Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Editorial

Practically a non-ending race is on in the country of late more so after the April change. The said race is for a positive cause and that being the restructuring of this country in order to construct what they call a "New Nepal".

We fail to understand as to what they mean when they say that they want to construct a New Nepal? Nepal is a country which albeit needed certain all embracing reforms that satisfied practically all the citizens of the country and make them all to feel that henceforth the establishment would allow their free and fair political participation in the governance of the nation to what is their due. This much is understandable. However, what is a mystery is the construction of a new Nepal . What look the said new Nepal will have? Similarly, what further plus gains the people of the country will bag when they would render their energy and vigor for the establishment of a new Nepal, the leaders have not so far spelled out.

If past performances of Nepal 's leading political stalwarts were any indication then what is for sure is that the country will further lose its what ever is left of the economic and political stamina. The same old and stale lectures of the corrupt politicians and their misuse of the authority while in power will surely push the nation towards brink. We understand that those who have been clamoring these days that they would make a new Nepal were the same good-old boys housed in different political camps who have had brought this country to this stage. If the same old and tainted faces come to power and allowed to rule the roost then only the almighty is the savior of this country.

Not so in the distant past we have seen the performances of the Nepali Congress, the UML and of the RPP and some coalitions in and among these parties. The gist of their past performances has been that if they are allowed further to rule the country at their whims as they exhibited in the past, the country will soon to exist in the world map and what this would mean is any body's guess.

Nepalese people have high hopes from the radical Maoists who are about to assume government authorities sooner than later. It is this lot on whom a section of the people, a section of the academia plus a section of the media have pinned high hopes who in a subdued voice conclude that the radicals who spent a good number of years in the jungles for the people's cause will deliver better than what their urban corrupt counterparts did in the past. It is, as a matter of fact, believed that those who resided in the jungles, either voluntarily or by force knew the people's grievances of the oppressed people better than those who spent their luxurious lives by being in the posh bungalows and that too earned from their corrupt practices.

The Maoists must be given a chance because they possess immense energy and vigor and right now who have an inner zeal to show to the nation some thing different that what others did in the past. However, the recent Indo-pendant utterances being made by some of the key figures of the Maoists insurgency does suggest that they too were no different than their comrades scattered in different political parties of the bygone era.

The manner Prachanda, the all powerful and supreme commander of the insurgency, melted down when he was freshly in Delhi does indicate that he too, when if power the toe the same India-dependant line as his predecessors did in the recent past. For example, the manner Prachanda and his party sidelined the issue of the overly sensitive issue of the citizenship bill amply speaks of their would-be politics in the changed context.

If they mean by the construction of a new Nepal , a country a la Sikkim or for that matter Bhutan then God bless this country.

In such an eventuality all that we can do is to pray the almighty Pasupatinath who is comparatively less energetic than his similar deity colleagues in Bishwanath and Jagannath situated in Indian territories.

But then yet we have some time left. Let the Maoists come to power. How they lead the country on Nepal-India relations will determine the fate of this country and in more ways than one also expose their tilt if any towards India .