O! Kantipur
Once the Nepalese poet called Bhanu Bhakta Acharya had called ‘Kantipur’ a beautiful ‘Kantipuri nagari’ almost comparing
with a beautiful girl. Now, you have become a ‘Kathmandu’ – a city of chaos. Nobody knows who rules it but everybody
attempts to rule it from the streets, from the open theater, from the place called ‘Mandala’ and so on. The Prime
Minister once so much revered by Nepalese people and foreigners have betrayed you revealing his true nature. All thugs
corrupt politicians and politicians of various colors reside here. Once the holy river called ‘Bagmati’ flowing through
your heart has been the most polluted river in the world; once the clean air constantly purified by the green forest has
been full of fumes coming out of exhaust-pipes of so-called microbuses. Numerous taxis crowd the streets and add fumes
to pollute the atmosphere. Most corrupt businesspersons run the businesses from here. Some even become the leaders of
the business community and challenge the government to agree to their demands or else they would cripple the national
economy by disrupting the businesses.
Kathmandu was once a beautiful capital town called Kantipur. It was once a full of beautiful houses, numerous temples,
shrines, public houses, and public-rest buildings decorated with carved wooden pillars, struts, windows, doors, and many
carved stone figures of animals, birds and humans. Businesses of woodcarving, stone carving, and metal casting thrived
here. Business people, administrators and even rulers were sincere to make everything run smoothly and to the
satisfaction of all Nepalese people. It was the period of golden era when the Malla Kings competed with each other in
creating more cultural heritage.
Then the time changed; new rulers took the main seat of administration; later on, unscrupulous rulers took over the
reign. The Shah kings replaced the Malla kings. The Shahs did not have the same enthusiasm to develop the country
culturally and economically as the Mallas had, as they mainly focused on how to retain their power and supremacy over
the Nepalese people. They spent most of the national resources on their luxurious lives disregarding the people’s needs.
Then, the unscrupulous Ranas took over the power and sidelined the Shahs for more than a century. They not only did not
develop the local culture and economy but also disfigured the beautiful palaces by replacing the most beautiful and
artistic buildings with the ugly buildings built in the imported architectural style. Thus, they made ‘Kantipur’ a
‘Kathmandu.’
Now, Kathmandu has been the city of chaos. If you go out you never know when you will be back home. The narrow streets
and lanes are choked with taxis and microbuses. They do not honor the traffic rules. The taxis sit where they are not
suppose to. They move slowly and leisurely hunting for passengers on the streets disregarding others on the streets. As
soon as, they spot a passenger they stop then and there forcing the person moving behind them to apply emergency brakes.
Microbuses do not do better either. They also stop anywhere any passenger asks them to stop for riding or for getting
out. They do not respect the traffic rules properly stopping at the stops allocated to them. Sometimes, they put a
number of microbuses parallel to each other at their stops blocking even wide streets causing traffic jams.
Taxis and microbuses rule the Kathmandu streets. The traffic police have been the mute spectators of the chaotic traffic
in Kathmandu. For disciplining the taxis and microbuses they cannot enforce traffic rules without going to a direct
confrontation with the taxis and the microbuses. If the traffic police attempt to use force for disciplining them, it
often backfires. Taxis or microbuses simply park their vehicles barricading the traffic flow. The traffic will be jammed
until the dispute is resolved amicably. If the traffic police go a little further to take forceful actions, then the
taxis and the microbuses call for going on a local or even national strike.
Microbuses have gradually crowed out the battery-operated three wheelers from the Kathmandu streets. Foreign donor
agencies had spent millions of dollars on researching on and introducing battery-operated three wheelers in the
Kathmandu streets to save the environment destroyed by heavily smoking buses and three wheelers. There was a time when
battery-operated three wheelers had gained the major business of ferrying the commuters in Kathmandu. The
microbus-business community successfully lobbied the government to crowd out the clean battery-operated three wheelers
from the streets to suit their interest.
Whenever a ruler duo: Girija Prasad Koirala as the Prime Minister and Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat as the Finance Minster took
over the state control, they acted more in the interest of the favored businesspersons than in the interest of the
population as a whole. They created an environment conducive to operate microbuses than the battery-operated three
wheelers as the microbus businesspersons could serve the interest of the ruler duo. In the past, too, they dismantled
the trolley buses running between Kathmandu and Bhaktapur to have more businesses for the minibus operators disregarding
the pollution in the Kathmandu Valley, and the convenience of and benefits for commuters. Currently, they are selling
the shares of the state-owned telecommunication company called ‘Nepal Telecom’ at Rs 90 per share to its staffs and at
Rs 600 per share to the public. Nobody knows who gave the management of this company the rights to sell the shares at
such varying prices.
The next street kings are the rally organizers. Currently, anybody can hold placards and banners walk on the streets in
Kathmandu disregarding the vehicular traffic. Organizers of rallies of from HIV-AIDS day celebration to human rights
activists rule the streets in Kathmandu. While they are rallying for doing something good for their concerned people
they block the traffic and cause inconvenience to the travelers in Kathmandu. Nobody has thought to rally peacefully for
their causes without causing inconvenience to others. The traffic police usher the streets rallies to their destination
rather than keeping the smooth flow of traffic.
Anybody can be the ruler of the streets. If a bus hits a person on the road, the relatives of victims block the traffic
on the road demanding reasonable compensation for the loss or damage done to the person and the relatives. The traffic
police often failed to take immediate actions against the bus and award compensation to the victims. So, most of the
time, the road-accident victims have to take the law in their hands to redress the injustice done to them. Then, the
victims of such actions are the innocent travelers who sometimes are stranded for more than a day.
The open theater in Kathmandu has been the place for celebrating various cultural and religious events, and the place
for the rallies of the political parties. Nepalese people of different ethnic groups living in Kathmandu celebrate their
annual festival at the open theater often blocking the traffic around the theater. Similarly, political parties held a
political rally at the open theater causing great inconvenience to the commuters. The traffic police simply cannot
handle such a situation or just become a mute spectator. Everybody will enjoy such events if the organizers of such
events think a bit about the men and the women on the streets.
It is shame on you, Kathmandu that you have been hosting the Prime Minister that has recently confessed his misdeeds
done in 1970s while staying in exile. The Indian print and electronic media have trumpet the confessions of Prime
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala made in the interview given to the ‘Kantipur TV’ that has repeatedly aired it. Then, the
Nepalese media also have started writing about it. According to the media report, the then Girija Prasad Koirala had
produced fake India currency to support the large number of the workers of his party called Nepali Congress in 1970s. He
also planned and executed the hijacking of the plane carrying Rs 3.2 million from Biratnagar to Kathmandu to the Indian
unused airport, and looted the money. The case against the leader of the hijacking the plane, Chakra Prasad Bastola has
been pending in the Indian Court. (The Indian Government had revoked the lawsuit against Chakra Bastola before accepting
him as a Nepalese ambassador to India in 1990s when the Nepali Congress was in power.) The office of the Prime Minster
has denied the report on making fake Indian currencies but has not denied other reports on the confessions Prime
minister Koirala has made while talking to the ‘Kantipur TV’ reporter in an interview.
Probably, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has thought that he could wash off the stains of his past misdeeds
confessing publicly in the holy land of Lord Pashupatinath and Lord Swoyambhu; however, he must be pretending that
nobody is aware of his current misdeeds. For example, his government had made the shortage of petroleum products in
Nepal for a year making the prices of petroleum products cheaper in Nepal and selling the Nepal-bound petroleum products
in the Indian market for amassing a huge wealth for his Nepali Congress party. With this ill-earned money his party has
opened its office in 75 districts and even a liaison office in New Delhi, India. Politically, Prime Minister Koirala has
been trying to reinstate the monarchy at any cost. He appointed his daughter Sujata Koirala to the position of Minister
without portfolio. This might be because he wanted to stage a democratic coup in the Bangladeshi style as Maoist
chairman Prachanda has said. He also has an army of infamous corrupt politicians such as Govinda Raj Joshi, and Khum
Bahadur Khadka, indicted by the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) but released by the Special
Court for technical reasons, and other corrupt people such as Chiranjivi Wagle, his daughter Sujata Koirala and Taranath
Rana Bhat. Reportedly, they have received a large sum of money from the palace for saving the monarchy.
Kathmandu, you also have been playing the host to a large number of Maoists that have left the rural areas for Kathmandu
in the campaign to capture the capital city peacefully. The rural areas have been peaceful because almost all Maoists
have migrated to Kathmandu and other urban areas. They have been holding a gun in one hand and a white pigeon – a symbol
of peace in another. If you are good to them they will show you a pigeon if not they thrust at you with the gun. They
are ready to use both the gun and the pigeon to capture the state power. They can be both Jung Bahadur and Buddha as
Maoist chairman Prachanda said. They do both good and bad things to you. The good things are that they attempt to expose
corrupt people, to right the wrongs things, to control the uncontrollable traffic, to sweep the streets and so on. The
bad things are they will give you a good shove if they do not like you. They will forcibly collect money from you if you
have, if not, then, ask you to feed some of them. Their leaders have been telling the Nepalese people that all these
things have been a thing of the past. However, you need to see it before believing them.
You also have political leaders such as Madhav Kumar Nepal and his colleagues of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified
Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML). They talk about many things that hardly make sense. They are at the mercy of Prime
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala; however, General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and Education Minister Pradeep Nepal
sometimes hit out at the Prime Minister in a rousing speech. They also have the corrupt colleague such as Bam Dev Gautam
and a palace man such as Khadga Prasad Oli. Both of them have been the ministers in the past.
The Madheshi people rich and poor as well have been one of the dominant groups engaged in all sorts of business in the
Kathmandu Valley and in other urban areas. However, their leaders enjoy saying that the hill people have been dominating
them. Some of the prominent leaders have left the parent national parties and joined hands to form a regional party, and
run the party from Kathmandu. Thus, they reduced themselves from the national leaders to the regional. A Maoist leader
in an interview to the ‘Radio Nepal’ in the morning of January 24, 2008 said that it is the doing of the palace people
to garner the support of the Madheshi people for the monarchy. Some of the Madheshi leaders even say that they are not
Nepalis. If they are not Nepalis then they might need to hold passports to enter the Nepalese territory. It seems that
they want to fish in troubled water.
The poor former Panchas (political activists of the Panchayat system that ended by the people’s movement in 1990) have
three political parties in different names to suit the needs of their prominent leaders. One of them called Rastriya
Prajatantra Party- Nepal (RPP-Nepal) has been advocating actively for saving the monarchy. However, their monarch did
not believe in them that they could save him. So, the monarch has turned his back on them. Currently, the monarch
believes that only the leaders of the Nepali Congress could save him, no one else. So, the monarch has been financing
the corrupt NC leaders for his survival; probably, they in turn have been providing the funding to the Madheshi leaders
for creating chaos in Terai to disrupt the election for a Constituent Assembly scheduled for April 10, 2008. However, it
is too late for the monarch to save his institution as most of the new generation Nepalis do not want the monarchy at
all. The shrewd political leaders knowing this fact have been going with the tide. However, some former Panchas have
been anticipating the political events turn round sharply in their favor as did in the mid 1990s.
The holy river called Bagmati River flowing through the heart of Kathmandu has been the carrier of sewage. Religious
Hindus used to go to the Pashupati area and take a dip in the holy water of Bagmati River and then pray to Lord
Pashupati at his shrine every morning before eating or drinking anything. Now, the holy river pollutes the areas
wherever it passes through.
In 1990, the then-interim Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai told Kathmanduites that he would bring water from the
Melamchi River and wash the streets of Kathmandu. It has been already more than sixteen years since Mr. Bhattarai had
publicly committed to supply sufficient water to Kathmanduites the shortage of water continued in Kathmandu. The
Melamchi Project has been in a mess. While providing the funding to the Melamchi Project, the multilateral donor bank
dictates its terms and conditions to the Government of Nepal, and even going beyond the limits of its terms and
conditions attempts to impose the contractor of its choice for the project. The Prime Minister and the concerned
departmental Minster made money out of the project for which former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and former
Departmental Minister Prakash Man Singh served almost a one-year jail term following the ruling of the Royal Commission
on Corruption Control (RCCC). The Supreme Court of Nepal released them from the jail ruling the RCCC was
unconstitutional and consequently its decisions were unconstitutional, too in 2006.
Most of the smart businesspersons reside in Kathmandu. Many of them make money not doing fair and sincere businesses but
defaulting the bank loans, and not paying taxes to the government. If the government attempts to take actions against
such businesspersons then they take the issue to the streets shamelessly putting forward various demands. The business
leaders are often corrupt people convicted of tax-and-bank-loans defaults. They go on strike if they are not permitted
to adulterate the petrol with kerosene.
Kathmandu has been flourishing on the remittances sent by the Nepalese youths working elsewhere in the world. Hundreds
of thousands of Nepalese youths have gone abroad to work even putting their lives at risk. Some of them lose their lives
because of the accident at the workplace, other lose their lives because of the hostile political environment, and
because of the hostile master.
If anything goes not to the likings of the donor agencies and the diplomatic missions in Kathmandu, leaders of the
diplomatic missions and the donor agencies are very smart to put pressure on the government of Nepal through a direct
talk with the Prime Minister or publicly disclosing their displeasure. They shamelessly could do so as the government
has been heavily dependent on them.
Kathmandu, it must be a tremendous pressure on you to hold on all sorts of corrupt people, accept all sorts of
pollutions such as the air and water pollution, political and social pollution, and last but not least the pollution
caused by the interferences of the donor agencies and the diplomatic missions in the internal affairs of Nepal.
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Siddhi B. Ranjitkar is a political analyst in Kathmandu.