Acts Of New Government
Positive Impression

By Mukti Rijal

THE new government in a short span of time has given an impression that what really matters to it is public concern. Though it approved the proposal of the Nepal Oil Corporation to escalate prices of the POL products the decision was taken weighing all pros and cons. The prices of kerosene and diesel have not been revised upward as these are used by the ordinary people in general whereas petrol and LPG have become slightly costlier. The government did act tough on the hoarders and scarcity inducers when those bent on minting money taking advantage of the crisis unleashed the panic among the ordinary people.

Revision

The kind of difficulties people used to take on in the past in such critical times of artificial crisis did not repeat. For two to three days people were harassed as the hoarders acted deceptively to hide the POL products from the market. As the government started to cracking down on the artificial scarcity inducers, not all dared to play havoc on the interest of the consumers. However, one needs to take note of the way how the situation for the artificial shortage was created. It was almost more than a month before that the Nepal Oil Corporation broached the news that it was facing the financial shortfalls and the only way out to cope with crunch is the upward revision of the prices. This, indeed, gave much needed clues for the blackmarketeers and hoarders to plan to take advantage of the situation.

Why did the Nepal Oil Corporation leak out such an information to the market to let the blackmarketeers and unfair traders exploit the situation needs to be investigated. There are complaints raised time and again about inefficiency and mismanagement inside the Corporation. But no investigation was carried out to examine if the public concerns regarding the performance of the corporation were genuine or not.

This time the government has formed a body to investigate into the affairs of the Corporation and report to the government soon. This step is a very appropriate one . But there are some caveats as well. There is a general built inlethargy to implement the recommendations of the panel. This time it is expected that the past tendency will not get repeated.

The monopoly of the service provider and dominance of a single suppler of the goods and articles creates problems in the market. This situation needs to be seriously looked into and the other service providers enter and compete. Recently the government of India has decided to dismantle the monopoly of the Indian Oil Corporation so that its monopoly could be checked. Nepal should also take steps towards giving space for other service providers and suppliers as a result of which the difficulties the government has to encounter and act on behalf of the public sector entities could be minimised.
Another very important measure the government has announced is relating to the improvement of the health service delivery. The new health minister himself is a reputed medical profession and renowned surgeon who knows about the problems health sector is facing . It is to be noted that the public health provisions in Nepal have not been able to cater to the needs of the people. Hospitals at the district, health posts and health centres in the villages are ill equipped. They have neither medicines nor health professions to provide services to the people. Doctors and physicians concentrate in the urban areas and run their clinics and nursing homes. The health service has been commercialised. Ordinary people have not been able to afford the cost intensive services provided by the private sectors. The public health service institutions are almost at disarray.The new Health Minister has talked of several measures to bring about an improvement in the situation. He has talked of the health insurance scheme and other measures that would introduce elements of ethics and honesty in the medical profession. The doctors as they are more interested in taking benefits of the opportunities available in the urban areas resist the idea of going to the remote areas and serving the needy people. The new provision that requires doctors and health professions to go the rural areas and serve the people will definitely make positive dent in the situation.

Need

The governments in the past committed to bring about changes in heath service delivery but failed. There was a wide gap between what was promised and what was actually delivered to the people. It is expected that the new government as it is made up of the people who are experts and knowledgeable in their respective areas will prove that it is government with difference. At this critical time there is a crying need of performance and delivery to the people. Rhetorics and demagoguery should not repeat.

Stop Dragging Kumari Into The Political Arena

By Lal Bahadur Khatri

"Any feminist thinker who wants to introduce change in this society should take this matter seriously."

This direct quote is from the article 'Kumari and Female Power' by Sangita Rayamajhi, a feminist academic.This sentence has invited all the feminist thinkers as well as the social and cultural leaders to think seriously on the matter of Kumari and to judge the remarks made by her counterpart Bidhya Bhandari with an opinion that there should be an abolition of the Kumari since it is a religious conservatism.

Forum

Sharing the writer's feelings and being supportive of her claim that Bhandari has opened up a forum for ventilating ideas and beliefs about the living goddess Kumari and taking the matter seriously as her advice, it would be a funny idea to share the feelings of a male feminist on the matter in question.
Bidhya Bhandari sounds like a male while she risks to recommend the elimination of the Kumari tradition which is deep rooted in the psyche of the people. Similarly, Rayamajhi sounds more than feminist by taking Kumari as one of the powerful institution to rule over male.

In the case of former, there is an underestimate of the public faith and in the case of latter, there is an overestimation of the religious devotion of the males. Such types of exaggerations of the realities can harm the change processes, which both of them are referring and struggling to. Since the ideas of Bhandari are revolutionary in nature they can be hardly accepted by the Nepalese women whereas the feminist academic's ideas are representative of the latest voices of their movement. They are academically acceptable but practically communal in nature. Whatever may be the reason it is true that as a woman leader equipped with Marxist philosophy Bidhya Bhandari seems very close to the pain of the women and Rayamajhi is more familiar to the feminist movement and theories.

It is widely accepted by all that unless and until we free them from the chain of patriarchal domination, we can't do any justice to them. It is also true that the ruler if his rule is based on the respect of human dignity is never questioned. Even if women rule, they cannot be regarded as the best rulers if they fail to balance the multiple strings, either cultural or political existing in the society.It may be natural to seek the alternative if there is closing of the formal doors from where both the males and females are allowed to exercise state power. For this, we need to find what the best wayouts are. Neither the natural ink- mother's milk- is possible to exploit in place of artificial one as the ultra feminists in the west have suggested nor the inhuman exploitation of our sisters in the name of Kumari or ex- Kumari is justifiable.

For the political victory of women, there is no reason to be silly from male's side. If they deliberately come to the front and claim that through Kumari, they have proved their superiority on man , then the problm arises for the male feminists too. Their role to make a balance between two sexes can loose it's track. While attending to the Kumari pooza, man devotees don't take it other wise. But the academic interpretation of the same event by the feminists is indicating that womenkind do take it as the gratification of their unconscious desire to rule over men. If this is so as interpreted it is possible that some predictions from males to defend themselves is urgent and reasonable. Chaining off of the women from the political, social and cultural oppression is also the duty of the male. Double hands yield better results.

Bhandari wants to abolish this tradition taking it as the medium of exploitation on them and has risked her political career since the people support the tradition by heart. Any thing that goes against this cultural practice, is taken as blasphemy by the devotees, though the state is quite liberal in such cases. On the other, Rayamajhi has risked to invite the attention of the male ego that is ignorant about the female power of Kumari. There appears an unavoidable suspense. If the liberal -feminist- males take some negative hints from the thoughts expressed by Rayamajhi, then, there is a fear that the patriarchy system wouldn't be so interested in worshipping her and male ego would turn so wild that it would be ready not to accept her as a goddess at all. We know that fire is fire and the fire with fuel does what we try to stop. Those males who have bowed down before the goddess till now may ponder over the intension of taking Kumari as an institution which has plotted to rule over them. If we prefer to rule only by ourselves this prediction seems more likely to rule over the days.

The history till this day has been the results of egoistic conflicts which , may disappear if we keep silent. Making comments on the age long cultural heritage we must be very wise and selective too. For the easy harvesting of humanity to make fields fertile is a must. Just by strengthening egoes, we may give birth to Hitlers as Freud's impact on him had done so. It is easy to exploit the religious and cultural sentimentality but to change it for the productive activities is always a challenging effort which demands enough harmony and understanding.

Our remarks get some halts while we try to interpret the logics by these two female feminists. They seem failing to mention the aesthetic value of the tradition on discussion. The idea that it is giving a golden chance of ruling over male by female power through Kumari is erected on the weak foundations because we don't respect her as the mythical ruler of the facts rather we take her as the source of divine power. Moreover it is also difficult to stand for the revolutionary abolition of our age old cultural artifacts as proposed by the women leaders. That is the reason why we have to suffer a lengthy process of social and cultural changes which don't go so fast as our desire to do so tends to fancy.
More authentic thoughts of the other women must get space for their expressions if we have to convince ourselves about the ruling power of Kumari. If you are referring to the cultural revolution for the elimination of such practices, then what will be the level of participation of the other women. Only a small number of male feminists may back you and to safeguard their religious faith even your own kind may change into a big wall before your mission which may undoubtedly be hampered by the mass of the males too.

Worse

The society where semi -feudal patriarchal orthodox in every walks of life is prevalent to give entrance to the ultra feminist analysis will be too early. Theoretically and academically, such analysis for questioning our cultural depth can be welcomed but it can be worse than bad to apply it for taking female ego up suddenly. If this is the difficulty, then could we think over such queries as, can anybody rule over other without entering the political arena ? Is it alright to keep quiet by letting one to rule for some days and accepting others fore? What happens if we contest with male in the formal polls to defeat them happens if we praise ourselves by taking examples of Bidhya Bhandari who did so and bagged the victory Krishna P. Bhattarai and Damannath Dhungana in the parliamentary polls ? Can we be more proud for this or take our movement back by getting aesthetic pleasure from the ruling role of Kumari ? Who is more dominant for ruling - Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka or Kumari in Nepal? For defeating males,women must opt politics not religion and by ruling over males better than they have done over females, we can ensure the knocking down of the patriarchy gradually and confidently.