By Yug Bahadur

There is no doubt that the present government led by KP Oli is under a serious threat from different sides. KP Oli tries to hide his real feelings by making light comments about his adversaries, but still, the threat is there not only from close neighbour India but also from his own party and the media as well.

The tremendous flak Oli has been receiving from the media is really a bad signal for his political future. But while most people do not care about Oli's future, they are definitely worried about the nation's future.

The way the parties are behaving is really disturbing to any sane person who cares about the country.

It is not anything surprising to see some animosity between the ruling parties and those in the opposition, but one development which is taking place in Nepal is the differences being seen even among the major parties which could make them weaker and give further strength to outsiders to intervene in Nepali politics.

This is a dangerous development as we have all seen the results of direct foreign interference in many countries worldwide. Here it would not be wrong to say that the United States and some of its allies have come to the fore in recent years to try and influence different countries as per their interests. India too has not lagged behind while trying to spread its wings as far as possible, at least at the regional level. Nepal too has been a target of such Indian designs and unfortunately, our own political leaders have meekly fallen into this trap not at all looking at the interest of the nation.

It would be futile to take the names of the parties or its leaders who have literally been willing to do anything and surrendered the country's sovereignty and acted like agents of some foreigners. The same holds true for the so-called rights activists and other INGO workers or even civil society leaders, who only spout slogans taught to them by outsiders. All of them have been influenced in one way or the other. Here, the media people too cannot escape from being blamed. Most of the individuals are so hungry for foreign 'freebies' that they are willing to do anything, even if they know what they are doing is not in the interest of the nation.

This author has written about this issue before as well, but it always comes to mind when one thinks of an accusation made by one journalist against another prominent media person of how one had sold secret documents to a foreign country. This should have been seriously investigated as treason is a major crime in any country of the world and if proven true, the accused could be even given a death sentence or other forms of severe punishment.

However, here in Nepal, where multiparty democracy had just been introduced, neither was the accused questioned nor was the accuser asked why he made such a serious allegation in a public manner.

In the euphoria of establishing a new political system, all was forgiven and forgotten. Still not to be forgotten, both the accused and the accuser were ardent supporters of the then two major parties which are in power even now. That was how irresponsible the political leaders or media persons were even in matters that were of much national interest.

It is no different now. The politicians seem to be even more blatant in their involvement in corruption and open 'servant' like attitude to foreign powers. The only silver lining, at least what this author has seen, is the bold manner in which some young individuals have come forth with strong proof and statistics in different formats of the media and dared the political leaders to prove them wrong or make clarifications to the public about their activities. The political leaders and also other government officials seem unable to give any answers to the accusations made against them in the media and also in the sometimes unreliable social media to which everyone seems to have access.

The so-called and now very popular social media definitely seems to be mis-utilized by individuals whether they are in high posts or they are just common citizens. This is unfortunate, as those in positions try to influence ordinary folks in their interests by getting likes and more views and some others use this big technological development to spread false information and sometimes even damage the image of individuals, specially women, and in the process disturbing their personal lives. This is utterly shameful but at least now we are seeing the arrival of authorities and laws which could punish people involved in cybercrime.

This is another issue about which we will interact more in detail later, but now let us go back to the performance of the present government and the efforts of the opposition to form an alliance against it. There is no doubt that the government has not been able to deal with the problems of the common citizens.

Furthermore, it has appointed many individuals with very unpopular images to important posts. One need not take their names as even comedians and some TV anchors have made such things clear in their respective media outlets. But the bad part of the established parties is how they are trying to prosecute individuals like Kathmandu's mayor Balen Shah and also the Nepal Electricity Authority's Managing Director Kulman Singh Ghising.     

The popularity of Balen is so huge that from ordinary people on the streets to top-level professionals, all agree he has done a good job in making Kathmandu a better living place. This author as a journalist has talked to many people regarding this and everyone seems to praise his work. This is a basic work this writer had to do before writing anything about him. One another positive thing is no one has been able to point one finger at him for being involved in corruption. This is in itself a very good factor in favour of Balen as far as this writer is concerned.

On the other hand, some accusations have been made against Ghising, but most people are content with his task of virtually ending load shedding, specially in Kathmandu. He may be involved in some scandals as reported by some media, but the truth remains that he ended load shedding and provided relief to the majority of people. The people who once had to suffer from an incredible eighteen hours of power cuts are very grateful towards the work of Ghising.

So apart from the threat from foreign powers, it could be equally a big threat for the present government if it tries to prosecute individuals rather than look into the problems of the majority of the commoners. If it does not realize this, it could prove fatal for its existence.