On/Off the Record

By P.R. Pradhan If all the Nepalis make efforts jointly, surely, we can make Nepal. Unfortunately, day by day, the nation is being ruined as we lack honesty among political leaders, bureaucrats, academicians, and journalists, among others. When the said group of people is less concerned about the nation’s interests and competing to serve the foreign powers, we cannot make Nepal. The nation’s total debt has reached 24 trillion 33 billion rupees by the end of the fiscal year 2023/24, which is alarming. The nation is solely relied on debts as the expenditure to function the present political system has increased tremendously. The nation is passing through a serious economic recession. The government is unable to cross 50% of the capital expenditure committed by itself. The reason is that there is no significant improvement in revenue collection even after imposing excessive taxation on the citizens. The entire revenue is being spent on managing the general sector expenditure. We have adopted the present political system which is for destroying our sovereign nation and rich Nepali civilization. Our political leaders claim that they wrote the present constitution but the Westerner agents wrote the constitution in association with their Nepali agents with the plan of destroying Nepal. According to a report, "Jill Cottrell, alongside Yash Ghai, played a key role in the drafting process of Nepal's constitution. She contributed to the formulation of principles and guidelines that shaped the constitutional framework. Cottrell was involved in providing technical expertise and advice to ensure that the constitution aligned with international human rights standards and the needs of the diverse population of Nepal." "Together, Ghai and Cottrell's work emphasized the importance of inclusivity, democracy, and the protection of minority rights in the constitutional process, which were critical in the context of Nepal's complex social and political landscape," the report states. The Local Body Restructuring Commission led by former government secretary Balananda Poudel had recommended only 565 local units considering the revenue aspect of the government. However, it was increased to 753 local bodies by the political leaders viewing their electoral constituencies. Many village development committees in the previous system, which lacked the necessary infrastructure, have been upgraded to the urban municipality through a political decision. A heavy debate had taken place for introducing only three provinces considering the geographic size and population of the country based on the proposed state restructuring plan of the late Left leader and founder of the Nepal Communist Party, Pushpalal. Unnecessarily, seven provinces were introduced through a political decision. Now, the provinces have failed to show their significance except from frequent changes in the government and exploiting the government coffer in a rampant manner. Nepal was declared a federal secular republic through a conspiracy. The second constituent assembly collected suggestions from commoners but dumped them in a storeroom as the people had strongly opposed federalism, secularism and republicanism. The present Nepali Congress and UML coalition government is formed with two major objectives – ensuring political stability and amending the constitution. Still, we see the Western shadow on the plan of amending the constitution as former chief justice of the Supreme Court, Kalyan Shrestha, is named as the coordinator of the constitution amendment coordination committee in the seven-point agreement. We doubt Shrestha's loyalty as he runs one NGO, Nepal Law Society, funded by an American INGO. Shrestha is the main figure in allowing INGOs in the Supreme Court.  We can understand that the two big parties are trying to experiment with the two-party system by amending the electoral system. There needed an overhaul in the constitution. We need a political system which is financially sound and sustainable with the nation’s revenue. A system cannot be acceptable unless that is approved by a majority of the population, however, the present leadership doesn’t want the people’s mandate on the amendment of the constitution. Therefore, any attempt to amend the constitution by the government one-sidedly is useless. Perhaps, such an effort may invite another people’s movement for an overhaul of the constitution by discarding the conspiracy of the foreign powers. Indeed, we need a constitution written by our own people in real terms.