On/Off the record
By P.R. Pradhan
UML, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party and Nepali Congress have conducted their national convention. Now, the Maoist Center is scheduled to conduct its national conclave. We saw big fanfare during the national convention of the political parties. UML’s said expenditure for the construction of a temporary stage for the national convention was five million rupees. NC said that the cost for the construction of a temporary stage was four million rupees. Additionally, the political parties organizing the national convention have offered a heavy breakfast with egg and two-time meals with the choice of chicken, fish, and mutton along with the lodging for the participants. We can speculate how mush should have the political parties spent on lodging and food alone. Besides, the candidates were running their contact offices and holding meetings at five-star hotels. Imagine, the expenditure done by the candidates to capture posts in the party leadership. Earlier, we were informed that to secure victory for the Ward Committee chair, the candidates had to spend 10 million rupees. In this regard, how much the candidates have had spent to become the district chief, provincial chief and ensuring their position in the central committee!
The leaders are spending all their energy in backbiting, condemning and criticizing their political rivals. Oddly, neither the UML nor the Nepali Congress and nor the Maoist Center has discussed the ideology and vision for making the nation and Nepali citizens prosperous. So far, the RPP candidates had expressed their commitment to the restoration of the Hindu Kingdom and scrapping federalism for the country and people’s prosperity. The country’s economy is in a sorry state but none of the leaders is worried about the situation. One can imagine how rich are the political leaders and the political parties of a poor country! Surely, the nation and people can achieve nothing from those self-centred political leaders.
Although the UML has claimed that 110 million rupees were spent to conduct its 10th national convention, however, observers believe, the formal and informal expenditure were no less than 500 million rupees and the NC’s expenditure is no less than one billion rupees. After all, these are non-productive expenditures. The parties have raised funds from those brokers, middlemen, and businessmen to conduct their national convention. Those who donated to the political parties are the very groups that have exploited the nation and the people.
Look at the plight of the Nepali people! Every year, people die from the cold wave. The political leaders are less bothered about the situation. People are compelled to live a difficult life due to the price hike of daily consumable goods by almost double compared to the price in the past. There is no mechanism of price control at all. Farmers are unable to get fertilizer, this has become a permanent problem for them. We read news reports that the newly constructed bridges were demolished. The reason is clear that the construction contractor had used low-quality construction materials. But the government is unable to punish such construction contractors as they are the main source of income of the political leaders. We have seen many incomplete construction projects but the government is unable to blacklist the construction contractors who have occupied the project but didn’t take initiative to complete the project on time. We can see anomalies in all sectors but the political leaders are reluctant for ending it permanently.
The prime agenda of the political leaders is to earn money through commission and corruption, and be elected during the elections, serve foreign powers to enjoy political power and serve the brokers to earn money. The nation and the people never come to the priority list of the leaders.
There is a serious lack of a statesman in the country. The political leaders could learn from the development that has taken place in the neighbouring countries. If they are unable to develop their vision, they could copy good things practised by the neighbouring countries for the development of the nation. They could remove bad practices and laws which are creating hurdles in the development process. More importantly, they could strengthen the anti-corruption bodies and contribute a lot by reducing the corruption practice. When they are involved in corruption practice, we cannot expect any strong policy for reducing corruption practices.
In this regard, we have concluded that the system is defective. The system has introduced an expensive election procedure and the system has encouraged corruption. Believe it or not, we cannot imagine the prosperity of the country without scrapping the present political system which is in the interests of the foreign powers and which is intended to end the Nepali civilization.
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