Repressive Oli Administration

Repressive Oli Administration

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Probably, the Oli administration has been provoking the Madheshis and the ethnic people into rise up. Madheshis have been waiting for Mr. Oli to amend the Constitution to accommodate their valid demand for making Madheshis as equal as any Nepalis in Nepal. The ethnic people and Madheshis have been upset very much by the Oli administration misinforming the people about Prithvi Narayan Shah. The State-run newspaper “gorkhapatra” has grossly misinformed the people about the Shah giving most of the previously proven false information about the Shah as the lavish praises. The misinformation has been every day ritual for the Oli administration.

Ethnic people and Madheshis have been strongly feeling the repression. The State-run media has been running the campaign against the people’s rights to expression, and to protest against the activities of the government that goes against the people’s rights to live happily. Prime Minister KP Oli has a slogan “Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali”. How could he make Nepalis happy repressing theme?

Would the folks living in the Kathmandu Valley be happy when the target of the water flow from the Melamchi River to the Kathmandu Valley has been pushed back for two years, the private media has stated on January 20, 2019, when Mr. Oli bullied the natives of Kathmandu and Khokhana laying the foundation stones for constructing a tower in Kathmandu and a dry port in Chovar, and building a fast track highway right through the Khokhana town destroying the ancient structures Nepalis have been so proud of?

Prime Minister Oli laid the foundation stone for constructing a dry port in Chovar on January 17, 2019. This is the third of such activity of the prime minister in January to demonstrate Prime Minister Oli is strong enough to bully the local people. The folks in Chovar have been demanding the return of their land the then Panchayat administration of the absolute monarchy had usurped to build a Himal Cement Factory. Now, Prime Minister Oli instead of returning the land to the rightful owners has laid a foundation stone to build a dry port even though this place is not absolutely suitable for such a port. This is a continuation of bullying the Nevah folks by the administration forcibly grabbing their ancestral land, and displacing them from their own native land.

The first laying of the foundation stone Mr. Oli did again in January was for the construction of a Dharahara tower in Kathmandu despite the protest of the local folks again happened to be the Nevahs. They did not want a new tower with the unnecessary expansion of the surrounding area on their land leaving the remains of the earthquake-broken tower intact. The local folks questioned why the government needed to build a new tower not rebuilding the old one. The Oli administration did not listen to the local folks and went ahead to build a new one distorting the aesthetic significance of the area.

The Oli administration has discriminated the Nevah culture and the Nevah artistic golden spout next to the tower for which Mr. Oli has laid the foundation stone for the construction. The ancestors of the Nevah folks had built this unique golden spout to make flow the water perennially. Now, the water has stopped flowing, and the golden spout has remained neglected. Is it not the duty of the Oli administration to preserve such antiques in the interest of the nation because no matter the ancestors of which ethnic groups have built such artifacts belong to the nation? However, the Oli administration has ignored such facts but it has been reaping the harvest of benefits selling the ancient cultural sites the Nevahs had built to the tourists.

The Oli administration had intimidated the locals in Khokhana trying to force them to surrender their ancient cultural buildings, their town, and their agricultural land for constructing a fast track highway from Kathmandu to Hetauda. For whom this highway is required for Mr. Oli or the people? If it were for the people then the people must be happy to contribute to construct such a highway. People are not living under the Panchayat absolute rule. People could force even this two-thirds majority government to go immaturely if it were to go against the people’s will. How could Mr. Oli’s slogan of “Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali” be a success if the common folks were to suffer from his administration?

The Oli administration has trampled the honor of the ethnic and Madheshi folks showing off the lavish celebration of the 297^th anniversary of Prithvi Narayan Shah disregarding the monstrous atrocities Shah had committed against the ethnic folks more than two hundred and fifty years ago. Mr. Oli had clearly ignored the facts that P.N. Shah committed grave crimes against not only the ethnic folks but also against the humanity as his crimes were so inhuman and any humans would certainly oppose such crimes but the prime minister of Nepal who boasted of having almost two-thirds majority has really appreciated the Shah heaving the lavish praises on P.N. Shah. Where is the shame of the people’s prime minister that has a fun of receiving the two-thirds majority votes in the parliament?

Mr. Oli’s deputy Ishwor Pokharel even went a step ahead hinting at the adverse consequences of raising the issues of the ethnic folks while speaking at the function held to so proudly celebrating the anniversary of P.N. Shah at the cost of the folks that are the descendents of the victims of the monstrous atrocities of P.N. Shah. Those guys such as Oli and Pokharel the descendents of the victims of P.N. Shah elected to the positions of power have been behaving as the monarchists instead of redressing the atrocities of P.N. Shah. This gives rise to the question of whether the Oli administration is tending to reverse the people’s movement against the monarchical rule.

The State-run newspaper “gorkhapatra” went on publishing the news about and articles on P.N. Shah misinforming the people. That misinformation projected P.N. Shah to be a deity even though he had committed monstrous atrocities against the folks he had defeated. His political discourse called ‘dibya upadesh’ became the holy scripts for the Oli administration, which either ignored or did not know that this so-called Shah’s discourse was very doubtful to be his sayings because believers in this discourse said that Shah narrated this discourse from his death bed as did the epic hero Bhisma Pitamaha of Mahabharat about 2,300 years ago because the death of P.N. Shah was controversial whether he died of the tiger attack or naturally, according to the recent newspaper report done on the occasion of the 297^th anniversary of P.N. Shah.

The second fact that contradicted the ‘dibya upadesh’ was that the ‘dibya upadesh’ stated “P.N. Shah standing on the top of the Chandragiri Hill for the first time saw the three cities such as Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur, and he said that he wanted to win them and become the king of those cities.” For the information of those who wrote the ‘dibya upadesh’, and who published it again and again as the discourse, and for the Oli administration, too, P.N. Shah grew up in Bhaktapur as the adopted son of the then King Ranajit Malla, and learned the strategy of warfare including how to wield different weapons of that time. P.N. Shah would have never said that he had for the first time seen the Nepal Valley of that time from the top of the Chandragiri Hill.

Now, the portrait of P.N. Shah the Oli administration had a fun of taking it so proudly on an open carriage on the 297^th anniversary of the Shah from the Nepal Academy down to his statue at the Singhdurbar gate is really the portrait Balkrishna Sama had asked a renowned Nevah artist to paint, according to the recent revelation. This portrait of P.N. Shah had been the genuine for those devotees including Prime Minister Oli.

Mr. Oli and his deputy for that matter needed to understand that the ethnic folks including the Nevahs had shed so much of blood to tear down the Rana rule, then the Panchayat and finally ending the monarchy forever, as folks could not enjoy even the basic rights to work and earn not to mention flourishing under the absolute monarchy. Folks had to live perpetually in the slavery. Currently, Mr. Oli reinstated the honor to P.N. Shah humiliating the ethnic and Madheshi people who had suffered so much under the absolute rule.

For example, Lakhan Thapa (Magar) became the first martyr to rise up against the Rana ruler not less atrocious than the P.N. Shah. Then the three Nevahs such as Sukra Raj Shastri, Dharma Bhakta Mathema, and Gangalal Shrestha, and the ethnic Khas such as Dhasrath Chand shed their blood and sowed the seeds of successful fights against the cruel Rana rulers.

However, the then leaders particularly B.P. Koirala opted to return the power to the king in 1951 rather than keeping the power in the hands of the people and institutionalizing the democracy that had been the results of sacrifices of so many brave folks. Consequently, Koirala along with his colleagues and other politicians and political cadres not to mention the common folks had to suffer from the opportunity Koirala had given to the monarchists to repress the people’s rights for more than sixty years even after the death of the autocratic Rana rule.

Certainly, the kings and their administration replacing the Rana rulers naturally did not become the people-oriented because they were also the people of the same nature. Again one king after another repressing the people the most visible to me the Nevahs in the Kathmandu Valley looted the land and removed even the venerable temples to widen the roads in Kathmandu.

King Mahendra in 1960s as Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai in 2013 widened the road from the core of Kathmandu to Maharajguj where the State guesthouse Sital-nivas was in 1960s to welcome the British monarch Queen Elizabeth. A large stone Chiva (Buddhist shrine) at the Bir Hospital was removed to widen the road then many houses as Dr Bhattarai did, Mahendra demolished mainly of the Nevah people to widen the roads. I am the witness of both the cases of widening the road.

Not only the folks had lost their dwellings but also the folks had to white wash their houses to look nice for the British monarch because she was traveling on an open carriage to the State guesthouse Sital-nivas. Dr Bhattarai as King Mahendra did not pay any compensation to the folks losing the houses for the roads; he just bullied them sending a dozer to demolish the houses forcibly, and probably, Dr Bhattarai forced the house owners to pay for the bulldozer. A curse people must have put on Dr Bhattarai at the time of losing their houses and lands has been working now. So, Mr. Oli needed to be careful not to repeat the history of Dr Bhattarai for him, too

This is the kind of the monarchical and communist administration Nepalis have enjoyed and enjoying now. For the Nevahs no matter whether the kings or the communists, they had been almost the same, as the Nevahs had to lose everything practically for nothing. Nevahs have been struggling to survive in their native land for safeguarding their culture, antiques, temples, stone spouts, ponds, and ancestral lands.

The Oli administration needed to understand that the ethnic people, and Madheshis shed their blood to tear down the Panchayat system King Mahendra forcibly imposed on the people because of the faulty political vision of the political leaders such as B.P. Koirala, and also Mr. Oli needed to understand that the Panchayat administration under the direct rule of King Mahendra and then Birendra indiscriminately looted the people’s land for constructing Bhrikuti Mandap, Police Club, and built the army office destroying the open place called Tundikhel the Nevah people had so dearly preserved for maintaining the ecosystem of the town.

Why did the royal administration need the army at the heart of the capital city Kathmandu? Probably, for the fear of the locals would rise up against the ruthless administration of the kings. The royalties did not respect or honor the opinions of the common folks, and they simply bullied the locals to suit their interest. However, Mr. Oli is the elected prime minister and like it or not he is held accountable to the people. However, currently, he has been behaving as if he has replaced the kings, and he could do anything he likes including deifying the despotic Monarch P.N. Shah. Mr. Oli is bringing back the Shah from the crematorium.

The question is why Mr. Oli needed to do all sorts of these things. The answer might be he wanted to be no less bully than those autocrats or Oli might have in his mind to be a dictatorial as he is the leader of the communist party, which advocated the dictatorship of proletariats. However, Mr. Oli has to mind it that Nepal has not only a communist party he leads but other strong political parties, too including the Nepali Congress that has been readying to take over from Mr. Oli in any adverse eventuality.

However, not only the Nepali Congress but also other political parties failed to protest against the bullying of Mr. Oli in Kathmandu, in Chovar, and in Khokhana too. None of these political parties has been for protecting the interest of the common folks, as these parties have disastrously fell short of at least voicing for the folks that have suffered at the hands of the State officials.

Is it really the requirement of a new political party to safeguard the common folks from the political vultures that have the habit of hunting down the weakest ones?

In the past, many Nevah leaders and cadres as people of other ethnic groups, and Madheshis became the victims of the kings, as King Mahendra and his son Birendra killed the political leaders and cadres opposing their absolute rule during the 30 years of the Panchayat administration.

Currently, again the Nevahs and other ethnic people including the Khas people, and Madheshis have been under the threat of the absolute repression. The first sign of the repression is bringing P.N. Shah back to life from the grave of two-and-a-half centuries ago. Clearly, his clique and Mr. Oli have been threatening the people not to speak for and about the ethnic people. It is surely the trait of P.N. Shah. Probably, common folks might not need to lose the noses and ears, as Oli and his deputy Pokharel would not be able to do so. However, they have almost the same tendency judging from their actions and speeches.

Mr. Oli and his circle of politicians have not been serious to amend the Constitution to make the Constitution acceptable to all the citizens. More than a half of population has not been happy with the Constitution despite the fact that more than 95 percent of the members of the Constituent Assembly had voted for it. This could happen because the members of the Constituent Assembly belonging to various ethnic groups and Madheshis had simply put their thumbprints on what their respective party leaders had said them to do.

The current Constitution has been less progressive than the Interim Constitution of 2007 because a group of politicians erroneously calling themselves the representatives of the entire population deleted many progressive articles from the Interim Constitution; so, the current Constitution has not been acceptable to more than the half of the population. Such a constitution has to be either amended to suit the interest of the entire populace or has to go, as did the past six constitutions done without meeting the needs of all people.

Obviously, his circle of politicians and Mr. Oli have been distancing from the people clearly visible from bringing back P.N. Shah to life from his death bed, and demonstrating the people in general that the Shah was the unifier, and the country would remain in a single piece doing as the Shah had done. However, none of the political leaders had survived without the support of the people; Mr. Oli needed to mind it. Nepalis have seen it from one recent political event after another.

Distancing from the people is almost suicidal to his circle of politicians and Mr. Oli. If the Oli administration were to use the force using the tactics of the Shah then Mr. Oli probably would be presiding over the administration that would be the cause of the breakdown of the country. Mr. Oli also needed to learn at least two lessons from B.P. Koirala that had mistakenly turned over the power to the king instead of keeping it in the hands of the people, and did not stop the widespread corruption during his short tenure of prime minister. Consequently, not only Koirala suffered but also the entire population for more than fifty years from the despotic rules of the kings. Koirala could not recover the political power he had lost first to Tribhuvan in 1951, and then second to Mahendra in 1960.

Probably, Madheshis would not remain muted for long. Similarly, ethnic people might rise up for their rights to have an equal rights to live and flourish. Probably, they might not even wait for the next general elections for chasing away Mr. Oli and his circle of politicians from power, as Mr. Oli with his circle of politicians have been pumping air into a balloon of discontent of the people everyday as much as possible. This balloon of discontent might surely blow up throwing away those in it to air.

Mr. Oli and his sycophants had not obviously read the international news otherwise they would learn from what had happened in India in the recent State elections, and what has been happening in America of President Donald Trump today.

His circle of high caste Hindus and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the decisive election victory in 2014 had been running the country with a strong hands of the Hindu fundamentalists that wanted the low caste Hindus to stay where they were, and they wanted Muslims to go to Pakistan, and they wanted Christians to leave the country thus making the monopoly of a circle of a few high caste Hindus on the country to live.

So, voters had taught the Hindu fundamentalists and Prime Minister Modi refusing to vote for their political party called Bharatiya Janata party in the five States such as Mahdhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatishgad, and two other States during the State Assembly elections held recently. Modi might need to face the disastrous results of the general elections to be held in May 2019. Modi might need to wind down his office after the elections.

President Donald Trump of America also had been running the administration for the white supremacists only in the name of “Make America Great Again”. Mr. Trump wanted to create a clean white America bringing the people from the countries like Norway and so on where only the people with the so-called white skin lived. He wanted to build a border wall to prevent anybody non-white entering America through the porous southern border with Mexico. Practically, Mr. Trump has been making China great again leaving one thing after another of the internationally important things for China to grab.

The results had been Mr. Trump lost the House of Representatives to democrats in the mid term elections held in November 2018. Thus, the HoR had slipped away from the hands of the republicans. Political analysts have already started questioning whether Mr. Trump is a Russian agent or not. None of the presidents had to face such a disastrous question in the past but Mr. Trump had to because of his actions of favoring Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It had been just two years since Mr. Trump became the president but he had been already facing the question of impeachment. His actions had already reached that critical point; and folks had already started off calling for impeaching him.

Mr. Oli and his circle of politicians had been stepping on the footprints of Mr. Modi and Mr. Trump. The question was how long Mr. Oli would be able to stand firmly on his two-thirds majority votes in the parliament if he were to continue his political journey in this way.

The news in “gorkhapatra” published on January 23, 2019 has it that Prime Minister Oli speaking at the 49^th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos of Switzerland stated that Nepal could not wait for development now. He solicited the foreign investments at Davos mentioning the river transport and railroads would be soon available in Nepal for their businesses.

Probably, investors would not show up because his polices were not investment friendly or not conducive to the investment. Speaking to the anchor of the Radio Nepal morning program “antar-sambad” probably in the third week of January 2019, Chairman of Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) Haribhakta Sharma had said that Nepal had no industry friendly policies; industrialists had to face problems at every step of running industries. How could investors come and invest in Nepal in such an environment? He questioned.

The Oli administration had recently opened up the land plotting for the construction of town houses and other houses probably allowing the agricultural land converting into the urban areas, and making the land mafia active again. The previous government had stopped using the agricultural land indiscriminately for building houses and other structures, as Nepal had been already facing the shortage of agricultural land to sow seeds and grow foods for the growing millions of Nepalis.

If anybody were to take a look at the Kathmandu Valley: the most vulnerable to earthquakes s/he would find that the valley had been already almost filled up with buildings, and roads that had already drastically changed the ecosystem. Kathmandu city had nothing but dust. So, most of the Kathmandu dwellers had been vulnerable to the dust-borne diseases.

Not only the Kathmandu Valley has been running short of space for agricultural land for growing food but also other areas such as Terai, and small valleys in the hills, too. Even today, Nepal has been importing billions of rupees worth of rice from India not to mention other foods such as vegetables, and fruits.

The Oli administration had been encouraging the most valuable assets of Nepal: the youths to go to work in the foreign countries. For example, Nepal had signed an agreement with Malaysia to get Nepalese youths there easily and then they were to work with added benefits thus encouraging Nepalis to move to Malaysia instead of creating more jobs for the youths in Nepal itself.

The earnings of the youths working abroad had been the main resources for importing the basic needs such as fuels, machinery, medicines not to mention the import of rice from India for feeding Nepalis, as Nepalese youths had left the land fallows; and the agricultural lands had been slowly being used for urban development. Then, the question to Mr. Oli and his advisors was that if the youths were not to have the foreign jobs and then the foreign earnings were to dry up, and if they were not to find any agricultural land to work upon return from abroad then from where the foods would come for feeding the thirty-million Nepalis. Is it how the way the slogan of Mr. Oli: “Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali” working?

The news in “gorkhapatra” published on January 24, 2019 stated that Prime Minister Oli said in Davos that he was not the ruler but a service provider. If Mr. Oli were really not to be a ruler then why he brought back Prithvi Narayan Shah: the already dead for 240 years or more, and stopped the folks from protesting against the atrocities of P.N. Shah at Kirtipur on the day when Mr. Oli and his sycophants were celebrating the 297^th anniversary of P.N. Shah in Kathmandu.

The same news in “gorkhapatra” published on January 24, 2019 stated that in an answer to the reporters’ question of the freedom of press in Nepal, Mr. Oli in Davos stated that the Constitution of Nepal has ensured the freedom of press; so, Nepal has the full-fledged press freedom. As already stated, the Oli administration had shamelessly suppressed the freedom of protests not only at Kirtipur but also at Kathmandu and Chovar when Mr. Oli went to lay the foundation stones: one for constructing a tower in Kathmandu another for a dry port in Chovar, not allowing the locals to protest against his laying of the foundation stones.

Is it not Mr. Oli has been running the business of misinformation not only in Nepal but also abroad, too?

Probably, Mr. Oli needed to match his words with the deeds. He has been running the administration almost for a year but the development had been sluggish as had been in the last year. His policies and programs have yet to be the development friendly. His administration has not been able to launch a massive development program making the expenditure of the development budget highest possible. If anybody were to take a look at the expenditure of the development budget made so far s/he would surely find the meager expenditure made so far. Is Mr. Oli not waiting for the development to happen?

How could Mr. Oli rush to development without waiting if he were not able to use even a few more percent of the development budget not to mention fully for speeding up the development; second, he could not control the corruption: one of the main foes of the prosperity and development; third, he could not keep the opposition happy, and the people in general? However, one thing he has been successfully doing is bullying the common folks laying the foundation stones of building various structures on the lands of the local people.

Corrupt officials, businesspersons, contractors and even lawmakers should have terrified after Mr. Oli took office but nothing of that kind had happened to end the corruption so far except for saying Mr. Oli had the zero tolerance of corruption. However, corruption had been flourishing more than ever before Chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Kamal Thapa said, according to the news in the 13^th page of “gorkhapatra’ published on January 23, 2019, and Thapa demanded to investigate the corruption cases and punished the culprits. Chairman Thapa also questioned about the competency of the Oli administration that had not been able to sort out the problems of finding the culprits that had raped and murdered Nirmala Panta, the news stated.

The opposition lawmakers have been obstructing the regular business of the House of Representatives, and the National Assembly for some days already demanding to include the demands of Dr. Govinda K.C, who has been currently on the hunger strike, and also to include the provision made for the two medical colleges in the names of the leaders of Nepali Congress in the Education Bill the Minister for Education of the Oli administration has attempted to submit in the parliament and pass it bullying the opposition lawmakers, as Mr. Oli had instructed them to do so before he would return from Switzerland to Nepal on January 26, 2019, according to the media report.

The news on http://therisingnepal.org.np/news/28548 stated on January 25, 2019, “The ‘National Medical Education Bill- 2075’ has been finally passed by the House of Representatives (HoR) with majority’. Clearly, the Bill had been passed in the HoR not keeping the values and principles of the parliamentary process but simply bullying the opposition minority in the House. What would be the consequences of such bullying the opposition in the HoR remains to be seen. The opposition leaders have said that they would launch the protests in the parliament and in the streets, too.

The news on http://setopati.net/political/138211 stated on January 25, 2019, “The government seemed determined to pass the much-disputed bill from the House before Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli returns from Davos at any cost. A CPN leader had confided with Setopati that Oli had summoned the party’s lawmakers before leaving for Davos and instructed them to get it passed before he returns home.”

“Call it autocracy or arrogance of two-thirds majority, the bill will be passed. It is the government’s strategy,” Government Spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Baskota said addressing the weekly press conference at the Singh Durbar on Thursday, the news on http://setopati.net/political/138211 stated on January 25, 2019.

Probably, Mr. Oli is creating a political instability trying to bully the opposition and the common folks with his power of the two-thirds majority in the parliament, and narrowing down the circle of his colleagues to run the administration consequently earning a lot of opponents even in his party. Probably, Mr. Oli as Mr. Modi did not know that such a majority of the votes in the parliament or in the Congress in America could evaporate in the next elections drastically. They are neither lifetime dictators nor the monarchs. So, they are vulnerable to the voters. If they could not keep the voters pleased they are surely going to end their political career.

The Ranas managed to stay in power for 104 years from 1847 to 1951, then the Panchayat under the kings for 30 years from 1960 to 1990, and finally Gyanendra for five years from 2001 to 2006 bullying the common folks. Probably, Mr. Oli would not be able to stay on in power even for the full term of office he was elected to if he were to continue bullying the common folks in the streets and the opposition in the parliament. The time is 21^st century not the time of autocrats and dictatorial monarchs of the 20^th century. It would be better for Mr. Oli to learn the lessons on time if he were to remain in power. He could probably not able to be P.N Shah nor Jung Bahadur or Mahendra or even Gyanendra for that matter.

Mr. Oli’s deputy Ishwor Pokharel had done one thing good for himself and for Oli too opening up the full size statue of Martyr Sukra Raj Shastri at Pachali in Kathmandu on the occasion of the event the Kathmandu metropolis has organized to initiate the martyr’s week on Thursday, January 24, 2019, the news in the second page of “gorkhapatra’ stated on January 25, 2019. The then Rana despots had hanged Shastri at Pachali for taking the message of the basic human rights to the common folks in 1941. Thanks to such martyrs, Mr. Pokharel could be the deputy prime minister and his boss Oli a prime minister. Mind it, Martyr Shastri is the Nevah.

However, President Bidhya Bhandari went to Makwanpur to mark the 256^th anniversary of the victory over the Makwanpurgadi the Nepali Army has organized on January 24, 2019, and she said that the victory over the Makwanpurgadi had played a historical role in materializing the unification campaign, the news on the first page of “gorkhapatra” stated on January 25, 2019. Whenever somebody not to mention the president said the unification campaign, it certainly made the people who had suffered from the atrocities during the campaign feel the pinch.

If President Bidhya Bhandari were to be the president of all Nepalis then she needed to go to Madhesh and join the Madheshis to mark the ‘Balidani Diwash’ to commemorate the sacrifices the Madheshi people had made in the Madheshi movements that had swept away the monarchy and made the republican setup possible in 2006 and 2007. Today, Bhandari is the president because of the Madheshi movement, too because it has been the final act of ending the monarchy. So, Bhandari even as a daughter of an ordinary Nepali family could become the president of the country.

The Oli administration needed to correct such grossly wrong activities of the public figures appreciating the despots but not appreciating the sacrifices of the folks that had shed their blood for ending the monarchy and placing the sons and daughters of the poor Nepalis in the positions of power today. If the monarchy were to continue today probably the lawmakers, other elected officials and ministers including the prime minister would have been plowing the land belonging to the Shah-Rana rulers for survival.

January 25, 2019