HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 28 January 2019 Respect sovereign people To me, the ongoing political environment of Nepal is not favourble for bringing the desired changes in the social, economical and overall development of the nation as envisaged by the common people considering the high-handedness of the ruling party. Democracy does not mean ruling the country with high handedness on the basis of arithmetic strength in the parliament. It is the system that demands the respect of the opposition and hearing the people’s voices through their elected representatives. It is a system that should follow the universal norms and values of democracy. The Parliament in itself is not sovereign, it represents the sovereign people. The Parliament should not be a forum for some rowdy leaders to chase their own interests rather than it should be a place looking for the well being of the nation and its people. The passage of the National Health Education Bills without letting the main opposi...

The Himalayan Times 24 January 2019 Political tussle continues Nepal has been practicing its federalism for the last one year soon after the completion of three tiers of elections. Accordingly, local, provincial and federal governments are in place in line with the new constitution. Most of the three tiers of governments are in the hands of the Nepal Communist Party. The Nepali Congress could not perform well during the elections because of its intra-party feud and factionalism. Since then, the K.P. Oli led two thirds majority government is at the political helm that seems to be not performing well as per the people’s expectations.   In the mean time, it seems the ruling party does not want to bow down an inch in incorporating its own agreements made with Dr. K.C   in the past regarding the National Medical Education Bill (NMEB). The main opposition wants to see the government endorsing the bill without any deviations. This situation has invited political tu...

It is so unfortunate and sad to see the two thirds majority government's performance in the last nine months. There has been dismal amount of satisfying performance to point out at this hour besides the government seems to be protecting corrupt bureaucrats  and former and current ministers. General people have started pointing fingers to the K.P.Oli led powerful government that came into the political history of Nepal looking at its failure in controlling corruptions and punishing culprits, to capture and punish rapist and money laundering cases.

The Himalayan Times 23 August 2018 Haphazard taxation The government at the centre led by K.P Oli has completed its six months tenure with not much satisfying performances. People seem unhappy with the way the central government is running the country. Likewise, the performances of the local and provincial governments have been questioned by the local people raising the concern about the purpose of the federalism. This does not indicate the good start of the new political structure. However, the country has moved forward with the federal structure which should be gradually strengthened by winning the hearts of the people rather than undermining their voices and concerns by flexing political muscle based on the numerical numbers of lawmakers in all level of parliaments. The haphazard collection of taxes on consumable and non-consumable items by the local and provincial governments has been the talk of the town and widely criticized by all walks of life. Main oppos...

MAKE DEMOCRACY WORK It is a known fact that Nepal has experienced much political movements in the last seven decades in the name of restoring democracy. Common people, who were out in the streets, had knowingly and unknowingly listened to the political leaders with the expectation of seeing prosperous nation and better lives. These movements remained to be successful simply in terms of changing the regimes but terribly failed to consolidate the achievements, strengthen democracy and fulfil people’s aspirations. It seems now that the common people were misguided simply to support the political leaders who cleverly created the problems for their own sake. In fact, the people were wrongly motivated or instigated to fight among each other for unwanted problems created by the political parties and their leaders. So far, it seems that, until now, political leaders of different political parties have used politics to serve their own vestigial interests. It is said that powe...

The Himalayan Times 9 August 2018 Brutal killings Nepalis around the world were and are still known to be the most humble, sober, friendly, loving, caring, religious, and culturally rich people. However, will we be able to maintain these wonderful sayings in the days to come considering the ongoing political and social nuisances? I am worried about the growing imbalanced living standard of the people and temptation of the people of spending luxurious lives. I am much worried about the social and cultural differences that could arise in the country if the political and economical affairs are not properly handled among the newly established provinces. We have started experiencing the political power tussle between the federal and the provincial governments in the recent days. People do not seem happy with the government’s performances. No concrete solutions have been sought to improve the painful and horrible conditions of the roads inside and outside the capital cit...

The Kathmandu Post 3 August 2018 DEMOCRATIC RESPONSIBILITIES The main opposition of the ruling Nepal Communist Party, Nepali Congress (NC), staged nationwide protests against the K.P.Oli government on Tuesday   accusing it of running the government in an authoritarian way (“NC stages nationwide protests” August 1, Page 3).   As NC claimed, the nationwide protests were not to replace the government but to warn it to correct its wrongdoings-from its attempt to muzzle the freedom of media, to not following the constitution and to not fulfilling the promises it made to its citizens. Nepal has passed through much political turmoil following the restoration of democracy in 1990. None of the past governments were able to run the country for a full term due to inter and intra party political bickering. A decade long Maoist’s insurgency against the state was another impediment for the country to grow. As a result, the country and its people had to politically, soci...

The Himalayan Times 2 August 2018 Make reforms in SWCN Since long, the government has been allowing local non-government organizations (NGOs) and international non-government organizations (INGOs) to work in various parts of the country with the intention of improving the living conditions of the local populations. These organizations were/are engaged in implementing different kinds of development programmes related to formal and non-formal education, community health, income generation and women empowerment.   Around 48,000 NGOs are currently registered with the Social Welfare Council Nepal (SWCN); however, not all of them are active. The SWCN is the umbrella organization at the centre. One of its responsibilities is to monitor the activities of these organizations which have not been effective due to its limited human and financial resources. These shortcomings of SWCN have made most of the I/NGOs implement their activities in their own ways, hampering th...