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What is corruption? In Nepal, it is so intertwined with our polity that it has become quite hard to differentiate which is which.

In fact, corruption is in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the sun we soak in and the food we cherish. In short, corruption is omnipresent in our lives.

Still, at least for the sake of academics, what does corruption mean? Transparency International (TI) knows better. It defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.

A people reeling under corruption for decades need no report to show how corrupt their polity is. A silent majority, who has seen a clique with modest means become filthy rich within a couple of years or decades as if by magic, knows the extent of high-level corruption in our society.

Still, the recent Corruption Perceptions Index of the TI (CPI 2024) shows how corruption is thriving in our dear country

CPI 2024 reminds the conscious citizenry that Nepal has slid further in the CPI compared to the year 2023.

With a CPI score of 34 out of 100 in 2024, Nepal has clinched a lowly 107th position among 180 countries, slipping further from the 106th position and a score of 35 in 2023 and a slight improvement of one point compared to 2022. Overall, CPI 2024 points at Nepal’s consistently poor performance in the global corruption barometer where South Sudan figures as the most corrupt country with a score of eight points and Denmark as the least corrupt country with a score of 90.  

In South Asia, Bhutan leads with an impressive 72 points, followed by India and the Maldives (38), Nepal (34), Sri Lanka (32), Pakistan (27), Bangladesh (23) and Afghanistan (17).

A question arises, naturally: What is fueling corruption in our country? 

A quote from Delia Ferreira, chair of TI, offers an answer, at least in part: People’s indifference is the best breeding ground for corruption to grow.

This daily has been drawing the attention of the public to this scourge by bringing to the fore some of the major scandals resulting from policy level corruption.

For those, who have taken corruption as a fact of life, here’s a quote from Kurt Cobain: The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.

Summing up, a concerted, result-oriented campaign against corruption is long overdue. Let this youthful nation wake up and undertake a tough fight against this scourge, by uniting one and all.

How many cooking gas cylinders does an average Nepali household have? How many of them are empty, how many are in use and how many are full? How many of them are safe for use and how many are unsafe—and need scrapping?

What percentage of cooking gas consumers have some knowledge about safety precautions they should take while handling the flammable material? Do they have fire extinguishers in their houses? Do they know how to use the extinguisher?

Thursday’s gas cylinder explosion at a momo shop in Kamalpokhari has once again given rise to a slew of difficult questions regarding the safe handling of cooking gas cylinders at the household level. 

These questions make sense because cooking gas cylinders and gas stoves have become a part and parcel of an average Nepali household. Leave the cities, it is not uncommon to find gas cylinders and stoves in far-flung areas of the country.

It is quite possible that an average Nepali household has more than one gas cylinder (filled) because supply-related obstructions of the past have taught us to have a cylinder or two for rainy days. 

Imagine more than one cylinder at almost every house in a city with high population density. Add to it a general lack of awareness on safety measures that one should take while handling gas cylinders and stoves. 

The scenario sends a chill down the spine, doesn’t it? It should. 

Of course, the consumer should know about safe handling of gas cylinders and stoves. But the buck does not stop there, and it should not. The onus is on the Nepal Oil Corporation, the sole importer and supplier of petroleum products throughout Nepal, as well as other relevant government authorities to inculcate in the consumer a safety culture pertaining to the use of gas cylinders and stoves. 

The momo shop gas cylinder blast, in which around 12 people sustained injuries, also harks back to a promise our political leadership made some years ago, to supply cooking gas in the consumers’ kitchens through a pipeline. The big talk at that time was that all you have to do is turn on the pipe and the gas will flow (provided you have paid the bill, of course). 

While much water has flown down our rivers since then, the gas is yet to come through the gullible Nepali people’s pipelines. 

In summary, both the government and the consumer should learn lessons from the Kamalpokhari blast and do their bit to lessen the risks of such blasts. 

In the long run, the political and bureaucratic leadership of a country with considerable hydropower potential should switch from dirty and costly fuels to clean and green energy if it is indeed serious about achieving national progress and prosperity, and bringing happiness to the masses. 

At a time when the winter session of Nepal’s Federal Parliament is about to commence following protracted delays resulting from factors best known to the government amid the opposition parties’ plans to hit the streets against some ordinances, it will be worthwhile to start with relevant quotes from some famous personalities.

Walter Bagehot, an English journalist and essayist, goes: A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.

Jean-Louis de Lolme, a Genevan and British political theorist and writer, fires, with the British parliament in his crosshairs: Parliament can do everything but make a woman a man and a man a woman.

Arun Jaitley, an Indian politician and lawyer, argues: Parliament's job is to conduct discussions. But many a time, Parliament is used to ignoring issues, and in such situations, obstruction of Parliament is in the favour of democracy. Therefore, parliamentary obstruction is not undemocratic.

These nuggets of wisdom may not be music to the ears of the government and at least a section of the Parliament. But even a super-powerful government and a sovereign parliament should not stop critics from being critical and skeptics from being skeptical.

Looking back, our decades-long tryst with parliamentary democracy has chapters that are far from glorious. These chapters feature unethical means employed to pass laws with a brute majority mustered through unethical means like horse-trading and floor crossing, with long-term consequences for the country and the people.

In those instances, lawmakers from various political parties have done the bidding of a whip-cracking executive without bothering to protect the interests of the very sovereign people they claim to be serving. More often than not, ruling parties have chosen to bulldoze opaquely drafted laws through the parliament instead of bothering to listen to the opposition. Throughout the years, the main agenda of the opposition bench seems to be to topple the government.

The winter session has given the constituents of the parliament yet another opportunity to mend ways. Magnanimity won’t  hurt the government, restraint won’t hurt the opposition.

For the apex leadership of our country, here’s part of a quote from APJ Abdul Kalam, an  aerospace scientist who went on to become the president of India: When I took over as president, I studied the Constitution, and the more I studied it, the more I realized that it does not prevent the president of India from giving the nation a vision.

Wildfires have been raging at a community forest in Thamlek, Kavre district, since Tuesday afternoon. Together with local people, security personnel have been trying hard to extinguish the blazes, to little avail.

While blazes occur during the dry season in Nepal without fail, all three tyres of the government—local, provincial and federal—appear ill-prepared to deal with the disaster. Ill-equipped communities and security personnel try to douse the blazes, literally with bare hands, in a desperate bid to save lives and properties, often with little success.

Data speak for themselves. According to the Global Forest Watch, from 2001 to 2023, Nepal lost 7.05 kilo hectares (kha) of tree cover from fires and 48.6 kha from all other drivers of loss. The year with the most tree cover loss due to fires during this period was 2009 with 1.33 kha lost to fires—24 percent of all tree cover loss for that year.

The average annual loss of lives and properties from these blazes paints a very alarming picture. On an average, 77 people lose their lives in wildfires and other incidents of fire every year, according to government statistics.

Data from the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Authority show that 18,772 fire incidents took place in Nepal from 2014 to mid-March 2023, killing 769 people, leaving 2,548 injured and causing a total financial loss of over Rs. 22.23bn. 

A question arises: What (or more exactly who) causes wildfires in Nepal? A June 2022 study titled Status and Practical Implications of Forest Fire Management in Nepal, published in the Journal of Forest and Livelihood, seeks to tackle this question. The study shows that 58 percent of forest fires are a result of deliberate burning on the part of grazers, poachers, hunters and non-timber forest product collectors, 22 per cent due to negligence and 20 per cent by accident. 

Online data from the Global Forest Watch (2021) show that more than 80 percent of forest fires occur in March and April, with about 60 percent forest fires occurring in April alone. 

A walk into the forests located not so far away from our settlements generally shows gross negligence in the management of forests. Firebreaks are rare and so are forest guards while dry leaves and grasses are everywhere. In such a situation, all it takes is a live cigarette butt, a live matchstick and a criminal or negligent mindset to set the woods—and nearby settlements—on fire. 

The Thamlek incident should open the eyes of our authorities and local communities, prompting them to do some serious homework to save lives and properties from fires and other disasters, both manmade and natural.