On/Off the Record
Balen Shah, a structural engineer by profession and a rap singer has almost ensured his victory for the mayor’s post in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. Shah has challenged heavy-weight candidates from the Nepali Congress and UML. Those party candidates were contesting elections based on the communal Newar votes ensuring their victory. Instead, Shah, a youth from the Tarai community, has secured his victory in the constituency dominated by the core Newar community. The Kathmandu population has given the strong message that they are not communal but liberal as they can accept a candidate from the Tarai community as well. A section of political leaders representing the Tarai parties was always blaming the hill people and doing communal politics that the entire Tarai community is being discriminated against by the Pahadi community and the people from the Tarai community were being treated as second class citizens, which has been proven wrong.
Shah, a youth with vision, is becoming the mayor of the capital city of Nepal. Going through his interviews and opinions, this scribe has been convinced that he has enough study about the heritage of Kathmandu city and the problems faced by the Kathmandu people. It seems he has done enough homework for the future of Kathmandu. He has not distributed any false and ambitious dreams of immediately operating the metro or monorails in Kathmandu. He seems pragmatic and he is confident that the problems of the capital city can be managed successfully.
There is a fear among the voters that whether Balen Shah alone can exist in such a dirty place heavily dominated by corrupt people!
Individuals representing partisan and communal politics have already started denouncing Shah even using very dirty words such as “a thug from Tarai”. The main challenge Shah has to prove is that he is not a thug and that the people from Tarai are not dishonest.
Rampant corruption is the main problem in the country. How will Shah introduce good governance curbing corruption in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, is a burning question. If corruption is controlled, it will be a big achievement for Nepal. Shah believes that the local bodies are not the place to do politics, rather, they are directly associated with the local residents and a good manager is needed to address local issues. This is pragmatic but in Nepal, everywhere, there is dirty politics. From the next day of assuming office, Shah may face the problem of strikes by the sweepers or garbage carrying vehicles or so on. How has he planned to manage such dirty politics, we don’t know.
We believe Shah although an independent candidate has a strong team of youths having a vision. We believe hundreds of thousands of youths are behind Shah and he can mobilize this force against any dirty political act of different political parties.
Until now, we can assume that Shah is determined to serve the people in the capital city, Kathmandu, but we don’t know how honestly he will be able to demonstrate his capability. Sure, this is an opportunity for him to end political anomalies and establish himself as a statesman. He has no chance to get any excuse except from proving himself a good manager, planner, and hope for all the frustrated people suffering from bad political guys.
Shah’s candidature is considered against all kinds of anomalies in the society including rampant corruption, bad governance, daylight loot on the government treasury and many other problems faced by the Kathmanduites including garbage, drinking water, and unemployment, among others. There is a high expectation from youths on Balen. Whether he will be able to work as a successful mayor or not, this is a testing time for him as he is the sole person in the gang of corrupt people in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, political parties and the government.
Shah is the hope for millions of Nepalis across the nation and abroad. It depends on whether he wants to be proved as a thug or a leader who can transform society! Let’s see in the days to come!
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