pushpa-columnBy PR Pradhan Last Friday this scribe attended noted columnist Saurav’s new book release programme. Saurav has penned the “Asangati” second volume of the “Asahamati-2” [“Discourse” in English]. Speaking about the book, Saurav said that for the last 25 years the nation has not been able to feel as a sovereign and independent nation. Therefore, these days, he said, he is in search of Nepal and the Nepalis within Nepal. This is his discoursed journey, Saurav said. The first chapter of the book starts with the title, “Dependent Independence”. Saurav has condemned the discoursed Nepalis even saying that the people are looters and such looters always vote for the commander of the dacoits. Perhaps, this beginning is enough to know Saurav’s utter dissatisfaction with the present day Nepal, where he has been lost and he sees that the Nepalis have been lost and on the whole Nepal has been lost. Giving an example of Kulman Ghishing, managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority, who is struggling against the water-resources mafias selling dark to the Nepalis, Saurav states, in each and every sector, such mafias are active in destroying Nepal. This scribe totally agrees with Saurav’s arguments. We have two big neighbours – China and India -- emerging as new global economic powers. Unfortunately, we are unable to grasp the progress and developments achieved by the two neighbours. Our economy has been retained by the remittance income sent by our youths working abroad. We, the Nepalis, are running behind the foreigners and the money paid by them to destroy this beautiful and naturally rich nation. One friend informed that the entire security budget allotted for the Nepal Army is 45 billion rupees, whereas, the entire expenditure of the INGOs in Nepal is above 40 billion rupees. He was explaining that the INGOs are spending money here to fulfill their interests. Presently, the Western powers are using such INGOs/NGOs to create different kinds of disputes in the developing and underdeveloped countries. Many countries, including Russia, India, among others, have curtailed the INGO activities. But in Nepal, such INGOs are running parallel government. Such Western INGOs have strong reach in every political parties and working freely in the country. Talking about the Maoist “people’s war” it was solely sponsored by the foreign powers including India and some of the Western countries, namely, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, among others. In other words, the foreign powers are discoursing the entire Nepalis and there is no hope for prosperity of this nation in the near future. Nevertheless, journalists like Saurav are continuously making efforts to wake-up the Nepalis from their deep sleep. Economic prosperity reflects the face of the nation. Talking about the Nepali economy, for the last 25 years, there has been continuous decline in this country. The state owned profit making industries were scrapped by the “democratic” leaders in power since 1990. Today, our imports are ten times higher than the total exports, which is alarming. Of course, there are ways for recovery of the economy. For immediate recovery of our economy, first of all, we have to encourage import substituting industries and support export oriented industries. If a study is conducted on our foreign trade, we are importing petro-products equal to our entire exports. If the present trend will continue, import of petro-products is going to exceed every year. Maximum utilization of the renewable energy is the only option to substitute imports of petro-products. Construction of hydropower projects, installation of solar plants and wind turbines are the alternative sources for reducing petro-products. Big hydropower projects have to be constructed, not for export but for domestic consumption. Accordingly, huge power consuming industries such as fertilizer factories, silver factories should be established to consume the electricity produced within the country. East-West electric railway should be introduced; all industries should be operated with electricity; e-vehicles should be made compulsory by replacing petrol-consuming vehicles; cable cars, ropeways should be constructed for goods as well as passenger transportation in hill areas. By discouraging road construction, Nepal should develop ropeways and cable-cars for the hill districts. In Kathmandu Valley, the e-vehicles, although very few in operation, have given good performance, therefore, the government, without delay, should develop a plan to replace all the light petro-vehicles in the Valley with the e-vehicles. Instead of petrol-consuming heavy motorbikes, e-bikes have to be introduced. Our leaders, during the Indian blockade, were talking about introducing e-buses in the Valley. Has there been any progress in this? As the Nepali climate is best for solar power, the government should make mandatory for the installation of solar power in every house all over the country. In this way, we can substitute import of petro-products, which has dominated the entire exports of the country. Yes, economic revolution is possible, if our leaders are committed! But, will the leaders, who believe in surrendering to foreign powers, listen to us?