On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
Former prime minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba said that the nation is passing through a crisis and that NC’s leadership is necessary to overcome it. Deuba further said that a single party can’t bag a majority; therefore, the coalition culture should be continued.
Deuba has spoken the truth that the nation is in crisis. He was unable to say that the present political system has failed as the system doesn’t allow a majority to a particular political party. The fact is that all the political leaders are convinced about the failure of the present political system, however, they are unable to speak the truth. Moreover, the supreme leaders are performing anarchism and dictatorship inside the party. They are involved in nepotism, favouritism, sycophancy, planned corruption and power-sharing deals. Party leaders are unable to exercise freedom within the party against their supreme leader. In a democracy, there should be a rule of the majority but the supreme leaders either it is Deuba in the Nepali congress, Pushpakamal Dahal in the Maoist Center or K.P. Sharma Oli in the UML, are performing dictatorship in the party. Other leaders in the party cannot criticize their supreme leaders. The political parties, either in the government or in the opposition party, are together on the issue of sharing power and influential and important government positions based on Bhagbanda. The authorities to investigate corruption, malpractices and smuggling have become defunct. Those in the government form different commissions but the reports submitted by the commissions are never been disclosed. For example, in the case of the smuggling of 32 kgs of gold, a high-level commission was formed by the K.P. Sharma Oli-led government. The Commission also submitted the report to then prime minister Oli but he didn’t make public the report. Accordingly, Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal received the report from a high-level commission constituted to investigate the 62 kgs of gold. The Commission submitted the report, yet, Dahal has not made public the report. Talking about corruption, smuggling and malpractice, all the parties and their leaders are equally involved in such activities. Therefore, when the issues of corruption or smuggling or rape and murder surface, the government, without delay, constitutes an investigation commission, however, the ultimate plan is to dismiss the scandal. When voices were raised on the involvement of Prime Minister Dahal and his daughter in the manipulation of a huge amount of the government revenue on the Ncell share deal, PM Dahal constituted a high-level commission by including those who are working in the interests of the Ncell. We can presume, what report is the Commission going to submit to the PM!
On the one hand, since the adoption of the present political system, the country has been ruined economically as the government is unable to manage general sector expenditure from its domestic revenue, every month, the government is compelled to take debts to manage the expenditure, on the other, the political leaders in power and the opposition have become anarchist that they are involved in a daylight loot on the government coffer.
Understandably, political leaders need money to run their party and the easy way to receive money is corruption and smuggling.
The government can stop corruption and smuggling immediately but it has not been stopped for decades. The investigation ended just by arresting some low-level people and gold porters but who is the main culprit and main owner of the gold, they have never been made public. Nepal has turned into a corrupt country, as well as, a smuggling hub, it is because of the political system that we have adopted.
More dangerously, the political leaders are running behind the foreign money to run their parties. Leaders receive money from different embassies during the party elections and also the general elections. They, after becoming victorious, serve the foreigners from whom they received money. Talking about the present constitution, the leaders received a huge amount of money to declare the country a federal, secular republic against the general public’s aspiration. As long as we practice the present political system, we will experience the downfall of the nation and people.
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