editTake the example of a known Nepali intellectual who decided to curry favor from the newly emergent Nepali Congress by blasting king Birendra’s pet New Education System plan as politically compromising. It did not matter that the plan itself was scuttled politically in course of the referendum a decade earlier. The intellectual got his coveted job no doubt but, merely a decade or so later, when the Congress was out and the king was in, he was doing the rounds for an ambassadorial appointment. Merely a year earlier to the restoration of the multi-party system the late Marich Man Singh had drawn prime ministerial laurels by engineering an election victory for the ‘academic’ section of the University teaching fraternity in a triangular contest conventionally fought also by the Congress (democrats) and the communists (progressives). Come the 1990 change, clue to how intellectuals were to function in our new democracy were freshly provided the lay public by the manner the elected body was unceremoniously booted out and replaced by hand picked party intellectuals who also evolved the practice of distributing university academic portfolios on party lines. Nearly three decades from the change these days, Nepali intelligentsia is increasingly the focus of public wrath for having contributed to the disaster that is Nepali democracy today. Except for the avidly partisan, correcting the approach to more congenial professional levels cannot but delve into the reality that Nepali politics is heading for disaster. And so some young hopefuls can see silver linings in a better performing economy by good harvests last year as harbinger of stability now that the elections under the new dispensation look about to conclude. Some can be more adventurous and devise a scheme of things by way of which the system may be steered towards deliverance. But the bulk in any intellectual discussion on national performance cannot but be bitter in their assessments of national performance. Indeed, as it becomes clearer that the political overlords in the system do not seem equipped to make in built corrections but, instead, helplessly proceed on the disastrous course they set for the country a decade ago, an increasingly jittery intellectual community now openly voice the imminence of unforeseen sparks that may help conflagrate the situation to extents that may satiate the thirst for self correction. There is tremendous reluctance though on part of this community to concede that the change brought in a decade back was designed to dismantle the state outright. Any correctional phenomenon must recognize this at its very outset. Among positive phenomena of the decade is the tremendous public awareness regarding the subversive extents of foreign intervention manifesting in the 2006 change and beyond. It is this awareness that backs concurrence that constitutional corrections must be made from whence the breach occurred in order to strengthen the constitutional integrity of the state. For some in the intellectual community though, this still seems delusional given that much Bagmati waters have flown since. It is the unity of public voice against the constitution that will be the first step toward correction.