The wearer knows where the shoe pinches

-Piyush Bahadur Amatya, Chairman, Fulbari Hotel, Pokhara

One normally invites friends to ease one’s problems. But when the invited friend itself becomes a source of crisis to the one who invites him, the matters get further complicated.

What is also true is that one should not call a friend, more so a alien one, until he becomes sure that the topic in question needed some one’s support. The gist is that do it yourself till you can handle the problem on your own. And we can if tried hard.

By time now you all could have already guessed as to where I am hinting at.

Yes! My tip-off is towards the foreign management that has been practically ruling the roost at the Nepal Bank Limited. The Management that has come all along from Ireland to take care of Nepal’s senior most financial institution has already gained unsavory reputation to the extent that whenever a child cries, the mother frightens the small kid by saying that sleep! The Irish are coming. That was just in lighter vein indeed. I used this saying just to make others to understand and feel the terror that had been unleashed by the strange management to bully the Nepalese business and the industrial community. The wearer knows where the shoe pinches.

In effect, the Irish friends were brought in to correct the ailments that have had already gripped the Bank wherein they have been posted. But instead, as a matter of fact, they began digging-the-grave and began terrorizing the customers like me and a host of others as well. The fact is that they don’t know the Nepal’s ground realities.

We are paying a very high cost for having asked their service in this sector. The financial transactions of the Bank even after their takeover of the Bank since one year and a half have gone down. Just imagine when the country’s overall economy is taking a downtrend, how come the NBL can claim an upward movement to what they have been claiming of late.

Look what the NBL staffs only recently in Biratnagar told about the performance of the Bank! It was not my comment against the Bank but the staffs of the same bank whose foreign management claims the otherwise. One has to believe when the staffs working in the same institution claim the opposite. This should perhaps explain the inner realities than what is being made to understand through sponsored statements.

Look, I had to close down my Brewery for all along 15 days. What does this mean? Hamper in production, which has obviously a chain reaction.

At a time when the national industries are struggling for their mere survival, the NBL began squeezing the industries further simply to bag accolades from certain interested quarters.

I would say it is just the killing of the industries. A sort of panic is there in the country. It is all due to their lack of sensitivities towards the Nepali industries. To put it mildly, I see a "grand-design" in their attitude towards the Nepali industries. The aim seems to me is to bring the country’s economy to such a state from where an easy come back seemed remote if not impossible.

As regards why I was made the target or the victim to begin with. That’s very simple to explain. What I conclude is that they, read the Irish management, made me an "example" case in order to send chilling signals to other friends in the community. But then yet, what I have not yet determined as to why I was singled out at th first place? This is perplexing indeed.

The attack on me and my Pokhara Hotel is a case of out and out biasness of the highest order. Should I call them evil people? Let me not go to that extent. But then the manner they behaved with me and my enterprise does speak volumes of their hidden agenda to malign me and my project in the country.

Should we take their coming in Nepal as to have been an event to "support" Nepal and the Nepalese people involved in business and industry? Hundred percent not! Instead, they have come, I tell you frankly, to kill us. Kill the industries. Kill the national economy that is still in its fledgling state.

The fact is also that those who have come here to take the charge of NBL, were all personalities who have tentatively crossed their retirement age.. The old and the retired people have been told to do a job that definitely required energetic youths in their prime age. However, it is not. The old-boys have come here to enjoy their retirement benefits. The nation is paying for all this (mis) adventure if it were that. They don’t have the concept on how to tackle the ailing industries. Should we imagine that they don’t know about the fact that the national tourism industry is on a continuous slide since half a decade or so for varied domestic and international reasons? Instead of helping the sick industries in a manner that took the care of both the recipient and the lending parties, the management in the Bank tried to create havoc. The mayhem could have been wisely averted agreeing to a common agenda in between the two parties. However, that was not forthcoming..

Regarding country’s existing politics, all that I’d say is that it is a triangular fight in between the political parties, the monarchy and the Maoists. In my opinion, the forces that regard and honor the constitution must come together and face the challenge posed to it by the third party, whether it be national or international. Unless this is done, I see a very bleak future of the country.

To my knowledge, the Maoists have already become a force to be reckoned with and hence their issues have got to be handled with proper care and that too politically. I don’t believe that military solution to this issue was possible. This applies to both the warring sides. I don’t understand as to one Nepali is hell bent on killing the other who is also a Nepali, the son of the same soil.

The grievances of the Maoists must be addressed and to do that certain mechanisms must be devised. It is time that we all converge to restore peace or else the country has no future.

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