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By Yug Bahadur

I have never felt ashamed to call myself a nationalist. But by saying this, the so-called political cadres put a tag on such persons as being panchayat supporters or royalists. So to put them more at ease I will call myself a patriot.

As mentioned in my article just last week, ‘patriotism is no crime’. I am a patriot and even if some people, specially the new ‘democrats’ put any tag on me, I will staunchly say the past monarchs were more nationalists than the present lot of leaders and their henchmen who function under the orders of foreigners.

I feel like laughing at the strident speeches being made by the so-called ‘loktantrik’ leaders on freedom of speech, human rights, political rights and so on and so forth. However, the situation in the country has become so depressing that one cannot even smile, or forget laughing, on the sad state of affairs the nation and the people are going through.

The situation is so dismaying that virtually all the leaders are interested only in personal gains and they have no time for the total interest of the nation. The saddest part is the majority of the people are suffering and only a handful of leaders and some bureaucrats and security personnel are making gains. Only a bleak future awaits the majority of the citizens and they seek to go abroad no matter what the cost or whatever the risks or hardships they may have to face even in disturbing foreign lands.

While the common people are suffering just to get their basic needs fulfilled, the political leaders seem to be concentrating only on getting to power and earning more money. This has been proved time and again, but while a few individuals have gained in one way or the other, the real populace is suffering.

I would like to repeat again that the majority of people need easy access to health facilities, good education, a safe shelter, employment opportunities and a secure environment among other such basic things.

Here we cannot also afford to forget the artificial inflation in the markets, where many retailers take advantage of the naïve and helpless customers. The government must make its presence felt to give more confidence to ordinary folks. Just arresting young couples seeking some private moments in hotels, arresting gamblers and such ordinary people are simply not enough. The real culprits have to be punished and bigger frauds have to be investigated.

For example even the decision of the government itself must be looked into while appointing individuals in different posts, including diplomatic ones. But who will look into the decisions of political leaders while they are in power?

But what are our political leaders more occupied in? They are only happy in riding expensive vehicles with impressive looking security guards and in going to functions which actually mean nothing for the common people.

That they are involved merely only in political bickering and not overly concerned about the future of the nation and the hardships of the people is there for everyone to see, no investigative journalism has to be done to realize this dismaying fact. But further disappointing is the fact that they are fighting amongst themselves just for the sake of staying in power or getting there.

Right now also, if we are to believe media reports, some sort of differences have already arisen between the two major parties the Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML. This is a sad development when people were expecting a more stable government with the unity of these two biggest political forces in the country.

Yes, we all know that one major force should remain in the opposition to create some sort of check and balance situation. But when governments were being changed in a mater of months and nothing was being done for the nation and the public, the people were eager to see a more stable government. But this does not seem to be happening. The parties are still bickering and trying to push aside their opponents, no matter what it would cost the nation.

There is also concern among many people about the growing differences being sowed within the major parties themselves. Forget the smaller parties, including the Madhes based parties, which have splintered into many factions, the so called bigger parties, including the newly born Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) are also seeing growing division among its leaders.

This is because of the petty-minded interests of individual leaders who only want to fulfill their own ambitions no matter what happens to the party they are in or to the nation as a whole. This sort of viral trend has touched all the parties and it can be seen more clearly in the major parties like the NC, UML, Maoist Center and RSP as well.

All neutral observers like us can say is that we are definitely in a horrible political mess where leaders are more concerned about fulfilling their own ambitions rather than doing something for the nation or the people who elected them to power.

This is something which most common citizens know about the behavior of political leaders and also their greed for power and money.

However it is disturbing news, specially for a long time journalist like this author, is the open manner in which two very prominent anchors of two widely watched channels have blamed India of openly intervening in the internal affairs of Nepal. They have come out with proof and they have also shown documents of such interference from our close neighbor.

They have even blamed the Indian government and its intelligence agency RAW or Research and Analysis Wing for being involved in the killing of some Nepali citizens because they may have been working against Indian interests. How can a Nepai feel safe in his or her own country when such a situation exists?

It is another matter that all those killed were of Islamic origin and considered close to one side or the other. But the fact remains that they were Nepali citizens, that is what is most disturbing.

But our political leaders have not managed to even squeak one word in the defense of its own citizens and when even the Indian media has said that such acts were the design of RAW.

What more can we say about such direct interference by a bigger nation on its much smaller neighbor?

While Nepal may had not been able to say anything, let us take for example Canada, which had deported all Indian diplomats not too long ago because it found that the Indian intelligence agency was involved in the killing of a Sikh leader who was demanding freedom of a Sikh state in Punjab of India.

Can our own leaders do the same thing? Seeing the present state of affairs that is impossible. Specially, when leaders are virtually like slaves of the Indians exactly like the Indians were slaves to their British masters in the past.

But for the majority of Nepalese even if they are abroad, this is a sad fact we have to live with, while at the same time suffering from getting our basic needs fulfilled.

What our leaders should realize is that we want results within the nation, not in some other foreign land. May such wisdom also come to the minds of the leaders and also in the thoughts of those local campaigners of high-sounding slogans created by outsiders.