News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal Nepali political leaders and rulers seem to be suffering from inferiority complex. This is a syndrome that is likely to push the country into perpetual dependency. This inferiority syndrome existed in the past and exists today and, if the mindset of the leaders does not change, it will continue to exist in future, too. The leaders and rulers are scrambling to get support of the foreigners especially Nepal’s two immediate neighbors either to go to power or remain in power. Although the seizure of power has been interpreted as a Maoist term because they, in principle, want to capture power through violence, the purpose and objective of all political parties is similar. The methods of capturing state power may vary depending upon the ideology and organizational nature of different parties, the objective of all political parties and their leaders is to capture power. The communists prophesize their principle to advance and complete the revolution though forceful...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Democracy is collective self-rule. In other words, democracy is the political system that empowers people to govern and handle their own affairs. In the direct democracy which ancient Athenians practiced, every adult citizen could participate in decision making and governance. There used to be a system in the city of Athens that all people of the city were required to assemble in a public place and would take decision with approval of every one assembled there. This is called a practice of direct democracy in which each and every citizen have a say and directly participates in the decision making and governance. With the advance of time, the society slowly grew complicated. Direct democracy became almost impossible to manage, which gave rise to indirect democracy in which people elect their representatives to make decision on their behalf. Although the concept of democracy has gained more currency in the modern day, which has become a political lingua franca...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Some pundits tend to portray Nepal’s present scenario as the syndrome of a failed state. This breed of people includes both Nepalese citizens as well as foreigners, who claim to be Nepal expert. It is their wishful thinking because they want to reap benefit from chaotic state of the country. We have many donor-funded NGOs and donor-driven projects. Such projects do not necessarily tend to work in Nepal’s national need and interest rather than serve donor’s own agenda and interest. The condition of Nepal is definitely not satisfactory. But it does not mean that it was better in the past. The downward spiral in the economy and political uncertainty had started right from the Panchayat. The Panchayat was a closed system which restricted freedom of expression and other rights of the people. As a result, people were not aware of the situation in the absence of free press. Now the society is open and media is robust and vibrant that keeps us informing every aspec...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Politics of the country seems to be still in bizarre and uncertain state. Until Dr Baburam Bhattarai was in the helms of affairs, opposition parties namely the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML raised hell to oust the Maoist-Madhesi coalition government. A new formula was brokered to replace the Bhattarai-led government, which installed the sitting chief justice on the saddle of power. Under this formula brokered by four major parties, there is no party representative in the chief justice-led non-party and non-political government; instead, it would be composed of ex-bureaucrats, which is further strange in the multi-party political system. Good or bad, the so-called neutral and non-political government is in place. There are opinions both for and against this new political arrangement. The four major parties—the UCPN-Maoist, the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the Madhesi Front— have called this government as a product of the doctrine of necessity. However, the cr...