By Yug Bahadur

The comeback of Donald Trump in American politics has surprised and also distressed many people all across the world. After the anarchy he showed while having to leave the White House after he lost in the presidential election against Joe Biden, he was despised by many.

Most individuals of the Nepali community living in America were also disturbed by his attitude towards this man's intolerance of people who had migrated to that country. Trump should not forget that most of what he calls 'the Americans' are also migrants. The real people of that country were the Red Indians, as the Whites liked to call them. They are the ethnic people of that land, but now they live in camps. Trump himself has a foreigner wife, can he deport her as well?

This sort of attitude is not good for anyone whether in America or here in Nepal itself. These days it is disturbing to hear of disputes on communal lines in a tiny country like Nepal surrounded by two much larger countries with totally different political ideologies.

The decision of Trump to deport many migrants specially those coming from South America or Asia will definitely have an impact on the image of that land which is still considered as a 'land of opportunities'. Many Nepalese, as reported by the media, are also on this 'hit list' and they will have to leave America in a hasty manner.

I also remember in the last election when bona-fide Nepalese in America who were eligible to vote, voted against Trump and his racist policies. One lady even said on a TV talk show she had come back to Nepal simply as she did not want to participate in this political drama which was a racist one.

One can easily understand such comments when one considers that in this 'oldest' democracy, no woman has become the president of the nation. And when we say the 'oldest', almost three centuries have gone by. Women were disallowed to vote for centuries, the 'coloured' people were also denied this right, forget the Chinese and Japanese who contributed hugely to the development of America, they were even denied to hold any property till some decades ago.

For once a 'coloured' person, Barrack Obama, became the president of America, but a lady of Indian origin was soundly defeated by an unpopular man like Trump in the very recent presidential election held in that country.

Even Hillary Clinton, the wife of a former president could not win though she had garnered much, much more votes than her competitor in the presidential election some time ago. So what gender equality are these very people and their local 'agents' in different countries preaching about to others?

Preaching is easy and also using power to subdue others may be easy, but what America has been doing for the past decades has only brought the rulers of that country more ire from those who have been forcibly subdued. One does not need to look further than the hatred of many Islamist nations towards America and the Americans.

The decision-makers there must just imagine why the dastardly action was taken by some equally criminal-minded people when they hijacked planes and killed thousands of people, though they were no part of the US government policy.

But it is not just the Islamists, many other nations are also despising the 'holier than thou' attitude of the American government, which wants everyone to do as it wants them to do. We must admit that the time is such that nobody except some terrorist groups can speak against them.

I myself have no prejudice against the normal American people and I have always spoken against the terrorist attacks against it and the innocent citizens of that country. It is only the effort of the American government to impose its own sort of policies all over the world which I am against. This is exactly like my feelings for the Indians. I have lived in India for several years in the past and I found many really nice people. It is only the government policy towards Nepal and some other neighbouring countries which upsets me. The people all seem very kind and thoughtful. I think I have written about this in the past also, but to remind the readers again, some officials here in the Indian Embassy were also good individuals, though they had to do their diplomatic duty.

I have met many American, British and Indian officials on different occasions and many have become my good friends and come for dinner at my house as well. Of course, I also had close contacts with many Chinese and Japanese diplomats as well. But I was never guided by them and I can say this with my head held high. It is the same with my profession, I was in an important post for more than a dozen years in a government institution, but I never took any bribes or worked for any party or the other. That is exactly why when once in a blue moon I visit this institution I can go with pride and some of the old staff who still are working there greet me with respect. This is no boast, this is one factor which our political leaders cannot say without some tremor in their voice, no matter how loud they may speak.

Now as we have come back to issues in our own nation, let us not forget the criticism prime minister KP Oli received when he addressed the recently held winter session of parliament. I do not support Oli, but neither am I a supporter of the Maoists or the so-called Madhesi parties who are in the opposition now. This does not mean I am a supporter of Sher Bahadur Deuba or the Nepali Congress either, in fact, I feel it is this very party which institutionalized corruption in our poverty-stricken country and encouraged others to also do the same.

But that apart, more worrying is the part of division being seen in the country on communal lines. Nepal is a tiny country where people of diverse communities live in harmony. It hardly mattered whether you came from the Himalayan regions, the hill areas or the plains of the Southern part, all well cordial with each other. So communal division should not be used as a weapon by different political parties, specially the parties which claim they are fighting for the rights of the Madhesi people. They should be fighting for the entire Nepali community, not only for one segment of the people. The same sort of attitude must also be taken by the dominant communities who are the leaders or are also in important posts.

As said by the late King Prithvi Narayan Shah, Nepal is like a garden with diverse flowers, but we must remain together and not bring foreign intervention because of our own foolishness.