A national campaign to uplift the illiterate, poverty-stricken people of Nepal by empowering them with necessary skills is long overdue. The abject poverty that has bedevilled Nepal for so long has to be eradicated as soon as possible. The task must be accomplished at all costs if we are to survive and remain globally competitive. Such a monumental goal can be achieved only when the entire population is mobilised for the task.

The Maoists have been right in claiming that they empowered the downtrodden and the underprevileged by giving them guns. Nothing empowers a person as much as a weapon does, especially if the person is illiterate, poverty-stricken and underprevileged. This is the secret behind the success Maoists had in mobilising the masses for their political cause. It can also hint at a future strategy for national prosperity.

A group of 500 may easily be recruited from each Village Development Committee and ward for training in military and other basic entrepreneurial skills for a period of approximately three months. Since there are no more than around 4,000 VDCs and 1,000 wards in urban municipalities, 5,000 training centres would suffice. Thus, every three months, as many as 25 lakh young people can thus be militarily trained and inducted for productive use. This

author has been on public record since 2002 pleading for short-term military

training to a million and, possibly, more people every six months to be inducted as productive manpower for the transformation of this country.

One could thus transform just about the entire nation in a short span of less than two years by empowering the downtrodden masses with military and other necessary skills and using them as a productive force for economic and social advancement.

There also exists a significant overseas market for recruitment of trained security personnel from Nepal. The demand for trained Nepali security personnel is presently so great that it can hardly be met with the current level of supply. The majority of the trainees would hence have no difficulty in finding employment overseas. The need for military training could not be clearer. The entire world is familiar with the Gurkha soldiers famous for their valour, faithfulness and integrity. It is only wise that we focus our efforts in selling the best brand at our disposal.

To those who do not opt for employment abroad and instead want to stay in the country, technical and other entrepreneurial skills acquired in the training would come handy. Entrepreneurship designed to create opportunities where none existed would constitute the crux of training. Such a focus would enable the trainees to start their own business and/or enterprise. Arrangements for providing required loans within a range can easily be made for the benefit of such people.

As the Maoists have rightly pointed out, only when the entire population is imparted the military training and so mobilised, can the nation withstand the great threat to its independent existence. In light of the strategic geopolitical location of Nepal between two most populous nations in the world, China and India, due attention has to be paid to strengthen Nepal to the extent that no one would dare contemplate a military campaign of any kind against this country and its people in an effort to push its own agenda and serve its interests. Switzerland can be cited as a country that had empowered itself well enough so as to have its neutrality effectively honoured by its overwhelmingly mighty neighbours during and before the two World Wars.

Nepal has already been declared a republic by the Interim Parliament, subject to the provision that it will be endorsed and implemented by the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly. Such a scenario appears to have been the only compromise that could feasibly be reached among the Seven Party Alliance.

The Maoists have beyond doubt established themselves as the most dominant political force in the present day Nepal. But it is a matter of pure speculation if they would allow elections to be held (if ever). What is certain is that no election can take place without their consent. The only solace they have provided comes from their assurance that they are unlikely to go back to the jungle and take up arms to start another people’s war. In one of their latest avatars, the Maoists have tried to project themselves as gracious enough to be willing to patronise the nationalist, erstwhile ‘royalist’ forces as a bulwark against any threat to Nepal’s independence and integrity.

If they can persuade themselves to push a step forward to accepting ‘ceremonial’ monarchy as in Cambodia, which they are known to have stated as being acceptable at one time or another, this nation of ours may still stand a chance of remaining intact in one piece and march ahead in eradicating the abject poverty that presently afflicts us.

Dr Sharma is the author of Nepal:

Struggle for Existence