Nepal is in a deep mess and there’s no way out. Recent events prove we have no reason to be optimistic. First, the Bibeksheel-Sajha split. When the party of bright Nepali youth merged with the party of a foreign returned journalist, most of us were excited. We hoped that soon it would emerge as an exemplary party that would force the dominant parties to become democratic, respon­sible and accountable. But it turned out, the party was no dif­ferent to other parties and despite big talks of democratizing Nepal, it itself lacked inner democra­cy. The potential third force split before it could even begin to make a difference.

We also witnessed the defeat of Dr Govinda KC who was fighting against the commercialization of medical education that makes health care expensive for poor Nepalis. But the democratic “com­munist” government of one of the poorest countries in the world stood for exactly the opposite and had its way. Both houses of the parliament endorsed the watered-down medical education bill. The opposition could do nothing. The medical bill was passed by our parliament. And all were in it together, the opposition and the so called—and self-declared— prominent members of the civil society and rights activists.

The opposition is morally bank­rupt, corrupt, divided, and hence weak. As such it could not mount an effective opposition against the government’s bullying. Or could it be that there was a tacit under­standing between the government and the opposition, not to open the file on NC’s involvement in the controversial purchase of the wide body aircraft? What a win-win for the both parties, and a lose-lose for Nepal.

And while the political parties were in a hush-hush win-win trade off with each other, the recently appointed Chief Justice Cholendra Shumser Rana suspended and took action against some “ill-in­tended” judges on big scandals, including the 33 kg gold smug­gling, and tax evasion by a major telecom provider. When even the judges start making “mistakes” it only means one thing: we are messed up big time. Flee the country, young men and women, while you can.

In addition to this domestic freak-show, our leaders also left no stone unturned to make sure we messed up diplomatically as well. The US invited our foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali to DC to discuss Nepal’s role in the Indo-Pacific Strategy. But we—the flag-bearers of the non-aligned movement—had to see something sinister behind a natural and harmless alliance. The distress­ing thing about Nepal’s decision to not join the strategy was the way we said it.

Instead of rejecting the Ameri­can proposal outright, we could have slept on it and carefully weighed the pros and cons. We could have asked for time and what America would provide us in return for our participa­tion. We could have asked the next foreign ministerial meet­ing be held in Kathmandu. That would have been a mature thing to do and prove to the Americans and our neighbors that we are serious about our national inter­ests and cultivating our friends near and far.

By refusing even further delib­erations on the issue, we proved that we are immature when it comes to maintaining good rela­tions with a country that has been a good friend of Nepal for the past 70 years. If the government thought it made the Chinese hap­py by its immaturity in DC, the Chinese were unmoved, as is evi­dent by the Chinese proposal to reduce the number of projects under its Belt and Road Initiative in Nepal.

If this was not enough, Com­rade Prachanda, one of the two chairs of the ruling Nepal Com­munist Party, had to issue a strong statement denouncing Ameri­ca’s role in Venezuela. He could have kept quiet or just issued a milder statement to prove his revolutionary credentials and to keep himself relevant in whatever global communist movement he fancies. He as always hinted he was misquoted and was hood­winked into issuing it. Then, soon after, came another statement that said the party stands by its earlier statement.

In a fitting quid pro quo, the American ambassador did not attend a diplomatic briefing held by the Nepali government. The message was clear: if you don’t value our friendship by undiplo­matically rejecting our Indo-Pa­cific proposal, and then go on to denounce us for what we do in our backyard, then we too will make our displeasure obvious—of course, diplomatically.

All these episodes show we are not getting better and have nothing to be hopeful about. Expect more unpleasant surprises on both domestic and diplomatic fronts and stop reading the news to save yourself from depression.