“The government’s stance on removing the tramps from the Bagmati banks to be reversed says Prachanda.” A news paper headline on a local newspaper had caught my eyes on a casual afternoon bask in the sun. I just breezed through it without drawing much inference from it to what was going on around in the city and for that matter, had very little time to delve into the issue that had drawn the government’s vocal critic to pelt an avalanche of stones with dire abuse of authoritarian accusations.
I was aloof to the current situation in the nation much alike the majority of the Nepalese crowd who need to wake up to the alarming sounds of changes in the state’s plan of action- a move that very few could coin with the first prominent step towards socialism. This analysis of mine could come to many as a surprise but what will follow about my analysis from what I had witnessed, transpire here in the nation over the last few months could raise a few critical eyebrows and some concerning looks in speculative capitalists’ faces.
Don’t be surprised, you’re in for a treat a lullaby for many of you to go back to sleep after reading this as you or should I say, we, Nepalese, have been over the last few decades being only moved by a political storm of outcry to take a stance against coup or autonomy and letting our visionary politicians lead us through so many cuts and bruises that saw us almost lead from the bottom in GDP, HDI and many more ranking of countries in the world.
Avoiding further bewilderment let me converge on the issue at hand and take you to a scene from a few days back that had me bemused and rethink my future here in Nepal. Okay, the scene was from Thursday when I was walking past the Lainchaur- Lazimpat section of the city’s road reaching the Ambassador Hotel area, where a mob had been summoned, thanks largely to the agitating irate protestors against the demolition, the employees and the management of Ambassador Hotel, victims to the recent government move to widen the road citing traffic congestion, to witness the scene that had dramatized the theatrical stage surrounding the road blockage and an ever eminent road strife, strike.
I then thought about the hundreds of people/families who would see their houses bulldozed to mere trash, that the municipality would clean up in a few days but the picture we fail to see there, that the victims fail to portray, is that of their dreams and years of yearning come crumbling down in a matter of few hours at the name of development. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t oppose this noble act of development. After all, we do live in a day and age of fast changing progressive economy where our works and plans, even great ideas can’t be stalled by a mere traffic. I definitely second this cause and the initiative of the state, to ease our daily woes. Yet I cannot shy away from any indiscretion in the authorities’ decision which I saw in this act.
Okay, then my journey to the Office of Internal Affairs and Revenues to register for the PAN for a NGO, that I founded as the Secretary at Board, started becoming less of a journey for my foot and more so for my mind to seek answers to a wave of questions that have oozed out from a mere scene and a flashback to the random news in a local newspaper from a few days ago during my sun bask.
Then my analytical cognitive mind started weaving a wave of analytic reasoning, of which one was: Why would the government even think about the people who reside in the sides of the road; they are nothing short of affluent and have other alternative places/houses to seek asylum into? The compensation that the government are giving which is Rs 2000 per square feet is way less than their market rate and not even a hair’s strand to satiate those people’s appetite for capitalistic thoughts of multiplying the hundreds of millions in rupees in monetary value that could be brood from the sale of those land and buildings. But who cares? The state doesn’t; the state has big plans to cash in on the multibillion rupees road construction project and proliferate from the eased off traffic that could earn a trillion in returns for every minute of a road passerby’s invaluable time saved that was always wasted in the prolonged road mileage that had for ages deferred, and in most cases, hindered the state’s plan to pave way for economic acceleration.
Yes, we are talking about big bucks involved here. The nation could be in for a treat and the road widening projects could see a new wave of construction vacancies being announced in local newspapers, and we could hope for the less fortunate labor society of the nation to be bred in Nepal, and not resort to seeking restitution in some Arab or South East Asian country for some hard earned penny that is the backbone of the nation’s GDP and a filling factor of the nation’s trade deficit, without the imminent nepotism. These are projects that could yield high labor absorption in the newly created job market, and not employment programs of longevity, but who cares? Do we live for centuries or even 70 or 80 years more from today in to witness what happens in Nepal? No! So why bother about longevity? We live in the present and so should our main focus and goals be.
Apart from the hundreds and thousands of jobs that will be created here, we’re in for absolute treat at the sight of smooth highways and cars screeching across the wide highways making way for more luxurious cars, some that will belong to the very affluent class and rest to expats, diplomats, bureaucrats, and politicians. So, see even here, the affluent class proliferates from the sacrifice they make right now. They could see the vehicle taxes, currently being paid, to be lowered and make way for some new hot deals in classy sedans and sleek SUVs.
After all their loss is their victory in the long run, only if the state treats them to better offers of socialistic policies. Well, that’s what the socialistic political proponents: the government, envisages to offer according to what our Numero Uno once said in a statement, where he said, there will be special arrangements for some special treats and facilities to be offered to the affluent people of Nepal if they willingly depose off their wealth in the government’s trust in the name of individual social responsibility. This indeed would be the highest level of achievement for the riches of the nation: an act of altruism for attainment of absolute nirvana when they are still in their flesh and blood. Yes, they would then be at the top most level of Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory, something of an achievement for the state that not even the riches of the first world countries could brag about.
We are different and we’re proving it right here. We caress our less fortunate and write off our affluent class, as we have to move to a state of the working class, where the laborers matter and not the labor creators because the government will create more jobs than what the capitalistic affluence has been able to do so far. Who would stand up and protest against a socialist government run business? No one! Hence there will be smoother functioning daily chores for the people to focus on and not indulge in the ever-present imminent issues of strikes and agitations. Even the people are pro socialism or so it seems or better put: that’s what they are asking for- someone to thrush them through economic progression and development with a whiplash.
That will then see a rise of the tramps to stardom- an absolute stature of pioneers, who could have foretold the future with a pinch of reality about what is happening and the path of socialistic culture we’re treading on had we been awake to witness and analyze the happenings around us, but instead ended up being pioneers who, in the nurture and shade of socialist leaders, promote a culture of vagrancy. They could well be starlets who are proponents of minimalism far away from the charisma of capitalists.
So are we awake and seeing the events unfolding around us and even analyzing what could, would and will be the after math of the present journey towards socialism, our so called visionary leaders have quested as the nation’s destiny? Or are we just so discordantly disapproving of the wrong doings that affect our personal and to some extent professional lives and are aloof about the situation; then may be in a wide awake trauma of the nation’s political party led stir and agitation, seek restitution for all the rights that are so wrong, the ones that we saw and could resist, yet we choose to just quietly concede to these unwelcome changes and later bemoan our imperceptibility.
The issue, here, is evidently not of critiquing the development plan or pelting stones of sharp words at the eyes that envisage a new Nepal, but of seeking impartiality in judgment. What we need now is an eye that envisions a path towards economic prosperity that doesn’t discriminate between its citizens on political prowess or on bureaucratic nepotistic reach or on affluence and disgruntled physiological needs? We need a mind that cognizes a need for the affluent class to prosper and create more jobs, a working environment where all involved thrive and a nation that walks with all its citizens hand in hand. My mind just drew an analogy between this metaphor and the story of “perish for the haves and cherish for the haves-not” which is about equal treatment. If the vagrants can’t be removed without proper recuperation, then so be it even with the comparatively affluent ones; their silence can’t be taken for granted as a conceit out of wealth and power, and their far cries also need to be addressed by the state and the so-called visionaries.
Yet, we should still ask ourselves, “Are we treading into a path of righteousness of one of self destruction where the nation could be a failure?”
No comments:
Post a Comment