HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 26 April 2018 Judges’ c ode of conduct A few months ago, then chief justice Gopal Parajuly was embroiled in controversies for some of his irresponsible acts. That caused tremendous damages to the supremacy of Supreme Court (SC) and people’s faith on the judiciary system which should be independent, impartial and transparent. He tried his best to defend himself using his prestigious chair for his misdeeds. It was a shameful act on the part of a person who held such a high office. The incident also dealt a demoralizing blow to the supremacy of judiciary. It might be the effect of undermining democratic process of the selection of judges and chief judge. Having said this, we got to read a news story regarding acting Chief Justice Deepak Raj Joshee’s meeting with MC-CPN chair Prachand “Acting CJ’s meeting with Dahal ‘cause for concern’ (THT, April 24, Page 1). Even though he has denied having any political discussion during the meeting, constitution

PROSPEROUS NEPAL Soon after the country entered into the federal structure, hustle and bustle of the federal and provincial governments have started to bring out their future plan and programme trying to calm down general public who are enthusiastically waiting to see development progress in the country as promised by the leftist government. Almost three months have gone by since the provincial and federal elections were held. It seems that the provincial governments are struggling to run their daily businesses due to lack of proper laws and acts, insufficient budgets and adequate number of human resources. However, it was encouraging to see them gradually moving ahead to carry out their jobs as mandated by the federal system. The federal government led by PM Oli seems to be trying to keep its official business in line with its political manifesto. Recently, some of the ministers have separately put forward their programmes for the next five years. Likewise, PM Oli has l

The Himalayan Times 19 April 2018 Meet public expectations The country has started moving in the right direction embracing federal structure. The provincial and federal governments have started their functions with much enthusiasm in terms of their longevity, at-least for another five years, as compared to the previous governments. Most of the time in the past, the major political parties played self-centred politics blaming each other which caused the nation and people to heavily suffer. All the government, semi-government and security institutions were unnecessarily politicised in the past resulting in poor governance. The presence of majority leftist government in the centre and provinces has given high hope to common people considering their political manifesto announced during the elections. If they fail to deliver on their promises in the next five years, the chances of seeking of alternative forces by the people will remain very high. For this, the K.P.Oli l

The Kathmandu Post 13 April 2018 WIPE OUT CORRUPTION Since the days of Panchayat era, absolute monarchy and multiparty parliamentary democracy, Nepali rulers have continued to vow wiping out corruption from the country. However, nothing has changed. Instead, Nepal has continued to slide down in the Transparency International’s (TI) corruption index. In 2004, TI ranked Nepal in the 90 th position among 146 countries. This ranking was further plummeted to the 122 nd position among 189 countries in 2017. This worrisome trend and most embarrassing situation will continue and persist in the days to come if the political leaders of major parties fail to abruptly and strongly act in the changed political context. Newly elected political leaders with high spirit of serving the nation and its people for the next five years are the hopes of the common people. It has been common practice in the past for the general people pointing their fingers to the politicians and their

The Himalayan Times 12 April 2018 Who is to blame? Politically, Nepal passed through many phases based on the whims of the political parties and (might be) the interest of the external powers. Nonetheless, this situation also helped to make the voters more aware about the political situation. However, the illiteracy rate, especially in the rural areas, of Nepali people remained to be one of the drawbacks for them to realize the importance of their votes, which have made same old faces get elected time and again. Nepal has witnessed many political changes, but, has failed to bring expected level of development and economic changes required for the overall social development. Surprisingly, many old faces of Nepali Congress lost the elections. The defeated leaders continue to blame their leadership for the debacle in both the polls and are publicly talking about seeking new leadership “New leadership needed in Congress: Koirala” (THT, April 10, Page 3). Is it appropri

The Himalayan Times 5 April 2018 Ensure law and order Maintaining law and order situation in the country especially in the urban areas has been a challenging job for the home ministry and its concerned authorities considering the increasing number of criminal cases in the recent years. As mentioned in the recent report, the numbers of drug addicts, rape cases and other violent cases against women (VAW) are found alarmingly increasing threatening social harmony. Also, the irresponsible and immoral acts of some of the security personnel, who are supposed to punish the culprits, have made the general people more vulnerable and culprits easily escape from such heinous crimes. The recent rape case in Kathmandu and mishandling of this case by the security personnel made headlines in most of the major newspapers. The foremost job of this government among others is to ensure the smooth flow of funds and deputation of human resources to the local and provincial governments

The Kathmandu Post 3 April 2018 UNIFICATION It has been almost four months since the provincial and federal elections were held. Nepal has now started experiencing federal system with all the local, provincial and federal governments in place. The left alliance has been able to form its powerful government in the centre and six provincial governments out of seven provinces. Madhes based parties have jointly formed their government in province 2. Despite many difficulties, all the provincial governments have started their official businesses. The Oli led federal government was in favour of bringing Federal Socialist Forum (FSF)-Nepal and the Rastriya Janta Party-Nepal (RJP-N) in its cabinet. However, both FSF-N and RJP-N decided not to join the government until the left government could amend the constitution as per their demands. Nonetheless, it is yet to be seen whether they will take their stand or join the government for ministerial berths as in the past. It would