Though his anti-corruption drive has been portrayed by some as a pretext to placate his opponents, it has punished more than one million officials
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, has embarked on a twin foreign visit beginning with the address to the United Nations General Assembly and ending with the friendly visit to China. He is accompanied by government officials whose numbers were curtailed after it was criticised for their jumbo size. The visit could thus be likened to a tiny stone in the first very gulp. PM Dahal has already highlighted the issues he plans to raise during both the visits in the Parliament, to which several lawmakers have offered meaningful suggestions.
The United Nations held its first assembly in London in 1946. Nepal joined the United Nations in 1955. Nepal has been contributing to the United Nations very significantly by sending peace keeping forces in several troubled areas. It is the second largest peace keeping contributor with its armies in the Congo, Sudan and the likes at present.
It is a strange coincidence that Prachanda's visit resembles that of the first ever popularly elected charismatic Prime Minister BP Koirala. He addressed the assembly in 1960 where he had highlighted several issues plaguing the world like the problem in the Congo, culminating in the need to admit China as a member of the United Nations. The other subject he dealt at length was the role of the small nations in extending a helping hand to the UN for maintaining global peace, which was at times marred by confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Prime Minister Prachanda will be paying a visit to China after the UN address where the border problem is also going to surface in the talks. Koirala had also visited China and signed the Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and His Majesty's Government of Nepal on the Question of the Boundary between the Two Countries in March 1960.
Prachanda finds himself in a similar situation. He is seeking to talk about the disregard shown by China to the pointed spur map of Nepal when it published its map recently including parts of Indian-acclaimed areas into its territory. Prachanda will also be highlighting the common concerns and agendas of 47 least developed countries in the united sessions as his illustrious predecessor Koirala had focused on the problems of small countries during his address back in 1960.
Prachanda has said that he is seeking to portray the political achievement made by Nepal at the United Nations. In fact, it has become a bit of an old hat now given the incidence now almost two decades ago. Again what he considers as political achievement, mainly the transformation of Nepal into a republic from the monarchy, has been opposed by the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, which was one of its supporters till very recently.
He also plans to talk about the Peace Process, which, however, has been a hilarious episode given two decades of inaction. Prachanda has no one to blame for this because he has been either at the front or on the immediate sidelines of politics during these two decades. These may be at the best sweet nothings to the listeners in the assembly.
The second leg of his trip, the visit to China is of incredible importance to the country. But for that, Prachanda himself has to be clear about the problems confronting the country.
These are the flight of the youth to foreign countries for jobs, making Nepal an almost ghost country now.
There are no strong hands to carry out agricultural activities in the country, with the result that much of the land has remained uncultivated, and it has to import even cereals when Nepal used to export rice mainly to India through an institution known as the Paddy Rice Export Company in the past.
Education is in a shambles even with the opening of new universities one after another, but the students are leaving for job-oriented foreign education as against the unemployed producing Nepali education. It gives credence to the adage that several cooks spoil the soup. The health service has been so ineffective that the politicians, in particular, and the commoners have to go outside the country for reliable treatment.
Corruption has been engulfing the country. He has made some moves to tame it, but the big fishes, as have been often talked about, have gone scot free exemplified by no inquiry made to his comrade-in-arms Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Barsha Man Pun, whose sons are found implicated in the scams.
Prachanda may get a clue or two regarding how Xi Jinping was able to tame corruption by putting high placed politicians behind bars.
Though his anti-corruption drive has been portrayed by some as a pretext to placate his opponents, it has punished more than one million officials ranging from junior to high-profile politicians like Fu Zenghua, who was the former Justice Minister.
Subjects like opening trade points, which have been closed after COV- ID-19, will help marginally, but the crux of the problem is in making the country self-dependent. China has been remarkably successful in this regard given the horrid times of the past, such as the famine triggered by the Great Leap Forward Movement launched in 1958.
But the Prime Minister has to make his moves very cautiously because Chinese aid has been alleged to make the borrowers fall into the debt trap as Sri Lanka, which had to lease the Hambantota port to China for 99 years.
The Nepali Congress is still facing allegations of having sold the country when it signed an agreement in 1954 to lease the barrage site over the Koshi River for 199 years. Prachanda will have great difficulty in yoking rising expectations and lower probability during these visits.
Prachanda may get a clue or two regarding how Xi Jinping was able to tame corruption by putting high placed politicians behind bars.
