By L.D. Pulami
It has really become a huge burden for the nation to keep on believing the many lies spouted by political leaders in the parliament and also in different functions which they choose to go to. They keep on repeating what they want to do for the nation and the people. They also take such opportune occasions to protect their own parties or leaders by telling more lies fabricated by them.
They always say that ‘loktantra’, the republican system and the nation’s democratic structure of governance, are being attacked by regressive forces and how they are working to save the present system which they introduced with their blood and tears. These leaders always never forget to remind everyone that they are doing all this for the sake of the ‘people’ and the nation. As mentioned earlier, one thing the political leaders never forget to do is mention the name of the ‘janata’ or people and spout slogans in their defense and hide whatever wrongs they have been brewing against the interest of the nation. Saying they are speaking on behalf of the people, who they constantly repeat, are now very aware of their duties towards the present political system, has become a favourite ‘line’ of almost all the political leaders.
But ‘No’, the people are still naïve and they fall for everything the shameless leaders say and so they willingly cast their votes for these crooked leaders time and again, no matter how many times, such leaders have broken the promises which they made during election times and thus betrayed the voters. It is not for nothing that the ‘commander’ of the political uprising in 1990, the late Ganesh Man Singh, had said that the voters were like ‘veda’ or sheep, and they always voted for the wrong leaders. Perhaps that is why the politicians think that whatever wrongdoings they are involved in, should be taken for granted and things will go on as usual and everything will move ahead smoothly. Things will ‘be as usual’ means the parties and political leaders will go on exploiting the nation, be involved in corruption, shamelessly promote nepotism, weaken the country’s economy and misuse their power and connections at every opportune moment through which they can make money.
Now, almost all the leaders in parliament are being unmasked for their involvement in corruption and other activities which are detrimental to the nation and the people. The common public is on tenterhooks, wondering what will happen in this fragile period when the national politics is very unstable, the economy is dwindling alarmingly, there is inflation and also recession in the market and there is an environment of fear in the society as a whole.
One must not fail to recollect that the present prime minister who was the ‘commander’ of the bloody war which was started in the name of being a ‘people’s war’ was a feared figure and a mysterious person whom the security forces and their intelligence wings had failed to recognize and corner him. It is another story that this man along with his comrade in arms were all being given ‘shelter’ by India, which cunningly was the first to mention the Maoists as a terrorist group. Now, most of his family members have been identified and they are also holding some important posts the people are correctly questioning why our intelligence agencies were not able to identify them and trace Dahal during that turmoil-ridden period when more than seventeen thousand innocent Nepalis lost their lives and many were maimed and injured. But of Dahal’s incompetence as prime minister, he is not held in awe anymore, in fact, most people despise him.
Except for his steadily dwindling supporters, many people detest Dahal, who is being accused of being involved in massive corruption cases, though declaring his property, he showed only a minimum amount of wealth in his name.
Many leaders of the two biggest parties in the parliament are even now being accused of being involved in devastating cases of corruption and some leaders of the smaller parties are also being exposed by one another of being involved in corruption, fraudulent activities and political wrongdoings.
But it is not only the politicians who have lost the faith of the common people, be they civil servants, business people, security personnel or big officials in different governmental institutions who are engaged in looting the hard-earned money collected as tax from the helpless people.
Meanwhile, the leader of Rastriya Swatantra Party, the fourth largest party, Ravi Lamichhane, who is currently a deputy prime minister and also looking after the powerful home ministry, has been accused of being involved in misusing billions of rupees deposited by innocent people in different cooperatives. Such savings of the people were invested in a media house, which is also facing much criticism from the largest party in the parliament, the Nepali Congress and also from the people on the streets. The DPM has been described as an ‘immature politician’ by more seasoned political leaders and thus he has lost the faith of the voters in a big way, but he is still resorting to gimmicks and not doing anything he had promised to the voters who had taken him as an enthusiastic alternative to the inept politicians who were only working for their own benefits. Lamichhane has been embarrassingly unmasked for giving false assurances and only spouting populist slogans.
He has also been accused of attempting to quiet down Kailash Sirohiya, the owner of the Kantipur Group. This person’s media outlets had been regularly giving news about the Minister’s involvement in the cooperatives scam. When he was arrested recently he received a lot of attention from international agencies who described the government’s decision as an act of direct attack on the free press here, and they all tried to lecture the government on what it should do or not do.
But at the same time, individuals with saner heads tried to clarify that the attack was not an attack on the vibrant media sector of Nepal. Indeed, Sirohiya is not the ‘messiah’ of the free press in the country and he was a mere businessman who had cunningly invested in Kantipur at the right time more importantly, he was arrested not for writing any news, but because the charge against him for allegedly having two citizenship papers, which is illegal in Nepal as well as in many other countries. The way he was arrested from his office by the police was definitely very ‘ham-handed’, but the way in which some prominent media persons and foreigners tried to force Minister Lamichhane and also the Nepali government to get down on their knees and accept their mistake, was most unbecoming on their part as they were responsible for coming to the rescue of journalists who were being harassed and also physically attacked no matter in which part of the globe they were working in.
It would be futile to talk of the ways through which the politicians, civil servants, fraudulent businessmen and foreigners are trying to destroy Nepal and making it a ‘sitting duck’ for foreign interference, would be too taxing for any sensible people, as such dissatisfactions would remain unheard of by those involved in such activities, all we can do is expect for a miracle to take place and thus save Nepal and the Nepalis.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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