No Option But To Vote For Nepali Congress (NC)?

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

The next general elections are less than two-and-a-half years away; we need to be prepared for saying a final goodbye to the communists and the community party, as the performances of the communists and their government have been much to be desired if not the worst in the democratic history of Nepal. So, we have no alternative this time to voting for the NC, as the polices and programs of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) have been to bring back the dead but the most shady institution called the monarchy, and to impose the Hindu religion on the more than fifty percent of the non-Hindus claiming more than ninety percent of Nepalis are Hindus, and finally, the Madheshi political parties and their leaders have betrayed Nepal going to India for imposing sanctions on Nepal for forcing the Nepalese leaders to meet their demands for making the first people’s Constitution of Nepal to suit them the most.

Grandparents, parents, and sons and daughters that had been traditionally voting for the NC turned to the grand coalition of the Maoists and the UML (United Marxist and Leninist), and voted for them in the general elections held in 2017 to make them have the absolute majority to run the administration without the involvement of other political parties for the five years anticipating that the communists would do their best and put the socio-economic development of the country on the fast track, as almost all the previous governments except for the NC governments led by Girija Prasad Koirala  in 1991 and then Krishna Prasad Bhattarai in 1998 were either the coalition governments or the minority governments that could not function properly for the benefits of the people in general. The election results had been almost two-thirds majority to the grand coalition of the two large communist parties of Maoists and UML that later on became a single Nepal Communist Party of today.

Much to the relief of the voters the communists had almost the two-thirds majority so that its government could move at the lightning speed for the socio-economic development of the country. Senior citizens were happy hoping they would have soon five thousands rupees as the monthly allowances that would be the rise from two thousands the NC government had set in the past to more than the double. People in the Kathmandu Valley thought that finally the Melamchi Drinking Water Project would be completed within a few months and they would have sufficient water. The corruption endemic in the administration and in the political leaders in power would be uprooted forever, as Prime Minister Oli repeatedly solemnly promised to do so. Oli even committed to hook every Nepalese kitchen with the cooking gas pipeline, and he also committed the waterways, railways, and the beautiful and prosperous Nepal in other words “Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali”, as the slogan went.

After two-and-a-half years of the general elections, the communist Oli administration broke any records of possible irregularities in any sector of the service delivery not meeting any commitments the communists had made in the election campaigns. Most of the ministers in the communist government had been almost acting as the commission agents that always had probably been looking for taking commission on any contracts on development projects they awarded. The ministers had been for putting the muzzle on the independent media, restricting the fundamental human rights, and putting the folks in jail for expressing their views and opinions in the social media under the cyber law the communist government had enacted.

Recently, a media report has it that Prime Minister Oli has fifty-five million dollars in the Swiss Bank. The office of the prime minister simply sent the message of denial through the Radio Nepal morning news on July 16, 2020 of any account and money Prime Minister Oli has been holding in the Swiss Bank. Fair enough, if the prime minister has no money in any foreign bank as the news message passed on to the common folks through the Radio Nepal but it left room for the folks to believe that the prime minister in fact must have such a foreign bank account and then the money, as his advisors, ministers, and the prime minister himself did not bothered to take legal and administrative actions against the media that had possibly falsely reported even though the communist cadres and the prime minister himself had been smart enough to force the popular singer Pashupati Sharma to remove his hit song called “loot kancha loot” from the social media and youtube. So, the prime minister not taking actions against the media and the reporter that had made public the prime minister having foreign bank account and the money deposited, gave rise to the suspicions of probably the foreign commission agents must have deposited the Nepalese money in foreign currencies as the commission given on the contracts the communist government had awarded.

Prime Minister Oli had been putting high pressure on his party lawmakers to get the American corporate agency called MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) through the parliament even though most of his party colleagues also the top leaders of his party had been vigorously opposing it stating passing of the MCC by the parliament would be suicidal to the country as MCC means selling the sovereignty of Nepal to Americans because of the legal provisions made in it for sending the American troops to safeguard the American interest in the country, and it would follow only the American legal provisions thus scraping away the people’s Constitution of Nepal. However, the current president of NC also the opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Prime Minister Oli had been for passing the MCC as soon as possible. Nobody needs to understand what motives they have in their minds but the people in general need to rise up and punish the guys fanning the passing of the MCC by the parliament.

The Oli administration had been for shutting up the private and the state-owned media in case of publicity that did not suit the interest of the administration and the communist rulers. The minister for communication and information technology crafted a bill on communication and information technology going against the provision made in the Constitution for the freedom of expression provoking the strong opposition from the media people, the freedom of expression lovers, and the opposition party NC in the parliament. Consequently, the communication and information technology minister could not dare to submit the bill to the parliament but the Oli administration had not left the hope of bringing back the bill. Recently, the Oli administration had asked the CEO of the Radio Nepal: Suresh Kumar Karki the explanations for airing the interview with Dr. Baburam Bhattarai (one time communist leader but now a leader without any serious portfolio) because it contained the sharp criticism of Mr. Oli. The Oli administration also forced CEO Karki to remove the interview of Dr. Bhattarai from the record immediately, ultimately fired him, and also forced him to terminate the program on the summary of the private newspapers aired after the six o’clock morning news, but later on the new CEO reinstated it.

The minister for land reform boldly crafted the bill on private, public, and state Guthi land that was obviously for legally looting the Guthi (Trust) land destroying the cultural heritages of the Nepalis, and she submitted it to the National Assembly. The most sensitive to sustaining the cultural heritages also the highly culture-minded Nevahs rose up against such a bill and forced the Oli administration to retract the bill. Again the most unscrupulous minister and the Oli administration had not lost the hope of bringing back the bill. If the bill were to get passed in the parliament, all the Guthi land would be expropriated and then probably be distributed to the communist cadres. As a result, the country would lose the continuity of the cultural heritages so valuable to the Nepalis, and even to the world, as some of them are on the world cultural heritage list.

Recently, the folks in Khona faced the armed police force the Oli administration had sent while transplanting the rice seedlings in their farmland. The Oli administration had attempted to expropriate the most productive farmland dirt-cheap paying one tenth of the market price as the compensation for the land to build a fast track highway linking Kathmandu with the terai, the petroleum depot and so on encroaching on the cultural town and the surrounding farmland. The Khona folks had been saying that building such a fast track passing through the culturally important ancestral land, and other structures nearby the ancient towns would destroy the most valuable cultural heritages of Nepalis, and the folks would lose their livelihood as the compensation the Oli administration would pay would be no where near for paying to buy anything like the farmland they would lose. The struggle of the Khona people has continued against the communist government that has intended to grab the land of the poor farmers at any cost.

I have near heard of the leakage of the information on the tax changes before the finance minister delivered the budget speech in the parliament during the tenure of any finance ministers in the past. Unfortunately, it happened so before the finance minister read out his budget for the FY 2020 (2077/78) in the parliament causing the huge revenue loss to the nation but letting some companies or individuals reaping the harvest of financial gains as they paid less custom tax on the imported electrical vehicles clearing them off from the custom office a few days before the budget speech in the parliament, and they could sell those vehicles at the higher prices adding the custom tax other folks importing such vehicles needed to pay after the budget speech, as the import tax on such vehicles was increased from ten percent to eighty percent the finance minister had proposed and then the parliament passed it. Any finance minister having the sense of being accountable to his portfolio would have immediately resigned from office on the moral ground as only the finance minister knows such a tax increase or decrease but the current finance minister brushed off the reporters query of the finance ministry might have possibly leaked out the information on the tax increase in the electric vehicle saying no possibility of his ministry giving away any such information.

One of the reasons for voters opting to vote for the grand coalition of two large communist parties in the general elections held in 2017 was the then NC government did not seriously manage the relief work and the distribution of the relief packages to the victims of the devastating earthquakes in April 2015, and then the NC ministers mismanaged the purchases of relief materials and made massive irregularities in the purchase deal. The Oli administration not only tried to learn from the mistakes of the then NC government in 2015 but also had probably overblown the coronavirus-pandemic expenses overwhelmingly, as the Oli administration declared the expenditure of ten billion rupees without giving any accounts. The Oli administration sent the police force and water cannon vehicles to disperse the protestors taking the issue to the streets. The Oli administration had not only tried to cover up the hot issue of the expenditure of the public money but also denied the folks to protest peacefully demanding the transparency of the expenditures. The democratically elected government is accountable to protect the fundamental human rights to demanding the accounts of the public money.

Folks had voted for the grand coalition of the two large communist parties hoping the government they would form would rerun the idle state-owned industries the then NC government put on hold following the policies on economic liberalization, and opening up of the economy to the private sector and selling off the state-owned industries but the Oli administration did not give a fig for them. The communists never tired of saying the NC government had sold out the state-owned industries dirt-cheap to the private sector did even think of rehabilitating none of industries that would have created thousands of jobs, and substituted the imports of billions of rupees worth of paper, vehicle tires, textile, agricultural tools, and many more. But the Oli administration had the goal of following the socialist economy. Rather the then industry minister of the NC government: Nabindra Raj Joshi had rehabilitated the pharmaceutical factory and even tried to revive the Hetauda textile factory but he had to leave the office before he could finish his mission on restarting the closed state-owned factories.

Whatever the current development the country has achieved today has been entirely due to the economic liberalization and privatization policies the then NC government had adopted in 1990s. After the NC government opened up the economy to the private sector, then the private sector has made billions of rupees worth of investment in opening up medical colleges, private nursing schools, and private technical colleges, billions if not thousands of billions of rupees worth of private investment in the public transport creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of rupees worth of tax revenue to the state, then billions of rupees worth of investment in the private television and the FM radios companies currently making available more than one hundred private TV channels, and more than seven hundred FN radio stations that also created sizable number of jobs not to mention a huge investment made in the industries particularly the cement industry making the supply of cement almost self sufficient, and in the hydropower stations that would soon produce more power than the country would consume.

The then NC government opened up the floodgate for the foreign employments to the Nepalese youths the then communist opposition leaders had strongly opposed stating the NC government was selling the Nepalese youths abroad. Sending youths to abroad for the jobs was needed at that time to uplift the hundreds of thousands of the families from the poverty: the relics of the monarchical rule for over two-and-a-half centuries. The immediate solution was to send them to foreign countries for employment, as the immediate creation of the job opportunities in the country was impossible. The current finance minister said that he would encourage the Nepalese youths to opt for the foreign jobs to increase the remittances going against the requirement for creating a large number of jobs in the country for utilizing the valuable human assets for the development of the country rather than selling them to the foreign countries.

Even the credit for miraculously rather expertly the CEO of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA): Kulman Ghising had ended the long-standing power outage for several hours a day, and then he successfully made the power available for twenty four hours a day would not go to the Oli administration because former Energy Minister Janardan Sharma of the past government had appointed Ghising to the CEO of the NEA and pushed him to end the power outage and make the perennial power supply throughout a day every day. The smooth supply of power making available for twenty four hours a day alone had expedited the socio-economic development in the country to some extent, and stopped the billions of rupees worth of the imports of the inverters and batteries used for storing power to use whenever the power is not available from the main supply line, and other billions of rupees spent on importing power from India. The Oli administration could appoint such a competent CEO as Ghising to other State-run agencies, too but the attention of Mr. Oli had not drawn to such good actions, yet.

The merits of providing the folks in the Kathmandu Valley with the drinking water from the Melamchi River would have gone to the Oli administration after repeatedly postponing it for every coming Dashain festival if it had not blown up one of the sixteen gates while passing the water through the tunnel for the test run in the third week of July 2020 making uncertain for the supply of water and opening a floodgate of making money for the water companies, and the decision makers involved in this multi-billion project that is being done with the generous financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank. Nobody knows whether Prime Minister Oli would survive as the prime minister to see the water flowing from the Melamchi River to the thirsty Kathmandu Valley people, as it has become uncertain whether the project would be completed during his five year term of office or not. Some folks doubted whether the water would really flow from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu as most of the decision makers in the project had been the folks having the serious interest in the private water companies producing and supplying water in Kathmandu Valley with the profit of billions of rupees a year.

What an option the voters have if they would not vote for the NC in the next general election, as the serious rival the communist party has gone so low that voters would simply see it as a worthless to vote for it. It seems they have no alternative at all to voting for the NC, as RPP: the political party founded by the former Pancha politicians of the discredited Panchayat system, had the policies and programs of reinstating the awful and dead monarchy that had sold out the Limpiyadhura, Kalapani, and Lepu Lekh to India and removed those part of Nepal even from the map of Nepal in the mid 1970s. Former King Mahendra shared the northern portion of the Mt. Everest with China, which the then first popularly elected Nepalese Prime Minister BP Koirala absolutely refused to do so when Mao Zedong proposed it while BP was in China during his state visit. RPP also has the policy of re-imposing the Hindu religion on the fifty percent of the non-Hindu ethnic people falsely claiming ninety percent of Nepalis are of the Hindu faith again trying to make Nepal a country of one faith, one language, and one national dress disregarding the religion, culture and languages of the ethnic people. The Madheshi leaders and their political parties had once sold out their political souls to India claiming the credit for the embargo India imposed on Nepal believing that India could force the Nepalese political leaders to meet the demands of the Madheshi leaders before promulgating the people’s Constitution in September 2015. So, they are also not the candidates for the Nepalese voters to vote for.

Ultimately, voters might need to vote for the NC in the next general elections to protect and preserve the fundamental human rights to the freedom of expression, to the protection of the private property that the communists had been trying to grab from the common people, and to safeguard the Constitution and the democracy from the communist predators, as the president that had taken the oath of defending the Constitution of Nepal had issued two ordinances Prime Minister Oli had recommend without checking them whether they would violate the Constitution or not. Nepalis had paid so high prices in terms of human lives lost for reinstating democracy again and again and finally ending the monarchy that had been hard wall for the smooth functioning of democracy in the country, and for the policy on putting the socio-economic development on the fast track through the involvement of the private sector in the development. So, Nepalis could not afford to lose all those political gains made paying the high prices of the huge sacrifices of human lives and property mistakenly voting for the communists and other political parties to power again.

July 22, 2020

Unfortunate Truth

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

The seven o’clock Radio Nepal morning news on July 16, 2020 stated that in response to the media report that the prime minister had 55 million dollars in the Swiss Bank, the office of the prime minister denied Prime Minister Oli having any account in the Swiss Bank, and depositing any amount in it. It is fine. Probably, the office of prime minister might be correct; and we hope that the prime minister in fact has no money deposited in any foreign banks.

Most probably, common folks also would believe in the statement of the office of prime minister, as Prime Minister Oli had repeatedly said that he would not allow anybody involve in irregularities in his administration even though he refrained from taking actions against a former communication and information technology minister for negotiating with a local agent for commission on purchasing a security printing press. In fact, Prime Minister Oli doubted about the credibility of the audio that revealed how the former minister had bargained with the agent for the commission.

The prime minister could take legal or administrative actions or both against the reporters or agency reporting such apparently bogus news that would highly tarnish the political image of Prime Minster Oli that had strived for keeping his image as clean as possible. Legally, Oli could sue the reporter and the agency for attempting to damage his political career publishing the sham news so claiming for the compensation in millions of dollars. Administratively, he could order the local administrative officer to bring the reporter and the agency to justice for falsely reporting the news about the prime minister having so much of money in the Swiss Bank.

Prime Minister Oli did not opt for any one of the possible ways of taking strong actions against obviously the culprits for reporting and publishing apparently the fake news, and demanding or seeking the compensation for the damage they had done to his political career, and for keeping his political image as clean as possible or both means he has left room for anybody to conclude that he might have really such a large amount of money in the foreign bank.

Concerning the curiosity of from where Oli might have garnered so much of money, again folks could derive the conclusive results from the ongoing massive irregularities in the Oli administration. For example, the local media reported quoting the Auditor General’s report recently submitted to the president that the Oli administration had avoided the Public Procurement Act splitting the large projects into pieces for giving in contract at least for NPR 72 billion in the fiscal year 2018 (2075/76). The Oli administration declared that it had spent NPR 10 billion for coping with the coronavirus pandemic but it did not disclose the account. So, some youths took this issue to the streets demanding the transparency of the expenditure. The Oli administration also collected NPR 2 billion from the local donors for the coronavirus but where the money had gone not known, yet. This is only a tip of iceberg, as the budget has the hundreds of loopholes including subsidies on agriculture and fertilizers and on others programs, too for anybody to make money as much as possible.

Some experts and economists believe that at least from NPR 200 billion to NPR 1,000 billion go to the foreign banks for safely depositing in the names of the Nepalese politicians every year. Some development experts questioned how Nepal could complete the large and mega development projects as scheduled when such a huge amount of money allocated to the development projects went abroad.

Not only the Nepalese leaders had stashed away the money in the foreign banks but also they had invested the large amount of money in the large airlines company, large business houses, and companies through the proxy shareholders, as the local media casually reported, and the rumors and gossips went among the Nepalese folks. Such allegations of the politicians hiding the money in foreign banks or investing in the large companies through the proxy shareholders were probably supported by the actions of the Oli administration. For example, the Oli administration had renewed the contract on the Gokarna Resort to the private company even though the previous contract was to expire only after five years. Prime Minister Oli took the plane of the private company to fly to China instead of using the state-owned National Airlines Corporation. These are only two simple examples widely discussed in the media.

What I had been hearing from the friends and colleagues and reading the media reports since the Panchayat period that the folks in power at all levels of the political system had their bank accounts in Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, and in the Indian banks depending on their capacity of accumulating the money even though the Nepalese laws did not permit any Nepalis to hold any bank accounts in any foreign countries.

Surely, the top leaders might have a large amount of money they needed to keep safely for a rainy day. So reportedly, they outsourced the money and parked in the Swiss Bank, as they felt that it was safe for them to have their hard earned money deposited in the bank. Certainly, they could not keep the money in Nepal, as it would be impossible to keep away the money from the eyes and ears of the public in general and the reporters in particular.

Those folks having large amounts of money but not sufficient to deposit in the Swiss Bank, opted for going to Singapore and finding a suitable bank to deposit their money. It was comparatively safe place to deposit the money but not as safe as Switzerland. Some others chose Hong Kong banks for the same purposes. Currently, it might not be so safe as had been in the past.

Finally, the folks having a large amount of money but not sufficient to take troubles to take it to Singapore or Hong Kong obviously went to India, and deposited their so meticulously earned money in one of the safe Indian banks. Probably, they could not convert the Nepalese currency into foreign for depositing it in the countries other than India. That might be another reason for taking their money to India.

From these statements anybody could guess how a large amount of money converted into the foreign currencies had been flown out of the country, as the folks could not keep their money earned not directly but indirectly and probably bypassing the State laws in the country for fear of exposing how they amassed the so much of wealth; so, they were compelled to deposit such large amount of money in the foreign banks going against the then prevailing laws even if the money was supposed to be used for the development purposes in Nepal.

Probably, the practice of taking money from Nepal and depositing it in foreign banks has continued even today. Nepalese politicians need such a large amount of money for running for various offices during the elections. So, politicians might be sincere in their hearts and minds but the elections must have made them shady and fraudulent. Some politicians even directly expressed their opinions that sincere politicians could hardly reach the pinnacle of power even if they reached they could not stay long there. What an unfortunate truth has been for Nepal.

July 17, 2020

Destiny Of Nepalese Prime Ministers

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

After two-and-a-half years, Prime Minister Oli had been grappling with holding onto power. The ongoing Standing Committee Meeting of Nepal Communist Party since the last week of June would set the destiny of the Oli administration. Obviously, Oli had been taking every possible measure to meet with any eventualities that might come across. Not only Oli had faced such consequences but also almost all the past prime ministers in the history of Nepal had almost the same if not similar fate, as those prime ministers including current Prime Minister Oli once they were in the place of power, they thought that they were above all the people and they were born to rule over the people. As a result, they faced the disaster during their lifetime or even after their lifetime.

At the Standing Committee Meeting of the ruling communist party, the members had raised the question about what were the motives behind Prime Minister Oli while speaking at the memorial event held on the anniversary of Madan Bhandari saying that the Indians and some of his own party folks had been conspiring to topple his government, and the next question they had raised was who and why had someone applied for registering a new UML communist party at the Election Commission, the spokesman for the party told the reporters.

Clearly, Oli had been nervous that he might need to quit his powerful office soon. Even though Spokesman for Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Narayankaji Shrestha said that nobody had demanded the resignation of Oli from both the offices of prime minister and the party chairman, the noises in the public had been that most of the Standing Committee members had been for removing Oil from both the positions, as he had not only ruined his own chance of getting elected but even most of other members of the party in the next general election.

So, Prime Minister Oli had been for ascertaining as many strategies as possible to stay on in power.

The first strategy was that he had floated the notion of he had been facing the threat from Indians and from some of the members of his own party. The strategy was virtually to earn the empathy and sympathy of the common folks and his party members. He however, would not have any sympathy from both the common folks and the party members as he had gone too far for doing everything for himself and his sycophants rather than for the people and for the party, too. He put himself above everything and everybody.

Political analysts had said that Mr. Oli had been a master strategist to cover up everything possible he did wrongly misinforming the public to the maximum extent going beyond the ethic of any credible politician. The political analysts said that in fact, Oli had been a pawn of the grand design of the Americans and Indians to encircle China following the Indo-pacific strategy. So, he wanted to get the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) pass through the parliament.

No doubt about the neighboring countries or any other foreign countries would try to influence Nepalese administration but Nepalis had rejected the attempt of India on the direct interference in promulgating the Constitution of Nepal in 2015 even though Nepalis had to suffer from the six-month embargo of the Modi administration. Even the almighty United States of America had to suffer from the external interference in its administration causing the wrong person got elected in 2016 presidential elections.

The Chinese ambassador to Nepal met with former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal at the Khanal’s Dallu residence on July 7, 2020, the seven O’clock morning news of Radio Nepal stated on July 8, 2020. A few days ago the ambassador also met with another former Prime Minister Madhav Nepal, too. It was not a new thing in Nepal that every ambassador could met with the President or Prime Minister setting aside the protocol, as these Nepalese guys in whatever positions they were took pride in having the foreign diplomats meeting them. These guys believed that it was the honor for them to have the foreign ambassadors coming to meet them. They never considered that they had dishonored the country.

Some political analysts said that the ambassador meeting with the former prime ministers apparently to get the NCP out of the current crisis was blatant interference in the domestic matters of the country. Others believed that it was normal for the ambassadors to have the meetings with the Nepalese politicians at the time of the crisis, and take interest in resolving the problems, as the Indian ambassadors also did in the past.

Indian news media had been grossly misinforming on the political development in Nepal, and they reported the highly questionable news making hard to believe, and some Nepalis even stated that all the Indian media reports on Nepal had been almost false all the time. Indian army chief had even gone even to the extent that Nepal had been playing in the hands of Chinese to publish the new Nepal map including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lepulekh. India had kept the Indian army outpost at Lepulekh: the Nepalese territory since the Sino-India war in 1962.

His colleagues had been accusing Oli of he had been behaving that he was above the common folks and even above the party, and none could do anything against him; and his one statement after another proved that he did not care about the party decision; for example, Oli proposed to appoint Bamdev Gautam to the National Assembly, and then amend the Constitution of 2015 so that the members of the National Assembly would be eligible for the office of prime minister, and then elect Bamdev Gautam to the new prime minister but Oli denied it after two hours of making such a decision.

Then, he sent someone to apply for registering a new party at the Election Commission, according to the regular media reports. This was a second strategy to split the NCP to form a new party and continue to be the prime minister. That might be hard to achieve, as he needed forty percent of supporters in the parliament and in his own party to split away from the party. He had previously also tried to do the same hurriedly recommending the president to issue two ordinances paving the way to splitting political parties and forming new ones with ease. However, he quickly backtracked following the widespread criticism.

His supporters in the party and outside the party had been floating the idea of dissolving the House of Representatives and calling general elections. The Constitution of Nepal of 2015 has the clear provision for not giving such prerogative to any prime minister. Dissolving the House was possible only in a special circumstance, which calls for general elections. So, he could not do that. Even if he would try it, the Supreme Court would reinstate the House.

The same group of sycophants has the idea of imposing a state of emergency, and continuing the rule of Mr. Oli. This strategy was only the wishful thinking and the constitution does not allow happening it when the country has no visible threat. However, if Oli managed to impose a state of emergency that might be the end for the Oil administration, as the entire nation would rise up against such an action.

Consequently, Oli has not many options. His statement of Indians and his own party colleagues have been intriguing to topple him is practically the political camouflage that could not hide him from the reality. So, his first option was to follow the party decision and properly use the party mandate and the people’s mandate for the benefits of all. His second option was to quit both from the party leadership and the government and live the life of an ascetic. What he would not surely do. So, what Oli would do was difficult to predict. Anything could happen including the declaration of a state of emergency. Even now, people are not better than living under a state of emergency, as most of the human rights were curtailed because of the covid-19 pandemic.

The Oli’s cabinet recommended the president to end the summer session of the House of Representatives, and the president smartly signed off the order to end the session on July 2, 2020 had shield Oli from the possible consequences of needing to face the vote of no confidence against him in the House but it also opened up a door to issue ordinances that would suit him.

Probably, most of the lawmakers were determined to remove Oli from the office by force if he were not to quit voluntarily, as he had ruined the party and the chance of getting them reelected next time. Even the House Speaker did not know that the council of ministers was going to end the House session so abruptly and the sudden ending of the House session surprised the speaker and everybody interested in the Nepalese politics, the widespread media reports have it. The opposition party: Nepali Congress regretted the council of ministers unexpectedly ending the House session even though many agenda and bills were to be dealt with.

Spokesman Narayankaji Shrestha for the ruling communist party while briefing the reporters on the ongoing Standing Committee Meeting of the party on July 2, 2020 stated that Comrade Prachanda met with the president concerning the current political situation. The spokesman also stated that the ruling party had been in a grave crisis. Probably, Prachanda had gone to the president to see what might be going on whether the country was having other ordinances or so to ease the split of the political parties, and whether Oli was going to introduce a state of emergency to remain in power.

Speaking to the anchor of the Radio Nepal morning program called “Antar-sambad” on July 3, 2020, former House Speaker Subash Nemwang stated that some party colleagues including him had a good meeting at the residence of Comrade Prachanda. Probably, they were discussing how to sort out the current problems created by the discretionary actions of Prime Minister Oli and his sycophants. Currently, Comrade Prachanda and Prime Minister Oli had been having discussions to solve the problems, Nemwang said.

What went wrong?

After Oli became the prime minister of almost two-thirds majority everybody thought that Oli could do anything to put the country on the fast-track development but what he did was he went to inaugurate the statue of the former Gorkha King Prithvi Narayan Shah, and his deputy Ishwar Pokhrel to open up the statue of General Kalu Pandey who got killed while fighting against the Kirtipurians, and then he sent his tourism minister Yogesh Bhattarai to Gorkha to open up the statue of Bhimsen Thapa. So, Oli had probably developed the tendency of becoming one of them and possibly all of them together. He put himself above the common folks above the party and became the dictatorial, according to the regular and social media reports.

The result had been the Oli administration failed in every sector. The Oli administration had the information minister Gokul Baskota negotiating the commission on purchasing the security printing press with the local agent, and the health minister for purchasing drugs for the covid-19 at a number of times higher prices than the market prices, and the finance minister not taking the responsibility for a company doing the custom clearance of electric vehicle of which the finance minister increased the custom rate quite high: up to 80 percent from the prevailing 10 percent. Nobody except for the finance minister knew how much tax would decrease or increase on anything. Obviously, somebody stole the idea of increasing the custom tax on electric vehicle, and the company hurriedly cleared off the custom to benefit in billions.

The Oli administration horribly failed in managing the covid-19 pandemic. The administration imposed the shelter-in-place for all but it did not care about how to feed those guys doing nothing but eating at home or rooms in the country and abroad. The consequences of such negligence of the Oli administration had been that many Nepalis died because of starvation; those who could not face dying from starvation committed suicide, the widespread reports have it. Many Nepalis returning home from India and abroad had faced uncertainties of where they would be sheltered or what they would be feed. However, the Oli administration had said that billions of rupees had been spent on covid-19.

Some youths took to the streets demanding the transparency of the expenditures made for coping the covid-19. The Oil administration instead of making public the accounts of the expenditures on the covid-19 sent the police with batons, and the water cannons to disperse the protestors. Currently, some youths had been on the hunger strike demanding the correct accounts of the State expenditures on the covid-19. The Oli administration had not taken it seriously. The youths had been dwindling their health.

Some folks took to the streets demanding to end the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) that would bring NPR 55 billion to Nepal for building the power transmission lines at almost five times the cost the Nepal Electricity Authority had been building, according to the expert. MCC is the part of the Indo-pacific Strategy of the American establishment. The first victim of the MCC might be the Oli administration, as the Americans had the global strategy to fight against the communists, and end their rule anywhere in the world. Most of the central committee members of the NCP opposed it.

“Satya Mayava Jayatya” means only truth will triumph, said Prime Minister Oli while speaking in the parliament quoting the inscription on the tower that holds four lions facing four directions: the Indian monument, and telling the lawmakers that Nepal has overwhelming evidences that Limpiyadhura, Kalapani, and Lipulekh are the integral parts of Nepal. Only truth prevails, is great, it is applicable to his performances as the prime minister as well.

Currently, the ruling party has been undergoing the great cold war between the truth and untruth. Those leaders and cadres representing the truth have been fighting the prime minister and his administration not only at the federal state but also at the provinces and the local governments his sycophants have been running so far.

The irregularities in the administration have been in the colossal scale at all levels of the Oli administration. Most of the folks running the provinces, and local governments are the favorites of Oli. So, they simply emulated the federal Oli administration to spend the state revenue indiscriminately benefiting them.

If the folks representing Prime Minister Oli and his sycophants were to win the current cold war between the folks representing the truth and the untruth then the ruling party is doomed to go into oblivion. The Oli faction still thinks that the ruling party has the two-thirds majority of the public opinions. However, the truth is the ruling party has certainly almost two-thirds majority of the lawmakers in the parliament but the public opinions favoring the ruling communist party have been dropped to the negative means below zero.

Oli must have read the history of Nepal. So, he must be emulating the working style of those past prime ministers totally ignoring the consequences of what they did.

Bhimsen Thapa had been the prime minister of Nepal for almost 30 years in the 19th century. His main intention had been to finish off the opposition and he mercilessly destroyed the opposition. The result had been Bhimsen had to die in the jail at the hands of his opponents, and his corpse was dragged on the streets as the body of a dead dog.

His successor Mathabar Singh had to die at the hands of an assassin, too because of his arrogance. His corpse was dragged on the streets as that of Bhimsen. The then king did not like him. Instead of firing him from the position, the king summoned him to the palace at the midnight, and let his nephew (purportedly Jung Bahadur) standing behind someone fired him, killing him instantly. The king disliked Mathabar Singh so much that the king kicked the dead Mathabar several times. Before Mathabar left home for the palace, Mathabar’s son told that there must be something fishy going on, as the king had summoned him at the midnight. However, Mathabar simply brushed off his son’s warning telling him, “I could tackle five men without trouble”.

A killer’s bullet hit Mathabar’s successor Gagan Singh while at his prayer room. He was the favorite of the queen. The power struggle between the king and the queen had been going on. So, the king allegedly hired Jung Bahadur to destroy Gagan Singh whose death gave the rise of Jung Bahadur to the most powerful prime minister in the history of Nepal.

His own brothers killed Prime Minister Ranodip Singh while taking a sunbath on the balcony because he was supposedly working on going against the interest of the brothers who were in line for the position of the prime minister. Reportedly, Ranodip wanted to transfer power to the eldest son of Jung Bahadur rather than the brother next in line to succeed to him.

Even the first democratically elected Prime Minister BP Koirala faced the possible death sentence, as he did not work in the interest of the common folks nor did in the interest of the king but in the interest of his few corrupt sycophants. Consequently, the king easily removed him from power. Common folks did not rise up against the king, as he must have anticipated. His administration had been so infected by corruption; common folks simply disliked him as the current situation Prime Minister Oli has been facing today.

All those prime ministers who had faced either the death or the threat to death sentence did not try to do for the common folks. They had been striving for a vested interest that had been the main cause of the fall from power and being publicly disgraced. Consequently, they failed to perform as the prime ministers, and they failed to please the folks that had made them the prime ministers in other words mandated them to run the administration judiciously.

Prime Minister Oli had been meeting with the opposition leader: Sher Bahadur Deuba for consulting with him for making appointments to the key positions in the constitutional bodies, according to the official statement but the political analysts and experts did not believe in this public statement but they believed that the prime minister must have sounded out whether he could ride on the shoulder of the opposition to form a new government.

The opposition would surely benefit from keeping Oli in power as long as possible. So, it had publicly stated that it would oppose the fall of the Oli administration. Political analysts believed that Prime Minister Oli had been digging ground for burying him and his party together in the next general elections. His every decision and every statement he made wrongly had gone a step deeper in his digging. By the time the next general elections would be held, the position of Oli and his party would be so deteriorated that the current opposition would reap the harvest of the wronging doings of the Oil administration.

If the opposition were to support the breakaway party of Oli and make him the prime minister again then the opposition would need to be accountable to all the irregularities Oil had committed so far, and he would continue wrongdoings in the future, too. The NCP would be relieved of all the irregularities and corruption the Oli administration had committed if Oli were to split away from the mother party, and then NCP might emerge as the strong rival to the current opposition party: Nepali Congress in the next general elections.

So, the opposition would lose every gain it had made from the immature decisions and actions of the Oli administration, and his nature of not being accountable to anything going wrong in the State administration, and letting the corrupt former minister, and other ministers involved in irregularities in the administration getting off scot-free. So, so many ministers had been running the administration openly causing irregularities but remaining in the jobs with impunity.

The worst thing Oli had done was ordering his sycophants to take to the streets supporting him believing that he would get the relief from the current ongoing crisis. It had been the repetition of what the then dictatorial administration had done in the past to cope with the opposition at the time of crisis. So, this trick was widely known to all the political analysts and experts.

Prime Minister Oli has the finance minister Dr. Khatiwada that had publicly said that he would encourage the Nepalese youths to go to foreign countries for earning revenue for Nepal. How could Nepal be on the right track of development when the country has the finance minister that wanted to export the most valuable assets of the country for the meager revenue rather than keeping them for the fast development of the country? 

July 4, 2020

July 7, 2020  updated

July 8, 2020 updated

Justice Done To Statues

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

The waves of bringing down the statues of racists, slave traders, and colonizers prevailing in America and elsewhere in Europe had reminded me how the then Soviet leaders tore down the statues of Stalin and then of course after the breakdown of the Soviet Union how the East European countries removed the statues of Lenin, and then how the protestors watched how the statues of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi came down amid the protestors watching them. This indicated that no matter how long the time had passed the culprits could not escape from the punishment; even the statues could not do away with the injustice their originals had done to the people. This also was the indication one day the statues of Mao Zedong would need to face the same fate. Probably, in the places vacated by the statues of Mao would be replaced with the statues of Deng Xiaoping. In Nepal too, the statues of Prithvi Narayan Shah and his descendents would probably have the same destiny, as of the statues of other irrational and cruel and tyrannical rulers elsewhere in the world.

It was in September 1961 when fifteen of Nepalese students including me were flown to Moscow from Kathmandu via New Delhi, and Tashkent in Uzbekistan, and then lodged them in one of the hostels of the Moscow Automobile Roads Institution in Sokol, as all of us were for studying civil engineering in the Soviet Union under the scholarships so generously the then Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev offered to Nepal. Because of the temperature difference between Kathmandu and Moscow even in September I felt very cold initially but my body quickly adopted the climate, and I felt normal even in Moscow in a few days.

There was a small local park among the so many hostel buildings in Sokol. I needed to cross the park to reach the student cafeteria for having a lunch. I used to have breakfast and dinner at my hostel room. There was a small kiosk on the ground floor of our hostel where I could buy a few things for dinner and have a dinner quietly not going out of the hostel. So, I used to cross the park only once a day for going to lunch at the cafeteria. The park had two large statues of Lenin and Stalin facing each other.

After a few months in Moscow, I suddenly woke up with the morning news that the body of Stalin was removed from the Kremlin Mausoleum, and was buried along the Kremlin wall. I was surprised why the body of the so beloved leader of the Soviet Union was removed from the public view, and then it was buried. I even regretted that I postponed visiting the mausoleum, and I lost the opportunity of seeing Stalin. So, the first thing in that weekend I did was to visit the mausoleum to see the remaining body of Vladimir Lenin fearing the body of Lenin might follow the Stalin’s body. Lifeless Lenin was sleeping quietly. All the visitors including me were in a constant move quietly watched not making noise even breathing low so that we would not cause any disturbance to the soul of venerable Lenin.

The next unexpected thing I noticed was the statue of Stalin facing Lenin went missing from the park. That did not shock my mind, as did the removal of the body of Stalin from the mausoleum.  Later on, I came to know that they eliminated the statues of Stalin from every park at nights to avoid the people’s provocation. By that time I already knew something about why the statues of Stalin became the target. The Russian newspapers had begun widely reporting the misdeeds of Stalin. Obviously, millions of communists who dared to speak out against Stalin found their way to heaven without most of their colleagues knowing them going so early.

Then, in 1990 the Soviet Union collapsed. The fifteen union members were freed. Other Eastern European communist States too went out of the Soviet Union umbrella. Most of them quickly removed the statues of Lenin from their countries. Only they knew how brutal and despotic communist rulers had been thanks to Lenin. So, for them even the word “communist” had been so hateful. So, the statues of Lenin had gone out of the Eastern European countries. However, Russians had kept the statues of Lenin elsewhere in Russia, and the body at the Kremlin mausoleum so far.

Then, the Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes, and two of them managed to hit the twin towers in New York, USA on September 11, 2001 creating havoc in the United States of America. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been working from Afghanistan where the Taliban leaders had been running the State administration. They had aimed at destroying everything non-Muslim artifacts. They blew up two large stone Buddha statues in Khandahar ignoring the worldwide opposition. The Taliban even refused to let devotees collect the broken pieces of the Buddha statues. Recently, UNICEF had been working on restoring the Buddha statues in Khandahar, according to the media reports.

Obviously, the first thing, the US administration did was to destroy the Taliban regime. The Taliban who disregarded the world opinions and destroyed everything non-Muslim had to go back to their hiding places. Not even a year had passed since destroying the twin towers in New York, the Taliban were on the run from the US military. The infamous Taliban went again in hiding in the remote villages in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They had paid the heavy price for demolishing the twin towers in New York, and later on Osama bin Laden himself paid by his life for sending the terrorists to hit the twin towers.

After sending the Taliban to underworld, the next thing the US administration did was to turn on Iraq. The then head of the US administration George W. Bush charged President of Republic of Iraq: Saddam Hussein with having the weapon of mass destruction (WMP). So, the US administration sent its army to Iraq to finish off Saddam Hussein and destroy the so-called WMP. After a month or so, Saddam went into hiding leaving his palace and statues vulnerable to the predators. The US army men hooked up the head of the statue of Saddam Hussein and pulled it down amid a tremendous cheer from the watching crowd in the capital city Baghdad. Later on, Saddam found himself at the gallows, and bravely faced the hangman removing the black cover put on his face before hanging.

The next turn was of the statues of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who was killed by a crowd in October 2011 while he was on the run from the western coalition forces that assisted the uprisings in Libya. For almost forty years Gaddafi ran the unopposed despotic administration in Libya often assisting the terrorists to shut down a plane or hit major opponents. He squandered the oil rich revenue for his unique irrational life style. His statues also came down elsewhere in Libya after his death and the collapse of his regime.

Today, the anti-racism protestors (Black Lives Matter) ignited by the death of George Floyd at the hands of the while policeman in Minneapolis, USA, elsewhere in the world have been demanding the tearing down of the statues of the former slave traders, soldiers and army generals who fought for slavery, and colonizers.

In Bristol, England on June 7, 2020, the “Black Lives Matter” protestors pulled down the statue of British slave trader Edward Colston built in 1895 from the pedestal, and they rolled it down to the harbor and dumped it there. However, the statue was retrieved and would be displayed in a museum. Similarly, the statue of King Leopold II was removed in Belgium. Protestors wanted the statue to go from the public display, as the king had brutally killed many people in Congo in Africa when he colonized it. The Native American activists brought down the statue of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus from the pedestal in Minnesota, USA on June 10, 2020, as it stood as the reminder of the defeat of the indigenous people. A number of statues were tore down in America and Europe. Most of them would find their way to museums for safekeeping and display.

Statues of Mao Zedong might have the same fate as of those European and American statues in the twenty first century, as the new generation of Chinese communists has not forgotten the excessive hard physical labor their predecessors had to suffer for speaking up against Mao falling in the trap Mao had indirectly set in 1960s. Probably, the statues of Deng Xiaoping would take the places the Mao’s statues had vacated, as the current prosperity of China had been the contribution of Deng Xiaoping: one of the greatest political leaders in the twentieth century.

That brings us to the statues in Nepal.

The Nepalese communist leaders and ministers including the prime minister had been busy with opening up the statues of the feudal lords the communists labeled as their foes but for the Nepalese communists they had been the venerable figures. For example, Prime Minister Oli opened up the statue of Prithvi Narayan Shah at the Chandragiri resort, and his deputy Ishowar Pokharel opened up the statue of Kalu Pandey in the Kirtipur area causing the great insult to the descendents of those Kirtipureans who lost their noses and ears to the barbarian soldiers Prithvi Shah had sent to do the jobs. Then the Oli’s minister for tourism and civil aviation Yogesh Bhattarai another communist minister opened up the statue of Bhimsen Thapa in Gorkha. Some folks did not visit the Chandragiri resort because of the statue of Prithvi Narayan Shah.

Certainly, time would soon come in Nepal, too when the people would demand to get rid of the statues of Prithvi Shah and other feudal lords from the public eyes. However, the main statue of Prithvi standing at the western gate to the Singhadurbar in Kathmandu had been serving to navigate the vehicular traffic.

The statue of Tribhuvan at the Shahidgate in Kathmandu sitting above the four martyrs had been the great upsetting to the people who fought for democracy, and who own it. Tribhuvan had signed off the death sentence to those four martyrs whose statues had been sitting in the Shahidgate. The statue of Tribhuvan needed to go to a museum for safekeeping. The statue had been doing great injustice to the four martyrs that had sacrificed their beautiful lives for the fundamental human rights and democracy in the mid twentieth century.

The statue of Mahendra: the killer of democracy standing at the Sanskritpathasala had been the eyesore. Time has come to take away the statue and place it somewhere in a museum. In 1960, Mahendra killed democracy that had been won at the cost of high human lives and property in 1951. He introduced the despotic political system that managed to prevail for 30 years in Nepal despite its traits of corruption and despotism. Consequently, Nepal retarded politically, economically and socially for the 30 years.

The new generation of Nepalis grown up in the twenty-first century would take care of those unwanted statues of the feudal lords the communist leaders wanted to propagate going against the people’s inspiration for flourishing the republican setup. Using teargas and water cannons against the peaceful protestors, the current Oli administration had been swimming against the political current trying to take back the fundamental rights to the freedom of expression and to peacefully taking the issues of the national interest to the streets.

In the republican society and democratic system of governance, the State administration protects the protestors on the streets and listens to them rather than chasing them away using water cannons and teargas and police batons. All these weapons of harassing the protestors go against the democratic principles and norms. So, the Oli administration had been putting the democracy and the republic at risk going against the republican constitution. Nepalis need to safeguard the constitution and protect the democracy and the republic from any predators.

June 16, 2020

Federal Budget For Fiscal Year 2020

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Finance Minister Dr. Yubraj Khatiwada had done his annual ritual of presenting the federal budget for the FY 2020 to the federal parliament: the joint session of the House of Representatives, and the National Assembly. He revealed that the economic growth of the current FY 2019 would be just 2.3 percent, as projected by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also but the real growth of the Nepalese economy might be negative. He said that the income of every Nepali had reached US$ 1085, and the purchasing power was US$ 1388 per year for the FY 2019; he did not bother to say whether it was higher or lower than the previous year. He also projected that the economic growth for the next FY 2020 would be seven percent. Most of the economic pundits doubted about it but the growth might be even higher as had been after the devastating earthquakes in 2015 provided the Oli administration would be sincere to the commitments made in the budget to the people.

Every Nepali had anticipated that the finance minister would present a budget for the year in the aftermath of the coronavirus quite different from any previous budgets to stimulate the economy the virus had brought to almost standstill but to the disappointment of all the folks the finance minister had followed the same traditional budget paying only lip service to revive the economy the coronavirus had devastated. In the name of the stimulus packages, the finance minister included the waiver of annual renewal fees, and of the income tax on certain annual incomes in the budget, and the extension of the time for paying interest and loans. For example, anybody having the commercial transaction (turnover) of two million (20 lakh) rupees a year based on the annual statements done for the FY 2018 would have the 75 percent income tax exemption, 2 million to 5 million (50 lakh) would have 50 percent income tax exemption, and 5 million to 10 million (one crore) would have 25 percent income tax exemption. The truth was that even the vegetable vendors selling vegetables on the streets must have the turnover of more than two million rupees a year. A small mo-mo (meat dumpling) restaurant did make the transaction of more than 10 million rupees a year. A bundle of green leaf vegetables cost one hundred rupees in Kathmandu. One plate of mo-mo containing 10 pieces of dumplings cost 150 to 300 rupees depending on the kind of meat and the restaurant anybody visited.

The budget must have addressed a few things to counter the hardship the coronavirus had brought to the country and the people. First, the budget needed to take up the medical services required for tackling the possible outbreak of coronavirus but the budget had only six billion rupees for purchasing the medical supplies. The second thing was millions of folks sheltered in place had already facing hunger elsewhere in the country and abroad and in India, too. The budget needed to have a provision in a massive scale for meeting the resources required for the relief packages to safely bring back home those Nepalese migrant workers from foreign countries, and feed the millions of folks placed shelter-in-place at home or abroad, as the universal law was that if anybody locked up anyone meant needed to feed him or her in the confinement. The third thing was to have a large relief package to salvage the devastated economy.

The finance minister had stated that the budget was socialism-oriented, and chairman of the ruling communist party: Prachanda endorsed it but nowhere in the budget had any sense of social benefits made to anybody except for the social security allowances provided to certain citizens. The budget had been distributive and it had been for putting the money in the pockets of the political leaders and cadres of the ruling communist party rather than putting in the pockets of the poor people and the common folks to stimulate the economy the coronavirus had badly damaged.

For example, the finance minister allocated 11.60 billion to the PM Job-guarantee Program. The finance minister stated that it would create 200,000 jobs. If anybody made a simple arithmetic of it then s/he would find the amount per job would be 58,000 rupees, which was not sufficient for 100 days of employment for a person. The program was supposed to provide at least 100 days of employment to any unemployed person a year. The budget was consumed hiring some people for weeding out the grasses from the compounds of the offices of the local governments at the end of the FY 2018.

The finance minister had boasted that the budget was for creating more than 700,000 jobs. If anybody had read the budget speech s/he would find in the Labor and Employment section that the total number of jobs created would be 734,000 including 200,000 of the PM Job-guarantee Program. The budget stated that the 534,000 jobs would be created by the training programs such as training on plumbing, electric, electronic and so on would created 50,000 jobs at the cost of one billion rupees, and the grant given to the private sector for labor training ensuring two-year job guarantee at cost of another one billion would create another 50,000 jobs, technical and vocational training at the cost of 4.34 billion would be provided to 75,000 trainees, the small farmer credit program the Small Farmer Development Micro-finance would run create additional 40,000 jobs, the Youth Self Employment Program would create 12,000 jobs, the Micro-industry for Poor would create 127,000 jobs, the Forest Product based industry, agro-forest, setting up nurseries, afforestation, herb production and treatment would create 30,000 jobs, the Mobile Fund more than 30,000 Cooperatives had run the Poverty Alleviation Fund had promoted in 64 district would be transformed into the cooperative system would create 150,000 jobs. Actually the private sector creates most of the jobs, the State needs to provide only an environment conducive to create jobs but the finance minister boasted that the budget for the FY 2020 would create more than 700,000 jobs when the country needed millions of jobs to be created for meeting the needs of the youths coming back from the foreign employments in the aftermath of the coronavirus, and the new youths entering the job market.

The finance minister increased the subsidy on fertilizers from nine billion rupees in the current FY 2019 to 11 billion in the next FY 2020. However, every year if anybody had watched the media reports then they would find that farmers across the country always complained that they did not receive the fertilizers at the time of plantation season. They needed to buy the fertilizers at the market prices not the State-supported prices. The support prices of fertilizers were more than three times less than the market prices. Again the media reports had it that the chain of the decision makers in procuring and distributing fertilizers reaped the harvest of the benefits of the subsidized fertilizers as they distributed the fertilizers in conjunction with the local traders at the market. The international community had succeeded in stopping the Nepal Government subsidizing the fertilizers in the past but current senior leader of the ruling communist party: Madhav Kumar Nepal when he came to power reintroduced the subsidy on fertilizers. He allocated two billion rupees for the subsidy on fertilizers; thereafter, the subsidy increased every year currently reaching 11 billion.

One great thing the finance minister did was to allocate 1.82 billion rupees for providing the 1.34 million female students with sanitary pads at schools. They would not need to skip the classes when they had periods. That alone would increase the most needed the girls’ attendance at schools. This was one of the bright spots in the budget. This would help to decrease the gender bias. The school-going women would be strong enough to control their own destiny in the future.

Another bright feature of the budget was that the finance minister allocated 7.52 billion rupees to feeding the day meal to the students of up to the fifth grade so that their attendance at schools would be maintained and even increased even though this amount was considerably less than what really was necessary. The finance minister stated that it would benefit 2.8 million school-going children. With the free textbooks and free meal in the daytime, parents particularly the financially and economically deprived ones would tend to send their children to schools making most of the poverty-stricken children would have at least the fifth grade of schooling.

The finance minister allocated 12.46 billion to set up and upgrade the State hospitals at the center and the provinces and the local level. This amount would build 300-bed separate infectious disease hospital in Kathmandu, add 250 ICU beds at the State hospitals in the Kathmandu Valley and the provincial capitals, and would run 50-bed infectious disease hospitals in all the provincial capitals, and upgrade the Pokhara and Karnali Health academies, and the State hospitals in Koshi, Narayani, Bharatpur, Bheri and Dadeldhura. With this not much amount of money for the State, the finance minister had the ambitious programs to build and upgrade State hospitals.

Following the policy to setting up 5 to 15-bed basic hospitals at all the local levels in order to provide all the citizens with the primary quality healthcare services, 272 such hospitals would be set up at the cost of 14.27 billion in the coming year. This amount of the budget looked like a too conservative estimate for building and equipping 272 hospitals even though the experts might have made the budget estimate. To construct and equip 272 hospitals the State needed much more amount of money than allocated to in the budget.

The notion of one physician at every health institution as stated in the Article 34 of the budget probably would be impossible to implement. Here a physician could be understood as a medical doctor. The idea was excellent to have a doctor at each and every health center or health post. But the two questions the finance minister needed to answer as he presented the budget for such a program. The first question was whether the State had sufficient doctors and resources to put this idea into practice. The second question: the most serious one was whether such physicians would work in such health institutions where even x-ray machines were not available not to mention ultrasound machines and so on, which were the most essential ones for any doctor to work effectively. If the Oli administration was really serious to have a health worker at each and every health post and center, then it needed to produce mid-level health workers previously called health assistance in a large scale.

Ultimately, the finance minister came to the point of completing the Melamchi Drinking water project by the end of the current FY 2019, and start distributing the Melamchi water from the beginning of the next FY 2020. Let us hope it would happen after the failure of meeting the target of completing this highly hyped project so many times in the past. The finance minister stated that he had allocated 5.46 billion to initiate the second phase work of this project, and also allocated 5.89 billion to the management of drinking water and sewer system in the Kathmandu Valley.

Additional 100,000 safe houses would be built in the coming year at the cost of 3.50 billion in order to provide the citizens with safe houses following the policy to replace all the thatched roofed houses in the coming three years, the finance minister declared. This means each house would be built at 35,000 rupees. Could anybody believe that any house could be built at 35,000? It would not be a house but a roofed shed.

The poor finance minister had read out the most contradictory budget, and the most unusual budget anybody had ever seen after Nepal had practiced the annual budget system since 1950s. The folks who had crafted the budget must be very inept or they wanted to make the finance minister looked like incompetent to the public not to mention the lawmakers who had so patiently listened to the finance minister more than an hour on May 28, 2020 when the finance minister read out the 85 pages of the budget for the FY 2020.

Actually, the annual budget was the collection of the budgets the different ministries and the departments under them prepared for every year. In fact every year, all the different departments prepared the budgets for their activities, and then the ministries collected those budgets of their departments, and make the budgets of the ministries. All these budgets and the budgets of other areas not under any ministries put together became the final budget of the federal government. So, some of the statements the departments had made would not be practicable if the finance minister were to check with the concerned technical experts. Similarly, every province had its budget, too. Likewise, the local government altogether more than 700 also had their budgets, too.

The finance minister presented the total budget of Nepalese rupees 1474.64 billion. Of this total budget, 948.94 billion (64.40 percent) was allocated to the general expenditure, 352.91 billion (23.90 percent) to the capital expenditure, and 172.79 billion (11.70 percent) to the financial management. The general expenditure looked so high because it included 36.35 billion subsidy provided to the provinces, and 161.08 billion subsidy to the local governments, and other subsidies so many federal departments provided on various items for example the subsidy on the fertilizer alone was 11 billion for the FY 2020. It was nine billion in the current FY 2019. In addition, the provincial and local governments would have 122.14 billion worth of revenue from the revenue distribution, the budget speech stated. The capital expenditure budget was actually for the construction of road infrastructures, irrigation systems, airports and so on. The road infrastructures alone took one third of the total capital budget. The financial management budget was for providing loans at the discounted interest rate, and the repayment of the interest and principals of the loans the State had taken. More than 68 billion was included in the financial management budget for the FY 2020 for repaying the interest on and principals of the loans taken in the past several years.

The revenue collection for the coming FY 2020 would be 889.62 billion, the foreign grant would be 60.52 billion, and the deficit amount would be 524.50 billion. The foreign loan would be 299.50 billion, and the internal loan would be 225 billion to meet the budget deficit. The deficit amount in percentage was 35.56 percent. The inclusion of 55 billion rupees of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in the foreign grant provoked the uproar among the leaders of the ruling communist party, and immediately after finding it, the communist leaders rushed to the Baluwatar residence of the prime minister, and they settled to MCC amount only after the parliamentary action on it as it had been submitted to the House of Representative to pass it. Political intellectuals, and political leaders had been opposing the MCC grant, as it would put the sovereignty of Nepal at risk. What the House would do remains to be seen. Probably, Prime Minister Oli must have been sure to get the MCC grant passed by the House otherwise he would not allow the finance minister to include the MCC amount in the budget.

The budget of the current fiscal year was revised twice bringing down from more than 1500 billion to 1300 billion but the estimated expenditure was only 1073 billion for the current fiscal year 2019 because of the economy the coronavirus had distorted. The coronavirus would take the blame for anybody’s failure in anything. Out of the total expenditure, the general expenditure had been 73.30 percent, the capital expenditure 58.60 percent, and the financial expenditure 78.80 percent. The unbelievably high capital expenditure must have been due to the revision of the budget done twice otherwise the capital expenditure had done poorly. The percentage of capital expenditure would have been even higher if the monsoon construction work would not have been total stalled by the coronavirus.

The finance minister stated in his budget speech that the revenue collection was 827 billion, which was 74.40 percent of the estimated collection of the revenue in the current FY 2019; the revised estimate of the foreign assistance for the current FY 2019 was 153 billion rupees out of which 32 billion was in grant and 121 billion in loan; the estimated internal loan was 193 billion rupees.

In view of the performance of the current fiscal year budget, the new budget for the coming FY 2020 would do any better was doubtful, as the Oli administration had been really in confusion what to do and what not to do in the event of such a pandemic. The Oli administration had really done any substantial things to cope with the coronavirus except for placing everybody shelter in place. If the coronavirus were to continue then the performances of the Oli administration would be really tested for its ability to cope with any such pandemic that challenged any administration elsewhere in the world.

Another laughingstock in the budget had been the commitment made to curb the corruption. In the Article 287, the budget had the statement, “I won’t commit corruption; I won’t let others to commit corruption; I would sincerely work for the country and the people.”  I doubted very much that anybody that had seen the performances of the Oli administration during the last two years would hardly believe in this statement, as the corruption had been endemic in the administration, and it had smeared the ruling communist party and the communists as a whole.

June 1, 2020

A New Nepal Map

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

After the parliament passed the new map of Nepal showing the correct territory of Nepal on the western border, the minister for land reform made it public on May 20, 2020 rather than the minister for foreign affairs making all patriots at least happy for some time. It should have happened even in November 2019 when India made public the Kashmir map including the Nepalese territory Lipulekh area in it. The minister for land reform stated that the map was done based on all historical documents but she missed to make some important documents as the attachments to the map, and also the land minister missed to say why, how, and who missed the area in the previous map, and also the historical evens starting from 1962 when India stationed its army in the Nepalese territory in Lipulekh after the China-India border war, and the recent event of China and India agreeing to run the trade through the encroached Nepalese territory that Nepal had opposed both the neighbors in 2015, and then India made public the Kashmir map including the Lipulekh area in it in November 2019, and finally, India opened up the border road provoking the intense protest from the Nepalese patriots on May 8, 2020. Nepal opposed it at that time, and now, too. It also provoked the strong protest from the Nepalese patriots.

After the intense pressure from the Nepalis patriots, some leaders of his own ruling party and some strong opposition leaders, the Oli administration made public the new Nepal map showing the Lipulekh, Kalapani and so on in it, and the Oli administration also said that the new map would be used for all the text books, and also in the State official stamps and documents amending the constitution. The question is why the Oli administration had waited for India to open up the border road on May 8, 2020 to do all these things even after India made public the map showing those areas as Indian in November 2019 when Nepalis strongly protested the Indian encroachment on the Nepalese territory, and Nepalis demanded the immediate actions of the Oli administration. Anyway the political map of Nepal showing the Lipulekh areas had been made out but India said that it was unacceptable.

Immediately after Nepal issued the new map, Prime Minister Oli needed to make a telephone call to his Indian counterpart: Narendra Modi, and tell him that the Kashmir map, India had made public in November 2019 showing the Nepalese territory as the part of India was incorrect, and unacceptable to Nepal; so, the federal parliament of Nepal corrected it and accordingly, the administration made it public, please correct the Kashmir map and please wind down the Indian army post from Lipulekh.

Then, the ministry of foreign affairs needed to write a letter with the attachment of a new map to all diplomatic missions in Nepal, at the top the Indian diplomatic mission in Kathmandu requesting them to follow the new map. The foreign ministry also needed to write the UN with the attachment of a new map requesting all the UN member countries including those countries that Nepal has no diplomatic relations to inform them on the new map of Nepal.

So, it is the job of the ministry of foreign affairs to make the new map public and inform all the concerned agencies in the world. However, the ministry of land reform of the Oli administration made the new map public. It is the technical ministry and it has the department of survey under it; so, its job is only to prepare a map based on all the evidences the ministry of foreign affairs provides.

The Oli administration needed to attach the important documents such as the Article of the Peace Treaty between Nepal and the then British India government reached in March 1816 after two years of a war between 1814 and 1815, that stated clearly the border between India and Nepal, and also the map the British India had published, to the new map. Why the Oli administration had been so shy to make public the treaty and the map the British had published in the nineteenth century?

Why the Oli administration did not make preparation to post the Nepali army from Kathmandu and Bhaktapur and elsewhere in the valley to the border areas so that they could defend the Nepalese territory rather than patrolling the streets of Kathmandu and forcing anybody wearing an army camouflage shirt to take off while enforcing the stay-at-home order, which is the mandate of the Nepal Police not of the Nepali army?

Why the Oli administration missed to state the historical events since when the Indian army had stationed its outpost at Lipulekh while making public the recent map showing the Lipulekh area in it the Oli administration needed to answer.

Everybody who had a little bit of interest and patriotic feeling to defend the Nepalese territory knew that the Indian army had set up its outpost in Lipulekh in 1962 after the China-India border war. At that time, the Nepalese officials had informed the then despot King Mahendra but he kept quiet. Since then the Indian army has been there and then India made even public the Kashmir map including those areas in it in November 2019, and ultimately, India opened up the border road on May 8, 2020 passing through the Lipulekh area provoking Nepalis to come out on the streets disregarding the stay-at-home order to forcefully protest against it.

The then Nepalese Prime Minister Kritinidhi Bista boldly removed the entire Indian border posts on the northern border of Nepal with China in 1969 but he did not remove the Indian army post from Lipulekh for the unknown reasons, which probably only the then autocratic King Mahendra knew.

Then, Nepal protested the trade agreement signed off between China and India passing through the Lipulekh area in 2015. Nepal had written a protest letter both to China and India stating the Lipulekh area is the Nepalese territory; so both China and India could not use it unilaterally.

India made public the map of the Kashmir area in November 2019. It provoked the strong protest of the Nepalese patriots against the Kashmir map showing the Nepalese territory as the Indian. Even at that time, Nepalis had demanded the Oli administration to make public the Nepalese map correctly showing the Lipulekh area in it. However, the Oli administration for the unknown reasons did not listen to the people’s voices, and it had waited for the opening of the Indian border road to make the map public until now.

Ultimately, the Oli administration made public the map showing the Lipulekh area in it. Why the Oli administration held up all those historical facts, the land minister stated that the new map had been based on, and why she did not make the documents with those facts as the attachments to the new map and send the map to all the diplomatic missions and the UN missions elsewhere in the world for their information?

Only publishing a map showing the missed areas in the new map was only a single first step enough to act on the issue but the Oli administration needed to do many things including to state who, when, and why the map previously published had missed the Nepalese territory in the western Nepal. Nepalis had the rights to know who had deliberately or mistakenly missed the so important area, where Nepal met China to the north and India to the south.

The Oli administration had made only a single step to recover the Nepalese territory India had encroached on so far, publishing and claiming the territory as a Nepalese territory but it has to do immediately many diplomatic work to take those areas back to Nepal. India would not present the area so strategically important on a silver platter to Nepal. So, Nepal needed to be prepared for every possible eventuality to face India and the international community if necessary.

India has already officially declared that the Nepalese claim to that territory is unacceptable. Now, Prime Minister Oli and his Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali needed to demonstrate the diplomatic skill in steering the international opinions on getting back the land India had so long encroached on. Then deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokharel holding the portfolio of defense needed to relocate the Nepali army from the Kathmandu Valley to the Nepal-India border areas indicating Nepalis are serious to defend its territory if needed be by the force.

Simply saying truth prevails (satya mayba jayatya), Prime Minister Oli could not get back the Nepalese territory India had been forcibly using it so far; he needed to act forcibly at the highest possible level means at his level talking to his Indian counterpart continuously until India leaves from that area. Truth prevails ultimately no doubt about that; but Nepalis cannot wait any longer, as they had already waited for so long since 1962. Now, the time has come for India to wind down the area. Prime Minister Oli needed to act endlessly to get back the area India had encroached on.

May 21, 2020

Policy And Program Of The Government For Fiscal Year 2020

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

The entire Nepalis had been anticipating that the Oli administration would bring the policy and program to cope with the potential negative economic growth in the aftermath of the coronavirus, and the stimulus packages to bring back the economic activities the coronavirus had halted for such a long time but what the president read out the policy and program in the federal parliament on May 15, 2020 for almost three hours to the lawmakers wearing the garuda (imaginary human bird) masks to scare away the virus, had been limited to the high sounding promises and commitments made as in the election campaign without considering the past performances of the Oli administration. Anybody listening to the policy and program had surely wasted the three hours of the precious time, and I am wasting a day for writing this comment, as nothing would change the working style of the Oli administration no matter what had been said in the policy and program for the FY 2020.

The three things directly influence the fast economic growth are the state policy, program, and the budget. The policy steers the economic development to the right direction, the program supports the fast track economic development, and the budget expedites the development in general. All these three components as the wheels of a development vehicle need to function harmoniously then only the economic development is possible as has been elsewhere in the world. This year, the policy and program should be especially for stimulating the economic activities the coronavirus had put on hold for so long.

Farmers had seen the millions of worth of bananas rotted in the farms because they could not take the bananas to the market, and the consumers had been under the stay-at-home order and they could not get the precious nutritious fruits. Dairy farmers had to spill their milks on the streets, poultry farmers had to destroy their chicken and break millions of eggs tossing on the streets because they could not take those products to the markets. Vegetable farmers needed to plow their ripe crops, as they could not take those products to market. Recently, some lawmakers speaking at the House session stated that trucks of vegetables from India had entered into the Nepalese market while the Nepalese farmers were helpless to take their products to the market.

The policy and program should have been to assist the farmers to take those products from their farms to the markets. Using the state vehicles the army, the police and the civil administration had, the Oli administration could have transported the farm products to the market offsetting the losses the farmers had incurred for their no faults. That policy and program would have benefited both the consumers and producers, and the Oli administration would reap the golden opportunity to have the two-thirds majority in the parliament even in the next general elections.

Small business owners had been totally disarrayed by the lockdown the Oli administration had imposed on the people to save the entire populace from the deadly virus. Those small business owners would not be able to pay the rent for the facilities taken for running mo-mo restaurants, for small provision stores, for any other small stores, for running barber shops, for running small garment industry or tailoring shops. Thousands of such businesses anybody could name had been totally damaged by the virus.

What the Oli administration could do for those small business owners to prevent them from going bankrupt and bring them back to the regular businesses should be the part of the policy and program of the Oli administration. How the Oli administration could put money back in the pockets of those business owners so that they could run their businesses as usual should be most of the program. The immediate action the Oli administration could take is to pay the rent for them instead of asking the facilities owners to waive the rent.

The tourism industry and the aviation industry had been totally ruined as other industries had been. The aviation companies had parked their airplanes at the airports hangers instead of flying them for most of the time. Hotels were locked up. Restaurants were closed. Hundreds of thousands of the people employed in this economic sector had been laid off. The Oli administration needed to bring out the relief packages for those laborers and officials working in this tourism and aviation sector to have at least survival kits for the long layoffs, as the State employees received for the period of the lockdown.

The transport industry had been another victim of the coronavirus. Thousands of people had invested their capital in transport vehicles such as buses, mini-buses, taxi and so on. Many of them must have taken the bank loans for purchasing those vehicles. Anybody could guess what must have happened to the vehicle owners when they could not run their buses either in the cities or on the long distance routes for months; and the taxi owners could not run their taxi losing their daily revenues; the same was true for other commercial vehicle owners, too. How many millions if not billions of rupees they must have lost for the period of keeping their vehicles idle. Again the policy and program of the Oli administration should be to assist them in remaining in the business.

Other sectors of the economy had incurred similar losses in billions if not hundreds of billions of rupees. The policy and the program of the Oli administration should be the stimulus packages to save all those economic sectors in crisis caused by the coronavirus.

So, the policy and program of the Oli administration should be to put the economy the virus had derailed back on track. However, the policy and the program the president had so meticulously read out had a little to ease the economy. It had said the economy would grow at the fastest speed. That would be true only when the Oli administration put the money in the pockets of the farmers, laborers, businesspeople, and industrialists and on the pockets of the entire population rather than putting the money in the pockets of a limited number of political cadres, ministers, their advisors, and construction and other contractors.

The policy and the program should be to bring back thousands of Nepalese migrant workers stranded in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world so that they could live at least peacefully with their families instead of living in isolation in foreign countries with little food and drinks for survival. They had earned billions of rupees in foreign currencies for the country and for themselves, too but if the State could not assist them at the time of the needs then they would be frustrated, and they would surely wait for the next general elections to turn the tables on the ruling party.

And then the policy and the program should be to create millions of jobs required for the returnees. The Oli administration should be able to recruit schoolteachers, health workers, and small business owners, and other service providers from among the returnees. Surely, the budget required for such program would be in billions of rupees but the State could manage it if the folks taking the wheel of the administration were absolutely determined to do the job.

What the policy and the program the Oli administration had put in the federal parliament through the president had a few significant ones as follow.

In the agricultural sector, the policy and the program of the Oli administration for the FY 2020 had been to double the agricultural production in the coming ten years instead of the past polices and program to double the agricultural products in five years. Any rational administration would put forward the analysis of what went wrong making the administration unable to achieve the target of doubling the agricultural products in the past years; and what measures would be taken for making sure that such failures would not repeat in the future, and the target would be achieved. In absence of the assessment of the past performances of the Oli administration in the agricultural sector, it was very hard to believe that the administration would achieve anything tangible in the coming fiscal year not to mention doubling the agricultural production in the next ten years.

The Oli administration would upgrade the education the State had been providing to the international standard, the policy and the program statement stated. It was nice to hear that the Oli administration was upgrading the education. The question was whether the folks involved in the education sector had gone through the cost and the investment the private sector education had incurred to provide the education no less standard than what the Oli administration called the international standard. The cost might be prohibitive for the State but it could do, provided again the performances of the Oli administration would be to keep the promises it had made rather than just engaging in the damage control measures to offset the damages the so many scams had caused.

The policy and the program of the FY 2020 had been to build so many hospitals with so many beds in so many places. It is easier said than done. Had anybody in the Oli administration gone to the private hospital owners and asked them how much they had invested in setting up and then running hospitals for providing the so high quality health services at the affordable cost, and at the same time make some money, then the Oli administration would have the different policy statement than what it had stated. The private sector had invested in the most modern cancer hospitals and other sorts of hospitals. So, the question was why the Oli administration did not create an environment conducive to the private investments in the kind of the hospitals that the Oli administration was thinking to build at least in words.

The International airport in Bhairava, and the regional airport in Pokhara would be done. Thank god the policy and program statement had not mention the Melamchi Drinking Water Project would be completed because completion of such mega projects would deny the folks in the administration endemic with the corruption the means of making money. So, it was no wonder that the completion of the large projects went on lingering.

Concerning the Indian encroachment on the Nepalese territory, the policy and the program statements of the Oli administration had been to engage in the diplomatic talks with India, and to publish a map of Nepal including the Lipulekh area. The Oli administration must have been doing so since India made public the Kashmir map in November last year showing the Nepalese Lipulekh areas as the part of India provoking the intense protests from the Nepalis. The Oli administration needed not wait for the next fiscal year to do such urgent things.

Recently, the Indian army chief stated that the border road passing through the Nepalese Lipulekh territory was within the line of control of India. Thus, India invented the line of control for Nepal probably for making the Lipulekh area of Nepal as a micro Kashmir as the line of control in the Kashmir area is the de facto border between Pakistan and India. Why the Oli administration did not take up the issue immediately rather than letting the Nepali army to say it would make a statement on this issue in an appropriate time.

The Policy and the program of the Oli administration had not been convincing to even the leaders of ruling Nepal Communist Party not to mention the opposition parties. The ruling party leaders had put forward their doubts about the policy and the program diplomatically stating the policy and the program were good but the implementation would be challenging in other words the implementation would not be possible.

The drastic policy and program statement of the Oli administration had been elimination of the corruption in the administration. The question was whether this statement was rational not to mention whether the people would believe it or not when the former minister for communication and information technology: Gokul Baskota vividly involved in negotiating a deal on receiving the commission on purchasing a security printing press so boldly attended the parliamentary session instead of sitting behind bars.

Austerity measures were another statements the policy and program of the Oli administration had stated to stop the unnecessary expenditures in the non-productive areas. However, billions of rupees had been used for the one hundred days of employment guarantee program hiring the folks so-called unemployed making them work on weeding out the grasses from the compounds of the state offices.

Had the Oli administration appropriately used the budget appropriated for the last two-and-a-half years, all the large projects would have completed that would have benefited millions of people from such projects immensely? The people in the Oli administration had been postponing the completion date of the large projects particularly the Melamchi Drinking Water Project. Nobody knew when the Melamchi Project would be completed and the folks in the Kathmandu Valley would have sufficient drinking water, and they would not need to buy the low quality water for drinking produced by so many water companies that would certainly lose their so lucrative business once the water from the Melamchi River flows to Kathmandu.

Surely, this time, the president missed the majestic ride on the royal horse-drawn carriage. She had settled on a simple black probably bulletproof car to ride to the parliamentary building after the strongest possible negative reactions from the common folks to the majestic ride of the president from Thapathali to the parliamentary building last year.

May 17, 2020

Bullying Nepal

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

On May 9, 2020, the Indian defense minister opening the border road passing through the Nepalese territory in Lipulekh sent waves to the Nepalis that had been in the stay-at-home environment to be safe from the deadly coronavirus stirring them up to come out to the streets even disregarding the possibility of the virus infections and protest against the Indian encroachment on the Nepalese territory, and kept the Nepalese foreign minister at bay. However, Prime Minister KP Oli surprised to know the events through the media reports even though he had been the prime minister twice and the foreign minister once but even after apparently knowing that Indians had encroached on the Nepalese territory he had to call his Indian counterpart to talk about the border issue, yet.

While his Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali was speaking at the House of Representatives to tell the lawmakers that the government knew that Indians had been building the border roads, Prime Minister Oli was surprised to know only after reading the news in a newspaper that India had built a border road passing through the Nepalese territory in Lipulekh. Anyway that was how the Oli administration worked recently not even informing the prime minister it had contracted out the purchase of medical supplies worth billions of rupees for preventing and treating coronavirus at the prices as much as four times higher than the prevailing market price. As soon as the prime minister came to know it, he obviously scrapped the contract because he had the zero tolerance of corruption.

It was not the first time Nepalis came out to the streets and marched on the streets to protest against India whenever something happened in Lipulekh. In November last year, too thousands of Nepalis marched on the streets of Kathmandu when India published its Kashmir map showing Lipulekh in its territory. Radio talks, and TV talks were held with the politicians, political leaders, and political experts to discuss the issue. The concerned minister of the Oli administration answered some questions, and said some plans to regain the territory lost to India. However, after some time everybody went to sleep quiet night as if nothing had happened. They forgot Lipulekh, and the Indian encroachment on the Nepalese territory, and the business was as usual.

This time too, the protest against the Indian encroachment on the Nepalese territory, the folks had launched might have the same fate of the last November protest but the Oli administration had taken some measures concerning the border issue with India at least. The foreign minister summoned the Indian ambassador to Nepal in Kathmandu, and told him apparently India had illegally stepped on the Nepalese territory. His Excellency the Indian ambassador had a ready-made answer that India had done nothing wrong but did everything in its own territory. The foreign ministry also wrote a letter to the Indian government stating to have a diplomatic dialogue with India concerning the border road and India making it pass through the Nepalese territory. India was ready to talk to the Nepalese diplomats but after the coronavirus would be gone. So, wait for the time to disappear the virus so that it would not infect the diplomats of both the countries.

Most probably, one of the greatest achievements for the folks interested in safeguarding the border with India had been the Oil administration posted the armed police force to the Darchula district to keep a close watch on the border between Nepal and India. The police post remained in the middle of the human settlement more than 10 kilometers from the border. The distance was not much as the police could walk to the border within one-and-a-half hours if needed be. The Nepali army helicopter took the police force to the area, and the Oli administration needed to shuttle the army helicopter to take the supplies for the police. Even the police post 10 km beyond the said border between Nepal and India provoked the Indians to send at least four helicopters flying over even the Nepalese territory obviously to see what the Nepalis had been doing.

Some lawmakers speaking at the House session demanded to post the battalion of the Nepali army to Lipulekh. They might be correct to say so and they needed to tell the government to take the army stationed in Kathmandu, and Bhaktapur to Lipulekh to defend the Nepalese territory from the encroachers. Probably, they did not think about how Indians would react to the presence of the Nepalese army on the border. Even the police post beyond 10 km from the border invited at least four Indian army helicopters flying in the Nepalese sky.

The then Shah rulers had kept the Nepali army in Bhaktapur and Kathmandu to suppress the locals from doing anything that did not suit the rulers. Now, nobody needed to worry about the locals uprising against any rulers and capturing their sovereignty. So, the Oli administration needed to shift the army from Kathmandu and Bhaktapur to Lipulekh and wherever the northern and southern neighbors had been encroaching on the Nepalese territory rather than keeping them in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur nourishing them in the capital city. Their duty is to defend the Nepalese border not to remain idle in the capital. The defense minister of the Oli administration needed to understand it.

Speaking to the anchor of the news-plus program of the Thaha FM Radio on May 15, 2020, Minister for Law of the Karnali province said that the chief district officer (CDO) had been reporting on India building the border road encroaching on the Nepalese territory in Lipulekh but the provincial government could not do much because the issue of the international border is the business of the federal government. Then, the question of the anchor why the provincial government did not inform the prime minister on this matter, the provincial minister said that the CDO must have been periodically reporting on the matter to the federal minister and the cabinet, too. It was sufficient hint at the prime minister had been informed on the border road India had built since a few years ago.

Lawmakers and the public had been demanding the Oli administration to publish the map of Nepal showing the Lipulekh in it since India made public the Kashmir map showing the Lipulekh area in the Indian Territory in November last year but the Oli administration had not done, yet. Currently also, the lawmakers and the Nepalis have been asking the Oli administration to publish a Nepalese map showing the Lipulekh area in it. The Oli administration had not shown any interest in doing so, yet. The Oli administration did not make it clear to the public what prevented it from publishing a map of Nepal with Lipulekh in it?

The Karnali provincial minister for law speaking to the anchor of the news-plus program of the Thaha FM Radio on May 15, 2020 said that the Article five of the treaty signed in May 1816 between the then Nepal government and the British India government stated that the international border between Nepal and India is the Kaligandaki River from its source to the downstream until it crosses the southern Nepal border to enter India. So, the Oli administration needed to have diplomatic talks with India to end the Indian encroachment on the Lipulekh area. Then the border area road India built on the Nepalese territory could be a bridge between China and India.

May 15, 2020

Two Unacceptable Ordinances

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

On Monday, April 20, 2020, the two amendment ordinances the president suddenly and instantly issued amid the coronavirus crisis in the world not only shocked the opposition political parties but also the ruling communist party and the entire Nepalis. The two ordinances were for easing the breaking up the political parties and for making appointments to the vacant positions in the Constitutional Council denying the opposition presence in it. Some political pundits called it a mini coup that Prime Minister Oli dared to stage but backfired. Mr. Oli recommended the president to revoke both the ordinances not even surviving five days after the entire nation rose up against it. Does the opposition parties need to demand the no-confidence vote against the prime minister and the impeachment of the president for involvement in issuing so controversial and unacceptable ordinances going against the people’s aspiration for the rule of law following the constitution?

All the folks in one voice stated that when the country needed a stimulus package to offset the lost opportunity of the fast economic growth caused by the shutdown the coronavirus had forced on the entire populace rather the prime minister had brought in the two amendment ordinances probably to meet his ambition to be an authoritarian ruler. The entire economy had been in the doldrums for already over a month; nobody knew how long it might continue in the future. So, the Oli administration needed to do some homework to introduce a stimulus program to pick up the economic growth after the shutdown would be lifted. Obviously, the Oli administration had not even talked publicly about any stimulus program so far.

Is it really a coup d'état to minimize the role of the opposition parties and the opposition in his own party and to display how powerful Mr. Oli had been? Certainly, it might be but it could not last even five days whereas the coup of Gyanendra lasted one year and of his father Mahendra 30 years. It indicated how smart the Nepalis had been and it also proved that nobody could kill democracy anymore no matter what majority any political party garnered. It also must have been a good answer to those people who might be thinking that Nepal would lapse to the dictatorial regime and somebody would put monarchy back again. Carrying monarchy on his back, BP Koirala wasted his entire political life after being the elected prime minister for eighteen months. His brother GP Koirala took off the burden of the monarchy from his Nepali Congress party and ultimately worked on ending the monarchy forever, as the monarchy had been obstacle to the democracy and development and Nepalese youths had to shed blood again and again to restore democracy, as GP Koirala said.

The president in conjunction with the prime minister screwed up and issued the two ordinances instantly. The president did not take even a few minutes probably even to read not to mention about seriously thinking about whether the ordinances were pursuant to the constitution or not but she signed off the ordinances and made them the temporary laws probably knowing that those ordinances were necessary for the prime minister to cope with not the fatal coronavirus but with the deadly political development that threatened to end the time of Mr. Oli in office. So, the president probably even did not care to flip some pages of the fundamental law of the country but hurriedly put her seal of assent on the two ordinances that had not to do anything with the emergency of coronavirus. Probably, the president and the prime minister knew that what they were doing not pursuant to the constitution, which stated that ordinances could be issued only when a state of emergency warranted an ordinance to make decisions immediately on something urgently needed to cope with the emergency when the parliament was not in session. Obviously, Nepal was not in a state of emergency even though the fatal coronavirus seized hold of the country for already over a month.

So, in one voice the entire population came out against the two ordinances that would have made the prime minister probably a dictatorial; and the prime minister could have run the administration without facing any opposition in his party and the opposition party in the parliament. To the great dismay of the prime minister and probably of the president, too, and unfortunately for both of them, the prime minister had to recommend the president to rescind the two ordinances not even passing five days. Thus, the ordinances that had probably violated the constitution died without being able to help the prime minister and the president to see the unlimited power the prime minister would have wielded.

Before dying untimely, the two ordinances provoked the intense opposition and criticism from the entire population in general and the opposition in particular. The opposition party: Nepali Congress held all opposition-party meeting to fight against the two ordinances brought in defying the constitutional provision, and the entire private and public media dwelt on the so provocative ordinances. Everybody thought what Mr. Oli was thinking to do whether he was about to enforce a state of emergency and whether he would impose his dictatorship. Surely, from the very day of Mr. Oli taking office, his administration had been for curbing the people’s rights to the freedom of expression the constitution guaranteed. Muzzling the media was the first thing any dictator did in the past.

To convince the opposition in the ruling party, and probably others too that the ordinance was not for splitting up the ruling communist party but other parties, probably, the Oli administration put up a hostage drama sending a team of former IGP Sarbendra Khanal, Mahesh Basnet and Kishan Lal Shrestha: both are the lawmakers to apparently abduct a former health minister Dr. Surendra Yadav from his home in Terai to Kathmandu so that the quorum required for splitting the party following the amendment ordinance the president had just issued, would meet; however, Dr. Yadav managed to escape from the grip of the abductors, the TV news stated on April 24, 2020.

Some lawmakers belonging to the ruling party and the opposition parties had been demanding the prime minister take the strong actions against lawmakers and the former IGP for forcibly bringing Dr. Yadav from his home in Terai to Kathmandu, the TV news stated. They also had been saying that the prime minister needed to apologize for it if he had ordered or even involved in this dirty game of somebody forcibly bringing Dr. Yadav from one place to another.

Prime Minister Oli had been considerably weakened due to the undemocratic ordinances the president had issued instantly. Mr. Oli had never been for listening to anybody in the past; but after the botched ordinances, he had been suddenly soften to the opposition and invited the opposition leader: Sher Bahadur Deuba to his official residence at Baluwatar and talked to him for about one hour before calling on his college Prachanda to join them, the TV news stated on April 24, 2020. Deuba advised the prime minister to set up an all-party mechanism to fight against the coronavirus. Previously, Mr. Oli had opposed such a proposal in strong words. Deuba also made five-point suggestions to Mr. Oli.

Over the last two years, Mr. Oli had proved that he was the master of misinformation, and he was a great comedian. In fact, he would have been the most successful comedian in Nepal had he chosen the comedy as his profession, and he would have gone as a great comedian in the history of Nepal rather than becoming a not so doing-well prime minister. His administration had failed miserably, as his administration had not been able to even launch many ambitious projects what Mr. Oli said he would even after more than two years in office.

The Oli administration had been unable to timely procure the medical supplies for meeting the much needed facemasks, ventilators, testing equipment and PPE for the medics to work safely against the coronavirus that had threatened to eliminate anybody who came in contact of it. His administration had not only unable to purchase the medical supplies in time but also had not blacklisted the company that fetched the substandard medical supplies, and had not seized the security deposit of the company, yet, the administration had declared would do. The Oli administration had turned over the procurement of the medical supplies to the Nepal Army, as his administration obviously could not do. Both purchasing the low grade medical supplies at high prices and then turning over the authority of procuring the medical supplies to the army also provoked the extreme criticism of the Oli administration from the media and the people in general.

Not long ago his cabinet minister for communication and information technology Gokul Prasad Baskota had incidentally let the local agent recorded the negotiation he had with the local sale agent on how much “we” would receive the commission on purchasing the security printing press. That audio went viral on the social media. The poor minister had to quit the highly rewarding job to save his face and probably his boss, too. Prime Minister Oli attempted to cover up the heinous crime of his favorite former infamous minister Baskota doubting the reality and reliability of the video.

Even without such ordinances probably fatal to democracy, the Oli administration had been using the draconian social media law his administration had crafted and his majority lawmakers had passed in both the Houses of the parliament to arrest the former top bureaucrat Bhim Upadhyaya for posting his comments on how irregularities had been in the recent purchase of medical supplies for coping the coronavirus. Mr. Upadhyaya had been in the police custody for the last few days for posting the materials critical of the prime minister and his health minister. The opposition Nepali Congress party demanded the immediate release of Mr. Upadhyaya.

Even without the ordinances, the Oli administration could do such things denying the fundamental rights to expression but what he would have done if the two ordinances were to go on effect without the opposition of the entire people and the opposition political parties. The nation is not of the president, the prime minister and the health minister only but of the entire population; so every taxpaying citizen has the right to demand to know how the national resources the prime minister and his ministers have been using. So, nobody should be subjected to the victims of the strong actions of the administration for using his or her fundamental rights to query the whereabouts of the national resources.

The Oli administration had arrested another youth named Gyanendra Shahi, who had distributed relief packages to the folks stuck at home without having anything to eat and drink following the shelter-in-place order the Oli administration had issued to safeguard the entire population from the possible infection of the coronavirus. Mr. Shahi had been in the police custody for investigation into reportedly collecting donations forcibly. Mr. Shahi had been highly vocal against the corruption and irregularities in the Oli administration. Probably, Mr. Shahi had been the hurdle to the Oli administration. Harassing and possibly eliminating such folks had been probably the tactics of the Oli administration.

The Oli administration had promised to provide migrant workers and daily wage earners with foods and drinks, as they were denied to work during the shutdown period, and even the administration told them publicly to contact the police and the officials of the local administration so that the police and the local officials would be able to take care of those folks shut at home. The reality had been that as soon as any person came out even to buy medicines and other essentials then the police hit them with batons on sight without questioning why s/he came out to the street. Then, how could any folk contact the police and the local officials for any relief material or foods and drinks so urgently needed? That had been the publicity of the Oli administration and the reality.

Hundreds of migrant workers had been stranded in the Kathmandu Valley. Some of them from Rolpa publicly demanded their elected representatives Burshaman Pun and his spouse to provide them with the smooth passage from the Kathmandu Valley to their respective homes otherwise next time they would not vote for them at all they clearly stated in the video posted on social media. Probably, Burshaman Pun and his spouse must have watched the video and then Mr. Pun came out to the street even defying the shutdown order of his Prime Minister Oli to reserve some buses for their constituent to go home. That was how the democracy worked not the monarchy or any other dictator.

The president and the prime minister of any democratic country would have quit office after the messed-up attempt on imposing the ordinances that had been issued probably defying the constitutional provision. Unfortunately, Nepal had not given birth so far to such morally sound politicians that would have high morals to quit the most lucrative jobs for their serious mistakes but produced the politicians most of them became prone to be infected by the corruption endemic in the administration. The vibrant private media and the politically highly charged folks had been exposing every corrupt practice of the state administration.

The call for the no-confidence vote against the prime minister and for the impeachment of the president has not come from the opposition political parties, yet. The ordinances had been so serious, as they could bring political instability, and push the country again to chaos. So, the opposition political parties needed to hold the president and the prime minister accountable for such ordinances that could cause disaster to the country again. So, the opposition parties needed to do something to prevent such ordinances promulgated in the future rather than sitting aside, and needed to protect the constitution from those trying to overstep it.

April 25, 2020

Deeds Of The Oli Administration

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Speaking to the reporters at his Baluwatar official residence on April 19, 2020, Prime Minister KP Oli said that the stay-at-home order would remain in place as long as the coronavirus, which he called non-living beings, would not disappear; he also said that 800 million rupees had been used for distributing relief packages whereas his Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration: Hridesh Tripati not long ago said that about 400 thousands relief packages of each worth of one thousand rupees had been distributed. Mr. Oli had ordered everybody to stay where they were during the lockdown period; and he said that the local administration and the police would take care of them. Fantastic, is it not? However, the folks whether they were migrant workers or students in the country or abroad had been totally left on their own when the entire world had been under lockdown.

Really everything looked nice if anybody were to believe the stories of Mr. Oli and his administration, as Mr. Oli as a salesman could put everything whether it is real or imaginary nicely for buyers to take but what is the reality in the field everybody has for him or her to see the videos posted on “youtube” and then on “facebook” and other social media before s/he would buy the stories.

The communist administration supposed to be working for the proletariats if not the folks in the administration themselves were once proletariats, had forced thousands of the migrant workers walking home on foot for hundreds of kilometers in Nepal not to mention those Nepalese migrant workers left stranded elsewhere in the world. Migrant workers had to walk home in Nepal, as they had no resources to pay for the house rent, and the foods had been running out very fast and they did not know how long their meager savings would last, and the prime minister was going to extend the stay-at-home order.

The Oli administration had been saying that everybody needed to stay where they were during the lockdown period, the police and the local administration would take care of them managing food and drinks and shelter for them for the period of the stay-at-home order remained in place despite the recent order of the Supreme Court to take the migrant workers to their respective homes. Surely, stay-at-home is the only remedy for not getting infected with the fatal coronavirus otherwise the infections would rise exponentially as seen elsewhere currently.

If anybody were to venture out on the streets even for buying gas or medicine certainly the police on the streets would immediately hit him or her with their long cane without even trying to know, who s/he was and why s/he was on the streets, as most of the folks watching the videos posted on “youtube” and “facebook” noticed. This was not probably what the prime minister meant that the police and the local administration would take care of all the folks during the period of the stay-at-home.

So, even the medical doctors had been the victims of the police hitting anybody on the streets not to mention those folks went to buy the essentials. Obviously, the Oli administration had ordered the police to punish anybody defying the stay-at-home order otherwise the police would not dare to hit anybody because the social media and the people had been so strong that the Oli administration could not cover up anything at all.

If the Oli administration in general and Mr. Oli in particular had been really sincere to what they had said that the police and the local administration would take care of those folks in needs, then, the police would first salute anybody on the streets and then would politely asked how could the police help him or her rather than beating anybody on sight without even questioning why s/he was on the streets. Probably, thousands of migrant workers would not need to walk putting their lives risk at night wherever the police patrolled. Pregnant women, women carrying infants, and parents with the young children would not walk hundreds of kilometers for days to reach their final destinations: homes.

The Oli administration and the police having a hangover from the feudal mentality would not salute anybody on the streets; that was for sure but they could listen to anybody, and take him or her to the office of the local administration or the nearest gas depot or the medicine store or escort him or her to home, as it was not time for anybody to walk on the streets because of the coronavirus so deadly could make him or her sick and even send anybody to heaven prematurely. That was what common folks anticipated the republican administration the people had put in place would do. However, everybody had seen in the daylight what the republican government rather the communist government had done so far.

The local administration needed to take the migrant workers to the concerned employers and then tell them to stay where they were and the administration would provide them with whatever they needed mainly the daily provisions they needed to survive without putting any unnecessary financial burden on the employers until the lockdown was lifted. Nobody would need to walk home putting his or her life at risk or as a criminal fearing the police aggressively beating him or her.

Certainly, anybody to anticipate such an ideal situation of the police saluting the folks on the streets, and the local administration helping them as the Oli administration said would, would be really an irrational person because the folks erroneously called themselves communists running the administration had done nothing but simply took the place of the monarchical rulers, and they replaced the king’s administration with the communists’. So, they started working hand-in-hand with the dodgy traders and businesspeople, and companies or they themselves had been behind those moneymaking unprincipled folks thus repeating the history of the monarchical rule. This had been an open secret.

Not surprisingly, the non-communist provincial government of the provine-2 had made the decision on providing the folks locked at home with the relief packages at their homes in the second phase of the relief distribution. Those elected folks definitely knew that the common folks were the power, and those folks willing to stay in power needed to get the mandate from the people in the next general elections. That is what the reality is today. None of the communist provincial governments did dare to do so because they had to take order from the federal government rather the Prime Minister: Oli.

If Prime Minister Oli were to learn from the non-communist government of the province-2 then he would certainly use the two billion rupees he had collected so far from the common folks for the relief of the coronavirus victims for immediately bailing out the loss-making farmers, whose vegetables were not sold out, whose bananas could not reach the market, who had to spill the milk on the streets, who had to toss the eggs on the streets, and who had to dig a pit and put all their chicks there and filled up the pit. This is only a tip of the iceberg of the economic disaster. The Oli administration could also use the two hundred billions rupees of the State money remaining at the Nepal Rastra Bank for rescuing other small businesses in every sector including the public transport, then the large businesses if the money would allow.

If the Oli administration were concerned with some unscrupulous businesspersons taking the benefit of the generosity of the administration rescuing the businesses then the administration could make a simple contract with the businesspeople that if anybody were to take the advantage of the relief amount with the incorrect data then such a person would need to pay back twice the amount anybody had received. The administration needed to enforce such a contract strictly. However, it would be really an idiotic to think even such thing the current communist government Prime Minister Oli has presided over, would do.

Rather the Oli administration had asked the landlords that all the tenants should be exempted from the one-month house rent if not the administration would take strong actions against the landlords; the administration also told the private schools management not to take one month school fee. When every person is losing time and energy to the coronavirus how could the administration ask anybody to take the financial burden? Rather the Oli administration needed to learn from the Delhi administration in India, which said that the administration would pay the three-month rent of every tenant. No wonder the party running the current Delhi administration won the overwhelming majority.

The Oli administration had been going after some retailers charging high prices for any goods, and warning of taking strong actions against them. In fact, the Oli administration had been keeping reportedly the multi-millionaire Sulav Agrawal under custody for the investigation into selling thermal guns costing two thousand rupees at fifteen thousand rupees a piece. Really, this man was greedy and he got what he needed for doing a wrong thing at the time of the crisis.

Ironically, the Oli administration had been trying to protect a contractor company OMNI group that had been successful to bring the medical supplies from China to Kathmandu on the third day of receiving the contract from the Oli administration. Was it not a really drama the Oli administration played?  Unfortunately, for the Oli administration and the company, too, the Oli administration had to rescind the contract on the medical supplies done with the OMNI group after the Nepalese media disclosed the four times higher prices than the market prices the company had charged. The Oli administration had to declare that the company would be put on the blacklist and its security deposit would be seized. However, the Oli administration had not kept its commitments to do so, yet.

The Oli administration had been so generous to the students’ union affiliated to the ruling communist party allowing it to assemble hundreds if not thousands of students on the premises of the Tribhuvan University at Kirtipur on April 18, 2020 for distributing and receiving the relief packages to the students. Surely, nobody would or even could say anything against distributing the relief packages to the students because the students were equally at the risk of not having sufficient foods and drnks to eat and drink but the question was whether they could disregard the strict order of the Oli administration not being together more than 25 people at one place. However, the Oli administration had neither sent the police to enforce the physical and social distancing nor took the actions against the students’ union’s leader for flouting the stay-at-home order probably because the students and their leaders were communists.

Probably, millions of Nepalis needed relief packages worth of billions of rupees but the Oli administration had distributed only 400 thousand relief packages if anybody were to believe Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration Hridesh Tripati, who recently disclosed it while speaking to the anchor of the news-plus program of the FM Radio Thaha. Each relief package containing one thousand rupees worth of rice, lentils, sugar, salt and oil was distributed but some of the relief packages were found to have the rotten rice and lentils the state agencies had sold, the media reported. The Oli administration had really distributed 400 million rupees worth of relief materials nobody would doubt about it but Prime Minister Oli claimed that his administration had already distributed the relief packages worth of 800 million rupees.

The Soviet Union took seventy years to die in Russia whereas the Eastern European communist governments, which had been set up after the victory of the Soviet Army over the army of Adolf Hitler in Germany in the middle of the twentieth century, took only fifty-five years. In fact, the collapse of the Soviet Union had a domino effect on the communist governments in Europe, as the Soviet Union had kept the communist regimes alive forcibly.

Now, the question was how long the communist government in general and the communists in particular would survive in Nepal. After the collapse of the communists and the loss of hope in the communism elsewhere in the world, anybody could safely predict that communists would be winded down in the next general elections, and then the communists would be driven out of not only from Kathmandu but also from Nepal, as did comrade Prachanda in one of his public speeches. Prachanda must be not only a great politician, a great commander-in-chief of the guerrilla army, and also a great astrologer to predict such an untimely political demise of the communists and probably of his own along with his colleagues.

April 20, 2020

Return Of Migrant Workers

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Prime Minister Oli had broken the record of physical tolerance fighting against the disease, and then surviving, he broke the record of the tolerance of the irregularities (corruption?) in his administration, the record of not taking the actions against the corrupt ministers rather protecting them and covering up their misdeeds, the record of misinformation (lie?), the record of being loyal to the feudal lords and royalties setting up the statues of Prithvi Narayan Shah, and letting his ministers to set up the statue of Kalu Pandey: general of Prithvi Narayan, and the statue of Bhimsen Thapa: the prime minister of Shah kings, the record of working for the private companies, the greatest record he broke of was probably doing injustice to the workers that had been the vote base for the communist party, he led. Prime minister Oli would really break the record of doing something for the country if he would bring back 4-5 million Nepalis youths working abroad and use them as the most valuable asset to the fast socio-economic development rather than sending them to sell their labor at the dirt-cheap price in the foreign countries.

Here, I would mainly deal with the concerns of the Nepali migrant workers working in different foreign countries, and in different urban centers in Nepal after the stay-at-home order the coronavirus had forced the Oli administration to impose on for protecting the thirty million Nepalis from the deadly demonic virus that did not discriminate caste, color or status of any folks but attacked and disabled them if not destroy.

The Oli administration has ordered Nepalis to stay wherever they are. If they are at home, stay at home, if they are abroad stay there where they are, as if anybody were to dare come out then the coronavirus might attack, and would send him or her to heaven; if anybody were to survive even from the attack of the virus then s/he would be a potential transmitter of the virus and make others to sick. So far, no vaccine or medicine has been in the market for the folks to buy and fight against this deadly evil virus. So, stay at home or wherever anybody is the only remedy. If any body were to contract the virus and became sick then nobody would have access to the sick person even after death. So, the stay-at-home is the recipe for all to be safe and to be beyond the reach of the virus, and to avoid the possible disability and even death.

Stay where anybody is the order the Oli administration has wisely made keeping the thirty million Nepalis safe from the malicious virus. That is fine from the point of view of the safeguarding the citizens from any fatal enemy such as the coronavirus but the question is what if anybody is not having sufficient food, drinks, medicines, and even money to buy such essentials.

If anybody had listened to the Radio Nepal or read the state-run newspaper “gorkhapatra” recently s/he would find that the honorable minister for foreign affairs speaking to foreign counterparts to make sure that the concerned foreign administration would take care of Nepalis working there. Very nice, the Oli administration had taken so much of troubles to ensure that the Nepalis migrant workers working in the sizzling sun in the Middle East earning foreign currency for the country and bread and butter for themselves would be safely kept.

Now, if anybody had access to youtube, and watched the news24 TV the anchor Ravi Lamichhane had hosted then s/he would understand the very miserable conditions most of the Nepalis had been facing in the Middle East. Those who had contracted the virus had to stay where they were and had to survive on the warm water, as nobody was there to assist. Those who were healthy but had to remain in a group in a dormitory or anywhere they had no chance to come out and return to home and be with the families in Nepal.

What the Nepalis foreign minister had spoken to his counterparts in the Middle East had obviously not reach the Nepalis migrant laborers working there, as none of the Nepalis had enjoyed any support from anybody even from the Nepalese embassy. The officials at the embassy simply told the Nepalis stay where they were.

TV anchor Lamichhane questioned why the Nepalese embassy in the Middle East vacated one or more buildings for Nepalis migrant workers to have a temporary accommodation, and then bring them back home sending a jet plane to carry them back home as the Oli administration did for bringing back home the students studying in the virus-ravaged Wuhan, China.

TV anchor Lamichhane also released the footage of how Nepalis in Kerala, India had been doing there after the stay-at-home order. Obviously, they were there isolated from the rest of world without any support from anybody for them to have food and drinks to survive the period of isolation. It might be only one of many such cases of Nepalis stuck in India and having such a miserable condition to endure even though the press report had been that Nepal and India had agreed on the citizens of both countries taking care of as they do for their citizens in their respective countries. In other words India will take care of Nepalis in India, and Nepal will take care of Indians in Nepal. Evidently, this understanding did not work in some cases. Some questioned why the Nepalese embassy in India could not help those Nepalis held in India without food and water in many possible ways. The ambassador could have made a phone call to the Indian ministry of foreign affairs and tell the officials how some Nepalis had been staying in Kerala without food and water.

Back home also thousands of migrant workers had ventured to walk hundreds of kilometers for home, as they had neither the resources to live on during the stay-at-home period nor they had received any relief packages (one package contains relief materials worth of one thousand rupees) even though some of these packets contained rotten rice and lentils and expired salt as reported in the media, because of the landlords or ladies did not want to certify them as their tenants for fear of the local government asking the tax on the rent they received. The officials of the local governments did not exempt any rules from following for distributing the relief packages even though they ignored many rules and regulations while purchasing and packaging the relief materials.

Again anchor Lamichhane questioned why the Oli administration could not use thousands of vehicles parked elsewhere and even some helicopters for helping the migrant workers walking home to reach the final destinations nearest area to their homes. If the Oli administration had done so, Prime Minister Oli would have set another record in his lifetime. However, Oli could ignore them even though his party and he had secured the two-thirds majority most probably receiving the votes from the workers, as his communist party had committed a luminous life for anybody voting for the candidates of his party. Thus, Oli had broken the record of not keeping his commitments made to the people.

Now, another suggestion for Oli is to set a record of the fast socio-economic development using the migrant workers.

Millions of Nepalis migrant workers working elsewhere in the world would need to return home immediately if the condition as of today were to arise, the coronavirus has created so cruelly and unexpectedly; then, how the Oli administrations was going to manage the huge and the most valuable human resources sold at the dirt-cheap price abroad. Those workers had built and have been building everything anywhere in the world for the unbelievable cheap prices before the coronavirus threatened them to take their lives if they were to dare to come out. They were doing so at the cost of denying Nepal the dire need for such human power to move fast to the socio-economic development.

First of all, the duty of the Oli administration is to bring those migrant Nepalis workers home at any cost, and safely keep them in isolation for the virus incubation period, as did for the students studying in Wuhan some weeks ago. So, bringing our youths from abroad should be the first priority of the Oil administration. Forget all other businesses except for tackling the coronavirus at the time of the current national rather international coronavirus crisis, and focus the attention of the Oli administration on managing the 4-5 million Nepalis migrant workers when they come home. Mr. Oli must have seen how the migrant workers have built the most of the urban center so fast. Same thing the migrant workers could do for the nation, too.

As the human resources is the most valuable asset any country could possess, and using the human resource as wisely as possible could make the country prosperous. Currently, Nepal is abusing the most precious asset selling at the dirt-cheap price in the international market. It is a damn shame on the nation. So, the Oli administration needs to preserve the human resources in the country for the economic growth and what not.

If those millions of youths working abroad were to come home the Oli administration might be overwhelmed but it was not needed to be so. Rather the administration could properly use the so prized asset for developing the future human resources. How, some of the folks in the Oli administration might ask. The answer is to use such an important asset for education and health.

Education and health make the human resources even more valuable. So, the country needs to teach the skills in various crafts putting the emphasis on the modern computer craft. The country also needs to keep such human resource healthy and capable.

So, recruit teachers and health workers from among those millions of youths, who came back home from abroad. They could go as teachers and health workers to every corner of the country to teach the young Nepalis all the skills they needed to work in the country and live humanely, and keep them healthy at any time of a year. This action alone would create a future manpower required for building the nation.

Teachers could be in the computer sciences, building, construction, repair and maintenance, what not. The US agency in 1950s had laid the foundation of building the technical manpower training youths in different technology, agriculture, even in journalism, and surely in the health sector creating hundreds of health assistants and nurses as they were called at that time.

After taking power from the elected prime minister and killing democracy in 1960, the so-called visionary and development-oriented King Mahendra reversed the fast moving economic development course, and rescinded all the activities of producing the basic technical manpower in the country, and used all resources for making some people educated only to be loyal to the royalties and for controlling the entire populace.

Then, came the people’s movement in 1990 that threw out the royal system Mahendra had imposed on the people to control everything, and freed the entire population from shackles of the poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and all the ills the king had imposed on the people. People took back the freedom of expression, fundamental human rights, and the rights to live humanely.

Then, the elected government in 1990 immediately opened up the economy for all the folks, who wanted to work hard and earn a better livelihood the kings had denied them in the past. Thousands of private businesses cropped up creating hundreds of thousands of jobs but that was not enough for the pent-up youths. So, the government opened up the door to the foreign employments. That was how Nepalis got to work abroad.

The evil corruption endemic in the state administration, and in the cabinet of ministers had totally hindered the development work the State was supposed to do. The large development and construction projects the State had launched became the projects for the ministers and their colleagues, friends, families and political cadres to make money in millions and billions today. Hardly any large projects completed as scheduled making the cost overrun and time overrun.

The tendency to making the large projects the victims of the corruption had been so visible during the last two years of the Oli administration. The most unfortunate things had been that the Oli administration tried to cover up the widely visible corruption cases, and even expressed the doubt about the evidences of the corruption encouraging the people in power to make as much money as possible even during the coronavirus crisis. This would certainly not help anybody to make Nepal a thriving country.

The Oli administration treated the press and reporters, TV and radio anchors as enemies as they had been successful to expose the misdeeds of the administration and the ministers in particular of those who had been acting as the agents taking commission from the business dealers rather than the ministers accountable to the service delivery. It is natural as nobody wants somebody revealing his or her secret deals with someone particularly for the untold financial gains. Not only the press and reporters became the adversaries but also the ministers, who had resisted his dictation. So, Prime Minister Oli had kept only those ministers totally loyal to him, and did whatever he liked even though they had been absolutely mismanaging their concerned ministries but abiding by the orders of the prime minister. So, ministers even apparently doing very good jobs had to leave the Oli administration.

If Prime Minister Oli were to continue to follow the current path his administration had taken and would not divert to the right path, Mr. Oli would surely miss the chance of making the country prosperous and he would probably let his party to ruin in the next elections, as his ministers and he himself could not cover up whatever the irregularities in billions of rupees worth of businesses the small country like Nepal could not afford to squander. Almost every week, the regular media had been exposing the incident of one minister or another involving in unscrupulous dealings. How long Nepalis could tolerate such things happening in the administration remains to be seen.

Prime Minister Oli needs to be tough on corruption not in words but in deeds, use the State resources for building the national capital of human resources for using them for making Nepal a flourishing country. Corruption had been a cancer and it had infected every body in the State administration. That lethal cancer would kill not only the ministers and prime minister but also their political party. Currently, only the private sector in every business including the press has been keeping the country alive and the democracy vibrant otherwise the Oli administration had demonstrated its intention and even attempts made to reverse the political and economic gains, as did King Mahendra in 1960. However, Nepalis would not allow anybody to reach nearer to the state of 1960 not to mention let anybody be a King Mahendra to take over.

April 17, 2020

Coronavirus Versus Coruption-20 virus

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

As of April 11, 2020, the covid-19 virus popularly known as coronavirus had already executed more than one hundred thousands folks including some frontline warriors: doctors, nurses, health workers, ambulance drivers, and other drivers driving the provision and daily needs trucks, law enforcement people, and other folks running the provision stores and other stores. The virus had made billions of people powerless, and frightened, and locked them down at home; consequently, millions of folks remained where they were, and had to be far away from their families and loved ones. Nepalis rushing back home found themselves on the border between Nepal and India stranded. They could not reach home even though they were only a few kilometers away from their homes. Only one thing the coronavirus could not touch was the corruption-20 virus so prevalent in Nepal.

Millions of folks had been without foods and drinks, as they could not go to work and earn something for living, as the coronavirus would send them to heaven or hell if they were dare to come out of their homes. No matter whether they were millionaires, billionaires or prime ministers, presidents, or the medical warriors, the coronavirus did not spare if the virus had chance to enter into the lungs and destroyed them to the extent possible stopping them to breadth. Thus, the virus sends the humans to the divine world untimely.

The coronavirus had also hit hard all the economic sectors but very hard the agriculture particularly the poultry, dairy, horticulture, vegetable, and floriculture farmers. The poultry association said that the poultry industry had been losing hundreds of millions of rupees daily because millions of eggs and chicken meat could not reach the market, not to mention the sale. They needed to keep the chicken but the feeds had been running out of the stock very fast. On the one hand the poultry industries had to face the lack of the market of the poultry products on the other hand they had to feed the chicken. In other words their investment continued. Dairy industry could not sell milks; none could stop cows giving milks. Millions of rupees worth of banana had been rotting in the field because the virus stopped the farmers to take the fruits to the market. Vegetable farmers could not sell their products, which went back to be the compost in the field. Flowers went to the compost pits.

Even Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) had to face the economic consequences because of the lack of the demand for electricity. Factories, business offices, hotels and restaurants and other enterprises had come to the dead end. They did not need power to use causing the NEA to lose billions of rupees. Nobody knew when the virus would disappear. As long as the virus continued to flourish threatening to destroy the humanity, none could have any gains except for the factories producing medical supplies. Everybody had to stay home not to take any hits from the virus thus the entire economic activities had come to standstill for fear of the invisible enemy: the virus sneaking up on the human bodies.

The virus had not only affected the human activities but also the divine activities, too. Outings of many deities had been suspended. The festivals of divinities had been mere formalities elsewhere in Nepal. Bisket Jatra in Bhaktapur, the Vajrayogine Jatra in Sakhu, the Rato Macchendranath Jatra in Patan, and many other jatras to be held in April had been put off. Even the great Christian festival: Easter had been celebrated without the mass meeting, without children going after the Easter eggs and so on. Muslims could not convene the Friday prayers in mosques because of the possibility of coronavirus infecting them.

The virus had mercilessly killed all the human activities. Social activities such as weddings, adulthood ceremonies, and other social functions had been faded away for fear of the coronavirus infecting them. Practically, the virus had made everybody powerless and helpless. Once folks became the victims of the coronavirus, even the ventilators could not probably save them. The virus would send them to stay with the respective divinities of different faiths. That is why folks stay home and keep safe from the virus, and they did not dare to do anything that would make some folks to assembly.

The coronavirus had forced hundreds of thousands of Nepalis to walk to their final destinations. Even from Kathmandu, thousands of Nepalis walked away defying the lockdown. Millions of people walked to their home in India. How many of them who dared to walk, had left the human world for the eternal peace in heaven, nobody probably knew it, yet.

The virus also forced the local governments to present the relief package worth of one thousand rupees each to the folks the virus had forced to stay home without having the possibility of earning livelihood. Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration Hridesh Tripathi told the anchor of the news-plus program of the Thaha FM Radio on the morning of April 11, 2020 that the local governments had already distributed the relief packages to more than three hundred thousands folks. The victims of the coronavirus needing the relief packages might be in millions, as even the state employees at the low levels would need the relief packages because they could not keep the reserve of provisions required for not more than two weeks. The lockdown has been already on the third week; nobody knows how far it would go. Even the lucky ones who received the relief packages had been the favorites of the distributors.

Apparently, the local governments had been working so smartly. The coronavirus had made it clear that the local and provincial governments were so important at the time of the national crisis and disaster. Minister Tripathi even told that the importance of the local governments had been so clear because they had been instrumental to identify the returnees, and the virus victims so minutely. He also told that in absence of the local governments, the distribution of the relief packages aftermath of the earthquakes in 2015 had not been so effective as of today.  So, the federal system was working so well.

One thing the coronavirus could not even dare to see not to mention touch had been the corruption-20 virus so prevalent in Nepal. Obviously, corruption-20 virus had been so strong that even the deadly coronavirus became helpless and let the corruption-20 virus thrive even when the coronavirus had been so prevalent in the human world.

As the coronavirus, the corruption-20 virus had been compassion less, mercy less, did not do any justice to anybody, but activated the sinners. The corruption-20 virus had infected every minister and prime minister, state employees, and even business folks and some common folks, too. Unlike the coronavirus that had disabled millions of humans, the corruption-20 virus had energized the prime minister and ministers, and unscrupulous businesspeople, and other service providers making them so active to make money even when the entire population had been deactivated during the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

The corruption-20 virus had made the prime minister physically so powerful and mentally, too that he could defend the corruption-20 virus infected ministers, officials, and even cadres and their preferred private companies. The corruption-20 virus had blinded the prime minister so much that he could not see the corruption in purchasing the medical supplies to fight against the coronavirus. He even went on safeguarding other ministers from the possible fall after the corruption-20 virus infected them. The virus had made the mind of the prime minister so tough that he could not believe that the irregularities in the state businesses had been happening. He was even surer than before that he had the zero tolerance of corruption. Thus, the corruption-20 virus had been so actively working on the mind and the body of the prime minister.

The corruption-20 virus had infected not only the state administration but also so many business folks, too, and even some common folks. When the common folks or the business folks infected with the corruption-20 virus and they attempted to take the benefits of the coronavirus, the state law enforcement agencies and folks worked as the antidotes sparing the favorites but when the infected state officials did work for accumulating the billions of rupees, none of the antidotes did really worked. The powerful antidote: Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had been only for the low level infected officials. CIAA did not work as an antidote to the state official strong enough to have the immunity to any anti-corruption actions.

The coronavirus might not be the apocalyptic but the corruption-20 virus might be. Because of the corruption-20 virus, the administration broke down, physical infrastructure collapsed, rule of law ended, and the country became prone to the natural disasters. The almost two-thirds majority government set up after the great bloodshed, tragedy, and heartbreak of millions of people, and of course, the sacrifices of millions of Nepalis, could not live up to the people’s expectation because of the corruption-20 virus.

The corruption-20 virus had been deadly to the fast economic development, and to the poverty alleviation, as most of the state resources intended for the welfare of the common folks went into the pockets of the state officials thanks to the corruption virus. Some business folks infected with the virus could make billions of rupees in conjunction with the virus-infected state officials and ministers in the past and even today keeping millions of Nepalis in poverty.

Currently, the coronavirus is pushing millions of Nepalis down the poverty line but the corruption-20 infected folks are taking the benefits out of it. So, both the viruses are working against the welfare of the common folks, who had been helpless to do anything against the corruption virus in the immediate past, and currently also have been helpless except for the reporters and civil society leaders that have been making noises against the corruption-20 virus.

Nepalis had burned down the corruption-virus-infected state officials, ministers, prime minister and the head of state but also the political system and even the dynastic rulers in the past. After chasing the king out of the palace, Nepalis thought that the country would be free from the virus but it did not. The corruption virus remained dormant in the laws and state polices, and they came out as epidemic and infected everybody in the state administration (of course except for the few), and the business community and even the common folks as much as possible.

Probably, time would soon come when the Nepalis would rise up again to destroy the corruption virus as they did in the past. The next time, they would certainly develop the laws and polices as the antidotes to the corruption virus. The corruption virus could remain dormant and thrive, as the favorable environment of the laws and polices had remained intact. So, the new generation of Nepalis would surely ascertain the laws and polices that had cultured the corruption virus, and gave the new life to the corruption in Nepal. Nepalis surely would then destroyed those legal environment made conducive to the corruption virus for surviving, and then Nepalis would set up a strong antidote organization to timely remedy the corruption if any corruption viruses remained and infected the state officials, ministers and the prime minister. That was the only alternative Nepalis have today to finish off the corruption-20 virus forever.

April 11, 2020

 Economic Impact of Covid-19

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Coronavirus in the abbreviation is covid-19 reportedly originated at the wild animal market in Wuhan: the capital of the Hubei province in the People’s Republic of China probably in December 2019 but the provincial police and the administration attempted to cover it up forcing the doctor who first discovered the strange flue like disease that did not recover, and he posted it on the social media stating it looked like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome  (SARS), and he warned the colleagues to be careful, to sign off on the paper that he would not further publicized the message, and the administration even charged the doctor with trying to spread the false information. The result had been disaster not only to China but the world itself as the entire populace of the world had been in alert to be ready for fighting against the new killer disease that cold spread across the world.

Unfortunately, the doctor who had reportedly alerted his colleagues contracted the disease and died leaving the pregnant spouse behind. And some other doctors and health workers also contracted the disease and died in China. More than three thousand Chinese had died and more than one hundred thousands had contracted the dieses and fifty thousands of them had been recovered from the disease in China. Covid-19 had been under control in China. The Chinese authorities had been careful not to let in China any foreigners with the coronavirus.

However, covid-19 had been spreading fast in Italy and Iran significantly while slowly in the western world including Australia. A number of cases of covid-19 cases had been reported in UK, USA, Australia and even India. Reportedly, a Chinese worker with the virus sneaked in Italy and caused to spread the disease fast killing almost 233 by March 8, 2020, forty-nine people on March 6, 2020. Italy declared a state of emergency, and isolated Lombardy in the northern Italy where 16 million were lockdown. The number of dead in Iran had been climbing and the number was reaching one hundred by March 7, 2020. Even the advisor to the FM had contracted the disease and died. Iran also purportedly initially attempted to cover up the cases of covid-19 causing so many casualties in a short time. The death toll in the USA had reached 17 on Friday, March 6, 2020. South Korea had a number of coronavirus death.

The BBC news on March 7, 2020 stated that the BBC's Rome correspondent Mark Lowen tweeted that a resident in the quarantined Italian town of Codogno told him that funerals are not being permitted for coronavirus victims because of the need to limit gatherings. The Vatican said that it was considering the Pope deliver his Angelus address on Sunday via video, rather than from a window at the Vatican to avoid drawing a large crowd. The Pope, who has been suffering from a cold, recently tested negative for the coronavirus, Italian media reported

Italy had the largest number of coronavirus cases in Europe and it reported a spike in infections on Saturday, March 7, 2020. It decided to isolate Lombardy and 14 other central and northern provinces with the population of 16 million people; the folks living those areas would need a special permit to travel, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said. He also said that schools, gyms, museums, nightclubs and other venues would remained closed across the country until April 3, 2020, the news on https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51787238 stated on March 8, 2020.

The BBC news on March 7, 2020 stated that in California, 21 cases of coronavirus had been confirmed on the Grand Princess cruise ship that was held off the coast near San Francisco; the cruise liner was a sister ship of the Diamond Princess, which was the scene of a major coronavirus outbreak while moored in Japan; US Vice President Mike Pence said the Grand Princess would be sent to a non-commercial dock over the weekend where all its 3,533 passengers and crew would be tested.

The World Bank had allocated $ 12 billion and IMF $ 50 billion, and USA $ 8.3 billion of emergency funding for propping up the less advantageous countries in fighting against the covid-19. How much China had spent its money and other resources in combating the disease was not available, yet. China had built temporary hospitals to accommodate the covid-19 patients, and then the hospitals had been wound down after the virus had been under its control.

After the fast spread of covid-19, China came to a standstill to keep in check the disease from spreading. Factories, universities, schools, businesses, and social gatherings and other gatherings were effectively banned. National and international airlines stopped their planes flying in and out of China. Folks remained at home. How much a decline in the Chinese economy had been not known, yet. However, the Chinese exports fell by 17.2% in January-February from the same period in 2019 had made it clear the adverse impact of the corona virus on the Chinese economy and global supply chains, the BBC news on March 7, 2020 stated

Some factories in Japan were closed because of not getting parts from China. Similarly, some factories in the USA had to reduce the production because of not having the parts from China. How much European manufacturing sector had suffered from not having the parts from China was not reported in the media. Australian farmers had to sell the crabs dirt cheap at the home market, as China stopped importing the Australian crabs. How much economic damage had been done to Australia to be assessed, yet

For fear of not having the supplies, folks in the USA, Australian and other countries had started off buying foodstuffs and other essentials emptying the shelves and racks at the supermarkets. Folks had been stockpiling the toilet papers, facemasks, and other essentials concerned with the possibility of the short supply of these items. India had stopped exporting 13 medicines. Nepal had officially urged the Indian government to lift the ban on exporting the medicines, the state media reported.

Major events had been cancelled for avoiding the mass gatherings obviously for fear of having the fast spread of covid-19, as nobody might be able to check everybody for the virus. One person might spread it to a lot of folks coming in contact with him or her. “The city of Austin (Texas) canceled South by Southwest (SXSW music and tech) festival on Friday citing the risk of coronavirus spreading among the hundreds of thousands attendees, who flock to the event each year,” The Washington Post reported on March 7, 2020. Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi canceled the EU-meeting, as the coronavirus cases had been increasing in Europe, as the Indian media reported.

The world media reported that coronavirus had hit the entertainment sector, social and religious sector, and the education sector hard. Almost all the Chinese movie theaters and other theaters had been closed after the spread of coronavirus in Wuhan. Churches were closed in South Korea, and in other countries, too. Schools and campuses were closed elsewhere in the world.

Another sector hit hard had been the air transport sector. All the airlines in the world had a few passengers transporting from one country to another, as folks had canceled the foreign tours. Airports elsewhere in the world had been having fewer travelers. Airport carousels had been running without baggage. Some airlines had grounded their planes. Airline workers had been furloughed.

Hotel and Restaurant industry had to take the hit from the coronavirus, too, as the people traveling from one country to another had drastically reduced. Hoteliers had to send their staff on leave without pay.

Preventive measures had been to avoid the person-to-person contact. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had advised to clasp hands in the style of “namaskar” rather than shaking hands. Some head of State touched each other’s legs avoiding the handshakes. The US President demonstrated how to wash hands, and the UK prime minister advised to wash hands as often as possible.

World Health Organization (WHO) had declared that the South Asia was at high-risk from coronavirus. Nepal had been placed on alert. The government had advised the people not to hold any public gatherings. Political parties had suspended their public events. China had isolated the entire the Hubei province. That might be the reason why the virus did not spread. However, the virus had made the way to the different countries including Nepal where one case of covid-19 was confirmed but no death occurred.

The government of United Arab Emirates (UAE) had sent back 30 Nepalis traveling to Bahrain via UAE for the foreign employments stating Nepal was at the high risk of coronavirus, the Foreign Ministry of Nepal stated; the Nepal government urged all Nepalis not to travel to foreign countries except for the most essential cases, as the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Nepal at the high risk zone of the coronavirus; the news published on the front page of “Artha Bazaar” on March 3, 2020 stated.

The Nepal government had taken preventive measures timely and firmly. Nepal suspended the provision for the on-arrival visa to the five countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Italy effective on March 10; it would also be applicable to France, Germany and Spain in a few days. Nepal set up a health unit at the international airport to test the possible coronavirus among the passengers, and at the 37 entry points along the border between Nepal and India, and effectively checked the unauthorized entry of the folks from the northern border points, too, the state media reported.

The Provincial Health Directorate of the Province Number Five set up health checkup desks at the four border entry points: one each at Rani of Biratnagar, Pashupatinagar of Ilam, Kakarbhita of Jhapa, and Bhadrapur entry point of Jhapa in the province; one more health checkup desk was set up at Mechi Bridge entry point of Bhadrapur; one assistance nurse midwife and another assistance health worker would be working two shifts a day, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on March 8, 2020 stated.

The Province Number Two government had set up health checkup desks at 10 major entry points in the seven districts out of the eight districts of the province on the border between Nepal and India and providing the health services to the folks crossing the border; the health checkup desks had been working for twelve hours a day in two shifts, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on March 8, 2020 stated.

Spokesperson for the Karnali province government also Provincial Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives: Bimala KC said that the provincial government had made a decision on Friday, March 6, 2020 on strictly controlling its border points along the Nepal-China border the precautionary measures to prevent and reduce the possibility of the outbreak of Covid-19; and also decided to set up five health checkup desks: one each at Hilsa of Humla, Kapurkot of Salyan, Babai and Kuine of Surkhet and at the Surkhet Airport, the news on https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/karnali-govt-decides-to-seal-entry-points-along-nepal-china-border/ stated on March 7, 2020.

Nepal had evacuated 178 Nepali students from the Hubei province in China. They were the Nepalese students studying in China. They along with the crewmembers were isolated at Kharapati in Bhaktapur for 14 days. Their health status was regularly and routinely checked and samples were taken from their throats for the coronavirus tests. None of them found to be contracted with the coronavirus and sent them home after 14 days in isolation.

The Nepal government had advised all citizens not to hold any social, religious and political and any other events obviously as the preventive measure against the coronavirus. The government called off the mass celebration of the Holi festival on March 9, 2020. The State media had been creating the awareness of how to be safe from the coronavirus among the citizens. Some of the State-run hospitals had made the isolation wards for treating the patients with the coronavirus. Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada also holding the portfolio of ministry of communication and information technology said that Nepal had sufficient stock of 13 kinds of medicine India had prohibited to export, and the government would urge the Indian government to lift the embargo on exporting the medicines, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on March 6, 2020 stated.

Facemasks were sold out in the Nepalese market. Even if any facemasks were available the prices had been doubled or even trebled. The State media and the state physicians had been telling the public that the common folks did not need to wear any facemasks; only the physicians needed to wear and the folks who had contracted the covid-19, and the folks taking care of coronavirus patients; even then the sale of facemasks had reached sky high in Nepal.

The demand for facemasks, sanitizers and soap had been drastically increased in the Banke district after the physicians advised the common folks to wear masks and wash hands, and wearing masks at schools, and the offices including non-governmental offices made mandatory in the district; and the prices of the masks that had been available at NPR 15 to NPR 30 had jumped to NPR 50 and even to NPR 100, the news on last page of “Artha Bazaar” of “gorkhapatra” on March 7, 2020 stated.

The Department of Commerce, Supply And Consumer Protection had urged the common folks to make a call at 1137 to report on anybody charging high prices on masks; and the department had started off monitoring the market in Kathmandu since Tuesday, March 3, 2020; the department had already fined some stores for selling masks at higher prices; the department could punish any stores hiding the masks or charging high prices with the penalty of NPR 300,000 at maximum, the news on the front page of “Artha Bazaar” of “gorkhapatra” on March 7, 2020 stated.

The garment industries in the Dang district had started off producing masks in the districts at the reasonable price; one factory could produce about six hundred masks a day; the garment industries had been selling masks at NPR 20 per piece, and the retailers at NPR 30 per piece; one non-governmental organization had been providing the common folks with masks free in Lamahi; it had been possible because of the local production of masks, the news published on the front page of “Artha Bazaar” of “gorkhapatra” on March 8, 2020 stated.

The (Nepalese) domestic airlines companies were going to lose almost four billion rupees as the adverse impact of coronavirus on the industry, as the number of the foreign visitors had declined by 40 percent during the first two months of the year 2020, the Airlines Management Association stated; the association also stated the airlines would need to furlough the employees and reduce the benefits given to them; the impact of the coronavirus on the airlines companies would continue for the next six months, the news published on the front page of “Artha Bazaar” of “gorkhapatra” on March 7, 2020 stated.

The tourism industry had been in the doldrums after World Health Organization (WHO) declared Nepal was at the high risk zone of the coronavirus; visitors had canceled the advanced bookings; and most of the hotels including five star to small hotels had been empty; hoteliers complained; all the hotels in Chitwan had furlough all their employees keeping only guards at work, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on March 6, 2020 stated.

The resort-town Bandipur had been entirely empty because of the coronavirus; hoteliers had been very concerned with the possibility of the Banks placing them on the blacklist as they would not be able to make the installment payments on the bank loans; the visitors had been less by more than 90 percent: the worst case than what had happened during the earthquakes and then the Indian embargo; another news on the same page stated that the “First Provincial Small Cottage and Industrial Fair” the Nepal Cottage and Small Industry Federation, and the Provincial Women Entrepreneurs Committee Province Number Five had held in Butwal since Wednesday, March 4, 2020 had been badly impacted by the coronavirus, as even after three days of the opening of the exhibition, visitors had been minimum; folks did not visit the “Fair” because of the fear for their safety; the provincial government had urged the folks not to hold any events in the province but the organizers of the “Fair” had not closed it, yet, the news published on the last page of “Artha Bazaar” of “gorkhapatra” on March 7, 2020 stated.

Traders had been facing the problem of transporting black cardamom, ginger, and organic brooms from Ilam to India as the Indian transporters refused to take the products after the governments of both Nepal and India urged the common folks not to celebrate the Holi festival in mass for fear of the outbreak of coronavirus consequently causing the fall of the prices of those products; the price of black cardamom had gone down from NPR 28,000 per 100 kg to NPR 26,000 per 100 kg, the price of ginger also had been reduced to NPR 2,500 per 100 kg, which was far lower than used to be, the news published on the front page of “Artha Bazaar” of “gorkhapatra” on March 9, 2020 stated.

The industries in Biratnagar had been facing high prices of the raw materials imported from China for producing juice, biscuits, edible oil and noodles because of the outbreak of coronavirus in China causing the problem of importing the raw materials from China, the news published on the last page of “Artha Bazaar” on March 3, 2020 stated.

By mid March 2020, Europe had been burning with the Covid-19. Thousands of Italian had lost their lives, hundreds of Spaniards, and French too, tens of British, and so on.

Italy and Spain went in lockdown. Probably, France and Germany might soon follow them. Some Italians had sung songs from the balconies and windows to keep themselves lively. Folks had to take special permission to come out of their homes. They would receive the permits only in case of visiting hospitals, and in the case of the urgent need to go out of their homes. Law enforcement people had strictly enforced the lockdown.

Germany had closed its frontiers with five countries despite being the member of European and open border among the member countries. Some other countries such as Norway, and Sweden also did the same. Other European countries might follow suit. Only Russia had not reported any cases of covid-19.

Covid-19 had gone out of the Iranian Autoyala Khomeini. Satellite pictures had shown that Iran had dug a massive trench obviously to bury the dead from the covid-19. The Iranian official announcement of dead was just above six hundreds but the real death toll had not been known for the known State control of the media.

A planeload of Chinese doctors and medics and medicines had reached Italy to douse the burning fire of Covid-19 in Italy. Chinese had already massive experiences in tackling the deadly Covid-19 after losing more than 3,000 Chinese lives to the fatal disease. China had demonstrated how it could help the Europeans to fight against the demonic covid-19. It was also o show that China was already a world leading country that could help any country in case of the need.

“The three states bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe have all recorded their highest death tolls for a single day. Italy saw 368 deaths bring its total to 1,809, Spain recorded 97 more deaths for a total of 288, and France reported 29 deaths, giving a total of 120. The UK also saw a single-day record, with 14 new deaths and a total of 35. Governments across Europe have responded by curbing the movements of citizens and tightening borders. The Czech government has introduced stringent lockdown measures: people will be allowed to go to and from work and buy food or medicine, and make urgent family visits, but otherwise free movement will be severely limited from midnight (23:00 GMT) on Sunday (March 15, 2020) until 24 March. Austria is banning gatherings of more than five people from Monday, and the Republic of Ireland is asking pubs to shut until 29 March. Schools will be closed across many European states. Switzerland reported a leap in the number of infections by 800 to reach 2,200 in just 24 hours. The country has recorded 14 deaths,” BBC NEWS stated.

President Donald Trump declared a state of national emergency, and prohibited planes flying from Europe to America not specifying the cargo planes causing fear and chaos but immediately he corrected his previous statement saying cargo planes were allowed flying, as the step to deal with the global outbreak of the Covid-19, the media reports stated on March 13, 2020. The covid-19 caused severe short supply of toilet papers and it also emptied the frozen food shelves at the food market in America.

 “Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has sent the first shipment of surgical masks and coronavirus test kits to the US. The Chinese billionaire tweeted two pictures of the pallets of goods being loaded on to a plane in Shanghai. Earlier this month he said he would give 500,000 testing kits and one million masks to America. Mr Ma is also sending consignments of medical supplies to Europe as he called for international cooperation efforts to combat the pandemic. In his first tweet, Asia's richest person posted photos of a China Eastern Airlines jet being loaded with boxes of coronavirus test kits and face masks as they were shipped to the US. It comes after the Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation last week announced that they had prepared 500,000 testing kits and 1 million masks to be sent to America. They also said that they had already donated supplies to other countries including Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Spain, with two million protective masks pledged for distribution across Europe. The first consignment of 500,000 masks and other medical supplies such as test kits, which was destined for Italy, arrived in Belgium on Friday,” BBC NEWS stated on March 16, 2020.

“Global stock markets have sunk despite central banks around the world announcing a coordinated effort to ease the effects of the coronavirus. London's FTSE 100 share index fell more than 7% in early trade. Earlier, markets in Asia closed sharply lower. On Sunday, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to almost zero and launched a $700bn stimulus program. It was part of coordinated action announced alongside the Euro zone, the UK, Japan, Canada, and Switzerland. However, investors are concerned that central banks now have few options left to combat the impact of the pandemic. All the main European share indexes saw big falls, with France's Cac 40 index down nearly 9% and Germany's Dax more than 7% lower Earlier in Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 closed down 2.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 4%, and the Shanghai Composite in China ended the day 3.3% lower. Shares in Australia took a huge tumble, recording their biggest daily percentage fall on record as the benchmark ASX 200 index closed 9.7% lower. The Reserve Bank of Australia has said it "stands ready" to pump more money into the country's financial system. Crude oil prices and the US dollar have also fallen on global markets”, BBC NEWS stated on March 16, 2020.

“US Fed chairman Jerome Powell said the coronavirus is having a "profound effect"

The falls on share markets come as investors worry that the world's biggest central banks may now have very little ammunition left to deal with the effects of the coronavirus if the global economic climate continues to worsen. "They pulled out whatever weapons they had and my sense is I think it may help initially but I don't think it goes much further because this is still a developing issue. They used up basically all their ammunition and we're down to sticks and stones," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at Slatestone Wealth. Earlier the US Federal Reserve cut its interest rates by 100 basis points to a target range of 0% to 0.25% and said it would offer at least $700bn for support to the markets in the coming weeks. Speaking after the announcement Fed chairman Jerome Powell said, "The virus is having a profound effect." The Bank of Japan also eased monetary policy by pledging to buy risky assets at double the current pace and announced a new loan program to extend one-year, zero-rate loans to financial institutions. Alongside the Fed, five other central banks - the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada, and the Swiss National Bank - also announced measures to make it easier to provide dollars to their financial institutions facing stress in credit markets. The move was designed to bring down the price banks and companies pay for US dollars, which has surged in recent weeks. Andrew Sentance, a former member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, which sets interest rates, told the BBC's Today program that banks were acting to ensure enough credit was flowing. "There was some criticism around the financial crisis that central banks didn't move quickly enough," he said. "I see this as a partly precautionary action for central banks to show that they are doing as much as possible to keep the wheels of the economy turning." Mr Sentance added that any further cut to the base rate in the UK, to 0.10% for example, would be "symbolic, because it wouldn't have that much impact on companies or individuals". On Monday, New Zealand's central bank lowered interest rates by 75 basis points as it prepared for a "significant" hit to the economy. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Adrian Orr said the virus was expected to have a severe impact on the economy over the coming year”, BBC NEWS stated on March 16, 2020.

(Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada needed to read this news for him to understand how to save the stock market. since he took office the Nepalese stock market had been sick to death. It could not recover so far)

“Mount Everest has shut down for the rest of the expedition season because of the coronavirus outbreak. Nepal's government announced that it would cancel all climbing permits from 14 March until 30 April. China had already cancelled expeditions from the northern, Chinese-controlled, side of the mountain. According to the Kathmandu Post, Nepal earns $4m (£3.1m) by issuing Everest climbing permits every year, aside from wider tourism revenue. "We have decided to halt all tourist visas until 30 April," said Narayan Prasad Bidari, Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office. "As of now, all issued permits and permits yet to be issued for the 2020 Everest season will be cancelled." It also advised foreigners who were unable to avoid coming to Nepal from 14 March to stay in quarantine for 14 days. Most climbers come from the US, India, China, UK, Japan, and South Korea - and are a major source of revenue for the Nepalese government. Typically, anyone who wants to climb Everest needs to pay the government $11,000 (£8,700), though there were talks by the government to raise this figure. And that's not including fees that are typically paid to the travel companies, which can also run up tens of thousands. Local sherpas who work as mountain guides will also be affected. "My nine Chinese clients and a Japanese client have cancelled already. Many trekking teams are not coming, which is a big loss for sherpas like us who make most of our money during this time," Lakpa Sherpa, managing director of Pioneer Adventure, told BBC Nepali,” BBC NEWS stated on March 13, 2020.

“Ghana has banned public gatherings including conferences, funerals, political rallies and religious activities after confirming four new coronavirus cases. Funerals attended by less than 25 people are exempted from President Akufo-Addo's order. All universities and schools have also been closed indefinitely. The ban on gatherings will be in force for four weeks starting 16 March. President Nana Akufo-Addo in a late night address on Sunday said the new measures are "in the interest of public safety and protection of our [Ghanaian] population," BBC NEWS stated on March 16, 2020.

“Sudan says a man in his 50s who died on Thursday in the capital, Khartoum, had coronavirus, confirming the country's first case. The man had visited the UAE in the first week of March, health authorities said. Sudan has stopped issuing visas for, and flights to, eight countries, including Italy and neighboring Egypt, over fears of the coronavirus outbreak. Bus trips to Egypt have also been suspended. Egypt was the first country in Africa to confirm a case of coronavirus. It has recorded two deaths and now has at least 80 cases,” BBC NEWS stated.

“A senior member of the Australian government, home affairs minister Peter Dutton, has tested positive for coronavirus, he said on Friday. Mr Dutton, who sits on the national security committee, said he woke up with a "temperature and sore throat". He said he immediately contacted his local health department in Queensland and is now in hospital. There are currently 156 confirmed cases in Australia, including US actor Tom Hanks, who is in Queensland. Hanks is there with his wife Rita Wilson - who also has the virus - to make a film about Elvis Presley. "This morning I woke up with a temperature and sore throat. I feel fine and will provide an update in due course," said Mr Dutton on Twitter. "It is the policy of Queensland Health that anyone who tests positive is to be admitted into hospital and I have complied with their advice." Mr Dutton had on Thursday been asked why people entering Australia weren't being tested. He said it was not possible to test everyone coming into the country. "For 99% of people there's no issue," he said, according to radio station 4BC. Mr Dutton recently traveled to Washington DC for a meeting on child sexual exploitation. While there, he met President Trump's daughter, Ivanka,” BBC NEWS stated on March 13, 2020.

“Everyone arriving in Israel will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says. "All those coming to Israel from abroad will be placed in isolation," he said in a video address posted to Twitter. Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said the measure would be effective immediately for all Israelis returning to the country. It will apply to foreign citizens from Thursday, he added. The move means that foreign arrivals will have to prove that they have adequate accommodation to be quarantined during their stay in the country,” BBC NEWS stated on March 9, 2020.

On Sunday, March 15, 2020, the heads of state of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) had held a videoconference on tackling the possible outbreak of covid-19 that had been currently rising exponentially in Europe, and it had been causing the deaths in hundreds every day. Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi committed US$ 10 million for a common fund to cope with the covid-19. Others had not committed anything so far. SAARC member countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri-lanka. WHO had labeled the South Asia as the high-risk area of the covid-19 infection.

Nepal also had made mandatory 14-day isolation for the visitors entering the country from air. They have to stay home in self-isolation. The State employees would monitory their health condition and the isolation. Folks entering Nepal by the surface transport were checked at every entry point for their health status. The Local and provincial governments had been actively working on monitoring the folks entering the country by land.

Short supply of daily needs and essential goods had been felt in Kathmandu. Motorcyclists had lined up for a few liters of petrol at every petrol pump but the Oli administration had been saying that the supply of goods and services had been as regular as at any time. Nepal Police had raided a warehouse and found more than one hundred thousands of facemasks stored for selling at high prices. The Attorney General had ordered the police to sell the masks at the regular price and deposit the proceeds at the special bank account, the media reports stated on March 16, 2020.

The following news quotes are from the BBC NEWS posted on March 17, 2020.

“The US president sent a tweet on Monday (March 16, 2020) describing the coronavirus - which causes the disease Covid-19 - as the “Chinese virus”. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against linking the virus to any particular area or group, due to the risk of stigmatization. However, a number of US administration officials have referred to it as the Chinese virus. Meanwhile, Mr. Pompeo has repeatedly referred to the “Wuhan virus”.

Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said the tweet amount to “stigmatization of China”. "We urge the US to correct its mistake and stop its groundless accusations against China,” he added. China’s official news agency, Xinhua, said Mr. Trump’s language was “racist and xenophobic” and revealed “politicians' irresponsibility and incompetence”, risking increasing fears over the virus. There was also criticism from within the US, with New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio saying the phrase risked “fuelling more bigotry” against Asian Americans.

The first cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. However, last week a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman shared a conspiracy theory, alleging the US Army had brought it to the region. The unfounded accusation led US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to demand China stop spreading “disinformation” as it tried “to shift blame” for the outbreak.”

Nepal has so far apparently none of the covid-19 cases but the experts’ opinions differed from what the Oli administration had been doing and saying. Speaking to the anchor of the “Antar-sambad” program of “Radio Nepal” on March 18, 2020, Dr. Samir and Chairman of PABSON Mr. Umesh Shrestha revealed what the precautionary measures had to be taken and what the Oli administration had been doing had been not to the standard requirements. Dr. Samir said that allocating an isolation ward with a few beds in some regular hospitals was surely hazardous, as the covid-19 patients would spread the virus to other patients in the hospitals; so separate hospitals designed for the covid-19 patients were required. Concerning the no-cases of covid-19, Dr. Samir said that the adequate tests had not be performed so the covid-19 cases must have been escaped from detection, as so many visitors and Nepalis had been returning from the covid-19 infected countries to Nepal. Chairman Umesh Shrestha said that the government had been holding the SEE examinations bringing hundreds of thousands of students to the examination centers, the government had not closed the schools, and had not stopped the public events from holding.

The BBC NEWS story concerning Amazon posted on March 17, 2020 stated as follow.

Workers at Amazon's UK warehouses have to work overtime to cope with the huge demand for goods due to the coronavirus pandemic despite government calls to restrict social contact. Amazon said it was working to ensure the delivery of goods to the customers. Some employees must work additional hours as requested by an employer if their contract says so. They said that there is extra pressure on the workforce to deal with an influx of goods the company is bringing to meet the spike in demand. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the company had ramped up shifts across the UK. They said: "As demand continues to increase, we are working to ensure we can continue to deliver to the most-impacted customers while keeping our people safe". "Many of these customers have no other way to get essential items and we want to be sure that we have the right resources in place to deliver on their needs. "Starting this week, we'll be prioritizing the intake and dispatch of items most needed by our customers right now. These are items such as food, health and personal care products, items needed to work from home, books and toys for children.” Amazon has said it will hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the United States to deal with the surge in sales due to pandemic. The online retail giant also said it would increase pay for its staff in the UK, US and Europe. Amazon said it would increase hourly wages by $2 in the US, £2 in the UK, and €2 in Europe. The company said it expects the pay rises expected to cost it more than $350m (£285m).

The BBC NEWS story ended here.

The nationwide Secondary Education Examination (SEE) was scheduled to hold on March 19, 2020. More than five hundred thousands students participate in this examination. Up until morning of March 18, 2020, the minister for education had said that the SEE would be held as scheduled. However, on the eve of the SEE, the minister for education declared that it was postponed until the further notice in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The minister also stated that a new schedule for holding the examination would be set in consultation with the WHO making clear that the Nepal government must have made the decisions on preventive measures to protect the citizens from the possible outbreak of Covid-19 under pressure.

On March 18, 2020, the meeting of High Level Coordination Committee on Control, and Prevention of Outbreak of Covid-19 Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokharel presided over made the following decisions, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on March 19, 2020 stated.

1 Secondary Education Examination (SEE) was postponed until the further notice.

2 All universities and schools remain closed until April 12. 2020.

3 Movie theaters, cultural centers, stadiums, sports and gyms, health clubs, museums, swimming pools, dance bar and clubs, entertainment areas remain closed until April 30, 2020.

4 The government has cautioned the citizens not to assemble more than 25 persons at the cultural, social events, at any party palaces, and religious shrines, the transporters not to carry more passengers than the public transport vehicles are allowed, the citizens not to travel in crowd, and not to come out of homes, and walk except for in the case of the dire necessity.

5 Folks from all Europe, West Asia and Gulf countries, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan are prohibited to enter Nepal effective on March 20, 2020 until April 15, 2020. This prohibition is applicable to the visitors coming through those countries.

6 Visa for the foreign visitors, who could not travel back home from Nepal due to the travel ban would be regularized.

7 Airlines were instructed to refund the entire amount of the tickets of the visitors scheduled for the air travel during the “travel advisory” period, and not to charge any fees for rescheduling the travel.

8 Also instructed to disinfect the public places where folks assemble, and the public transport vehicles daily, and to make available hand sanitizers at hotels, restaurants, and shopping malls.

9 Strong actions would be taken against the traders, who would cause the price rise exorbitantly, and create artificial shortage.

10 Strong actions would be taken against the media and reporters and individuals that would publicize the false information on the Covid-19.

Human activities had been drastically reduced in Kathmandu. Most of the folks coming from the hills and Terai had gone back home for the fear of Covid-19, and for the fear of not having adequate supplies. Road traffic had been at minimum. However, the State media and the ministers had been parroting that no short supply of essential goods had been but a large number of motorbikes lined up for a few liters of goalie at each gas station. Provisions stores had sold out rice, and they had run out of other foodstuff such as sugar and salt. Vegetables and other perishable goods had been cheaper, as demands had reduced due to the return of the folks from the Kathmandu Valley to their respective areas.

Folks working at hotels, restaurant, airlines and other service sectors had gone back home, as most of them except for the guards had been on the unpaid leave. So, the incoming buses had a few passengers while outgoing buses had been crowded with passengers. They could not survive in Kathmandu not having jobs, as the house rent was so high, and they had to pay high prices for the foods and drinks. Once, schools, colleges and universities were closed then students could go home, too. Thus, the economy of the Kathmandu Valley might go down drastically, and of the nation, too.

The Hyatt Hotel suspended its services; the Manakamna cable car also temporarily suspended its services, as the Manakamna Mandir was closed effective on March 20; the Radio Nepal stated in its morning news on March 20, 2020. Kathmandu Metropolitan office posted a notice stating Sankata “Padmantak Aju” was closed for the public in view of the Covid-19 effective on March 20, 2020. Patan Zoo was closed; Pahanchare Jatra would not be held in Kathmandu, and Jatras in other parts of the Kathmandu Valley mostly held in April also might not be held, the Ujyaalo FM Radio stated in its 10 AM Nepal Bhasha news on March 20, 2020. More than 4,000 devotees visited Manakamna everyday. Almost 3,000 folks visited Patan Zoo every day.

Against this current backdrop in Kathmandu and elsewhere in Nepal, Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada holding the portfolio of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology also the spokesman for the government told the reporters at the press conference held in Kathmandu on March 19, 2020 that the contribution of the tourism to the national economy was only three percent; so, the economic impact would be to that proportion only, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” stated on March 20, 2020.

Nobody could say that Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada did not understand the macro economy but folks might say that Dr. Khatiwada was definitely trying to misinform the public, as nobody would surely believe that the economic impact of the Covid-19 would only be to the extent of three percent. The simple arithmetic is that all the staffs of the Hyatt must have been temporarily laid off; similarly all the staffs of Manakamna cable car must have gone home; so many folks have been going home from Kathmandu surely because of the shutdown of many factories, offices and other service agencies; the closure of party palaces, as the assembly of more than 25 folks was prohibited; the public transport in Kathmandu has been drastically reduced; folks have stopped going out making the taxi service at minimum.

Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada certainly knew that all these public activities contributed to the national economy. He also might know that slowdown of all these activities would surely badly affect the national economy. So, it would not be only three percent of the tourism industry but also the entire economy would be adversely affected due to the Covid-19. Also Dr. Khatiwada must have listened to the radio or watch the TV news or even facebook and other social media, which had been widely stating that the world economy would slow down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Dr. Khatiwada has taken the economic impact of the Covid-19 easy stating it had affected only tourism industry and it contributed only three percent to the national economy.

Let us see how the closure of the Sankata: “Padmantak Aju” shrine for the visitors would influence the national economy. Devotees visiting the deity did not need to carry any items of offerings, as they could buy a green-leaf bowl full of items of offerings such as flower, incense, a butter lamp, a fresh coconut, vermillion, rice, black beans and so on.

Once, the shrine was closed the vendors of those items of offerings lost the jobs. Then, the producers of the green-leaf bowls lost the market; the flower growers find the sluggish market of their products; incense sellers find the low sale of the incense; butter lamp makers would have no market; fresh coconuts would not be sold. Even a single shrine closure has such an influence on the economic activities of the common folks. When the activities of the entire population come to a minimum then the negative economic impact would be not just three percent of the tourism industry but would be beyond the imagination of the finance minister.

Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada holding the portfolio of the spokesman for the government told the reporters at the press conference held in Kathmandu on March 19, 2020, “the revenue collection had been low because of the import decline. The revenue collection in the Fagu month had improved; we collected 35 to 36 percent VAT. We collected more than 30 income tax,” the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” stated on March 20, 2020.

Collecting revenues and reducing imports would alone not improve the economy of any country. If the finance minister were really a development economist then he would say that fewer imports were the indication of the slowdown of the economic activities. However, Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada had been very happy to see the imports going down.

Anybody could guess why the economy of Nepal could not take off, and Nepal had remained the least developed country, as the so-called economist as Dr. Khatiwada had been the vice-chairman of National Planning Commission, and he also had been the governor of the State Bank of Nepal called Nepal Rastriya Bank; currently, he is the finance minister. How could such a person like Dr. Khatiwada formulate a realistic socio-economic policy and implement when he worked as the governor and the vice-chairman of the national Planning Commission? His national economic policy has be disaster to the economy, which has been going downhill since he took office.

The US administration had programmed to use one trillion dollars as the stimulus to its economy; it has also allocated small amount to help the developing countries to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. “Administrator Mark Green announced USAID will commit an additional $62 million to address the Covid-19 pandemic. The Agency had already committed $37 million to help developing countries affected by or at high-risk for the pandemic. This funding covers heightened risk-communications and engagement with local communities; prevention and control of infection in health facilities; increasing laboratory, disease-surveillance, and rapid-response capacity; case management; screening at points of entry; and global and regional coordination.” Addressing the Global threat of Cpvid-19 Head-on, March 20, 2020.

The World Bank has allocated $14 billion to counter negative effective of the Covid-19 in the world economy. “The covid-19 pandemic is not only a health crisis. The jobs and livelihoods of people around the world are also under threat. An increased $14 billion package will support a fast, flexible response to Covid-19. The package will help support companies, strengthen health systems and improve disease surveillance.” World Bank Group March 20, 2020 stated.

I woke up with lockdown on March 24, 2020. The Oli administration had taken this measure with the pressure from the WHO. Previously, the Oli administration had not been so serious about Covid-19 but WHO had been worrying about the South Asia, as the State administrations of all the states of this region had no ability to cope with the outbreak of Covid-19 if it were to happen. So, the preventive measures had to be taken before any epidemic of the virus were to happen; that was what the WHO had been. The lockdown in Nepal would continue until March 31, 2020.

I grabbed my radio and switched on to the FM Radio. Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali was talking to the anchor of Rishi Dhamala. The minister was very serious about what the administration was preparing for. In case if the country would need any medicines or tools or kits, the Oli administration bracing up to bring such items with a chartered plane from any country, he said. He urged the country fellows to remain at home, and those Nepalis were in foreign countries to keep on staying where they were, and those fellows who had been already in the country to stay on in self-isolation.

Then, I switched on to the Radio Nepal seven o’clock morning news. The newscaster was talking to Deputy Prime Minister also Chairman of High Level Coordination Committee on Control, and Prevention: Ishwor Pokharel, who told that the country was certainly not prepared for the epidemic of Covid-19; so the administration was doing everything possible to fight against the possible outbreak of Covis-19.

The newscaster then turned to Finance Minister also the spokesman for the government: Dr. Yubraj Khatiwada, and asked him what the current administration was going to do when America announced that the State would provide every laborer $1,000 dollar whereas India was providing one thousand rupees. Dr. Khatiwada avoided the question rather told what the administration had been doing to fight the corona virus.

Then the newscaster said that the cabinet meeting the prime minister presided over on March 23, 2020 decided to contribute the amount of one-month salary of every minister to the “Coronavirus Pandemic And Control And Remedy Fund,” the president announced that she would contribute the amount of the two-month salary, and anybody could contribute any amount to the fund. If the past history of such a fund or collection the administration had met for the victims of the floods or earthquakes then the real sufferers did never get anything as publicized. Even the concerned minister and his secretary cashed in the huge purchases of tents, tarpaulin, and other items the earthquake victims needed.

The police had forced all stores including the stores of daily necessities. So, the total lockdown was a success on March 24, 2020. The farmers in Bhaktapur distributed their vegetables gratis to the folks, as they could not sell the products due to the total lockdown. The police had taken some folks violating the lockdown into custody.

Then, the state-run newspaper “gorkhapatra’ published the news that the home ministry urging the store owners of the daily essential goods to keep open the stores so that the foods and foods products would not be in short supply. The ministry even urged the medicine stores to keep their stores open twenty hours a day.

Some lawyers said that the state needed to make sure that the folks in lockdown should receive adequate foods and drinks in time, according to the natural law. That might be the reason why the home ministry urged the retailers of the daily needs to keep their stores open. The police needed to ensure that the folks buying and selling the essential goods kept at the safe distance from each other so that they would not risk contamination from the coronavirus.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the address to the nation at 8:00 PM Indian standard time on March 24, 2020 declared the lockdown from the midnight March 25, 2020 to April 14, 2020 to save the entire 1.3 billion Indians from Covid-19. He did not mention how the folks would have the foods and drinks during this lockdown. The hardest-hit folks would be the street vendors, daily wage earners, and micro businesses that had to sell and buy daily for their survival. Probably, Modi must have thought about it. His administration would provide one thousand rupees to each laborer, and some relief to the senior citizens and so on. How his administration would manage the distribution of this handouts, and how the folks on the streets would survive the 21-day stay-at-home was the open question Modi had left.

The Department of Health Service, Teku published a notice titled “A Very Important Notice Concerning the Covid-19 Prevention And Management Supplies” on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on March 25, 2020 asking the competent suppliers to be present at the Ministry of Health and Population, Ramshahpath, Kathmandu at 1:00 PM on the same day of the notice publication with the proposal of fair prices of the supplies given on the website www.dohslmd.gov.np. Patan Health Science Academy also published a similar notice on the fifth page of “gorkhapatra” on the same day (March 25, 2020).

This had been a standard practice of the State administration to buy anything urgently needed to cope with any emergency possibly for avoiding any regular practices required to follow the Public Procurement Act even though the Act gave the purchases sufficient leverage to manipulate prices, supply and delivery of items required. Bypassing the standard procedures of the public procurements had been standard practice in the past and current administration. This virus infected the state administration; and it had been deadlier than the covid-19.

Now, the question is why the Oli has been waiting for the last minute to procure the medicines, kits, equipment, protective gear, and other supplies to fight against the covid-19 pandemic when the administration knew even two months ago when the covid-19 had been making news from China, Japan, South Korea and other countries and the coronavirus made its way to Italy and then Spain and other European countries so fast that it could visit South Asia at any time, as the WHO officials had been warning the South Asian countries.

Another question is what the Oli administration is doing to mitigate the impact of the deadly virus on the entire economy of the country, and nothing has come out of the Oil administration so far. Street vendors, vegetable vendors, and surely the producers felt the immediate impact of the lockdown the Oli administration declared. Daily laborers could not go to work. If they had to live on the daily wages they would have hard time to survive, as they could not earn anything because of the lockdown, and even if they had some leftover money they could not buy the supplies, as the stores are closed, too. However, on the second day of the lockdown some provision stores and vegetable markets were opened.

The news posted on “The Washington Post” on March 25, 2020 stated, “The US Senate passed $2 trillion economic rescue package designed to be a lifeline to Americans and their employees until the novel coronavirus is brought under control.” It made to shot up the share prices at the stock market. WHO has warned that America could be another epicenter of the virus. One governor after another has been issuing the stay-at-home order to keep the citizen safe from the virus as of March 25, 2020.

The virus had pushed up the worldwide demand for the masks, sanitizers, medical kits, gloves, safety gears, and ventilators to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus. After the lockdown, the demand for the Internet service had been doubled. The virus had given the Chinese State officials the opportunity for buying the shares in the foreign-owned companies at dirt-cheap prices when the fast spreading virus panicked the shareholders. China has the chances of manufacturing all the items required for combating the virus, and of supplying to the world at cost. Spain placed an order for the materials worth $466 million required for fighting against covid-19, Al Jazeera TV news stated.

The coronavirus had forced some jails to release thousands of inmates to keep them safe in America. Covid-19 had already infected more than 85,000 American causing the death of 1,290 as of March 27, 2020. WHO had warned of America could be the epicenter of the epidemic of the covid-19. The virus has been burning down Europe causing unprecedented death. Italy has already lost 8,281 to the virus, and it has more than 80,000 infections; and the Italian administration has lost any hope of containing the virus, as of March 27, 2020.

US President Donald Trump had signed into law the bill on $2 trillion coronavirus relief package after the House of Representatives passed it. Following the law, the Internal Revenue Service will send a check $1,200 or deposit the amount in the accounts of the individuals with the adjusted gross income up to $75,000 a year, and the reduced amounts to the individuals with the income up to $99,000 (the payment falls at $5 per $100 income above $75,000); married couples incomes under $150,000 a year receive $2,400, and reduced amounts to the couples making $198,000 a year, and their children $500 per child under 17: single parents with the adjusted gross income up to $112,500 a year receive $1,200, and reduced amount up to $136,500 a year, the news posted on “The Washington Post” on March 27, 2020 stated. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will use the information on the 2019 tax return of the beneficiaries to send or deposit the checks. IRS is scheduled to distribute the relief package by April 6, 2020.

The US government the communists often labeled as the capitalist and the imperialist has taken such an unprecedented virus relief package to mitigate the sufferings of the folks placed at home. However, the communist government in Nepal did nothing to provide the folks ordered to stay at home with any relief package rather set up a “Coronavirus Pandemic And Control And Remedy Fund” to make collection from all the folks. If the past history of such a fund was any guide then such funds had done nothing to the victims of the floods or any other catastrophe, and the then governments never bothered to publish the statements of how such funds were spent or used for what purposes. The current fund might meet the same fate.

The Indian government announced the relief package of $22 billion, the BBC news stated on March 27, 2020. “We don’t want anyone to remain hungry, and we don’t want anyone to remain without money in their hands; the package, which includes free food and cash transfers, was for “those who need immediate help” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, the BBC news stated. India made public the relief package of $22bn (£19bn) for the poor to help them counter the adverse economic effects of the Covid-19 outbreak. This amount is just 1% of India's GDP whereas the US and Singapore are spending about 10% of their GDP on similar packages, the BBC news stated.

The covid-19 had hit hard the Patan Health Science Academy, as most of the regular patients vacated the hospital when the virus infected patients moved in. Most of the maternity patients moved to the Thapathali Maternity hospital, and other patients visited other hospitals. In addition, the lockdown the State had declared also reduced the number of the patients drastically.

Patan Health Science Academy had to pay a huge price for taking in the covid-19 patients, as the daily revenue had drastically reduced. The amount of loss the hospital had to bear might be in millions a day, as the revenue had gone down to almost zero but it had to maintained its health, lab service, other service, and the administrative staffers as they were at the regular cost, and pay for the utilities. The state needed to immediately design a bailout package to save the hospital from going to bankruptcy, and to keep it going otherwise it might collapse after the covid-19 would leave Nepal.

If the economy of the Patan hospital had been in the doldrums, what had happened to the national economy anybody could easily guess because millions of folks coming from the rural areas had gone back home to save them from the deadly coronavirus. All the momo (dumpling) restaurants, which must be thousands in Kathmandu alone, had been shuttered not to mention other stores except for the provision stores and vegetable markets. Economic activities had come down to zero during the lockdown period. Folks had been staying at homes just consuming not producing anything anymore. Only the vegetables and provisions stores were allowed to open for a certain time of day to make the folks able to buy the daily needs.

Mobile vegetables and fruit vendors had lost their jobs. They had either to stay at home or go back to their homes. So, millions of jobs had been lost. Many small businesses had been on the verge of collapse. Many homesteads built with the bank loans had been insolvent. They did not know how to manage the loan repayments without getting the banks seizing the property. Teashops and snack bars had gone out of businesses. The poultry industry and other livestock industries had been in disarray, as the demand had been down to almost nil. Folks could not buy those products, as the markets were closed. Industries could not send their products to the market, as the transport had come to the total closure.

The state needed to prepare a huge relief package to such vulnerable businesses and the folks running small businesses so that they could survive the coronavirus pandemic. The US government had already set to use $2 trillion to bailout the America businesses even giving $60 billion to the Boeing company that had nothing to do with the virus epidemic. The Oli administration needed to immediately launch a bailout package to save the businesses from total breakdown.

The folks temporarily gone back to their rural homes could probably tend to the land they had left fallows, and they could grow something for their home consumption. Nobody knew whether their jobs would wait for them or not. However, the economic activities might take off drastically after the virus would be totally done, and business would be as usual making the fast economic growth, folks had seen after the deadly earthquakes that had killed 9,000 people in 2015.

The BBC news on March 29, 2020 stated that in his weekly radio address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologized to the people for the negative impact of the strict stay-at-home measures; however, he said there was "no other way" to stop the rapid spread of the virus; "Especially when I look at my poor brothers and sisters, I definitely feel that they must be thinking, what kind of prime minister is this who has placed us in this difficulty?” "I especially seek their forgiveness," he said;” "Possibly many would be angry at me for being locked in their homes”; "I understand your troubles but there was no other way to wage war against coronavirus... It is a battle of life and death and we have to win it."

The lockdown sparked an exodus from major cities such as Delhi, from where thousands of migrant workers left for a long journey back home after the public transport was stopped. One worker died after he attempted to walk a 168mile (270km) journey back home, a police official told Reuters news agency, the BBC news stated.

India reported about 1,000 cases of coronavirus and 25 deaths. However, the real number of infections could be far higher, as India has one of the lowest testing rates in the world, even though efforts are under way to ramp up capacity; an outbreak in the country could result in a catastrophe, experts worried; the Indian economy had been already in the midst of a severe slowdown before the country went into lockdown, the BBC news stated on March 29, 2020.

“Streets around the Indian capital Delhi have been crowded with people walking to reach their villages in neighboring states. Most of them are daily-wage workers who are now out of work after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete lockdown of the country on 24 March to halt the spread of coronavirus. In the absence of money and jobs, they are desperate to reach their villages. Some found government-run buses to reach home and others just continued to walk.” The BBC news stated on March 30, 2020.

The BBC's Vikas Pandey finds out more: “These informal workers are the backbone of the big city economy, constructing houses, cooking food, serving in eateries, delivering takeaways, cutting hair in salons, making automobiles, plumbing toilets and delivering newspapers, among other things. Escaping poverty in their villages, most of the estimated 100 million of them live in squalid housing in congested urban ghettos and aspire for upward mobility. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal implored the workers not to leave the capital. He asked them to "stay wherever you are, because in large gatherings, you are also at risk of being infected with the coronavirus." He said his government would pay their rent, and announced the opening of 568 food distribution centres in the capital.”

The BBC news stated on March 30, 2020 stated that EasyJet grounded its entire fleet of planes and it was not sure when the places would take off again. It had to be so due to the "unprecedented travel restrictions" imposed by governments globally following the virus pandemic. However, EasyJet had been running rescue flights to repatriate Britons stranded abroad. "We will continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as requested," the airlines said. The pandemic had made a severe impact on airlines, Loganair boss Jonathan Hinkles told the BBC's Tom Burridge. He said that any airline saying it could survive without government help "would probably be lying".

Hearing on the petition Advocate Bishnu Luitel filed at the Supreme Court on Monday, March 30, 2020, a single bench of Justice Bishwambhar Shrestha ordered the government to provide the poor people and daily wageworkers with immediate relief; the bench also told the government to provide the court with a detailed report on the existing food stock in the country; the bench also told the federal government to coordinate with the province and local governments for ensuring the foods to the daily wage earners currently scrambling for food stuffs due to the lockdown, the news on https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/supreme-court-orders-govt-to-provide-immediate-relief-to-daily-wage-earners/ stated on March 30, 2020.

The news posted on https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/major-decisions-taken-by-cabinet-today/ on March 29, 2020 stated that the cabinet meeting held on March 29, 2020 had made the following decisions:

Major decisions are as follows.

1.    Suspension of the cross-border people's movement through Nepal-India and Nepal-China border points has been extended until April 7. However, supply of essential goods will be allowed through the border points as usual.

2.    Lockdown order has been extended until April 7.

3.    Relief package has been introduced as follows:

a.    Local levels should collect the details of the daily wages laborers involved in informal sector;

b.    The families should go to their ward offices and introduce themselves to get relief assistance;

c.      Local levels should provide relief so that it will help the victims fulfill their daily needs during this lockdown period by setting up the relief fund in local or provincial level. If the required amount is insufficient, the federal government will arrange the additional fund.

d.    Respective employer should pay wages and salaries to the employees involved in formal sector.

e.    Tourism firms should pay the employees with the salary of March-April (Chaitra) by using the welfare fund. The government will deposit the necessary amount to the Social Security Fund in case of those firms who have completely closed due to this lockdown.

f.      Food Management and Trading Company Limited and Salt Trading should offer 10 percent discount on rice, flour, sugar, salt and cooking oil.

g.    Telecommunication and Internet service providers should provide 25 percent discount on Internet and data packages during this lockdown period.

h.    Nepal Electricity Authority should provide 25% discount to domestic consumers upon the usage up to 150 units a month.

i.     Insurance of Rs 2.5 million to those medics and other staffs involving in treating and caring the COVID19 patients or suspect patients.

j.      Private schools should not charge the fee for one month except for residential fees.

k.     House owners should not charge the house fare of one month to those tenants working in informal sectors.

l.       Tax clearance deadline has been extended until May 7.

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/major-decisions-taken-by-cabinet-today/

Private schools should not charge the fee for one month except for residential fees. House owners should not charge the house rent for one month to those tenants working in informal sectors. These are two important orders the Oli administration had issued to the private companies and individuals. The orders would have been effective and the concerned companies and individuals would have honored if the orders have been as prescribed in a clause or clauses of laws. However, such things did not happen making it clear that the ugly head of the dictatorial administration had been appearing in the horizon making the use of the covid-19, which had already gave the opportunity of taking absolute power in Hungary. The warning the finance minister holding the portfolio of the spokesman for the government had issued to the folks not following the orders of the Oli administration surely support this statement of the dictatorial tendency of the current administration.

The Oli administration would have been the people-oriented if it were to pay the one-month school fee and one-month house rent for all the concerned folks. However, the Oli administration that spent billions of rupees in the FY 2018 and would surely spend in FY 2019, too in the name of the one-hundred-day-employment-guarantee program, had not bothered to do so rather ordered the private sector to do so. So, if the Oli administration were accountable to the people then the administration needed to pay the one-month school fee for the parents, and an additional amount if needed to bailout the private schools, as some schools might be insolvent due to the lockdown, similarly, the administration needed to pay one-month rent for the workers as the relief to the workers.

The Radio Nepal seven O’clock morning news on April 1 stated that the former king had contributed twenty million rupees through the Himani Foundation to the “Coronavirus Pandemic And Control And Remedy Fund.” It was the largest amount any individuals had contributed to the fund so far. He was one of the richest persons in Nepal. He had so many businesses despite the fact that the royals did not indulged in the businesses that common folks do. The British royals follow this code of conduct even today. Even the State employees were prohibited to do any commercial businesses while in office during the Panchayat time in Nepal.

The state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) contributed 500 million rupees to the fund the government had set up to fight against covid-19. The board meeting held on April 2, 2020 made the decision on extending the support for the war against the coronavirus. The check for the amount was presented to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

Other state agencies also contributed millions of rupees to the fund, which had already accumulated more than two billion rupees as of April 4, 2020. Some experts said that the government should immediately build a hospital for the prevention and control of the possible outbreak of deadly covid-19 with this money.

The money deposited in the fund would not lift the millions of the folks that might fall back to poverty due to the virus that had caused the lockdown of the country, and the shutdown of every economic activity that was required for the poor to survive. Consequently, millions of folks came to the urban centers for livelihood had left for their respective villages where they would find hardly anything to live on except for plowing the land they had left fallows for so many years.

Exodus of the folks continued even after the public transports were shutdown. They walked to their destinations. They had to leave the urban centers, as they had no paying jobs for the period of the lockdown, but they needed to pay the house rent, then for foods and drink that might not be even adequately available. The local administration, provincial and federal administrations also had not been prompt to rescue those hard-hit folks from such incredible hardship. Surely, they were also very concerned with the virus that might kill them without mercy.

The BBC news posted on https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52103666 on March 31, 2020 stated that the World Bank predicted the drastic economic slowdown in the fast developing East Asia and the Pacific countries particularly Thailand and Vietnam to 2.1 percent in 2020 against the estimated growth of 5.8 percent in 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic; consequently 35 million people would remain in poverty including 25 million in China measuring the poverty line at $5.50 a day or less; the economic growth in China would be reduced to 2.3 percent from 6.1 percent in the last year.

Some oil-exporting countries such as Venezuela, Libya, Iraq, Iran and even Russia might feel the credit crunch, as the export of the oil had been considerably reduced, and the prices of oil had come down drastically, as the negative impact of covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the economic growth in these countries and in other countries worldwide too would be considerably reduced in 2020.

Another industry the virus had hit hardest had been the sports. Some players had to play in the stadium without audience other footballers had to accept the four-month-pay freeze. Sportsmen had to keep up their body exercising at home, as lockdown forbade them to come out of home, and they had to keep the physical distancing. That had been the fate of the sports industry and the sportsmen.

The casino industry also got hit hard. Macau casino industry had lost 80 percent of the revenue, the Asia news stated. That was in Macau but elsewhere in the world folks had stopped visiting casino rather they were prohibited to visit the public places for fear of contracting covid-19, which forced everybody to close everything.

The only beneficiary of the covid-19 pandemic is the earth planet that has the opportunity of breathing in fresh air after the shutdown of air, sea and surface travel to stop the coronavirus from spreading, and the shutdown of factories due to the lockdown. The sky has been blue. Not so much dust as had been in Kathmandu in the past. The road accidents had been almost unknown after the enforcement of the lockdown.

The health minister had been alleged that he had been involved in purchasing the medical kits, medicine, and other personal protection gear, the media had been widely publishing the issue. Even one of the provincial lawmakers notified the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to investigate the health minister for his involvement in irregularities in buying the medical gear.

Leader of Bibeksheel Nepali Dal also Bagmati Province Assembly Member Ramesh Paudyal alerted the CIAA to the irregularities in purchasing the medical gear for combating the covid-19, according to the news posted on https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/bibeksheel-mp-paudyal-files-complaint-at-ciaa-against-health-minister-dhakal/ on April 1, 2020; and the health minister had been charge with the following allegations:

. Canceling the tender announced by the Ministry three months ago

. Procurement of the medical items at four times higher than the market price

-Businessmen close to the minister were awarded procurement tender overnight

-The company, which even did not have the experience of medical supplies, was awarded the tender in just three hours' time frame

-The company has not been even registered at the Department of Commerce

The provincial assembly member urged the CIAA to launch a through investigation into those allegations.

Speaking at the press conference held on April 1, 2020, Director General of the Department of Health Service: Mahendra Prasad Shrestha said that the controversial contract on the procurement masks, virus test kits, PPEs (personal protection equipment) and other medical logistics from China done with the Omni Group was rescinded, the news posted on myrepublica.com stated.

In a press statement released on Friday, April 3, 2020, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba insisted an immediate investigation into the alleged irregularities in the State procurement of medical equipment to contain the novel coronavirus; he also stated that such anomalies in the medical equipment procurement was totally unacceptable at this hour of crisis, the news on https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/nc-president-deuba-demands-fair-probe-into-alleged-corruption-in-medical-procurement/ stated on April 3, 2020. He also urged Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority to launch an impartial investigation into the 1.24 billion rupees medical-procurement scam. President Deuba also had been concerned with the deletion of the news from the website www.kathmandupress.com: a Kathmandu based online news portal, and He urged the government to take strong actions against those culprits.

In a press statement issued on Friday, April 3, 2020, Leader of Nepali Congress: Shekhar Koirala said that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli needed to immediately fire his IT consultant Asgar Ali for his involvement in removing the news from a Kathmandu based online news portal kathmandupress.com; the government needed not wait for anything as the Shiran Technologies had already admitted its involvement in deleting the news; it was the disgusting violation of freedom of press and expression; the news on https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/pm-should-sack-his-it-aide-at-earliest-nc-leader-koirala/ stated.

The news posted on kathmandupress.com on Tuesday, March 31, which went viral had accused Kshitiz: the son of PM Oli's chief advisor Bishnu Rimal, and Swaraj: the son of Defense Minister Ishwar Pokhrel, and PM's IT advisor Asgar Ali of involving in the massive irregularities in awarding a contract to the Omni Group on importing medical equipment from China. Asgar Ali: founder of F1Soft International was allegedly involved in the unauthorized infiltration and removal of the news from www.kathmandupress.com,

March 20, 2020

Updated March 27, 2020

Updated March 28, 2020

Updated April 1, 2020

Updated April 4, 2020

Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Its Ideology

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Leaders of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) once again came together and said that they had united the broken parties into a single party again on Wednesday, March 11, 2020; however, it was not the first time they had done so and said so, too. One thing they had agreed on was again on the Hindu State and the monarchy both had been history. It was the victory of Kamal Thapa brand of RPP over Pashupati Shumsher and Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani because they came back to the umbrella of Kamal Thapa leaving behind the republican state they had previously accepted. Thus, Kamal Thapa had been successful to bring back the two leaders that had been on the right track to the old track that had been rotted. If the RPP leaders were the visionary and if they were to correctly analyzed the political situation they would rather go for safeguarding the current people’s constitution rather than going to the king’s constitution that had put the monarchy above anybody and anything and even the law or the constitution. Girija Prasad Koirala had wisely stated in 2008 that his party and he was abandoning the monarchy so that youths of the future generations would no more need to shed blood for reinstating democracy as the kings not once but several times killed democracy; the youths no more needed to fight for democracy losing their precious lives again and again once the monarchy was eliminated.

RPP leaders erroneously stated that Nepal had 80 percent Hindus to justify the Hindu state. The reality was that the Hindus might be 50 percent of the total population because most of the ethnic people who made up 40 percent of the total population were the non-Hindus. During the population census, most enumerators filled up the column religion with Hindu even without asking the folks. That might be the reason why the Hindu population looked so high. Will the ethnic people and the people of other religions accept the Hindu domination? Will not they rise up against the Hindu state?

In my personal view, RPP leaders would be able to make their party as an alternative to the NCP and the NC if they were to go to the people for preserving the current people’s constitution because the current NCP had been hitting the constitution as much as possible and deny the common folks the rights the people’s constitution had provided them, and the opposition NC in the parliament had been so weak it hardly could stop the current prime minister from doing whatever he liked to do; if RPP leaders were to promise the common folks that they would eradicated the corruption endemic in the current politics and civil administration, then the common folks might opt for the RPP as an alternative, as common folks needed an alternative to the current political parties in power to be free from the widespread corruption even though RPP leaders also had the background of mismanagement and corruption in their past performances as the ministers, and prime ministers, and they had been opportunists rather and the politicians serving the people.

However, RPP leaders chose to go the old way, and carry the Hindu State and the monarchy on their shoulders even the load had been so heavy that they could hardly carry the load further but they were still trying to do so. Common folks had been not of the 1960s, not even of 1990s but of the 21^st century. RPP leaders needed to ask the questions themselves whether the new generation of the common folks would accept the horrible and undemocratic conditions their grandfathers and fathers had undergone.

In 1950s the then folks were very happy to bring back the then king Tribhuvan and put him on the throne believing that the king would help to develop democracy and the constitutional monarchy because he committed to hold elections to a constituent assembly for crafting a people’s constitution but the king surely betrayed the people’s faith in him; and he never thought of holding the elections to the constitution assembly rather he consolidated his power in his hands and strengthened the palace rather than the common folks and the democracy.

Then, came his son Mahendra to sit on the throne his father Tribhuvan had vacated after his untimely death in 1955. Mahendra went even further to manipulate the young political leaders, who had made the provision for the constitutional monarchy in the statute of the party, and who had trusted Tribhuvan; and Mahendra even destroyed the political parties killing the infant democracy in 1960. Mahendra successfully became the despot and he introduced the so-called no-party political system called Panchayat. Mahendra killed many democrats, who had fought for the constitutional monarchy because he believed that they were the true enemies and threat to the monarchy.

The then king even wanted to destroy Ganeshman Singh and his colleague BP Koirala, who had reinstated Tribhuvan to his throne and committed to protect the constitutional monarchy forever. When they came back home after self exile in India in 1977 the then king wanted them to be hanged. Their demands were for democracy, freedom of expression, human rights and rights for the people to live as humans honorably. All these fundamental rights had been denied not only for the last two hundreds yeas of the monarchical rule but also even after the introduction of democracy. The king thought that Ganeshman and BP were his enemies, and no room for them in his kingdom.

In the early 1960s, King Mahendra declared Nepal a Hindu state, one language, and one uniform for all Nepalis even though Nepal is a country of diverse religion, numerous languages, and different uniforms depending on the geographical regions. People could not openly celebrate their festivals rather they had to remain in the Hindu State, to obey the Hindu king as the lord and the god and so on. Development of culture and religion had been totally under control. The king became Lord Vishnu, Panchas means the members of the Panchayat had been the lords and the common folks had been relegated to mundane creatures. Do Nepalis want to go back to the same situation reinstating the monarchy and the Hindu State?

Then, Mahendra’s son Birendra became the king after Mahendra ascended to the heaven in 1972. Even though Birendra was educated in Britain and Japan and even though he had seen how the constitutional monarchy worked in Britain and Japan, he gave continuity to the Panchayat his father had so cruelly introduced abusing the people’s faith in the monarchy. Probably, Birendra would have got his name written in the golden letters in the history of Nepal if not the world if he had reinstated the political parties his father had banned, and ran the country democratically. Birendra would have been really Lord Vishnu but he did not take that opportunity rather he went on abusing the monarchy and he used the State resources for his personal pleasure traveling on the army helicopter for months during the winter season every year of his absolute rule.

Then came another chance for King Birendra to lift the ban on the political parties when the students revolted against the Panchayat and they wanted the democracy back in 1979. Birendra would have been a declared god if he had announced the lifting of the ban on the political parties and if he had restored the people’s rights to live honorably as citizens having all the democratic rights but again Birendra missed that opportunity, too, and he declared referendum on the choice of the improved Panchayat and the multi-party democratic system. People accepted the challenge the king put forward hoping the referendum would be fair and transparent.

Unfortunately for the monarchy, King Birendra through his the then prime minister rigged the referendum and made the improved Panchayat victorious. Millions of green trees became the victims of the referendum as the then prime minister let his colleagues cut the standing green trees for sale for having the money to prop up the Panchayat system in the referendum. Counting of the ballot papers took months; by then, the then home minister succeeded to print abundant additional ballot papers and shoved them in the ballot boxes elsewhere particularly in the remote areas. Thus, the Panchayat became victorious but it was really the defeat for the monarchy, as the people realized the monarchy had been the obstacle to the democracy and development. Common folks were disappointed but they did not lose the hope for the future democracy and development.

After the victory of the Panchayat over the multi-party democratic system in 1980, the RPP leaders including the king emboldened to indulge in the corrupt practices and they succeed to embezzle the national resources as much as possible. The Panchayat and Panchas had been synonymous with the corruption and mismanagement of the state resources. For example, Birendra had transferred thousands of ropanis of land to his name. That was only a tip of the iceberg of corruption. If anybody were to take a look back at what King Mahendra did then s/he would know that how Mahendra expropriated the people’s land for building Bhrikutimandap, Police Club, Sabha Griha, Nepal Academy and of course for building residences for the Mahendra’s daughters and even for his secretary at Kamaldi in Kathmandu forgetting about such things happening elsewhere in Nepal. That was the monarchy. Would common folks vote for such a monarchy?

Panchayat and its leaders including King Birendra had done enough for the so-called leaders rather called Panchas in fact no leaders except for the king were there at that time; consequently, the Panchayat had been aging fast due to the corruption and mismanagement of the state property, and the time had already come for the Panchayat to go. The king and the Panchayat had been so weakened because of the corrupt practices and mismanagement of the State resources. So, the people had revolted against the king and his Panchayat system under the banners of the then Nepali Congress and the communist parties. If the political parties were ready the people were for chasing out the king but the political leaders had empathy for the monarchy so they wanted to keep it as the constitutional monarchy. The king was saved but not the Panchayat.

Even after the people’s wish for the democratic constitution, King Birendra wanted to manipulate and play with the constitution the political parties had crafted presenting his own constitution instead at the last moment of declaring a new constitution in 1990. Then, the supreme leader and the commander of the people’s revolution: Ganeshman Singh had to go to the palace and tell King Birendra, either accept the constitution or leave the crown. King Birendra shrewdly chose the constitution. King Birendra was enclosed within the four walls of the palace and he became the first constitutional monarch.

The first elected government Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had presided over opened up the economy and broke off the shackles of the obstacles to the economic development the then kings had imposed on the people; and his administration opened up the floodgate for the economic, social, political and cultural development; and made sure that the people have the freedom of expression, freedom of doing businesses, and freedom of living as the humans. The current socio-economic and cultural and religious development have been the results of the democratic practices made in 1990s.

The fast actions the then Girija administration had taken and the policies it had adopted in 1990s had resulted into opening up of hundreds of private FM radios, and tens of TVs, and newspapers elsewhere in Nepal. More than 20 medical colleges, and a number of private hospitals came up to exist for meeting the health services required by the people; hundreds of technical schools opened up; many regular privates schools were set up. Folks with money did not need to send their kids to the schools in the neighboring country for better education. Private banks and financial institutions came to exist. Super markets were everywhere. Hundreds of billions of rupees were invested in the privately run public transport making public transport available for anybody to travel anywhere. These are the few things of development everybody could see.

The constitutional monarch did not want to remain within the four walls of the palace. After the palace massacre in which the entire family of King Birendra was wiped out on June 1, 2001, then his brother Gyanendra ceremoniously ascended to the thrown and wore the crown Birendra left behind. In 2005 in other words in the 21^st century, he wanted to emulate what his father Mahendra did in 1960s. He brought back the traitors that had assisted his father Mahendra in overthrowing the elected government in the coup in 1960, to be his deputies and he ran the administration, as he wanted suspending the constitution of 1990. That was the final straw on the people’s tolerance of the monarchy.

The Seven-political Parties Alliance (SPA) peacefully fighting against the monarchy for the restoration of democracy reached the twelve-point understanding with the Maoists fighting against the king to set up the republic and the secular state for all the Nepalis removing the Hindu state with the king that had been for the limited Nepalis who had been the most privileged ones. They jointly launched the peaceful demonstration while the Maoists continued to fight against the State forces elsewhere in Nepal. The joint peaceful movement brought down the monarchy crashing within 19 days. King Gyanendra even lost the opportunity of staying on within the four walls of the royal palace and went to take shelter at the Raniban bungalow in 2008. Nepalis had done with the monarchy forever.

Then, the interim government Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala presided over held elections to the constituent assembly in April 2008 for crafting a people’s constitution and the constituent assembly to work as the parliament until the elections were held for a new parliament following the new constitution to be crafted. The first thing the constituent assembly did was to remove the monarchy in May 2008. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala made a historic statement in the parliament that the constituent assembly was abolishing the monarchy so that the youths of the future generations would not need to shed blood again and again for reinstating democracy as the kings had killed democracy not once several times in the past.

Now, the question is whether the RPP leaders want to bring back the dead monarchy to life and make Gyanendra a new king? Will the people accept it, as thousands of youths had shed blood to bring the country to the current state? Will the people accept the Hindu state? Will people accept to be under the control of the Hindu state denying the ethnic people and the people of other faiths the opportunity of celebrating their festivals?

None of the answers of these questions would be positive. So, RPP leaders would not make any positive results with the banners carrying the monarchy and the Hindu state going against the current people’s constitution. If they really wanted to make comeback in the politics they needed to commit that they would protect the people’s constitution and eliminate the corruption not as Prime Minister Oli did but in the reality.

March 12, 2020

Zero Tolerance Of Corruption

 Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

First of all, the Oli administration had crafted many bills and presented them in the parliament and got them passed in the parliament, and then the president signed them off into laws. However, the most notorious law called Public Procurement Act that had been instrumental to make the development projects delayed for many years and made them cost overrun and time overrun had remained intact. It indicated that the delay in completing the development projects did not matter.

The notorious Public Procurement Act was crafted and passed in the past mainly for the benefits of the decision makers and the contractors at the cost of the beneficiaries and certainly at the cost of the entire population in general and taxpayers in particular. One of the good examples of how the development projects had been the victims of the Public Procurement Act was the Melamchi Drinking Water Project the Asian Development Bank had financed that had been never completed but the money went on spending on the project.

Public Procurement Act has no provision for making the decision makers and project managers accountable to completing the development projects in time, and punishing even the contractors that had defaulted on not doing the work as stated in the contracts. Rather it has the provision for extending the time and increasing the cost and even compensating the contractors for the rise in the prices of the construction materials but no provision for reducing the contract amount when the prices of the construction materials went down.

What the Oli administration rather the cadres of the political party in power did was forced the singer that had sang a song that practically revealed boldly the corruption prevailing in the administration to remove it from the “youtube” website. Then, the Oli administration arrested another one for having improper words using the cyber crime act. Two more anti-corruption activists had been implicated in one crime or another and one of them was even physically tortured. Corruption did not matter but speaking against corruption really did matter.

Don’t help fraudulent companies to flourish, Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada told the auditors while speaking at an interaction on “Professional integrity for combating corruption and fraud” Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) held in Kathmandu on Sunday, December 22, 2019. Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada said that the auditors needed to be more sensitive to the IT-based financial frauds and corruption activities while performing the audit of companies and organizations as such activities had been increasing recently. "There are fraudulent companies that are developed through fake documents and have fake financial reports and balance sheets. Auditors must not help such companies to flourish," Dr. Khatiwada said. He said that some auditors are preparing sham balance sheets and financial reports of such firms. "Auditors must not play role in approving the fraudulent activities of such institutions," said Dr. Khatiwada, the news on https://risingnepaldaily.com/main-news/dont-help-fraudulent-companies-to-flourish-fm-asks-auditors.

Dr. Khatiwada urged the auditors to practice the latest financial technology and instruments to support combating economic crimes. He also said that every professional ranging from chartered accountants to lawyers must try to uphold the professional integrity and follow the professional code of conduct. "The government is spearheaded to maintain good governance and transparency with zero-tolerance of corruption. We are enacting many laws for the same," said the Finance Minister, the news stated.

Chief Commissioner of Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Nabin Kumar Ghimire stated that no auditor should work with intent to cover up financial crime and misappropriation. Auditor General Tanka Mani Sharma Dangal said that every professional needed to perform following the professional values and norms for fighting against corruption. Tax evasion, financial misappropriation and decentralization of corruption have been the major challenges of today. "The global trend show that the private sector is focused on cheating and the public sector is trying to cover up corruption," he said. He urged the concerned agencies and professionals such as auditors to be cautious as the issue of money laundering was being raised at the international level, the news stated.

Chairman of ICAN Krishna Prasad Acharya said that the public had felt the erosion of integrity in different professions and businesses, and also said, "We want to promote good practice and help the government in curbing corruption." Spokesperson for CIAA Pradip Koirala said that investigating agencies had less confidence in the fairness and the truth of the audit reports of companies. He expressed concerns over the increasing trend in corruption at the local bodies, the news stated.

https://risingnepaldaily.com/main-news/dont-help-fraudulent-companies-to-flourish-fm-asks-auditors

The most interesting thing was why the finance minister or the government could not take actions against the fraudulent companies and the auditors if they knew that they were fake companies, and the auditors had prepared the false audit reports on them. If CIAA officials had no confidence in the fairness and the truth of the audit reports on the companies then why CIAA did not initiate investigation into the work of the auditors and the companies, too. The charges the finance minister and the CIAA officials had made against the companies probably were glossed over.

While speaking at the weekly Gorkhapatra Sambad on Sunday, December 22, 2019, Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Padma Kumari Aryal said that the government would soon reclaim all the public and government lands the land-mafia had encroached on; the first priority was to reclaim the public land transferred to individuals’ names abusing the position and power. Talking about the problems of squatters, she said that the government would address their problems, as it was the responsibility of the government to provide certain land for their settlement. “Here in Nepal, fake land squatters are occupying the land in the name of landless. So, the government will remove them from the government land,” she said, the news on https://risingnepaldaily.com/main-news/govt-will-reclaim-public-land-says-minister-aryal stated.

Probably, the minister would remove the real landless folks from the government land stating they were fake, to accommodate the unscrupulous party cadres and even leaders. Then, she correctly said that the folks had abused the position and power to transfer the public land into the individuals’ names. Then, the question was why she could not take actions against them including the general secretary of Nepal Communist Party Vishnu Poudel, and the then Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who allegedly involved in transferring the state-owned land at the Lalita-nivas, Baluwatar to the individuals’ names; even the son of Vishnu Poudel managed to register some land in his name at the Lalita-nivas, all these matters so widely discussed in the media and in the political circle.

At the time when the Nepalese media had been widely criticizing the government’s action on renewing the Gokarna forest resort lease agreement with the Yeti Holdings, and the opposition lawmakers asking why the government renewed the lease agreement when the agreement would expire only after five years within which probably a new government would be in place, Deputy Prime Minister also Chairperson of Nepal Trust Ishwor Pokharel explained to the lawmakers at the National Assembly that the government decided to renew the agreement between Nepal Trust and the Yeti Holdings for 50 years, as the company started constructing new structures with the lease agreement remaining only for five years; DPM Pokharel said that the resort company presented a proposal to extend the lease term for additional 30 years, the news on https://risingnepaldaily.com/main-news/renewal-of-gokarna-resort-lease-agreement-based-on-previous-legal-process-dpm-pokharel ob December 26, 2019 stated.

At a press conference held in Kathmandu on December 27, 2019, Executive Secretary of Nepal Trust Gajendra Thakur said that the lease agreement of Gokarna Forest Resort would come into effect as the government decided on December 9 to extend the lease agreement for the next 25 years with the provision for increasing the rent in every five years based on the real market value; the state would have the benefit of Rs 4.32 billion directly and indirectly after the renewal of the lease agreement; the agreement was renewed after LM Subhir Brothers Nepal Pvt Ltd started off constructing new physical infrastructures to operate other services on the Gokarna Forest Resort premises, the news on https://risingnepaldaily.com/nation/state-to-gain-more-than-rs-4-billion-from-gokarna-forest-resort-lease-agreement-nepal-trust stated on December 27, 2019.

The press statement released on Friday, December 27, 2019 stated that Bibeksheel Nepali Dal expressed concern over the controversies surfaced on leasing the land of Nepal Trust at Durbarmarg to Thamserku Developers and the extension of the lease period of Gokarna Forest Resort for another 25 years. The party claimed that the extension of the lease period of the land of about 2,900 ropanis to Gokarna Forest resort by 25 years, 5 years and 8 months before the expiry of the current contract of the lease has indicated serious irregularities. The party also claimed that Nepal Trust would incur a loss of Rs 5.57 billion following the new contract.

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/bibeksheel-nepali-suspects-policy-corruption-on-nepal-trust-land-lease-scam/

The statement released by Vice-Chairperson of Bibeksheel Nepali Dal: Ajita Rai stated that corruption at policy level could be sensed as Nepal Trust Act 2064 BS was amended for easing the procedures to award the land at prime locations without issuing public bidding. “These acts indicate the level of prevailing policy corruption in Nepal and a big irony to the Prime Minister’s commitment to zero tolerance against corruption,” she wrote.

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/bibeksheel-nepali-suspects-policy-corruption-on-nepal-trust-land-lease-scam/

Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), Everest Sumitters’ Association (ESA) and Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATA) issuing almost the similar statements on the government’s controversial decision on extending the lease of Gokarna Forest Resort to the company owned by Yeti Holdings, accused the media of defaming Yeti Groups, which was claimed to be the largest taxpayer company, and they even warned of the news reports could make the Visit Nepal Year 2020 a failure, and they also accused the media of practicing yellow journalism without any credible evidences.

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/party-nexus-shows-as-some-tourism-bodies-defend-yeti-holdings/

Head of NMA: Santa Bir Lama, President of NATA: CN Pandey, and President of ESA: Maya Sherpa had been elected to their respective positions with the votes of the NCP royalists. TAAN: the largest tourism association, however, refrained from issuing a statement on Yeti Holdings. Head of TAAN: Khum Bahadur Subedi got elected to the position defeating the NCP panel candidate recently.

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/party-nexus-shows-as-some-tourism-bodies-defend-yeti-holdings/

Media had been questioning why the government extended the lease agreement on the Gokarna Forest Resort for another 25 years before the current lease expired after more than five years. It had provoked the serious controversy as the government, acting under the Prime Minister Oli’s influence, extended the lease without any competitive bidding.

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/party-nexus-shows-as-some-tourism-bodies-defend-yeti-holdings/

Prime Minister Oli had been accused of replacing Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa with Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokharel as the chairman of the Nepal Trust Board after Home Minister Thapa refused to lease out the land at the Durbarmarg to Thamserku Trekking Company: one of the companies under Yeti Holdings.

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/party-nexus-shows-as-some-tourism-bodies-defend-yeti-holdings/

Instead of demanding a fair probe into the controversial matter, tourism associations NCP loyalists led, questioned the independent media coverage. Observers believed that the statements the tourism associations made against the independent media were just payback for political favors. “It seems the whole thing was ill-intentioned. They are now struggling to counter critical voices including media with misleading statements,” said Khem Raj Regmi, president of Transparency Nepal, adding, “Media are doing a great job. No need to blame media or civil society organizations.”

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/party-nexus-shows-as-some-tourism-bodies-defend-yeti-holdings/

On December 27, 2019, speaking at the completion ceremony of the training on the “reporters code of conduct” the Federation of Journalist, Gandaki Pradesh held, Chief of Gandaki Pradesh: Amik Sherchan said that the corruption was the greatest enemy of the country, the news published on the tenth page of “gorkhapatra” on December 28, 2019 stated.

However, Prime Minister Oli and his deputy Ishwor Pokharel unlike the Gandaki Pradesh chief must have thought that the corruption was the best guest to have, and live such a guest nicely for the time being because the nice guest could make the relatives, friends, and political cadres tremendously reach, and the guest could bring the fortune for the party to have sufficient resources for the elections if the Nepalese media were to believe in the renewable of the lease on the Gokarna Forest Resort.

The Oli administration had crafted and registered at the parliament an amendment to the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Act making the provision for the time limit of five years for investigating any corruption cases from the date the corruption has been known; and the Oli administration had rescinded the current provision made for the public office holders requiring to disclose their assets within 60 days; the news published on the second page of “gorkhapatra” on January 24, 2020 stated.

Crafting and registering the amendment Bill on CIAA, and discarding the existing provision made for the disclosure of the assets of the public figures, the Oli administration had taken off the mask of the prime minister and revealed the real face of Prime Minister Oli, who had been repeatedly saying that he had the zero-tolerance of corruption.

With the new provision made on the CIAA Act and discarding the provision for disclosing the assets of the public office holders, the administration had really opened up the floodgate for causing corruption probably in an unprecedented scale in the state businesses in the coming years. That might be the reason why the Oli administration had forced the singer named Pashupati Sharma to remove from “youtube” his so popular song that stated, “Loot Kancha (a man) loot you won’t find such privilege in other countries.”

“We are not liars; we never lied; we will take the development wherever it is necessary,” said Gokul Prasad Banskota: Minister for Communication and Information Technology holding the portfolio of Urban Development Ministry, too while speaking at the cultural function the Tamang Community had held at the ward No.1 of the Panchakhal Municipality on the occasion of Sonam Losar, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on February 8, 2020 stated.

So far nobody had came out with the statement that Minister Gokul Banskota and his Prime Minister KP Oli were the liars if somebody did so s/he would have been behind bars because the government had already enacted sufficient laws to put such folks dared to say something against the ministers behind bars. Now, anybody could guess that Minister Gokul Banskota himself was exposing him to the public because he could no more keep himself unexposed. 

Speaking at the event held to mark the Twenty-ninth Anniversary of Commission on Investigation Into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in Kathmandu on February 11, 2020, Prime Minister KP Oli said that the constitutional bodies and agencies would work independently on the democratic management; corruption should not be partisan but impartial; and he had no intention to influence CIAA; corruption was the great disease to the clean society and the development aspiration; and he said, “I am committed to not involving in corruption, and will not allow others to commit corruption,” the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on February 12, 2020 stated.

The irony is that the Oli administration had muzzled the voices of the anti-corruption activist such as Singer Pashupati Sharma, who had sang a song against corruption, and uploaded the song on the “youtube” forcing the singer to remove his song from the “youtube”. The comedic prime minister was happy that his administration forced Sharma to remove the song from the social media even if he was elected to such a high office for protecting the people’s rights to freedom of expression, and to punish anybody violating somebody’s rights to the freedom of expression. That was not all; the police of the Oli administration implicated another anti-corruption activist Lavi Lamichhane in the murder case. This was probably only the tip of iceberg of the folks silenced by the Oli administration. Then, the question was how the common folks would believe the prime minister, who was more interested in sarcastic speeches than in the truth.

On Tuesday, February 11, 2020, Prime Minister Oli as the Chief of National Democracy Anniversary Celebration Main Committee, presided over the meeting of the main committee on celebrating the seventieth democracy anniversary, and set up several sub-committees to mark the day with great enthusiasm; Prime Minister Oli instructed the administration to create an environment conducive to the common folks celebrate the Democracy Day, Martyrs’ Day and Republic Day as their own, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on February 12, 2020 stated.

Again the irony is that the prime minister, his deputy and his tourism minister had been the fans of the feudal lords such as Prithvi Narayan Shah, Kalu Pandey, and Bhimsen Thapa, who had ran the country mercilessly for their own interest and luxurious lives keeping the entire populace in the dare poverty and diseases until the country was freed from the monarchy in 2008. Prime Minister Oli and His deputy Ishwor Pokharel inaugurated the statues of Prithvi Narayan Shah and his general Kalu Pandey in Kirtipur where the soldiers of Prithvi Narayan Shah cut off the noses of about two thousands innocent folks after Prithvi defeated them, and captured the city-state. Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai recently went to Gorkha and inaugurated the statue of Bhimsen Thapa, who had lost a large territory to the British East India Company because of his mismanagement of the army and disruption in the supplies to the army at the front during the war with the British Company army. Sufferings of the ancestors of the current Kirtipurians at the hands of Prithvi Narayan did not matter Oli and his colleagues.

The Oli administration had attempted on bringing the National Human rights Commission under the Attorney General, crafted the Media Council Bill to curb the freedom of expression even going against the provision made for the freedom of expression in the Constitution of 2015, and also crafted the Guthi bill to grab the private, public and state Guthi land with the intention to distribute the land to the cadres of the communist party; a large amount of the state money had been allocated to different activities such as the minimum employment scheme, agricultural subsidies, and loan interest subsidies and so on, only to distribute the money to the cadres causing the incredible wastage of the state resources.

Speaking at the event held to mark the Twenty-ninth Anniversary of Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in Kathmandu on February 11, 2020, President Bidhyadevi Bhandari said that the folks involved in corruption, and let others involved in corruption were the enemies of the nation; and she emphasized that uprooting the corruption was necessary for the cultured society, the news published on the front page of “gorkhapatra” on February 12, 2020 stated.

Legal experts said that the president missed to state that CIAA had abused the authority skipping the cases of the corruption charges against former Supreme Court Justice Kumar Regmi, and Nabin Poudel (son of Vishnu Poudel: General Secretary of the ruling Nepal Communist Party) involved in transferring the State-owned land at Lalita-nivas to their names because they agreed to return the land so fraudulently registered in their names, and CIAA also missed to indict former Prime Ministers such as Madhav Kumar Nepal and Dr Baburam Bhattarai stating CIAA was beyond the jurisdiction of taking up the policy decisions made on easing the transfer of the state-owned land at Lalita-nivas, Baluwatar, Kathmandu to the private companies, and individuals.

Legal experts said that how CIAA could free the criminals if the criminals were to return the illegally grabbed property; they also asked whether CIAA would withdraw so many corruption cases against the state officials filed in the Special Court if those guys were to return the amount they took illegally. Thus, CIAA supposed to prevent the abuse of authority had been involved in the abuse of authority the legal experts said. The prime ministers who had made the policy decisions on transferring the state land to the individuals and organizations would never escaped from the justice; time would come when they would be brought to justice, legal experts said.

Now, corrupt lawmakers had disrupted the proceedings of the House of Representatives protesting against CIAA filing the case of the corruption charges against former Deputy Prime Minister Vijaya Kumar Gacchedar, who had been implicated in illegally transferring the state land at Lalita-nivas to the private companies, and individuals. These shady lawmakers obviously did not know that the corruption case filed against Gacchedar was a legal matter and not the political one. However, they even did not know that CIAA not filing cases against former prime ministers, and the son of Vishnu Poudel, and former Supreme Court Justice Kumar Regmi must be the political ones and the abuse of authority. If these lawmakers were honorable as they addressed each other then they would have filed an impeachment proposal against the CIAA members and the CIAA chief not filing the cases against the prime ministers and other two guys Poudel and Regmi. However, such genuine cases did not get into the brains of the crooked lawmakers, who wanted to rescue the fraudulent colleague abusing their status and even authority.

For the lawmakers, ministers including current and former prime ministers, and of course, for the high officials of the state bureaucracy, corruption did not matter but speaking against corruption mattered. So, the civil society groups needed to rise up against the establishments to end the corruption endemic in the state administration, political leaders, and their cadres, who applauded the leaders speaking for defending the allegedly corrupt Former Deputy Prime Minister Vijaya Gacchedar.

Prime Minister Oli had been repeatedly saying that he had zero tolerance of corruption, and he even had said that during the last two years of his administration the corruption had been drastically reduced. However, if anybody were to read the news titled “Samiti Lai-nai Terdaina Samsya Grasta Sahakari” published on the front page of “Artha Bazaar” of “gorkhapatra” on February 17, 2020 then s/he would find that how the political cadres had been obstacles to bringing the corrupt folks to justice, who had misappropriated the savings of the common folks made in at least twelve financial cooperatives the Problematic Cooperative Management Committee was supposed to resolve because none of the corrupt folks did respond the Committee taking the benefits of the political shelter they had received. Now, the question to the prime minister, “Who had given the political protection to the corrupt folks and why the Committee under the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation could not do anything even after two years?”

Former Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota had successfully exposed the slogan of Prime Minister Oli that he would not involve in corruption and would not others allow involving in corruption. Prime Minister Oli might save his own face and his commission agent Gokul Prasad Baskota saying Baskota had not taken the money he had only made a deal; it was not a crime; the precedent had been once Krishna Bahadur Mahara who was recently acquitted from the rape case from the court had asked the Chinese NPR 500 million for paying the lawmakers for electing the then Maoist leader Prachanda to the office of prime minister. However, Baskota had profitably exposed Prime Minister Oli as a leader of the commission agents who had been feeding billions of rupees to Oli for staying in power.

The video Ajay Babu Shivakoti had posted on “youtube” on February 20, 2020 thus making the public of the deal Baskota was making with the commission agent Bijay Prakash Misra, who had obviously tapped the video to use it as a weapon if the deal was not honored. Clearly, Baskota was so greedy why he would take NPR 500 million out of the commission of NPR 700 million for purchasing the security press for the State as mentioned in the videos posted on “youtube when other agent was offering him NPR 4 billion”. So, Misra must have passed on the video to Shivakoti, who simply uploaded on “Youtube” for the public listening.

The irony is that the House Public Account Committee that had once used Bijay Prakash Misra as an expert on the security printing press had passed the resolution demanding to arrest Bijay Prakash Misra for breaching the Cyber Crime Law because his video was posted on “youtube” exposing the deal on the commission on purchasing the security printing press he was making with Baskota. Unfortunately for the prime minister, Baskota had clearly stated that the commission was not for him alone but for “us” because he had asked how much “we” were to receive.

Obviously, some of the lawmakers who might be taking the position of the careless Gokul Baskota in the future, and who might need to have the similar deals, and who might be caught in the same type of the videos of the folks working for the commission agents had been serious enough to stop such dealmakers from exposing them to the public. So, if they could use the Cyber Crime Act against such guys who secretly tapped the commission deals then the chances of exposing the unsuccessful deals to the public would be at minimum if not zero.

So, it was no wonder that some lawmakers belonging to the Nepal Communist Party despite facing the opposition from the Nepali Congress had been in a hurry to pass the media council bill that Baskota had crafted and submitted at the National Assembly for muzzling the reporters, the media and even the publishing houses. And Prime Minister Oli wanted to go a bit further bringing the National Human Rights Commission under the Attorney General. His cabinet also had reportedly passed the proposals for Ministers including the prime minister and other high ranking elected and appointed state officials not needing to require disclosing their personal assets after taking office; and also for not taking the corruption cases the ministers and other high ranking officials indulged in after five years from the date of committing such crimes. Thus, Prime Minister Oli was making fun at his slogan of “zero-tolerance of corruption.”

Evidently, Prime Minister Oli had successfully used Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for saving the former Prime Ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai from the case of involving in making the decision on illegally transferring the State-owned Lalita-nivas land to the private companies and individuals, and the General Secretary of NCP Vishnu Poudel for allegedly purchasing a piece of State-owned land at the Lalita-nivas in the name of his under-age son at that time, and the justice of the Supreme Court after they agreed to return the land they had so unlawfully received or purchased. 

Now, Prime Minister Oli needed to save his beloved former Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota, who had been staying in the house of Prime Minister Oli at Balkot in Bhaktapur after Oli moved to the official prime ministerial residence at Baluwatar in Kathmandu. Baskota unmistakably had been the most trusted man within the circle of the prime minister’s trusted persons. That was why Prime Minister Oli could always boast that he would never tolerate corruption because the prime minister was so sure that Baskota would never betray the prime minister even though the current exposure had shown that Oli might have amassed the tremendous amount of money using Baskota as the communication minister to take commission in the cases of 4G, NTC and other communication businesses, the folks watching the activities of these ministers stated in various video posted on “youtube”.

For more information on the deal Baskota had made on taking the commission on purchasing the security printing press for Nepal visit “Youtube” and watch the so many videos including that of daring Lavi Lamichhane of News24.

How the then communist prime minister and the congress home minister made a decision on transferring about 173 ropani of the land belonging to the Nepal Trust to the tenants or their heirs was made clear in the news published on the front page of the State-run newspaper “gorkhapatra” on February 26, 2020 stated. The news stated that the then Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai as the patron of Nepal Trust, and the then Home Minister Vijaya Kumar Gacchedar as the chairman of Nepal Trust Management Board had made a decision on transferring the ownership of about 173 ropani land belonging to the Nepal Trust to the names of tenants or their heirs even though the tenants could not claim the tenancy rights to the land belonging to the state following the Clause 25 (5) of the Land Act of 2021 (1964) with the amendment made in 2075 (2018).

The opposition leader in the parliament: Sher Bahadur Deuba taking time from the Speaker spoke in the parliament on March 1, 2020 about the attempt of Prime Minister KP Oli on covering up the audiotape that had vividly implicated former Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota in negotiating the deal on taking commission on purchasing the Security Printing Press for the State; and Deuba also questioned that how many ministers were involved in the commission business, as Baskota had clearly stated how much “we” would receive in the audiotape.

A few days ago, Prime Minister Oli publicly doubted the authenticity of the audiotape, and next day, Baskota filed a defamation case against Vijaya Prakash Misra, who had released the audiotape of the conversation between Baskota and him while making a deal on the commission on purchasing the Security Printing Press. Misra had said in an interview with a TV anchor that the conversation had been incidentally taped as he forgot to turn off the switch he was taping something while waiting for the Baskota to meet.

A lawyer in a TV interview stated that Prime Minister Oli had made such a public statement on doubting the authenticity of the audiotape implicating Baskota in negotiating for the commission on purchasing the Security Printing Press, as the prime minister himself was involved in taking the commission; so he did not take actions against Baskota and he went for covering up the audiotape to influence the investigation that Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority was taking up. (Audio-visual tapes of all these public discussions on the audiotape that had implicated Baskota in the commission business were posted on “youtube” for the public consumption.)

updated on March 1, 2020 

updated on February 26, 2020