Lamentations

Editorial

Last week, us, Nepali were provided a rare treat of Chinese citizens taking to Kathmandu streets in the prohibited zone at Singha Durbar and manhandling the police to the extent of even hitting a police officer. The nearest incident of this kind from the Chinese in Nepal was some fifty years ago during the Cultural Revolution when some Chinese were agitated by Nepali reactions to the Chinese Posting a larger photograph of Mao Ze Dong alongside a comparably small one of King Mahendra at the fairgrounds in Kathmandu. Why the Chinese did not go to their embassy demanding evacuation and why they chose to vent their ire in the manner they did with Nepali officialdom should be made clear and has not as yet. The demonstration and intensity suggest a sponsored message. By whom, is what matters, something cooking?

And then there was this Indian inauguration of a road long under construction on the Mahakali banks along with the pointer that Indian citizens may be treated to a direct road pilgrimage to the holy Mansrover. Not only was this Indian ministerial intimation strange because the land on which the road was built is Nepali claimed but it was doubly so because the route to be taken on the pilgrimage uses the Nepal-China-India tri-junction claimed by Nepal as just that. The Indians, of course by now are used to steam rolling Nepali demands such as this. But the Chinese?

Of course, in normal times, us, Nepali citizens cannot but look to our government for answers. But abnormal times preceded the coronavirus long, long ago in Nepal. Indeed this is the source of our by now habitual lamentations. It certainly is not normal when your government tells you that the government was not aware of the construction no is it natural for a government to court a Chinese agitation in the country. As strange as these events are, they are happening when the strongest government since the last three decades is in its weakest budget session of parliament over and above a global pandemic that should be leaving the government stretched on its own. Surely, much to lament upon, or not?

There are much more lamentations. But we are used to it by now. We have ceased functioning logically as an independent, sovereign state for quite a while now. But Covid-19 is as new to use as every other country in the world leaving us less sure whether our excuse of what is government is handling things right. Or, is the lockdown just serving to keep Prime Minister Oli where he is in the government. Whatever, there is little hint that the prime minister’s problems are over. Indeed, ailing Oli cannot but be aware that problems mount. Or, isn’t he?