Happy 2080 B.S.!

With Nepal entering recently the decade of 2080s, people expect from all those engaged in governance some tangible contribution to improve delivery of public services and actual performance in development works for meeting the basic needs of people throughout the country. Leaders promised them a lot in the past decade but could not do anything substantial in this regard. As a result people have lost trust in politicos and their parties. The electoral process completed towards the end of the past decade exhibits the same in a vivid manner. Political parties particularly those who preside over them should take this seriously this time if they do not want to be further distanced from the grass-root people. If they neglect new leaders and new political wave will render them outdated in course of time. In order to avoid this possibility, the political parties should first try to observe strictly rules of internal democracy in their parties, listen to the voice and aspirations of new generation leaders or those deprived or neglected inside the political organization because of some leaders’ highhandedness and personalized politics. A review of the past decade or the past year could be helpful for leaders to change their policies inside their parties. The same would facilitate them to have a preview of the new decade or the year 2080. They should be determined to make the next ten years a decade of performance. The successful electoral process completed in 2079 B.S. has offered them one opportunity for effective performance for nearly five years of the new decade. The republican constitution which treasures valuable achievements of political struggle in Nepal has already been practiced for five years and is currently on the track of the second cycle. The ruling parties and the opposition parties should now stand firm in respecting the mandate of 2079-electoral process and not disrupt in any way the democratic process and the democratic institutions of the country. They should enable both for making them functional in the real sense of the term. The past mistakes they made in undermining both the democratic institutions and the process should not be allowed to be repeated. They are intolerable in this decade. The wave of corruption and the express-way of allowing the rich to be richer and compelling the poor to be poorer is cancerous and should be avoided honestly. If those who rule and those who scrutinize the way ruling group behaves and functions understand the point the path forward would be comfortable and political parties which lost people’s trust in the past would once again win the trust and be further enabled to consolidate the democratic process and governance in the country. The same could certainly trigger a chain of optimism and performance in the new year 2080 and the decade of 2080s. Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!