On/Off the record

By P.R. Pradhan

In principle, the Nepali communists follow the ideologies formulated by Marx, Lenin and Mao. In practice, they are following feudal and autocratic behavior. Especially talking about the leaders of those Left parties in power enjoying luxury lifestyles. There were talks about Pushpakamal Dahal, Chairman of the Maoist Center, that he was wearing an expensive wristwatch and sleeping on a very expensive bed. In an interview, Dahal had said that he prefers non-vegetarian lunches and vegetarian dinners in the country where the majority of the population are unable to manage their two-time meals. Around ten million youths have gone abroad for dirty and dangerous jobs as they didn’t get jobs in their home.

K.P. Sharma Oli is the Chairman of the UML and currently the Prime Minister of the country is wearing a wristwatch that costs 30 million rupees and expensive branded shoes. Oli’s watch and shoes have become viral on social media. Oli’s lifestyle is not as simple as the communist leaders that we assume.

Personally, PM Oli gives a big lecture against corruption but his party is directly and indirectly involved in practising corruption.

“I never see the face of those corrupt leaders,” Oli says frequently. Recently, he laid the foundation stone of the UML’s party headquarters at Mitranagar in Kirtipur. Controversial businessman Min Bahadur Gurung, the owner of the Bhatbhateni Supper Market, is now under investigation by the Commission for Investigation on Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on the charge of capturing the Lalitaniwas government land by developing a fake document. He also spent several months in judiciary custody. The very person donated around 11 ropanis of land for the construction of the UML headquarters. Not only the land, but Gurung is also constructing a modern well-equipped building for the UML at his expense and will be handed over to the party within a year. The estimated cost of the land donated by Gurung is four million rupees per anna. Let readers calculate the total amount donated by Gurung to the UML.

Gurung is a businessman and he doesn’t spend a single rupee without profit. He didn’t donate to the UML without an undisclosed agreement. The Court has given the verdict to seize the government property of the Lalitaniwas in Baluatar. Gurung is still using the construction in the Lalitaniwas as the storehouse of the Bhatbhateni Supper Market. One can guess the donation deals with possible adjustment through a business reward.

Surprisingly, the Marwari community has claimed its Mohiyani rights on the Pashupatinath Dharamshala in Gaushala, the main hub in Kathmandu. Earlier, the Marbari entered there in the name of serving people. The community is earning a large amount of money by renting shop shutters there but paying a nominal amount to the Pashupati Area Development Trust. When the Trust wanted to end the deal with the Marbari community and hand over it to the Kathmandu Metropolis, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Badri Pandey intervened. The office bearers of the Marbari Sewa Samiti are knocking the doors of the political leaders seeking a favour for them. Why are they dying to get the Dharamshala if they were for serving people, it is interesting.

We are frequently saying that around half a dozen brokers are running the government in their own interests. Whoever comes to power, doesn’t matter as they share the profit to the major three leaders who enjoy the power turn by turn.

Talking about the power of those brokers, there are many examples and one major example is that PM Oli instructed the Nepal Electricity Authority’s MD to resume electricity of those businessmen who denied paying the electricity bills that they had used even by imposing load-shedding to commoners. Giving special privileges to the businessmen but taking additional fines on commoners and cutting down the electricity supply in their homes can be justified only by leaders like Oli and his party workers. Indeed, these leaders are not for a prosperous Nepal but are involved in daylight loot on the nation’s coffer.

Morover, they are big liars, for example, Oli, while attending an interaction session at a University in New York, said that Nepal was unable to develop as the feudal and monarchs didn’t allow the country to be developed. The fact is that, since 1990, the executive power was enjoyed by the prime ministers and since 2008, the institution of monarchy was abolished. The kings had no active role, yet, the political leaders in power couldn’t accelerate the development tempo and the country and the people have become big sufferers. The so-called democracy came just for the empowerment of the political leaders and their party cadres by destroying all the organs needed to function a nation.

Source : https://www.peoplesreview.com.np/2024/10/23/communism-and-nepali-communists/