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Exhibit common sense
Security experts of the Kingdom have floated an idea, which if brought into action could in a meaningful way decrease the military capabilities of the rebel camp. The idea is that if the nation-state inducted the youths having no employment and education could well join the National army thus on the one hand it would increase the capabilities of the state forces then on the other would automatically decrease the military prowess of the other camp.
Easier said than done indeed. But then yet the experts have some seed of truth in their explanation considering the geographical terrain of the country and the scores of development-less regions of the kingdom.
The fact is that those youths who have joined the insurgency have done either for filling their bowls two times a day which is not available to them or for frustration of being solely and summarily neglected by the state apparatus in Sigh Durbar. Let's presume that those who have joined the rebel camp have not done so by thoroughly studying and understanding the Maoists doctrines as instructed by their mentors in the said camp. Thus let's believe that a sizeable chunk of today's military cadres of the insurgency have done so either by force or by their own preference in the light of theirs being totally neglected and rejected by the state for decades and decades.
When poverty approaches a family, the family knows where the shoe pinches. Lectures and eloquent speeches made in Kathmandu have little to do with or practically no meaning for the poverty stricken families in those areas where the word development have become an enigmatic if not a foreign alphabetical conglomerate. Papers and scores of five star hotel seminars and tons of voluminous documents as the end product on poverty reduction and alleviation have so far remained limited to Katmandu and will take decades and decades to reach the real target groups.
It is this lack of symmetry and Kathmandu centered decisions that have contributed to the youths of the remote areas to get prompted to join the insurgency or else a simple and uneducated modest youth of the country would not have got tempted to join an army of the insurgents about whom they know little.
A father when finds himself unable to feed his hungry son two meals a day and a father who has no means to provide a paracetamol to his almost dying son then the father(s) mentioned above apparently are left with no options other than to get lured by the lolly-pops offered to them by the men belonging to the rebel camps. Reports have it that in such cases the rebels have come to the rescue of the parents and the parents in turn are more than obliged to send their kids to join the insurgency. Perhaps these were the reasons that the strength of the insurgency has been increasing by every day and months.
Governments changed. Leaders changed. The system changed and a new system came in vogue. However, the mindset in Kathmandu and the men steering the country's affairs remains the same. With this mentality and the old mindset, things will not improve that is for sure. We fear that if this mindset is not changed in a few years from now then Nepal will be a country known more for its insurgencies and conflict than what we claim today.
It is in this light that we endorse the experts view that if the youths of the remote areas were provided with jobs, the issue of the unemployed youths joining the band of the insurgency will come down by a considerable level. However, why only the youths be admitted in the RNA's camp? We are of the view that let the youths be allowed a good number of options. Why not establishment of factories wherein they could be consumed? Why not expanding tourism facilities in the areas, which would also require work force wherein they could well be adjusted? Why not open schools wherein they would enroll themselves and after some years will be in a position to ascertain which path they should take? Why not the establishment of health clinics or for that matter hospitals wherein they could get treatment at times of need and also serve the establishment as work force at the beginners level.
? Undoubtedly, a fairly educated youth would think twice prior to joining the band of the rebels. Why not begin the construction of the roads? If this were so then a large number of our younger brothers would not mind in working as workers and the money will not flee across the borders?
Let's talk to the donors that henceforth a sizeable chunk of their aid or for that matter grants would go to the remote areas so that the people in those areas could also taste the fruits of development. We suppose the donors will not mind if they are convinced in a logical and pragmatic manner.
If all these happen then we don't see any obstruction being posed to the governmental programs even by the rebels. The fact is that the rebels too would more than wish to see that Nepal becomes a prosperous society with all her children remaining in a happy mood.
The mechanisms are too many in order to contain the youths provided the center diverts its attention from seminars and talkathons that are uninterruptedly being held in Kathmandu.
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