Political Commentary          

By P.R. Pradhan

The legislature, the executive, and the judiciary have become defunct. None other than the political leaders of the day who were responsible for introducing the present constitution are solely responsible for defunctioning these organs. Moreover, the civil service, the foreign policy, the security policy and also the Nepal Police like organs have also been defunct. Now, the situation has become worst to the extent that these organs are no more functional in the as-it-is situation.

We have the court-assigned prime minister and the court itself is in controversy. The court became controversial as the political parties in power wanted to infiltrate partisan politics there. Maybe Chief Justice Cholendra S Rana is responsible for the present controversy, however, the role of those five judges who represented in the constitutional bench cannot run away from their responsibility. To correct and clean the court, all those judges appointed on the basis of political belief or getting an appointment on the political share should be dismissed. This is the reality. 

Political syndicate:

The present loktantra has become a political syndicate captured by a few political leaders who oppose the fresh mandate of the people and run the government turn by turn. 

Presently, the small and weak five political parties, who have no mandate to run the government, have formed the government with the support or say setting in the Court. The mandate given to the five small political parties is to play the role of a responsible opposition. Contrary to that, they are in the government. They oppose fresh people’s mandate and now they have formed a high-level syndicate to give common candidate in the upcoming elections, which is a violation of the citizens' fundamental rights. 

UML is the largest party in the House of Representatives but the gang of five have cornered the largest party through an unholy alliance between the democratic and communist parties. By principle, the five parties cannot remain in one place but they have given up the principle and developed an alliance just to enjoy the power. 

Among the five small political parties, the Nepali Congress is the party having a history and a political culture. So far, NC is the second-largest party in the House, unfortunately, with the attraction of power, NC has also forgotten democratic ethics and values and become the tail of the unethical communist groups. 

The general public is suffering from different problems. They are to face more serious problems due to the decline in economic activities. The remittance amount the nation was receiving has declined, which has already affected Nepal’s foreign currency reserve. The balance of payments has gone negative. Nepal’s trade deficit is further widening. Covid-19 has virtually stalled all economic activities including tourism, which is the major source for earning foreign currency. Moreover, the off-season rains have heavily damaged the paddy crops. The petroleum product price in the international market has skyrocketed. We are experiencing uncontrolled price hikes as there is no effective government mechanism to control price hikes. Due to the local and international situation too, the country may face a higher rate of inflation which will surely be going to affect middle and poor class families. 

From all sectors, the country’s situation seems very gloomy.