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On/Off the Record

By P.R. Pradhan

Are Nepalis on sale? This is a burning question of the day. When the Nepali youths were recruited in the Russian army and one of them was taken under control by the Ukraine army. It is astonishing to know that Nepali youths are also reported to have been recruited by the Ukraine army and they are fighting against the Russian army in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

In recent decades, media has been used by the “superpower” nation as the offensive force of a war. War is always on whether it is an armed war against any nation or a war for destroying a foreign country’ civilization, religion, language, culture, or tradition, among others. American supremacy has been challenged by the newly emerged power nations and to retain the sole American supremacy, the USA is involved in a propaganda war. Not a secret now, who are the Nepali journalists enjoying funding from the Open Society, USAID, DIFID, DANIDA, Norwegian Fund, Swiss Fund or else!

Once, senior journalist Kishor Nepal was running a project under the DFID. The assignment for him was to visit remote villages and host interviews with the locals. We don’t know what others were the secret assignments.

The Western agencies are spending money in Nepal particularly for the conversion of religion into Christianity, destroying the Nepali language, destroying Nepali culture and imposing Western values. Of late, the American interests in Nepal have surprisingly increased. According to reports appeared in the local media, after MCC, the Americans are putting pressure on the Nepal government to approve the SPP (State Partnership Program), which is known as a military partnership program between Nepal and the USA. Nepal is a non-aligned country and by principle, it should remain aloof from any military alliance or pact.

Nepal has two giant neighbors India and China, which are rivals against each other. The main challenge for Nepal is how to establish balanced relations with both countries and how to safeguard its sovereign existence. We experience that Nepal’s foreign policy is under the strong influence of the Indo-West lobby at present. The lobby doesn’t want Nepal to accept the Belt and Road Initiative for infrastructural development. When the senior Chinese leaders visited Nepal, our then-prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who follows the Indo-West line, said that Nepal is not able to accept any project under loans. Our Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal recently paid a visit to China but he also stressed grant projects avoiding projects under BRI. Nepal is the founding member of the Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank (AIIB) promoted by China. Nepal didn’t approach the Bank for loans, instead, it took loans accepting different conditions from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and other Western financial agencies.

Presently, the country’s economy is facing a serious recession. The government’s revenue is unable to meet the general sector expenditure due to the increased non-productive expenditure for the functioning of the provincial structures. To manage funds for the non-productive sector expenditure, the Finance Ministry is approaching different Western financial institutions for loans.

Nepal adopted the Indo-West agenda after the political change in April 2006. Since Nepal adopted the new constitution in 2015, the country’s economy is continuously declining. Not odd, that Nepal adopted the constitution written by the West, which is not in the nation’s interests. The West wants instability, chaos and conflict in the society. Therefore, the West has been invading a huge fund for media propaganda and advocating Western interests.

We accept that the deposed King Gyanendra enjoys any power, despite that, the King has become very popular among the people. Now, when the people are trying to hit the streets for the restoration of the Hindu kingdom, those paid media persons have become active in defaming the monarchy. Of late, an event of 54 years ago, the marriage ceremony of the then crown prince Birendra, described as the most expensive marriage in Nepal, has been lifted by some paid media, perhaps, to defame the popularity of the monarchy. The story covered by the Times magazine, 54 years ago, has been translated and reproduced by making a special effort. Clearly, the translator and the publisher are the beneficiaries of the Western funding.

If such Western games are allowed to prevail in Nepal, soon, the country will become the next Ukraine as China will not remain silent against anti-China moves in Nepal.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.