This never-ending pursuit for power without an iota of consideration for the future of Nepal reminds me of the story of King Solomon the Wise and the two women who each claimed the same baby as their own. Let me fiddle with the original story a little bit.
King Solomon was presiding over the judgment of two men both claiming to be the real son of a blind and deaf old woman, who had plenty of barren land, which if worked hard upon could produce riches. Only the real son knew of the land’s existence. King Solomon came up with a solution that the mother be cut into two and divided among the two equally. One of the men cried and begged the king not to kill the woman confessing that he was not the real son while the other one did not object.
Nepal is at a very delicate crossroad and what is done today will have far-reaching consequences in the future.
The king beckoned the man: Take your mother with you, take care of her and fulfill your duty. Later on, it was revealed that the man who wanted the mother killed was the real son; he did want to be burdened with looking after the old woman, he only wanted the land. The other one was a realized soul who saw God in every being. “Take the land, sell it and don’t show your face again in my land,” said the wise king to the real son.
Well, the real son did not feel any moral obligation toward the mother and only cared about the land. The real son had no conscience. This is very similar to our present context: Mother Nepal is ready to be sacrificed; her “real” sons’ only seem to care for the bounty she provides for them for free.
The sons of Nepal who are perpetually having a great Nepal Carnival without caring a wee bit that they have already started the process of the end of Nepal as a nation state. Each banda carnival and foreign jaunt carnival drives Nepal closer and closer to its impending end.
I would like to share with you this superlative piece written by Mirza Ghalib and translated from Persian by his biographer in English. I came upon this poem at the very beginning of the prologue of Ramachandra Guha’s recent book “India after Gandhi.”
“Said I one night to a pristine seer
(Who knew the secrets of whirling Time),
Sir, you well perceive,
That goodness and faith
Fidelity and love
Have all departed from this sorry land
Father and son are at each other’s throat;
Brother fights brother. Unity
And Federation are undermined.
Despite these ominous signs
Why has not Doomsday come?
Why does not the Last Trumpet sound?
Who holds the reins of the Final Catastrophe.”
This is part of Mirza Ghalib’s 108 couplet ode “Chirag-e-dair” to Banaras – the ancient city of India and the cradle of Hindu religion. The year was 1827, the poet was on his way from Delhi to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and had stopped in Banaras. The Moghul Empire was on its last breath; the British East India Company was getting its stranglehold. The centuries old peaceful co-existence that the Muslim and Hindu had led during the Moghul reign was eroding. The ominous signs that had started to emerge with the demise of the old guards made Ghalib ponder about the future of Hindustan.
It took more than a 100 years for a “Catastrophe” to take place with the partition of India and Pakistan and the ensuing bloodbath. But, that did not destroy India – she persists.
Nepal is at a very delicate crossroad and what is done today will have far-reaching consequences in the future. Faced with a moribund economy, it is getting increasingly difficult for it to make strides in any other sector. The decisions taken today will literally decide the shape of tomorrow’s Nepal. The present holds the key to the future.
The overarching question that I would like to ask is: Can this ailing nation survive in its present form by 2025-50? My question is based on the projection that by 2050 China and India will become two of the largest economies in the world with China having US$70,000 billion GDP and India almost US$40,000 billion at par with the US projected GDP. Indeed, if the projections come true, this would make dramatic shift in the dynamics of the world power—from the land of the Statue of Liberty, the baton will be passed on to the land of the Great Wall of China and to a lesser extent to the land of Taj Mahal. Can Nepal even survive in future between these two behemoths unless it gets its act together now? Can the “Final Catastrophe” be averted?
avantikaregmi@aol.com
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