Submit your Article

Petroleum pipelines in a country that can light homes, run industries, mass transit systems with the green energy—hydroelectricity—with a little bit of planning. How does it sound? Sounds a bit odd, regressive even, doesn’t it? Well, it should. In international fora, Nepal has pledged to reduce emissions drastically. Submitting its 2020 Nationally Determined Commitments (NDC) to the UNFCC Secretariat, the country pledged to devise and implement a low greenhouse gas emission development strategy to achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050—a commitment that the then Prime Minister reiterated during the Climate Ambition Summit. That was a big pledge from a country with a negligible carbon footprint, grappling nonetheless with disproportionate effects of climate change like receding snowline, glacial retreat, cloudburst, flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods. Thanks to the Russia-Ukraine war that came right after the Covid-19 pandemic, Nepal has been witnessing an upward swing in petroleum prices for months, driving consumer prices in a fossil fuel-ruined economy and adding to the miseries of the consumer with ever-dipping purchasing power amid a deepening economic crisis. The situation is such that the people have lost count of the times that the state-owned petroleum monopoly, Nepal Oil Corporation, has ‘adjusted’—read hiked—prices of the imports from India, based on the exporter’s price list, say, in the past six months. Nepal is neither producing oil nor making arrangements for cheaper imports, in the foreseeable future. Fuel prices are not going down anytime soon. Countries around the world are moving away from the oil-based economy. They are seeking greener alternatives. Against this backdrop, our government’s obsession with petroleum imports is beyond comprehension. This obsession got reflected also in the budget for the fiscal 2023/24, which has increased taxes on electric vehicles while lowering taxes on vehicles that run on fossil fuel. What’s more, after his recent visit to India, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal informed the Parliament that the two sides are gearing toward the construction of a cross-border pipeline from Siliguri to Charali (Jhapa) and the extension of the cross-border Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline up to Lothar of Chitwan. He also talked about an understanding to build more petroleum pipelines within the country. In the same breath, the PM talked about lofty plans to export 10,000 MW of hydroelectricity to India within a decade. A country with good hydropower potential planning to export almost all of the green energy and continuing with the import of the dirty fuel—petroleum products—does not make sense. Increased consumption of oil is sure to widen Nepal’s trade deficit with India that currently stands at a whopping Rs 504.74 billion. The petroleum addiction will worsen air pollution in the country, thereby affecting public health as well as environmental well-being in one of the most climate vulnerable countries and taking a huge toll on its economy. So, the government should decrease petroleum consumption and promote the use of hydroelectricity through policy intervention. If it fails to do so, it will be no wonder if these pipelines become some sort of albatross around Nepal’s neck. Let better sense prevail before it’s too late.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Prakash Saran Mahat presented a budget of Rs 1,1751.31bn for the fiscal year 2023/24. The budget has made some lofty plans like reducing recurrent expenses, doing away with 20 public enterprises of similar business nature (of course, the list does not include the gas-guzzling Nepal Oil Corporation that hardly generates any profit despite being the sole importer and the distributor of petroleum products in a country that can receive great green dividends by opting for the generation of hydropower for domestic consumption by mobilizing domestic capital), promoting startups, refraining from bringing populist schemes—this, of course, does not include the Constituency Development Fund that gives wily lawmakers an opportunity to do their very own ‘Vikas’ while ‘developing’ their respective constituencies—easing the business environment, not buying vehicles and not constructing new buildings unless absolutely necessary, abolishing all kinds of ‘extra’ allowances and incentives and prioritizing agriculture, tourism and development projects. All these are but some of the measures meant to revive a national economy that has been on sickbed, particularly since the 2019 coronavirus pandemic, with things worsening further after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. The measures sound good, don’t they? But where will the money come from? Digging deeper into the taxpayer’s pocket, money will surely come. If that doesn’t suffice, what are our dear foreign friends for? Even in times of a serious economic crisis, they will surely say: Their need is greater than mine. Our government is pretty sure they will. That’s why, it aims to get Rs 49.94bn in foreign grants. Add to it the revenue target of Rs 1248.62bn. Hopefully, these measures will spare our political honchos the trouble of having to cut down on their pay and their tip-to-toe services even as desperate times like these call for austerity measures at the top, a cutdown on administrative expenses and more investment toward development and job creation. Analysts have been saying for quite some time that a serious global economic crisis lies ahead, but our political leadership seems confident that it will be a smooth ride for the national economy all along. Austerity is not in the dictionary of national leadership, it appears. Otherwise, would it not have embarked on a foreign visit leading a core team instead of a jumbo team, barely two days after the passage of the budget? Here’s hoping that the leadership takes austerity more seriously after returning home.

Fifteen years is a long time, even in an ancient country and a young republic. Without beating about the bush, let’s get the facts straight. Fifteen years ago, Nepal underwent a political transformation of Himalayan magnitude. It consigned a unitary system of governance and the monarchy that formed a part of it to history. The erstwhile Hindu state of sorts embraced secularism despite reservations from a large section of the Nepali populace. After the monumental change in polity, it was but natural for the people to expect things to get better. But that hardly happened. New political parties came to power and soon got corrupt. Governments came and went, leaving behind a legacy of corruption scandals, misrule, cronyism and chronic instability. The new order was supposed to build institutions to run the republican system efficiently and effectively. It ended up institutionalizing corruption instead, with major corruption scams like PLA cantonment, Yeti, Omni, Wide-body and Bhutanese refugee scandals. Without giving a hoot about the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances, the executive rode roughshod over the judiciary and imposed its will on the legislature, instead of letting it act as the truly sovereign body reflecting the people’s will. Federalism was supposed to bring the state to the very doorsteps of the people. Instead, what people have gotten are the Singhadurbars of their own—at provincial and local levels—that are quite hard to keep. Paradoxically, these monoliths resemble the state of affairs in the princely states of the yore. Like those palaces, the republican durbars also impose heavy taxes on their ‘subjects’ and they too are neck-deep in corruption and instability-plagued, with frequent changes in provincial governments becoming a new normal. Indeed, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Or do they get worse, actually? Not a day passes by without the country bidding farewell to an increasing number of youths heading abroad for jobs, education or permanent settlement. Hardly a day passes by without youths driven away by endemic corruption, instability, breakdown of law and order and a deepening economic crisis returning home dead. The transformation that was supposed to bring cheers to the people has ended up pouring cold water on popular aspirations. This has emboldened forces that were against the transformation all along. Things cannot get any worse than this, can they? Even in a gloomy scenario like this, there’s a glimmer of hope. The police probe into the refugee scam has given the government a unique opportunity to dig into infamous corruption scandals of yesteryears, those related to policy corruption in particular, and bring the guilty to justice. It can go a long way in cleansing the governance system through and through. Singhadurbar should exhibit the political will to do this, if it is indeed serious about protecting and institutionalizing the gains of the political changes that have taken place since the end of the Rana regime in 1950.

The ongoing police probe into the Bhutanese refugee scam has given the people a glimmer of hope. Fed up with chronic corruption, misrule and instability over the decades, people want a free, fair and transparent investigation into this scandal that has netted a few powerful figures. But some of the recent developments are making the conscious citizenry wonder if efforts are underway to influence the probe. Ever since the arrests started in connection with this scam, top leaders of major political parties have huddled together more than once. It is natural for the birds of a feather to flock together, but these birds are quite different from each other, right? There was a time when these figures would never get tired of hauling each other over the coals and presenting themselves as holier than thou. At a crucial juncture of the probe, what has made them go for marathon parleys? Some kind of national emergency that the fourth estate is unaware of? Anyway, the conduct of top leaders of major political parties is giving ground for suspicion based on which fertile minds are busy developing their own conspiracy theories. In the wake of these hush-hush talks, people have started suspecting that the top brass may be trying to shield themselves as well as their kith and kin. To retain public faith in the investigation and lessen the damage to Nepal’s image in international fora, the government should publicize the findings of the probe on a regular basis by engaging the media—both national and international. How about conducting a regular press briefing to deal with rumors surrounding the scam and bring the facts to the fore? This can help retain public faith in the investigation and discourage conspiracy theorists. It can also be an effective way to engage the international community, which is also a stakeholder in this case as it has given shelter to more than one lakh Bhutanese citizens of Nepali origins, driven away from their motherland by a dictatorial regime. While carrying on with this probe, the plight of these people should not be forgotten nor the state of affairs in Nepal that is literally forcing the people to ‘flee’ by paying human traffickers. The silver lining in this dark cloud is that the scam has given the government a golden opportunity to cleanse the governance system and restore public faith in it. If conducted properly, this probe will mark the start of a mega-probe into a series of cases of corruption, including policy corruption, that have rendered the country gravely ill. The government should not squander this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As for the people, they should stay ever vigilant to ensure that the government stays the course. After all, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.