By PR Pradhan pushpa-column“Loktantra” has become synonymous of corruption, commission, bad governance, among others. It seems, the political leaders don’t go to the government to serve the nation but they go to the government to destroy the nation. In the last 11 years of “loktantra”, Nepal is going down in all sectors whereas the country has been declared as one of the most corrupt nations in the globe. Yes, we have been saying from the beginning that this “loktantra” is for the leaders, of the leaders and by the leaders.  Political leaders in power are busy in commission and corruption deals and performing daylight robbery. Instead of performing their role as leader, they are demonstrating the role of a broker whose mission is only to make money at any cost. This time, when the government recommended the names for ambassadors of friendly countries, it had to face controversy. The names were approved by the cabinet meeting without information of the Foreign Ministry. Some names were highly controversial as some manpower agents were also recommended to the prestigious post of ambassador. It is said that such agents had paid above ten million rupees to the political leaders. Out of the recommended names, the government has decided to drop one name. However, another controversial name was accepted by the government after Bijaya Gachhadar put pressure on Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal for not taking back the cabinet decision. Sure, Gachhadar didn’t want to lose such a huge amount of money! In this “loktantra”, the main qualification to get such political assignments is money. Nowhere in the world such a prestigious post cannot be bought by paying money, however, it is possible in Nepal. The second criteria to get such an assignment is to be the member of one of the ruling parties. Recently, in the promotion of the new Nepal Police chief also, the government tried to break the chain of command from which the entire police force has been shamed and spoiled. The force is responsible to maintain law and order, but the officers, to save their position, are compelled to serve parties’ interests. Those honest officials will not get opportunity whereas the officers working as the agent of smugglers will get assignment in lucrative posts under the influence of money. The Nepal Police SSP and some other officers deployed in the Tribhuwan International Airport were found involved in gold smuggling. When the special team of the Nepal Police arrested some carriers involved in gold smuggling, it was discovered that these officials were involved in gold smuggling for a long time. The Finance Minister had sent his closed aide as customs officer in the Airport Custom Office. When his man was arrested, it was speculated that the Finance Minister could have also been involved in gold smuggling. The Minister, later, giving clarification on his involvement, said that there are big fishes involved in smuggling business and he was just a small fish. Now-a-days, the leaders don’t feel shame when they are alleged for being involved in commission and corruption. They defend themselves by saying that they need money to run the party with which they are associated. A political system has to be introduced to make prosperous the nation as well as the citizens. Unfortunately, the system we have introduced has been instrumental to make prosperous only the political leaders. Prachanda, commander of the “people’s war” is residing in a luxury place in Lajimpat. His second man during the “people’s war” Baburam Bhattarai is paying above one hundred thousand rupees as house rent. From where does this money come for them? There are cases filed against the influential leaders in the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). When Lokman Singh had planned to open the files against the top leaders, but overnight, an impeachment motion was registered against him. Now, CIAA has no courage to open such files. There is no rule of law as the political leaders have considered themselves above the law. If such a trend will continue, one cannot hope for prosperity of the country and the people. Political analysts have thus started to say that the nation is heading towards a failed state and if the very leaders will enjoy the power, sooner or later, Nepal will be declared as a failed state. Some have even started to analyse that a strong dictator is needed to rescue this nation! In conclusion, this “loktantra” and the constitution introduced by the constituent assembly cannot uplift the nation and the people. To save the nation, we have to scrap this constitution.