Submit your Article

The Nepali Congress and the RJPN, the two main opposition forces in the federal House of Representatives, have been obstructing the parliament since July 9. They want answers to the ‘extrajudicial killings’ of Biplob-led CPN cadre Kumar Poudel (whom the police supposedly killed in a shoot-out) and RJPN’s Saroj Narayan Singh (who was killed in police firing following a violent protest). Both these incidents took place in Sarlahi district. There are discrepancies in the police account of Poudel’s death, and some evidence that he was killed in cold blood. Likewise, the police arguably used excess force in quelling the riot in which Singh lost his life.

No doubt these are important concerns. But there is also a self-serving streak to this NC-led house obstruction. Following the restoration of democracy in 1990, the Congress used to complain about the ‘undemocratic’ practice of the then CPN-UML to repeatedly obstruct the house. (In 2000, the UML had obstructed the lower house for 57 days in a row.) But now that the Congress is in the opposition, it is doing the same thing, and it is the former UML party members who complain of the ‘undemocratic’ nature of the Congress. In reality, in the nearly three decades of post-1990 democratic practice, none of our major political parties has been serious about upholding the sanctity of the legislature.

Typically, important decisions are taken behind closed doors by a small coterie of top party leaders, and the parliament is used only to rubberstamp their decisions. Interestingly, only when the opposition has to obstruct the house do their MPs bother to turn up. On most other days, the parliament is deserted, with not even a third of the MPs in attendance. And nearly all the top leaders and ministers are missing as well. In fact, in the broader public imagination, the parliament has been reduced to a venue where there is unanimous agreement on perks and privileges for the MPs—and on little else.

But the parliament is where people’s chosen representatives discuss the problems and concerns of their constituencies. These may be related to lack of drinking water, a faulty transmission line that is disrupting electricity, or a patchy bit of road that is hindering transport—the issues of real concern for most folks. By sidelining these issues our MPs are also abdicating their core responsibility.

Deputy Prime Minister Uprendra Yadav, who is also the chairman of the Samajbadi Party Nepal, has repeatedly warned of quitting the federal government if Prime Minister KP Oli continues to ignore the demand of constitution amendment. His party co-chairman Baburam Bhattarai has been goading him to do so since the merger between his Naya Shakti and Yadav’s Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum two months ago. Bhattarai believes time has come to hit the street to force a change in the constitution in favor of marginalized groups like Madhesis, Dalits and Janajatis. Yadav is not convinced.

This is partly because there has been no headway in another much-discussed merger between Yadav’s party and the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, which have 17 seats each in the federal parliament. (They are also the first and second biggest parties in Province 2, respectively.) Yadav is unsure a street action will succeed, especially without the RJPN merger, against the mighty Nepal Communist Party that has near absolute control over government machinery. Much better to continue to nudge the PM to honor his pledge on constitution amendment from inside the Oli cabinet—a position which with all the added perks for himself as well as his party—then quit in haste, giving up the coveted DPM post and pushing his new party into uncertainty.

As things stand, a merger between Samajbadi Party and the RJPN looks difficult. There are far too many big egos to accommodate under a single roof. Even within the RJPN, which has six heads, it is proving to be difficult to maintain unity among the quarrelling lot. Besides, Yadav does not seem ready to quit the Oli government, an RJPN precondition for merger talks. Meanwhile, the RJPN has started engaging fringe ethnic parties to mount a collective struggle for the rights of marginalized communities.

The problem for these small outfits right now is that identity politics is losing ground in Nepal. Marginalized groups have been accommodated in state institutions through reservations and quotas. Leaderships of political parties are more heterogeneous too. Not enough, those batting for identity politics may contend. They may be right, and they may eventually get their chance as the disenchantment with the two-third Oli government grows. Yet with the next set of elections many-many years away, and most of their youthful cadre-base now out toiling in the Gulf, they have no valid way of immediately regaining their lost political ground. The astute Yadav seems to know exactly what he is doing. 

close relations can be easily strained. The cordial people-to-people and government-level ties and the open border between Nepal and India connect the two countries in a way few other neighbors are bound together. Yet the sheer disparity in their sizes and populations also means they can never have a truly reciprocal relation. One marker of this disparity is what crosses (or does not cross) the open border on a daily basis.

In 2015-16, nothing did, as India seemed determined to teach the Nepali leaders a lesson for not honoring its wishes about the new constitution. Today, even though Indian pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables have been found to be harming the health of Nepalis, they are entering Nepal unhindered. Initially, following a recommendation of the Ministry of Commerce, the government had stopped their import. But after pressure from the Indian Embassy, which accused Nepal of imposing ‘non-tariff barriers’ on its goods, the trucks carrying the greens have been allowed back in. (It remains to be seen whether the latest Supreme Court ruling on resuming mandatory testing is enforced.)

India’s business-like approach to this humanitarian concern is deplorable. In the name of protecting its businesses, it is literally playing with the health of millions of Nepalis. Highhanded gestures like these do grievous harm to Nepal-India ties. To be fair, it was always going to be tough on any Nepali government, however strong, to resist the Indian pressure. Even so, the easy cave-in of the Oli government on this life and death issue was disappointing.

There seems to have been no prior consultations with India on the matter. The new provision mandates that all imported foodstuffs be tested for their pesticide levels. Yet there are few functional laboratories on the Nepal-India border areas to do so. The foodstuffs imported from India had started rotting on the stranded trucks. Ideally, Nepal should have first fully equipped these labs before stopping the edibles from India. But there was also no time to think things through as the health of millions of Nepalis was on the line. Now, rather than pointing fingers at each other, the two sides should sit down and find an amicable solution—and soon. After only just coming back on an even keel, Nepal-India relations cannot afford another rupture. Nor is it right to force people to keep consuming poison

Nepali cable TV distributors are being disingenuous when they say end customers will be saddled with extra charges if the federal parliament passes a recently registered Advertisement Bill. The bill bars out-of-country paid TV channels from broadcasting foreign advertisements. As getting clean feed from paid international TV channels will cost them more, the cable operators argue, they will have no option but to pass on the added cost to their viewers. But then Nepali cable TV viewers are already paying high surcharges, which should more than make up for the puny increase in cable distributors’ costs.

With the passage of the bill, foreign ads on cable channels will be replaced by Nepali ones, to the benefit of many constituencies in the country. Nepali advertisers will be buoyant as all TV ads for foreign products will have to be made in Nepal. Nepali ads will also have more slots on international channels. The Nepali ad industry is projected to grow by at least 20 percent as a result. After all, why should foreign products get free advertisements on Nepali TV? Not only does it lead to a loss of market for Nepali advertisers, it also encourages Nepalis to pick foreign advertised products over domestic unadvertised ones, to the determent of the already struggling economy.

While the Nepali ad industry is still in its infancy, its revenues continue to shrink as more and more people move online for news and entertainment. The problem is that there isn’t much money in online advertising. At the same time, with the economy facing a severe liquidity crunch, Nepali producers and industries are cutting back on their advertisement budgets for newspapers and television. On the other hand, the multinationals operating in Nepal have not had to spend a single rupee as their ads are already transmitted through pay TV for free.

The clean feed policy is a boon for all Nepali content creators. The quality of our advertisements will improve as more money enters the industry. Local products will be more competitive. The stagnant Nepali media will see a fresh inflow of cash. Cable operators have no case.