NEPALI POLITICS

The Himalayan Times 26 May 2023 Optimistic plan  In accordance with the constitution, the President presented the government’s annual policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2081/82 on May 19 at the joint meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the National Assembly (NA) at a time when the nation is reeling under the economic hardships . The on-going deliberations on the government’s policies and programmes in the House seem to be a bit different as compared to the previous years’ owing to the presence of young and energetic lawmakers representing RSP and RPP in the HoR. The NA completed its deliberation on it and has passed it with a majority votes “NA passes govt policies and programmes” (THT, May 24, Page 1). The UML lawmakers voted against it. This has been a ritualistic practice for any party’s government to present rosy and highly optimistic annual plan and programme without considering the real needs of the nation and the people. As a result, most of ...

The Himalayan Times 19 May 2023 Nation in a mess It seems that the nation will, sooner or later, face political, social and economic turmoil it had never experienced in the last six decades of its political history considering the shameful act and involvement of former ministers and high level bureaucrats in fake Bhutanese refugee scam, on-going public protest against the accused leaders in the streets, international communities’ concern about this scam and behind the screen political acts of the senior leaders of big parties’ to save the accused leaders. It remains to be seen how the government and the big parties will handle this chaotic situation. If they fail to properly address this scam as expected by the people and the international communities, the situation might go out of their hands. The other recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) regarding Resham Chowdhary’s life imprisonment is going another political issue for the government to handle in the days to come “S...

The Himalayan Times 12 May 2023 National image tarnished The on-going scandal involving fake Bhutanese refugees with allegations of involvement of high profile political leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties has rocked the nation, thus tarnishing the country’s image in the international community. As reported in the media, more than 100 complaints against fraud of over Rs 230 million have been filed with the police which has revealed that each candidate seeking to go to the US had to pay between Rs 1 million to Rs 5 million. Even on the first day of the on-going budget session in the HoR, lawmakers representing the ruling parties and the main opposition were seen blaming each other over the fake Bhutanese refugees scam “Fake Bhutanese refugee scam dominates discussion on first day of Budget session” (THT, 8 April, Page 1). Addressing the special hour of the House, opposition lawmakers demanded the government also dare to investigate the Nepal Airlines wide-body s...

Lawfully punish the national thugs The on-going scandal involving fake Bhutanese refugees with allegations of involvement of high profile political leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties has rocked the nation, thus tarnishing the country’s image in the international community. As reported in the media, more than 100 complaints against fraud of over Rs 230 million have been filed with the police which has revealed that each candidate seeking to go to the US had to pay between Rs 1 million to Rs 5 million. It was pleasantly surprising to see the big fish is already in the police net including many other small fishes.       It remains to be seen whether these suspected high profile leaders will be lawfully punished and put behind the bars.