Bitter political struggle, only hurting the nation

Politically, the country is going at a high speed towards a dangerous disaster, while the socalled prominent parties are struggling in a bitter struggle to only get to power. The irony is that leaders within these parties themselves also seem to be at loggerheads with each other and many have even split up. In the meantime, they don't have any interest in looking into the affairs of the country or the problems the people are facing every day to just make ends meet.

First of all look at the way the government has changed several times because our cunning Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, just wants to stay in power. He himself has admitted that having to get the vote of confidence three times in parliament has come as a nuisance since he became the prime minister for the third time, barely fifteen months ago. But the wily politician he is, he called it 'political dynamism'. Sometimes he sides with the UML, the second largest party in the parliament, as he did after the last general election held just about one and a half years ago, and sometimes he sides with the Nepali Congress, the biggest party, while he himself, the president of the third largest party, the CPN (Maoist Center), sits pretty in the prime minister's chair. It is just for nothing that he has defended the present deputy prime minister and home minister, Ravi Lamichhane, who is now a much-tarnished figure who constantly tells lies and fools the people. While UML's KP Oli seems to be changing his views about persons like Lamichhane, who is presently accused of being involved in misusing money he received from a cooperative, the former prime minister, with his greed to be in the top executive post again and who first defended Ravi, still insists that his party only wants to see 'stable' government. Other UML leaders like Shankar Pokhrel have also said that if this government works well, it will keep on providing support to it, which is not true at all.

But the leaders of the now opposition party, the Nepali Congress, seem to have other ideas. Just a few days back, influential and for many a 'charismatic' young leader, Gagan Thapa, said that this government would fall apart within another six months. Once 'comrade in arms' with Dahal, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai also said in a public gathering that this government had already 'failed' and he would not be surprised if it fell within a month. Moreover, none of the parties are clear about their ideologies, at least that is what many experts and also political analysts have to say. This writer also feels that this is quite true and now political parties are forging alliances just to stay in power or get to it. It is also a sad fact that almost all the influential leaders, including the leaders of the newly formed parties in which the voters had put so much faith, are accused of being involved in corruption. But all such accused leaders or their close ones, have walked out of custody on one pretext or another with the backing of the parties, which all claim to be non-tolerant of any sort of corruption. But it is mostly those in power and those who have money and the clandestine support of these parties who are getting such treatment. Many such individuals also escaped police detention by saying they were sick and so they were referred to some expensive hospitals, where they spent time in luxury with relatives looking after them. Allowing any person to go to a hospital after they complain of some sickness is a humanitarian gesture of the government. But it is strange why only the rich and powerful get such facilities, while those who have committed lesser crimes are kept in police custody or jails. We must ask the many firebrand media persons about such developments and also talk to hospital authorities about such incidents how the 'sick' people are kept and what sort of treatment they receive. But unfortunately, like teachers in most government schools, most media people also seem to be interested only in politics and they themselves either support or slam different parties, just on partisan grounds.

But to come back to the behavior of the political leaders again, they seem to be very much worried after they have seen the utter disgust about them among the masses and the growing demand of finding a new leader to lead the nation. And why not, when the political leaders have done nothing for the majority of the citizens and they seem only interested in making money and getting to power, either by hook or by crook. Prime Minister Dahal himself has said in public that there is no chance of the Leftist parties coming together again, and the present coalition government is just an alliance forged to protect 'loktantra' and bring stability to the nation. When they have so much faith in their belief that Nepal would not flourish without their presence, why are these leaders so worried about the monarchy making a comeback? Every time they have any chance and also when they want to divert the attention of the people, they easily forget their own shortcomings and just point fingers at the former kings. Isn't this a bad habit of always telling lies to people? No wonder, thousands of our fellow countrymen and women are leaving Nepal to find better opportunities to study, work, and save some money by going abroad, while Nepal itself is suffering from the dwindling number of skilled and unskilled but able manpower within it. It is the duty of the government to provide social security, better health facilities, good education and other such basic needs of the citizens. Until they do this, it will be useless to only blame the former king, while the political leaders and their cronies are committing all the 'wrongs' that are being seen now, while the parties are at each other's throats and always saying that the hard-won 'loktantra' is at risk.

It is no wonder that such remarks have not frightened the majority of the citizens and instead only disgusted them by the 'acts' of the political parties, their leaders, many of their relatives and some supporters who actually are hurting the nation.