Abandon it
Last week, the nation maintained formality by observing the 8th constitutional day without enthusiasm. None other than those prime actors who drafted the constitution and promulgated it in 2015 have, within eight years, started to complain about the defects of the constitution. Jhalanath Khanal, the other day, said that federalism can be scrapped given, it is non-functional. Meanwhile, Bamdev Gautam, addressing the House, said that provincial structures and the mechanism of the proportional election and the upper house should be scrapped. Earlier, Maoist MP, also a member of the National Assembly, Khimlal Devkota remarked that the size of the House of Representatives should be reduced. Meanwhile, Madhav Nepal remarked that a single party cannot bag the majority under this political system.
Many of the Nepali Congress central working committee leaders have opined for an amendment to the constitution in the recent CWC meeting. Some of them viewed for restoration of the Hindu nation, whereas, some asked to scrap the provincial structures. The conclusion is that those who were active in drafting the present constitution, have been utterly dissatisfied with it.
The other two scenarios we witnessed this week are the Bhaktapur visit of dethroned King Gyanendra and the Janakpur visit of President Ramchandra Paudel. A human sea was witnessed to greet the King, whereas, there were hardly two dozens of people present to greet President Paudel. In Bhaktapur, people carrying the national flag lauded, “Come King Save the Nation”. As we all know, the core city of Bhaktapur, where the deposed King visited, is the “fort” of the Nepal Majdoor Kishan Party led by Narayanman Bijukche. Without his gesture, nobody would have moved, yet, we saw a huge presence of the local Newar community. Bijukche, although a communist leader, is a clean and patriotic leader having a vision for nation-building. He has now reached the conclusion that those looters and dacoits covered in the mask of “politicians” are going to dispose of this sovereign and independent nation. We can observe it from what he is saying in interviews aired by different television channels.
Nepal, which was moving forward with the “Zone of Peace” proposal, has become a country of crimes and scandals. Top-ranking politicos, including then prime ministers, have been found directly involved in the misuse of government property, conversing Nepali nationals into fake Bhutanese refugees and tons by tons of gold smuggling via Tribhuvan International Airport. If an independent probe committee is formed and investigates all these criminal and corruption cases independently, all the top-ranking leaders of the day will be jailed. The nation had never witnessed such an organized political loot.
The Finance Ministry collects loans to clear dues and pay salaries of the government service holders and those salary-paid “people’s representatives”. The domestic economy is passing through a recession and the national debt burden is continuously increasing. Youths are going abroad for dirty jobs when they are unable to find employment in the country. Students are going abroad for their further study immediately after completing the plus two level as they didn’t see the good educational environment in the country. A section is involved in destroying communal harmony among us. We have seen anomalies in all sectors. Now, we see serious threats to our national identity, national sovereignty and independence. Therefore, if we love our country, if we think about our future generation, let’s abandon this system and return to the 1990 constitution, which was accepted by the political parties.