Bleeding wound

The lame-duck Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, has finally spoken the truth. Better late than never he has realized that for the phenomenal growth of the Maoists insurgency well within a short span of a decade or so could have been the lethargic and the corrupt practices of the salaried bureaucrats who more often than not prefer to harass the laymen as and when they approach those bureaucrats to get their jobs done. The Prime Minister most humbly accepted that it is the nation's bureaucracy that has done more harm than good for the national population and not surprising therefore he bluntly accepted the other day that it is the bureaucratic procedures and "come-tomorrow" syndrome that has amply benefited the Maoists to grow and find a place in the hearts of the Maoists insurgents and hence the insurgency. The Prime Minister also made it abundantly clear that if compared, the Maoists were far better than the Sigh Durbar bureaucrats in understanding the people's problems and grievances and thus in sorting out their troubles and tribulations.

Deuba's frank and blunt admission should have been perhaps for the first time that a sitting prime minister dared to admit a truth that Nepali prime ministers should have accepted decades and decades back. Better late than never, he is the one who has tried to hint that he as nation's prime minister was not that happy with his friends in the bureaucracy for a variety of reasons. In saying so he has also hinted that the bureaucracy to a greater extent has contributed for the escalation of the Maoists insurgency in the country.

What is pleasing is that Deuba made all these free and frank observations amidst the presence of all those bureaucrats, belonging to the higher echelons indeed, who have apparently ru9ined the nation through the kind courtesies of their corrupt activities plus their dilly-dallying practices when it came to serve the people who approached them. The fact is that most of the Nepali bureaucrats do not do their jobs for which they are paid by the state. Add to this that they love to hate those laymen who can't provide them "under-table" money. Come Dashain and Tihar festivals, the price of the bribe becomes double. It is not for nothing being said that big business houses for getting their jobs done heavily pay Nepali bureaucrats and the ugly faces in Singh Durbar and elsewhere pocket the money shamelessly. The fact is that the businessmen are on record to have said that they are forced to seduce the bureaucrats or else they have to incur financial heavy losses. Shame on such ugly and disgusting faces.

While we offer kudos to the Prime Minister for having talked sense this time, however, we feel pity for him as well for not having said the audience of the bureaucrats as to what extent the leaders like him, in the streets or in the cabinet, press and force the bureaucrats to twist the laws of the land and allow illegal things done from them. In essence, it is the corrupt leaders, politicians that have ruined the nation and brought the nation to this chaotic state. In effect these bureaucrats and the leaders have already become a sort of bleeding would of the nation. The would thus needs surgical treatment. The tragedy is that the surgeons who are supposed to operate the wound are themselves not what they should have been. The message should be clear. That's all.

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