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A draft bill that will allow Nepal Army to invest in commercial projects has raised concerns about the bill’s potential impact on Nepal’s democracy, politics, and economy.

The Army Welfare Fund is estimated to have cash reserves of approximately Rs 46 billion, with another Rs 6 billion in investments. The army wants to invest directly in projects (such as hydro power, textile) that will provide higher returns than fixed deposits in commercial banks.

The army has a legitimate right to a higher rate of return on its funds. But how should it balance that against its potentially corrosive impact on Nepal’s democracy?

There are many reasons the army should not invest directly in specific projects. It undermines the army’s political neutrality, creates conflict of interest, and leads to distortionary effects on the economy. Instead of investments in specific projects, derivatives linked to domestic indices—for example, Nepal Stock Exchange, base lending rate, exchange rates—would be far better at providing a higher return without the corrosive effect of project-specific investments.

But there is an even bigger reason why the army should reconsider its proposal to invest directly in commercial activities: it may be called upon to save Nepal’s democracy.

Declining public trust

Around this time two years, I argued (Republica, 24 July 2018) that the army should not get embroiled in the business of building national infrastructure projects as it is a honey trap intended to tarnish its image. A lot has happened in the past two years. 

Charges of corruption, and entanglements in infrastructure and other procurement exercises have eroded public trust and confidence in the institution of army.

In June this year, the army had to issue a public statement denying charges of corruption in the medical purchases related to Covid-19. Earlier in May, two senior officials of the Army Welfare Directorate were detained for financial irregularities. In February, a taskforce commissioned by the State Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives alleged significant financial irregularities during the term of the previous army chief.

Then there is the Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway, the infrastructure project the army has been tasked to build at an approximate cost of Rs 200 billion.

Last week, the army chief reportedly met with the Prime Minister to express his concern about the lack of political support on the project. The army is already investigating corruption on the project. Its selection of design and supervision consultants has been challenged for lacking transparency and disregarding procurement guidelines.

There are growing calls for the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to look into the army’s public finances. But CIAA holds no jurisdiction over the army.

Public sentiment is increasingly that national projects, whether related to infrastructure or emergency medical procurement, is being assigned to the army as it is outside meaningful accountability.

Savior of last resort

The army will need public trust, not money, to rescue Nepal’s democracy.

Cracks in Nepal’s young democracy have become visible. Frustration is mounting as political leadership continues to fail, flagrantly and without concern. Corruption is deepening. Impunity is pervasive. The judiciary is tarnished. The President offers no hope. Geopolitical influences are more visible and increasingly polarizing.

Nepal’s young constitution is struggling to take root. Civil institutions that safeguard democratic principles have failed to emerge.

Against the odds, Nepal’s democracy functions because it is financed. The state has enough money to push through the system. Its ability to borrow remains strong. International donors and development partners continue to pump money. The State still has enough to feed its patronage network.

But money cannot indefinitely prop a constitution that lacks deeper institutional roots. Eventually it will run out and the network of patronage will need to feed off something else. That moment of reckoning may be closer than we imagine.

It is at that point, as the last remaining institution left to protect what remains, that Nepal Army will be tested. And at that point, will the army have retained enough public confidence and trust to revive a dying democracy?

As Nepal Army looks to earn more from the cash it has, it must examine how it will regain and retain public trust and confidence. No one will call on the army to protect Nepal’s border. But it may be called on to protect Nepal’s democracy.

About three weeks ago the editor of this publication commented that I seemed to be running out of ideas to write about. Like many writers, I suffer occasionally from ‘writer’s block’ but this ‘running out of ideas’ is more than that. It is a reflection of the state of the world where on the one hand, politicians and health experts are struggling not to ‘run out of ideas’ as how best to tackle COVID-19 and on the other, the rest of us are struggling to find ideas to fill our time at home. Or, for those who have returned to work, find ways to ensure that the daily commute does not include bringing the virus back home. 

For those of us who are following the rules, or the rules of common-sense, there is no going for nights out or afternoon parties.  No art gallery openings; no launching of new products; no plays/concerts/films to review. So yes, I am running out of ideas. The world too has run out of non-essential practises and events such as the International Edinburgh Festival, Oktoberfest in Munich, and even reality TV. I am merely a reflection of that.  Having already written* about what you and your kids can do during lockdown, where you can buy food on-line, what recipes you can create with those same home-delivered products, and letting you know what hoteliers believe the short and long term scenario will be (and don’t get me started on that 2020 dead horse named tourism!), it is indeed hard to come up with new topics. New topics when my whole world for the past five months has been basically two rooms and a screen!  As I am sure yours has been too.

I was in much dismay to see that when Nepal opened up a couple of weeks ago, all caution was thrown to the wind.  I watched dumbfounded, as people I know headed to bars in and around Thamel and participated in traditional festivals, which involved hundreds of people.  I can understand the peer pressure to go out, but cannot understand the lack of sense of civic responsibility that enables people to participate in events without any attempt to physically distance or even wear a mask.  Ah the mask!  This is a country, particularly in Kathmandu, where we wear a mask a great deal of the time to protect ourselves from pollution. Is it because we can see and feel pollution or is it that no one is telling us to wear a mask against that filthy smog that we feel we can don that piece of fabric to protect ourselves?  Yet now we seem unable to wear the same mask to protect both ourselves and others.  The whole mask debate around the world bewilders me completely. Such a simple thing, with such a huge impact on our personal health and the health of our family and community. 

Leaving the anti-maskers aside, because you might as well tell me there are purple people living on the moon – it makes that much sense to me – and leaving aside the whole political and medical side to COVID-19 -  because I am not qualified to voice an  opinion publicly – there is very little left to talk/write about!

So I sit here, behind my screen, watching otherwise quite sensible people act like lemmings jumping off the metaphorical cliff. Even countries like my own, Scotland, where there is a strong (female) leader in charge and a new set of rules to follow almost weekly in the loosening and opening up of the country, the lemmings just keep on racing towards the cliff top. I want to scream and shout and punch quite a number of these careless lemmings but then I also have a civic responsibility not to cause physical harm.

Yes indeed the editor is right, it is getting pretty hard to remain positive and write like before, as nothing is like it was before.  And after five months of staring at four walls, it has finally dawned on me that nothing will ever be the same again.

*See my lockdown stories https://theannapurnaexpress.com/author/6 

Joe Biden’s pick of Kamala Devi Harris, a Black and Indian American, with a mother from India and father from Jamaica, as his running mate has generated some hype in India. Biden leads President Donald Trump by a margin in nearly all the polls for the US presidential election in November. Harris could soon be the US vice-president, and perhaps even the president one day. If the Biden ticket wins, what does a Harris vice-presidency mean for India? Not much, apparently. 

Harris does not speak much about her Indian origins, choosing to highlight her African American background instead. Biden chose Harris as his running mate largely because of her dedicated involvement in the #BlackLivesMatter campaign: the African Americans, who make up roughly 13 percent of the US electorate, could be casting the decisive vote in November. Going by what has appeared in the Indian press, the Indians don’t expect much from Harris, even as they are sure she will ease visa restrictions for Bangalore and Hyderabad techies who dream of Silicon Valley. Human rights are her forte and she could be more willing to take a principled stand on, say, Kashmir. But, then, she will also speak up on Tibet and Xinjiang.

Yet the broad contours of America’s Asian policy are likely to remain intact, whosoever comes to power in November. US-China ties will remain frosty and probably get a lot worse. There is now a bipartisan support in Washington DC for a tougher line on China. This naturally translates into strengthening ties with India to check China’s spreading ‘authoritarianism’ in South Asia. The White House could, once in a while, fire off a statement or two on the human rights situation in Kashmir, or over lack of protection for religious minorities in India. But on the whole, the two countries will work more closely. 

For they want to thwart a common enemy. So where does Nepal fit into this picture? China’s hold on Nepal will increase under any future communist dispensation in Kathmandu. In fact, even if Nepali Congress comes to power, it will have a hard time resisting Chinese charms. There is strong consensus in favor of closer ties with China, both in the ruling NCP and the opposition NC. By the same calculus, Kathmandu will be under pressure to maintain a safe distance from the US-India nexus. 

The NCP government espouses diversification, and yet it is not interested in looking beyond China. Tomorrow, if India takes offense and acts rashly in response, so much the better for the NCP’s electoral prospects. But what if the US wades in to protect Indian interests? Well, they will cross that river when they get to it. In sum: PM Oli and his China-leaning comrades will not resist the temptation to antagonize India at every opportune moment, even if the country may have to pay for it. 

Right now, Modi finds his hands full with Covid-19 but the health crisis will eventually abate. Then what? India has realized it alone cannot keep China out of its immediate neighborhood. Four years ago, I wrote about how the US-India ties would get stronger during Trump’s presidency. As of now, the relations are destined to get closer still under any future US government, Republican or Democrat. The US-China tussle will continue to be the defining feature of the first half of the 21st century. In this larger battle, small countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka could be collateral damage. 

Iih, whose original name is Ishan, is in news after completing 23 days of hunger strike (satyagraha). The 24 years old tall and handsome young man has been a known figure in protests in Kathmandu for many years now. He has completed second round of satyagraha, this week, against the criminal ineptitude and negligence this government has shown in issues of health in this pandemic.

Less than a month ago, he had led and completed a satyagraha for 12 days, along with Pukar Bam, against the same issue. It had ended with an agreement signed between them and government representatives. Bam is a PhD candidate, and a member of the youth-based political party Bibeksheel Nepali Dal, and has already fought two elections.

But Iih is an interesting phenomenon. He has come into limelight in many avatars. Originally Ishan, he doesn’t like to be called by that name, and doesn’t use his surname at all. From a well-to-do Kathmandu family and involved in political activism early in life, at the age of 15 he left home for such explorations, and has carved a place for himself slowly with a definitive assuredness.

He has swayed, zigzagged along the way. Once always seen fashioning a black Bhadgaule topi, he was part of the Hinduist Rashtriya Prajatantra Party led by Kamal Thapa, he was for some time part of the Bibeksheel, but has mostly been an independent activist. He is seen building alliances as well as character, in a slow yet steady manner, with a level of clarity much beyond his age.

The ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign initiated through his Instagram posts led to huge protests on streets all over the country. Hundreds of thousands of people marched on to the street defying the pandemic situation, ironically, demanding better government response to the pandemic. The satyagraha followed that. And the second satyagraha just ended this week with a record of 23 days of fasting.

The building of this movement and momentum hasn’t been easy. He has been supported individually and institutionally. He has mostly survived on the grace of friends in Kathmandu, and has been generating support and resources through his convincing.

During the protests, the core group that was formed centered around the Facebook group called ‘Enough is Enough’ got divided on the delicate issue of whether to protest or not on the day the New Emblem with the new map was proposed in the parliament. Many of the core team thought that the protest should be called off for the day, as it was sure to be manipulated by the Indian media and presented as a protest against the government stand on Lipulek and Limpiyadhura. But Iih thought otherwise.

The core team members had bitter arguments. Some of them were also unhappy that the protests were getting a political hue. Some core members of the steering team were members of the Bibeksheel Nepali Dal, and many influential celebrity protestors were angry that they were made to feel like pawns in a clandestine Grand Design that was controlled for a political cause.

Iih, however, ignoring the naiveté of the celebrity activists, seems to have navigated all this and trudged forward. He had a clarity on the strategy, and the way he had to fight the battle.

All his endeavors have continuously nudged the youth towards seeking a more aware role in the socio-political arena. He is a source of envy for many aspiring leaders, but he is inspiring too. Many leaders from different parties joined him in support for his fight. Iih seems on the path to build a greater coalition and support around him. Or, he might have to stand apart to stay tall.

But there is another young man who came in the news, and his image will be etched in our memory for a long time, as a symbol of the strange and precarious predicament of the Nepal society in the third decade of the 21^st century.

Nabaraj BK will now be remembered by the picture of a rustically handsome young man wearing a black Dhaka Topi and carrying the national flag attached to his rucksack, the picture that was splashed across news portals and social media. He was killed brutally and thrown into the river Bheri two months back.

A Dalit, and from a geographically distant land Kathmandu knows as the fortress of the Maoists, Nabaraj is a representative of the most marginalized community of Nepal and was killed by a group of upper caste men because he attempted to cross the lines of propriety set by the society, for his love. Strangely, the Maoists are hell-bent on protecting the perpetrators of the heinous crime, while the upper caste Thakuri community shows a hubris flared by the assurance of impunity.

From all we know of Nabaraj, he was a promising young man with a drive and patriotism not less in any way than Iih’s. But Nabaraj grabbed the headlines only after his death.

Somewhere, somehow, even after seven decades of fight for liberation, the fight for dignity of this oppressed community has failed to get a political voice in Nepal. The DalitLivesMatter hashtag came into being only after the George Floyd’s killing in America created a cyclonic effect with the BlacklivesMatter.

The nature of Nepali society shows severe inadequacy in being inclusive. Power is centered in and around Kathmandu and among the upper caste people. The mass that surged onto the streets following Iih’s call for action are the representative voice of the privileged youth of this country. And they have displayed a hunger for change. But a true dedication for social justice demands more. 

Why does sensitivity of Nabaraj's death have to be routed through America to get its space in the urban youth’s radar in Nepal? Are the fights that Nabaraj had to fight in Rukum aligned to the wars Iih is waging at Basantapur? I believe not. But I believe the day these fights become one, we will have the beginning of a new revolution.