BABBLES: Madan Bhandari and his wives
By Babbler Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, addressing an event organized by the Madan Memorial Foundation coinciding with his death anniversary, disclosed never-heard rumors that Bhandari had four wives, and he was also alleged to have committed cooperative fraud. We had never heard such rumors about the late Bhandari. Why, PM Oli, going out of context, spoke about such baseless rumors? Was such an attempt by Oli intended to defame his own leader, the late Bhandari? These days, after Bidya Bhandari, the spouse of the late Bhandari, decided to return to party politics, it has become a headache for Oli, who is planning to get elected to the post of the party chairmanship once again. We consider that Bidya Bhandari, who enjoyed the post of the head of the nation, should return to UML politics, yet she has announced to comeback in party politics, which is against the spirit of the constitution. From Bhandari’s comeback to politics, a message she has given is that those who became President from a particular political party could not stand above the partisan politics. This is also a message that republicanism has not been able to function in Nepal. Celebrating National Paddy Day At a time when farmers are unable to get fertilizer in the market, political leaders are found uploading their photographs on the social network, showing that they were planting paddy. President Ramchandra Paudel and his spouse were found planting paddy at the President’s Office in Sittal Niwas. Will such acts help increase paddy production? Not to forget, some decades ago, Nepal was exporting paddy to foreign countries; today, Nepal is importing rice from the international market. Instead of circulating photographs by the political leaders, they should pay attention to introducing modern equipment, timely supply of fertilizers, giving subsidies to the farmers and managing the market for the farmers’ products. India against terrorism? India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar addressed the inauguration ceremony of the exhibition on ‘The Human Cost of Terrorism’ at the UN Headquarters in New York. He strongly pushed against terrorism, asking the global community to come together against state-sponsored terrorism via proxies. Just a reminder, his country’s President, the late Pranav Mukharjee, when he was the foreign minister, said on the record in an interview with Al Jazeera that India had sponsored the Maoist “terrorists” declared by the Indian government. Any comment, Mr External Affairs Minister? An odd reality There is a force behind the scenes which is stronger than the political parties and parliament. The proposed bill on civil servants was changed overnight. MPs discussed and drafted the bill, but without their consent, the provision of a “cooling off period” of two years for the civil servants was deleted. Who created such a conspiracy against those elected representatives, it is still unknown. Be that as it may, there is a powerful force above the MPs. QUOTES OF THE WEEK It has been found that the government has made a special provision in the finance bill to waive off interest and fees of Rs 1.5 billion to Coca-Cola's manufacturing company, Bottlers Nepal Tarai Limited. Why? Ramesh Kumar We can’t say “thieves” to the thieves and "smugglers” to the smugglers in this republican system! Bhismak 1962 I think now is the time to talk about the direction of Nepal with truth and honesty, not with emotion. Manisha Koirala In a letter from prison, Ravi Lamichhane made four important points that many did not remark: 1. He severely criticized the last 36 years. He said in the letter that there should be a 'directly elected executive'. He didn’t say, "directly elected president." He said, "The province should be abolished." He said the constitution should be "rewritten, not amended." The meaning of rewriting is deep. I left it to the readers to analyze these four points of far-reaching significance together. I have already been saying that Ravi Lamecha was unnecessarily hurt in the legal process, and the state was vindictive. Rabindra Mishra With the suspension of American aid (USAID) by Donald Trump, about 200 INGOs of the KP Sharma Oli-led party, about 100 INGOs of Sher Bahadur Deuba's party, and the proselytizing activities associated with Prachanda are in crisis at once. This is a positive message for the people of Nepal. Prem Gaha Magar The present leadership is the problem in Nepal’s politics, yet the bigger problem is the system they have introduced. Therefore, let’s change the system to change the situation. Rajendra Lingden I don’t want to pay tax to feed the workers of the political parties. The taxpayers’ money should not be given to the ex-VIPs. I thus announce rejection to pay tax. Gajendra Budhathoki Should we continuously repeat that this system has rewarded the commoners to the highest post in the country, or should we try to understand the message given by the ex-President and ex-VP that they came back to party politics again? Shrad Raj Pathak Our feared mouse and cats should learn a lesson from Israel and Iran on how the nation can become strong! Our cats and mice should be informed about how much budget these countries have allotted for research and innovation. Mahabir Pun The Maoist revolt was a mistake. Unfortunately, none of the political parties in Nepal doesn’t holds the capacity to say that it was a blunder. Keshav P. Bhattarai There is a crowd of goondas, smugglers and contractors in Parliament. Should we define such a crowd as a historical achievement of the republicanism? Chitra Bahadur KC