By DM Thapa
The act was a stunning one and the nation reverberated with it. While the decibel may not have been so high that the whole nation could hear it, the person who received a stinging slap on his face right in front of his supporters and bodyguards must have rang in his ears for a long, long time.
This happened a long time ago, but yes, we are talking of the same incident when a former Maoist hit his own party’s commander and shocked the nation. Maoist commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal was a powerful person at that time and many people feared just hearing his party’s name ‘Prachanda’. That he was at the receiving end of a sharp slap made big news and the people were astounded. That the perpetrator was also soundly beaten by Prachanda’s personal guards is another story.
But let us go on to what happened then to the nation, but this is a sad story going on till now when Prachanda has become prime minister for the third time. Despite the nation seeing peace compared to the times when the Maoist civil war was going on, no real development works have taken place. Yes, some people have returned to their villages, but only those who cannot afford to live in the cities. Thousands of people have sought shelter in the urban areas and more tragically many others have been maimed or wounded and thus living a miserable life.
Add to this the fleeing of the youths from villages and the exodus of people from the cities who seek a better life and better income abroad and we realize how the situation is.
The first problem is that the villages are virtually empty and no working hands are there to till the fallow lands. Till some decades back, the food may have been frugal to eat, but the ordinary people with even small holdings had enough to grow, rice, potatoes and vegetables among others, to feed them throughout the year and not keep them absolutely hungry. The situation is not the same now, the villages are empty and to call a spade, the political parties or even the rebels may not find enough to carry out their protests and wars. When there were reports that there was a considerable decline in the number of voters in the recently held student union elections it also indicated that the number of Nepalese wanting to study and work within the country was decreasing.
One young school student was also saying that she did not want to stay in this country and such a statement from a student in a motivational advertisement of UNICEF, which was broadcast on TV channels. Look at the way our youth are thinking and it will depress anyone. At a time when we need youths to build the country, many are choosing to go abroad.
Forget the youths, even skilled manpower from different sectors, many of who have finer jobs than most of their fellow citizens do not want to stay here. This is causing the country a lot. First, youngster wants to study abroad and according to reports, huge amounts of foreign currency is being spent by such students. On the other hand, these same people don’t want to come back and do something for their country because of the poor performance of the government, complicated rules of the bureaucracy and other hassles from which they feel are free in other more developed nations.
The biggest worry of most citizens is the worsening economic situation and the difficulty for more people to make two ends meet day by day.
No, we come back to where we started, three youths shouted slogans against prime minister Prachanda once more and the security personnel had to resort to rough tactics to subdue the protestors. This brought a lot of negative comments from the common people who saw authorities acting in such a brutal manner against the common people. When people are showing frustration at how top-level officials travel by hampering the movement of ordinary folks, imagine the level of anger when public videos are shown of police gagging and beating not even half a dozen protestors. This is a warning to the top officials, political leaders, snooty bureaucrats and other such people that the people are slowly seething with anger at their behavior, This could be the starting of the violent point which has gathered momentum and taken the form of huge protests. Since 1990, we have seen a lot of revolutions, street protests, skirmishes and even a 10-year-old civil war when thousands of people lost their lives, thousands were displaced, and thousands were wounded and maimed most sadly, the people started losing trust in one another and also lost faith in the governments we have seen since then.
Now is also a chaotic time with leaders making tall promises but not having time to look after even minor business. Many months have passed since the last general election has been held, but not one work has been done for the welfare of the nation and the people. In fact, the economy is going down so fast, many experts are comparing Nepal to some of the worst nations that are facing economic problems, On top of that the Ukraine war which has harmed the world economy, is hitting hard the third world nations and others which are being badly run by crooked political leaders and greedy public servants. Nepal is one such country, which is running downhill fast as the rulers have no vision, the bureaucrats are greedy and the whole system is not suitable for this tiny country with difficult terrain and little source of income which can finance a huger than needed political system.
The surprising this is the very developed countries who want to see progress and development in Nepal as pushing it to an uncomfortable economic corner where it wants to see this country out with open palms shamelessly seeking foreign aid grants and loans. Both a chaotic political scenario, a difficult economic situation and an exodus of skilled and unskilled manpower are indicators which do not point towards a developed Nepal. Instead, if a seething fire of public ire will be fanned further, we may see another huge revolution and slaps not one face, but many faces will resound the nation.
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