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Siddhi B Ranjitkar
China visit of Prime Minister KP Oli
On March 20, 2016, Prime Minister KP Oli flew on a plane of the Himalaya airline that had probably no acceptance letter to make international flights, to Beijing, China for the State visit, yet. The State officials involved in hiring the plane must have breached all the rules in hiring the plane. Probably, Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority would take a look into it and punished those officials involved in it.
Minister of State welcomed Prime Minister KP Oli at the Beijing airport. So, we could guess what status the Nepalese prime minister had in China. None of the international media did not cover his State visit to India. Whether international news media such as BBC and CNN would cover his China visit remains to be seen.
Even the State–run Nepalese media were not sure what sorts of negotiations Oli would held with the Chinese officials and what sorts of agreements or understandings he would reach with them. That is why the private media had the full of speculations what Oli would end up in doing in Beijing. Probably, he might sign off six agreements if everything were to go smoothly.
Prince Harry’s Nepal visit
British Prince Harry had been in Nepal for marking the 200 years of Nepal-Britain relations. Nepal was the first country to have the diplomatic relations with Britain since 1816. All other countries had been under the British rule up until 1947.
On Friday, March 18, 2016, Prince Harry arrived in Kathmandu, and he met with Prime Minister Oli on Saturday, March 19, 2016. He also met with the president.
Prince Harry had nothing but praises for the Gurkhas, and for the Nepalese people that stood against the quakes and the undeclared Indian blockade. He had said that he served in the Gurkha battalion in Afghanistan, and he felt very safe with Gurkha soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.
On Sunday, March 20, 2016, Prince Harry visited Patan: one of the ancient towns and watched the rehabilitation of the quake-damaged ancient temples done by the locals even without the support of the government and other organizations. He watched the craftsmen carving in stones and wood for the temples struts and pillars. He interacted with the local men and women. Five women dressed in the Nevah apparel welcomed him presenting bouquets.
Then, Prince Harry traveled to Bhaktapur: another ancient town rich in the culture, and often called the living museum, as men and women continued to dress in the ancient clothing, and continue to follow the ancient tradition in their daily lives.
Prince Harry intermingled with the locals when he visited the quake-victims camp in Bhaktapur. Prince Harry had been so concerned with the suffering of the locals he almost became the people’s prince as his mother Princess Diana did in her time.
On Monday, he is visiting Southern Nepal where the locals would demonstrate their culture. He also would visit the wild life sanctuary.
On March 23, 2016, Prince Harry is returning home. His grandmother Queen Elizabeth visited Nepal twice; his grandfather Prince Phillip also visited Nepal, his father Charles visited Nepal, and went for trekking.
Annulling the licenses for petroleum products
The Cabinet meeting held on Thursday, March 17, 2016 vacated the licenses given to the private companies for importing and distributing the petroleum products to ease the undeclared Indian blockade stating the companies had been selling the petroleum products at the high prices than the State-run monopoly company had been.
Some market economists had complained that the government needed to give a chance to the private companies to compete with the State-run companies not only during the blockade but any time to ease the supply of the petroleum products. They stated that the private companies charging high prices for their petrol would need to comply with the market primarily the supply and demand.
Some suspected that thinking the private companies would destroy the state monopoly on the petroleum, and would not give any windfall benefits to the hungry politicians and the concerned poor bureaucrats that needed to make money at any cost for their survival in the Nepalese society that honor the rich people no matter how s/he had been so rich, the government cancelled the licenses.
Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Stand on Taking Over
If we were to believe in the Sher Bahadur Deuba’s public speeches delivered at any public event so far, he was not in a hurry to take over from Prime Minister Oli rather he would cooperate with him to institutionalize the people’s gains made in the movement, and to enforce the people’s constitution that had been made possible with the sacrifices of so many beautiful Nepalese lives.
Deuba won the NC presidency in the recent election held by the ‘Thirteenth General Convention” of NC. Along with him his colleagues and lieutenants also got elected to the members of the Central Working Committee of NC.
Some of his lieutenants particularly the man called Balkrishna Khand that had graduated from the youth leader to the adulthood in the party had been vehemently advocating for Deuba taking over the power from Oli. Those NC leaders had drained out their money so they had been hungry for money that they could make from the ministerial jobs they anticipated to have after Deuba became the prime minister.
Probably, NC leaders would say that everybody knew it why you needed to tell the public. It is a risky job of engaging in politics; you knew it. You might be able to reach the pinnacle of power and then you would never make money and you die penniless and hungry if you were not to make money when you were in the ministerial job. So, NC leaders needed to take the power only to make money.
Deuba also needed to tackle some of the members such as Khum Bahadur Khadka, Shashank Koirala, and Shekhar Koirala elected to the NC leadership, as they represented the regressive forces. They wanted to take back the Nepalese administration to the period of the Shah-Rana rule without knowing that it was impossible.
Khadka received Rs 3.5 millions from the then Prime Minister Sushil Koirala apparently for his medical treatment now obviously for winning the election to the NC presidency. Judging for his advocacy for the Hindu State and the monarchy that had been dead and impossible to revive, he had overshadowed the born-advocate for the monarchy and the Hindu State Kamal Thapa that knew resuscitating the monarchy was impossible; so he joined the government of Oli to enforce the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
Shashank Koirala elected to the general secretary of NC, and Shekhar Koirala elected to the member of NC were the sons of the failed leader BP Koirala that managed to reach the pinnacle of power but he did not know how to stay on in power and he suffered his whole life from being on the run. These Koiralas were politically immature. So, what they said and would say in the public would come from this poor political background.
Medicinal Herbs Grown In Nepal
On March 21, 2016, the State-run radio called “Radio Nepal” said in its seven o’clock morning news that the people engaged in the medicinal herbs had had hard time in coping with the State officials including the police that had done more harassment than cooperating with the herbal business community. The police had denied harassing the herbal business community.
Every year more than one billion rupees worth of medicinal herbs were exported to India and abroad. However, those people starting from the farmers engaged in the herbal farming in the high mountains ending in the businesspeople in the plane areas had to face the unfair treatment from the State officials.
Officials of the Department of Agriculture rather than promoting the commercial farming of herbs restricted the farmers from harvesting the herbs from their cultivated land. In the name of developing the agriculture, the government of Nepal had set up the Department of Agriculture and even the Ministry of Agriculture only to treat some of the farmers engaged in the high value cash crops such as herbs unfairly.
Officials of the agricultural department and ministry and donor agencies had been never tired of trying to make Nepal self-sustainable in agriculture products but the efforts of government with the assistance of donors in billions of dollars since 1950s had yielded Nepal making the rice importing country in billions of rupees. Previously, Nepal used to export rice to India.
No doubt, the officials and ministers taking up the agriculture had been fattened immensely but the farmers had thinned during this period. Take the example of Ram Chandra Poudel that had recently lost the NC presidency to Sher Bahadur Deuba, he had started his ministerial career from the ministry of agriculture. He was the minister for agriculture in the government headed by Girija Prasad Koirala in 1990. Anybody could see Ram Chandra now how he had been grown from his skinny body in 1990 to the current obesity.
Forced To Close Schools Without Physical Facilities
On March 21, 2016, the State-run “Radio Nepal” said that the government had ordered to shut down all schools without having the physical facilities as set by the government.
First of all, the Oli government needed to understand that many quakes-damaged schools had been still in rubble even after almost a year. Why the government did not opted for building the schools immediately rather than for shutting down those schools without having the buildings and playground.
It was the tactics King Mahendra adopted in 1960s to keep the Nepalese in darkness. The Rana prime minister denied Mahendra a good education but he himself denied education to the Nepalese taking over all the private schools.
The government needed to comprehend that the schools in the rural areas could not afford to have the buildings as set by the government. What for, the government was shutting down all those schools if not for denying the education to the rural kids.
The government needed to provide the rural schools with good educational materials so that they could give good education to the school kids. They could study on the open field if they had no buildings. Closing down all schools without the physical facilities would mean killing all the opportunities of getting education for the rural people.
March 21, 2016
