The Super Government And Its Activities

The Super Government And Its Activities

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

The super majority government has reached an 11-point agreement with C.K. (Chandra Kant) Raut to calm down the unsatisfied Madheshi leaders. However, the Rastriya Janata Party: another Madheshi political party withdrew its support for the government. The Oli government has been wobbling to reduce the corruption not to mention eliminate rather visibly increasing the corruption. Some ministers including the prime minister and the chairman of the governing party also speaking like in the election campaign. The finance minister has been helpless because he could not persuade his colleagues to enforce the implementation of the capital projects. The economic growth is much too small to achieve the economic growth target of the election pledge. The waterways have been the talk of the town again.

The Oli government had reached an 11-point agreement with the Free Madhesh Alliance (Svotantra Madhesh Gathavandhan) on Friday March 8, 2019. On behalf of the government Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, and on behalf of the Alliance C.K. Raut signed off the agreement in presence of the prime minister and the chairman of the ruling party.

Prime Minister KP Oli boasted that the possibility of breaking away Madhesh had been done away with after the agreement the government reached with the Free Madhesh Alliance, which had been calling for breaking away from Nepal.

C.K. Raut and his supporters had been running the illegal campaign for independent Madhesh. Political analysts believed that Raut must have landed in jail forever rather than giving him the political asylum. He had no justification for the free Madhesh movement.

Raut has been safely landed in the mainstream politics. That is an achievement the Oli government thinks but the most advantage has been for Raut and his supporters. They had not been able to mobilize the support from the international community and from the neighboring countries for their secessionist activities that did not serve anybody’s interest. They were bound to disappear.

China would never support such a secessionist movement because it has its problem of the secessionists raising their heads in China. It has to unite the breakaway Taiwan into the Mainland China. It has been fighting against the Tibetan secessionists.

India also did not support such secessionist activities. It has the problem of keeping Kashmir within the Indian federation. It also has the secessionist activities in eastern part. So, India would never support any secessionists.

So, C.K. Raut had no internal or international support; however, now, he received the support of the Oli administration. He had been alone, and he had some cadres that could launch violence actions. So, they had been practically the criminal activities not political activities. Raut had no support of Madheshi folks, too. So, having an agreement with the government has been a great political achievement and a boost for Raut.

So, Mr. Oli’s saying the possibility of breaking away Madhesh had been put to an end was not anything more than an idle boast. However, Mr. Oli could have a good night sleep even though he might have nightmares at times because of the Biplav Maoists detonating explosives elsewhere, and RJP preparing for the nationwide protests.

So, another headache waiting for Mr. Oli has been the Rastriya Janata Party (RJP) withdrawing its support for the Oli’s administration because of the Kailali district court had indicted Rasam Chaudhari for killing a police officer and some folks including an infant, the case popularly known as the Tikapur case, and giving Chaudhari and his associates life sentences. RJP has said that it would launch protests against the court ruling. Nothing more would be laughable than this sort of statement.

Mr. Oli’s job is to strictly enforce the constitution, and punish the folks involved in the criminal activities. However, Mr. Oli has been very lenient to enforce the constitution. He did not deliver any constitutional rights to the provincial and local governments for functioning. He has been keeping everything with him even defaulting the constitutional rights of the provincial and local governments.

The provincial chief ministers had been mute because they were the cadres of Mr. Oli. That was where voters had mistaken voting the provincial governments, local governments and the federal government of a single party. The province number two has the government of different parties but Mr. Oli has been manipulating it to keep quiet.

One of the main concerns of the common folks had been the corruption. Mr. Oli had done nothing to reduce the corruption not to mention eliminate the corruption as voters had anticipated Oli would do. However, the corruption has been rather increasing. That had been one of the greatest campaign pledge defaults.

Delay in the completion of the development projects has been one of the main corruptions. The Oli administration instead of expediting the development projects had even stopped the highly hyped Melamchi Drinking Water Project, which was about to complete, and postponed the finishing touches to the project for an indefinite period. Common folks blamed the folks involved in the Melamchi Project for putting off its completion only for having a large commission.

Delay in completing the development projects particularly multi-billion projects had been the regular business of the government because they brought a windfall benefit to the folks engaged in implementing the projects. So, the Oli government did not bother to bring the construction contractors to justice even though they had not even initiated construction after receiving the initial advance for launching construction work, did not try to find out the contractors that had started but did not do any work anymore, and did not even search the contractors that had half done the construction and then abandon the work.

In order to cover up the massive corruption prevailing in the country, and the inability to keep the election pledges, Mr. Oli and his colleague Chairman Prachanda, and the deputy prime minister had been delivering the election campaign like speeches.

For example, the State-run newspaper “gorkhapatra” has a news item published on March 10, 2019 that Deputy Prime Minister holding the defense portfolio Ishwor Pokharel stated that the senior citizen allowance would be increased to NPR 5,000 per month. The news stated that speaking to the leaders and cadres of his party at Birtamod in the Jhapa district, Deputy Prime Minister Pokharel urged them to study the election manifesto of his party.

The governing party’s election manifesto had stated that the allowance to the senior citizens would be immediately increased to NPR 5,000 from the current NPR 2,000 but once they received the votes from possibly the entire senior citizens the Oli administration had not increased the allowance even after a year in office. Currently, the senior citizens were ready to vote out the Oli government for not keeping the election commitment to increase the allowance to the senior citizens.

Chairman Prachanda and his colleague Prime Minister Oli had been talking about the east-west railroads and north south railroads despite the reality of probably, the current generation of Nepalis would not see those railroads in their life time if the time taken the Melamchi Drinking Water Project was a guide to judge, as this project had taken 17 years and had consumed billions of Nepalese rupees but the thirsty folks in the Kathmandu Valley had no water so far.

If anybody had a chance to read the State-run newspaper “gorkhapatra” published on March 10, 2019, s/he would see the picture of Mr. Oli and Chairman Prachanda speaking to the rally held in Rauthut. They talked about nothing but making “Prosperous Nepal Happy Nepali”. They did not say how.

This rally was to demonstrate how the Oli government had bullied the Madheshi folks, the RJP leaders complained. The RJP leaders also said that Raut was the product of Mr. Oli to counter the forces of the Madheshi political parties at the time of crafting of a constitution. They also strongly condemned Oli for stating their political parties as the regional political parties at the rally.

Every person on the street could say easily only if the communist government had curbed the corruption, and brought the corrupt leaders, bureaucrats, contractors and businesspersons to justice Nepalis would have been happy even if they were not prosperous. Then, Mr. Oli would have been already on the half way to achieving “Prosperous Nepal Happy Nepali” but that was not happening because Mr. Oli liked to talk but did not act.

Mr. Oli had been very fond of talking about the waterways. He wanted to see Nepalis traveling on boats to Haldiya seaport in Kolkatta. He had even opened up the office of waterways in Kathmandu and had created jobs for 16 folks. That might be the end of it for many years to come if not even centuries because the cost involved in building dams to increase the water level, and to reduce the river flow speed so that boats could travel back and forth between Haldiya and Nepal was so humongous. Unless the very generous donor comes and builds such dams the Oli’s dreams of having the waterways would not come true at least in his lifetime.

Speaking to the anchor of the Radio Nepal morning “antar-sambad” program on March 10, 2019, one of the team members of the Nepalese team talking to the Indian team of the waterways told that the cost involved in building the dams was prohibitive; and it was not economically viable. Probably, Mr. Oli might like to talk to this bureaucrat whether it was really so.

When Nepalese voters voted the communists to power more than a year ago, the folks thought that the communist government would speed up the development process in Nepal as the communists in Vietnam and China did and relieved millions of poor folks from the unimaginable poverty.

Unfortunately, the Nepalese communist government even after a year in office they just went on promising to increase the meager allowance to the senor citizens who had been reeling in poverty. If the communist government had increased the senor citizen allowance to NPR 5,000 as committed in the election manifesto a year ago immediately after taking office, millions of senior citizens had come out of poverty and had lived the last days of lives in having sufficient food to eat.

Unfortunately, the opposition party in the parliament had lost its stability and stamina. Its leaders instead of what the Oli government had to do what not, and make the common folks aware of what had been going against the welfare of the common folks they had been talking about making Nepal a Hindu state again. If these leaders were to not open up their eyes they would have hard time to survive in the next general elections and the communists would win the elections despite the failure in keeping the election pledges they had made.

A few mistakes BP Koirala committed in 1960s had made Nepalis suffer another 30 years under the direct administration of the kings, and then even lost the democracy the folks had reinstated shedding blood. Currently, BP’s son had been talking about reinstating the Hindu state antagonizing more than the half of the Nepalis that did not want Nepal to be a Hindu State. The opposition leaders needed to think over it timely before they lost the ground.

RJP and the Biplav Maoists would be wasting their valuable assts such as energy and other resources on violent protesting and detonating explosives without giving due consideration to the loss of the precious lives of the common folks. It is surprising that they have not learned yet such violent actions would be justified only when they don’t have other peaceful means of protesting such as legal and political.

Currently, they have both. They could remove any government voting it out in the next general elections. Periodic elections are the main tools for any politicians to grab or lose the power. Then, why they needed to take up arms to grab the power. Surely, they had to wait for five years before elections were held. However, the five years would be the crucial period for winning the people’s mind in their favor for wining the elections.

They also could use so many legal tools if they found they were unjustly treated. So, they did not need to take up arms again. So, it would be everybody’s interest not to kill anybody and not to get killed, too. It is the time for using the democratic means to achieve everybody’s goals.

Common folks would not believe in the armed revolution again, as they had had enough of it for the ten years of the people’s war, and learned a great lesson out of it, and today, the fighters have every possible means to mitigate the loss of the human lives not fighting with the guns but with the democratic tools.

Now, let us turn to the economics of the country.

The country has the finance minister that has nothing but complaints. He had recently said that his colleague in other words minister in the Oli government did not listen to his urge for increasing the spending of the capital budget, according to the recent news posted on setopati.com. The finance minister is so naïve that he believes in his colleagues in the cabinet listening to him.

Ministers would expedite the development process only when they would be punished for not doing so. How could not the finance minister understand that the ministers delaying the development projects reaped the heavy harvest of fortune collecting commission in billions of rupees? Every Nepalis reading newspapers, and listening to radios and watching TVs understand it because the media folks have brought out the corruption to light but the ministers stayed on in office without shame.

For example, the media had been saying the purchase of the wide-body planes for the National Airlines had caused the irregularities making the loss of four billion rupees, and telling the government those planes were not purchased but taken on lease. However, Prime Minister Oli had said that concerned Minister Rabindra Adhikari who had recently unfortunately died in the helicopter crash was not involved in the corruption case. Who was really involved in it? Mr. Oli did not bother to answer this question. The media folks had been honking the widespread corruptions in the administration, politics, and businesses but the Oli administration pretended not to hear these voices.

The finance minister had said that all the economic indicators had it that the economic growth would be slightly more than seven percent. However, this growth might be the continuation of the positive impact of the massive destructive earthquakes of 2015 because the rebuilding of houses, roads, schools, and cultural heritage have continued even today. So, the economic growth the finance minister had been talking about had not been because of his policy reform, which had in fact probably adversely affected the economic growth.

Immediately after taking office, the finance minister successfully sent the stock market down to the hell and it had not recovered even after a year. The finance minister had taken the stock market as a foe of the economic development. He believed that the stock market was the worst unproductive sector of the economy.

Anybody having a little bit knowledge of economics could ask why the finance minister had been so mad at the stock market, and if the stock market was so unproductive what was the productive ones.

For the information of the finance minister, economists want to say that every sector of the economy is productive if that sector gives the positive return on the investment. They say that don’t think buying motorcycles or any other vehicles is unproductive because without such vehicles the national and the individuals’ business could not be productive at all.

Even providing the allowance to the senior citizens and increasing the amount would be productive, as the money put into the pockets of the senior citizens would increase the demands for the agricultural products and other basic industrial products thus fueling the economic growth if the economic theory is correctly understood.

Obviously, the current finance minister even though he is the holder of PhD in the monetary subject did not want to understand the so simple basic economic theory and practice. For him, the only productive sector had been the manufacturing industries.

If the finance minister had correctly formulated the economic polices and then implemented them, the country would have at least 10 percent economic growth. Unfortunately, the finance minister had not been able to do so. He had been working as a consultant to a donor community rather than a finance minister.

The news item published in “gorkhapatra” on March 7, 2019 stated that the National Planning Commission had drafted a 15^th five yearly periodic plan, and envisioned the economic growth of slightly more than 10 percent, and increase the current slightly more than US$ 1,000 income per capita to US$ 12,500 (NPR 1.4 million at the current exchange rate) in 25 years.

Does the finance minister believe in 10 percent income per capita growth, as the National Planning Commission projected? If so why not the finance minister tried even at the time of taking office and led the Nepalis to the prosperity as the Vietnamese and Chinese communists did in their respective countries rather than talking something that sent the stock market to the down hill?

The news titled “Swad Pherda Kha-dhyana Avav” published in “artha bazaar:” the supplement to “gorkhapatra” on March 11, 2019 stated that Prime Minister Oli urged Nepalis to eat the indigenous rough rice than the imported second grade rice, which is the leftover of the fire worship, as the leftover rice is polished and send it to Nepal. Mr. Oli also talked about the modernization and mechanization of agriculture.

Mr. Oli seems to know a lot about agriculture and about the imported rice but surely he does not know anything about the modernization and mechanization of agriculture because any farmer having only a few acres of land would never able to buy a tractor or any machine.

This restriction means the land ceiling has been due to the Land Reform Act but Mr. Oli does not seem to know it otherwise he would never advise to mechanize and modernize agriculture without amending the Land Reform Act and making the farmers have sufficient land for mechanization.

Mr. Oli either ignored or even did not know that some farmers had bulldozed their vegetable crops because they could not sell their products in the Kathmandu and the local market, too. Similarly, the dairy farmers had poured the milks on the streets because they did not have the market for their product.

Why should farmers not hold the Oli administration accountable to such a market situation? If the Oli administration were to be sincere to the agriculture the administration would have already tore down one barrier after another to the agricultural development but it has not been happening because Mr. Oli knows how to talk but does not understand what he is talking about.

The morning “youth program” of the Radio Nepal on March 10, 2019 stated that the most famous and wise saint called Balmiki being very thirsty asked a woman for water. The saint was a so egoist that he did not see anybody as a human except for himself.

So, the saint wanted to relegate the woman but the woman happened to be no less wise than the saint and they started the dialogue. She contracted everything the saint said, and finally the saint gave in and said that he was so stupid to have a dialogue with her.

She contradicted even his acceptance of being a stupid and explained to him that those were the stupid, who were incompetent but ruled over the most competent folks, and those were the stupid, who advised such most incompetent administrators.

The question is whether this is actually applicable to the current administration or not?

March 11, 2019