Elections might not mean much for the nation

When we are just weeks ahead of the important election for the members of the House of Representatives and members of the provincial assemblies, the politicians seem to be busy only accusing one another of the mistakes they created in the past instead of coming up with people-oriented agendas. Understandably, the parties in the opposition are making a lot of accusations about the parties who are heading the present coalition government, but what is alarming is that the major parties who have forged an alliance to get to power are also engaged in the same way in only blaming the main opposition party and its present leader K.P. Sharma Oli, who is also a former prime minister. Don’t these parties have any agenda for the wellbeing of the general people?

Yes, they have come out with their election manifestos in the last weeks before the election, but like one critic says, the promises made in the manifestos are simply forgotten soon after the election results.

Actually, the people have been disgusted with the way the top-level politicians are behaving, but what to do in the present ‘loktantra’, they have no choice but to elect these same fellows who have deceived them time and again.

Even now when the elections are just a few weeks away, very few leaders have come up with strong agendas to uplift the lifestyle of the general public. This seems to be of least concern to the major political parties, who are again going to form an unholy alliance and form the government. This seems to be the main intention of all parties and also major contenders in the election.

As predicted by many socalled ‘experts’ we may also see some independent candidates winning, but this will mean nothing for the people, though the stranglehold of the major parties may be broken in some sort of a symbolic manner.

At present the nation and naturally the majority of the people face a dismal future, this is something which everyone is saying. There were only statements about how Nepal could be another Sri Lanka, but what few realize is that we have already become worse as far as the economy of the nation is concerned. Like this author had said many times in the past, we could even see violence in different ways which would make living in Nepal a difficult challenge. But the leaders and the richer portion of the citizens are already well prepared to flee the country, but again it is the general masses who will have to face the music that has been created by nonvisionary leaders and direct foreign interference.

Just last week the nation had to witness communal violence in Rautahat, which was kept as quiet as possible, even by the media. This was unimaginable in the once very tolerant Nepali society. Such incidents are being triggered more and more, while the major political parties are still insistent that we should give citizenship certificates to more foreigners. This is absurd and something which a tiny nation like Nepal can ill afford to do.

Also annoying is the fact that the major parties have come up with hastily made manifestos at the last hours and though many promises have been made, just looking back at the track record of these parties, most schemes made for the welfare of the general public have not materialized.

There should be longterm projects and some quick ones which will provide immediate relief for the masses who live in poverty. But when even victims of an earthquake which took place many years ago and other victims who have been left in a helpless situation due to landslides and floods that take place every year in different parts of the country, are still suffering what can you expect from this government which believes only in nepotism and creating wealth for their near and dear ones. There is absolutely nothing that one can feel encouraged about, not only from the elections but also from the highsounding manifestos of the big parties. Despite much criticism, the political leaders seem only interested in either sticking to power and earning more wealth or getting back to power, not caring about the perils faced by the general populace.

Also disturbing is the fact that almost all election manifestos of the big parties have made high promises to the people, but they are quite silent about the foreign policy of this nation which heavily depends on foreign aid. This is because the political leaders are stooges of different powers and there are many clandestine INGOs which are working for their government’s vested interests in the name of providing solace to the suffering people of this impoverished nation. At this time, when the world is once more divided into different lines, for a country like Nepal to survive, we need a strong and neutral foreign policy. Nepal has especially become a strategically important place because of the hostility between the US and China. Of course,

India is always there and it even tries to micromanage things in Nepal. But our leaders seem completely aloof about such things, as they were given support and shelter by different foreign powers in the past.

This is a field in which all the political parties should actually have been interested, but sadly, we see no such thing. We may say negative views about India, but that country is very conscious about its foreign policy and they train its career diplomats in a very dedicated manner so that they become real diplomats. But in Nepal, we probably have only a handful of people, that also not in the Foreign Ministry, who are very aware of the importance of diplomacy and how it should be implemented in whichever country they are assigned to. Here, only those who can make by heart the syllabus of the Public Service Commission are selected by the Foreign Ministry. In the name of ambassadors, nepotism works a great deal as well as proximity to political leaders or huge cash funds that can be offered for such a post.

All we can hope for is that such anomalies of the nation will be wiped out by some able leaders, no matter to which party they belong, but even this author feels with a heavy heart that this is a farfetched dream only.