By P.R. Pradhan

Again, the country is on the eve of a system change. The ground reality is that the deposed King is gaining popularity among the commoners. They are chanting slogans such as, “Come King Save the Nation” and denouncing the political leaders, including the sitting Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli; and chanting slogans such as, “…Chor, Desh Chhod” (literary meaning, thieves, quit the country). Not only the streets in the Kathmandu Valley is hit with such slogans, but major cities have been occupied by agitators nationwide. Now the nation is divided into two polls and the pro-monarchy opinion has dominated the nation. Those pro-republicans have already failed to justify their claim for declaring Nepal a federal republic secular.

Meanwhile, those republican leaders, who were empowered in Nepal under the 12-point agreement drafted by the South Block and RAW under the command of India's Sonia Gandhi and Indian communist leader Sitaram Yachuri, with the plan of keeping Nepal under the Indian umbrella, have been scared. They were serving the Indian interests and organizing daylight loot in the country. It is reasonable that those republican leaders are lauding against pro-monarchy groups as they are afraid of being punished. In the meantime, Indian bureaucrats under the previous political team in India, Shyam Sharan, Ranjeet Rae, and anti-Nepal and anti-China scholar S. D. Muni, are lauding against the restoration of the institution of monarchy. They are openly arguing that the institution of monarchy will not be in the interests of India. The Nepali republicans and the Indian bureaucrats expressed a similar argument, which is evidence that our republican leaders are not working for the nation’s greater interests but serving the Indian interests by making the nation weak from all sides.

There have been witnessed two groups in Nepal. One group is for restoration of the monarchy, whereas, those, who are the members of the Open Society and beneficiaries from different western INGOs and also the Indian intelligence agency RAW under the previous government in India, are advocating for republicanism. Understandably, a section is found pro-Nepal, whereas, another section is identified as anti-Nepal.

The economy is the backbone of a nation and a strong economy is the symbol of the nation’s prosperity. The reality is that the republicans have destroyed our economy. Now, the country has reached to the state of borrowing debts just to run the country. The debt burden has reached at 27 trillion rupees, and if the debt borrowing trend will continue, very soon, it will enter into the red zone.

The taxation net has been increased to an extreme level that investors and businessmen are not ready to take bank loans even after a decline in the interest rate to a single digit. Our Prime Minister, on every foreign visit, is asking the foreigners to invest in Nepal. Is there an investment-friendly environment in the country? Local industrialists are fleeing away from the country as extortion has become a normal practice. There are above half a dozen trade unions and the major duty of those unions is to extort the investors. Otherwise, the factories will have to face strikes and other hurdles. The government is unable to supply power to the industries at a concessional price. Besides, the industrialists have to face different problems if invested in Nepal. Only those investors, who know the clue of organizing fraud and manipulation, have retained in the country. Talking about the tourism business, the airfare to and from Kathmandu is very expensive as the government is unable to provide facilities, instead, imposing taxation in different names. Presently, people are travelling to Bagdora, West Bengal, India, to catch their international flights. Excessive taxation will be counterproductive for shaping the economy in the right direction. The same problem, we have been witnessing in Nepal. The commercial banks are holding cash but there is no demand for loans. Economic improvement should be the first priority for a country. This is possible by curbing rampant corruption practices and curbing commission deals, meanwhile, the government needs to decrease the non-productive sector expenditure and increase capital expenditure. For this, the present structure of federalism, secularism and republicanism should be scrapped and the nation should return to the 1990 constitution, as claimed by the very political leaders the best constitution in the globe.