Off The Record (Spotlight Weekly)

(Sub) Standard Service

Standard Chartered Bank has many things to boast. As one of the first foreign bank that started service in Nepal, Standard Chartered maintained its quality and efficiency. When in the past the bank delivered efficient service, Nepal Bank Limited, country’s oldest bank with one of the promoters of Standard Chartered, was infamous for its worst service. Interestingly, the situation seems to have reversed now. Nepal Bank, which is now under the American management, has tremendously improved its quality of services whereas the Standard Chartered, seems to have transformed into an inefficient one. Its Kantipath Branch’s foreign currency section remains busiest in town but the service has worsened. Although half a dozen employees are posted there, they were busy laughing and talking in mobile phones, when this scribe went there last week. The result was a delay in service. A customer had to wait for hours just to change check. When this scribe complained to lady employees who were laughing and joking with each other, they just pointed towards the complaint box.

Locating Leader

The CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal has already declared that he will lead the all-party government. At a time when mighty Americans, Indians and other European counties are searching for terrorist leaders including Bin Laden and his associates from their hideouts, our Nepal could provide them with some helpful tips on locating hiding persons. With his meeting with underground Maoist leaders, communist leader Nepal has shown that he has the power to locate people at locations, which even India’s top secret and resourceful intelligent agencies cannot detect. In such a situation, appointing Nepal as a prime minister could be the best option not only for Nepal but also for the whole world. If Nepal locates Bin Laden’s hideout as he did with Maoist leaders, it will be his great favor to the world community.

One Party Two Policies

The CPN-UML is known as a party with two policies. Although CPN-UML has an official policy of not meeting with any ministers and government officials, its leader Bamdev Gautam seems to be exempt from that. Gautam does not see anything wrong in meeting senior minister. Just a week after the declaration of CPN-UML that meeting with the ministers of illegitimate government will be a crime, Gautam went to see the minister of Finance and Agriculture Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani. Few months back when Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala invited prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa at tea party, CPN-UML leaders demanded apology from him. When one of their senior colleague goes to meet the ministers, the leaders simply ignored it saying it was a personal matter. Is it not a double standard?

Wooing Time

The RPP leaders are nowadays busy wooing the party workers. The party of former Panchas are now playing two different roles. First, they act as a ruling party when two of their leaders were appointed as prime ministers one after another. Then they started to play the role of opposition. Currently, Surya Bahadur Thapa is the prime minister and his opponent and predecessor Lokendra Bahadur Chand is leading the opposition camp. So when there are two vertically opposite camps within a single party, it is natural for the leaders to woo the party cadres to their respective camps.