By D.M. Thapa The country is in a paralyzed state, though from outside it looks like it is moving. But even if it is moving, it is moving in the wrong direction. The major political parties are paralyzed and the government too seems handicapped with many problems. The only breakthrough we saw in recent days, was on the agreement of the ruling party in selecting a candidate for the post of chairman of the Lower House of Parliament. That also they chose such a man, who has been accused of atrocious crimes during the 10 year old “Peoples’ War”, when thousands of innocent people lost their lives and many, many more were displaced. The main opposition party, the Nepali Congress, seems to be in no better condition. It has been divided into small groups and sub groups. Both late Girija Prasad Koirala, who started a cunningly planned strategy to oust more senior leaders like Ganesh Man Singh and Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, and also the present party president Sher Bahadsur Deuba are responsible for this situation. Other players are merely spectators who saw a chance to climb the reasy wall of power politics becase of the differences among the top leaders. The situation is worse now, when the Nepali Congress, which proudly calls itself the oldest political party of the country, in complete disarray and has been able to do nothing except criticize the government. The people have also started to ignore this party, in spite of its liberal attitude towards individual rights. The madhesi parties are no more better off. The have tried to show a united face, but this is very untrue due to the fact that each individual leader has his or her own ambition. It is only the backing of India, our powerful Southern neighbor, which has forced them to come together. In fact many of them are outright foreign agents rather than a true Nepali nationalist. These are the three major parties in Nepal, the ruling communist party, the main opposition the Nepali Congress and the Madhesi parties which have the full backing of powerful India, which dictates almost everything in Nepal. But they all have been able to do nothing, except criticize each other. The Court has also become virtually redundant, as the government itself doesn’t follow its orders. It is only the common individual who is punished through the orders of the courts. Not that our security forces are any better, the are inept and most corrupt, at least in the eyes of the public. This can be seen in the feedback one reads in various networks very popular among the ordinary Nepali public also, just like in most of the world. Actually this is the pulse of the people and expensive elections do not truly reflect the preference of the general people. It is only through sheer foreign interference that elections are held to prove that the countryis democratic. Whhere are the hordes of observers who gave a clean chit to the elections in Nepal, specially after 2006? Can they say anything about the real conditions of Nepal after the holding of free and fair polls? Is it enough for them to have some sort of a jaunt in Nepal ans say everything is alright? The nation is suffering and more so, the general people are suffering while  a few hundred people are getting richer day by day. Is this the result what they wanted through a free and fair polls, which actually they didn’t sincerely observe? To come back to where we began, we all know how dependent and incapacitated a person becomes after becoming paralyzed. But imagine the situation when the whole nation is paralyzed and only the crooked people, thugs and corrupt bureaucrats are making money while the people suffer. The security people are no different, they are happy to stay with their perks and extra illegal money while others are making Nepal a playing field for criminal activities, smuggling human trafficking and even terrorist movements. Just a few days back there was a report in a popular vernacular daily of how NGOs were even using the Nepal Police. If we go back in history, it was the then IGP Achyut Krishna Kharel who started this trend. He allowed an Indian company to build a commercial petrol pump right at the gate of the Police Headquarters, which still exists now. This has become a common trend now and no one can comprehend how much security losses we have borne due to such a decision of visionless officers of the security forces. Are the security forces here to provide security and maintain law and order or make profits like some business organization? An expert in the same daily had sternly said that it was no business of the security forces to meddle in profit making or dealing with NGOs, which have their own vested interests. So in all ways the nation is functioning. If we were to believe, the nation should have been running after so many dramatic political revolutions and uphievels in between. But sadly all the political parties, including those now ruling the country seem to be lost and directionless. We agree some efforts have been made, like for example the Visit Nepa; Year which has just begun, but we simply are not prepared for really welcoming tourists as we should. The Nepal Airline is in a crisis, specially with the Executive Chairman resigning at the start of the VNY. The Tourism Board is doing no better and specially the infrastructures and facilities needed to make visitors really impressed with Nepal don’t exist. The private sector too don’t seem too enthusiastic, except to make some extra income. Offices are being padlocked, there are frequent protests on one pretext or the other and ironically, the vocal civil society leaders seem silent, as they have been ordered to do so by their foreign masters and getting paid for remaining silent on issues which really matters for the nation. The government has been able to do nothing about such behavior of the so called experts and the foreign interference in matters which are totally internal affairs of this country. It is no different with the media, it works either for political interests or foreign money. Thus the people are also in the dark and they remain confused. So what can we say, except that this country is totally paralyzed?