adversely affected the global market. The USA and some European countries are continuing to import the Russian petro-products, in the meantime, the USA and the UK are putting pressure on other countries for ending trade with Russia. This is a double standard performed by the supper power nation and its allies.
The present war between Russia and Ukraine could be ended immediately but the Americans and some European countries, for their pity interests, are trying to prolong the war, which may escalate further paving the way for the third world war. We can only hope for the end of the war earliest as possible for the betterment of the entire human beings!
The ongoing war has already hit the Nepali economy, which is already ruined to a great extent.
As we have adopted the expensive political system, our economy is unable to feed such a ‘white elephant’. Everybody, economic experts and the political leaders know this fact but with the fear of becoming the status quoits or the regressive element, they don’t speak.
Every year, the foreign debt burden is increasing at an alarming level; the country’s foreign currency reserve has declined massively; the gap of trade deficit is widening further; in the meantime, we have been hit by global market inflation.
None of the political parties has taken the issue seriously. It seems, the ruling five parties are seriously worried about the UML and they are repeating the word “electoral alliance” from morning to evening as their political demise is sure if UML will sweep the upcoming elections. It seems the upcoming local election is an experiment of the “electoral alliance” among the five parties in the government. They have forgotten the fundamental principle of the respective political parties they represent and the communists have become ready to develop an alliance with the enemy forces.
The reality is that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is worried about the political future of his wife Arju Rana Deuba and Maoist Center chairman Pushpakamal Dahal is worried about the political future of his daughter Renu Dahal. This is the main reason behind cementing the electoral alliance between the democratic forces and the radical communist forces.
Sri Lanka is facing a serious economic crisis. India is also facing the decline of the foreign currency reserve, which means, the Indian economy is not in a good shape. The Nepali economy has been seriously hit by the petroleum price hike.
Economic observers have already suggested introducing measures to control the global economic setbacks. The Nepal Oil Corporation and economic observers have advised the government to scrap some taxation on imports of petroleum products to control the inflation rate. Against such suggestions, the government, which is preparing the budget for the new fiscal year, is aimed at widening the tax net and inclining indirect tax squeezing further the consumers. Neither the government is able to reduce imports of luxury goods nor it is capable to narrow the trade deficit gap. The major source of revenue earning for the government is taxation on the country’s imports. If the customs revenue is declined, the government will face a shortage of funds to meet the general expenditures of the budget. The fact is that, under the present system, we spend all the domestic revenue to operate the system and there will remain no fund for development expenditure. Ultimately, the situation is that the economy is continuously weakening while operating the political system, which is a white elephant. If the present trend will continue further, surely, the economy may collapse.
Login to add a comment