Now, after more than two and a half decades, I fully comprehend those words. In all these years, the winds of political changes have swept Nepal. From a party-less system, Nepal first became a multi-party democracy, then a secular republic. However, what has not changed is that we are still an aid-dependent nation. Today, our dependence on foreign aid has broken through the roof. Compare this to our two giant northern and southern neighbours. China and India have become aid-givers, even though they still receive small amounts of aid.

Assistance everywhere

The facts speak for themselves. That Nepal is aid-dependent is self-evident. Many vital infrastructures, from power stations to roads, bridges, hospitals, medical colleges, schools, water supply facilities and factories were constructed with foreign assistance. Among other things, no matter how much we rant against India, it is a bitter reality that even the salt we eat is subsidised by our southern neighbour. All this has not helped us, instead it has made us more dependent. This is the irony of modern Nepal. Without foreign aid, our development budget would amount to almost nothing, for around 60 percent of is funded by donors and foreign countries. Without generous contributions from foreigners, Nepal would not even have been able to conduct the Constituent Assembly elections. The printing paper came from UNDP, hundreds of vehicles from India and loads of stationery and ballot boxes from China, along with generous assistance from scores of other countries.

Foreign aid at some stage in the history of most nations is indispensable. However, there should be a limit. No country can afford to rely on foreign aid alone for decades. It is very demeaning.  So it is no small feat for a Nepali that Binod Chaudhary is a billion dollar man. Likewise, Upendra Mahoto and Shesh Ghale have established business empires abroad but they do not command the respect they deserve there for they are always identified by the country they come from. On the contrary, even an ordinary American, Japanese and the latest addition to the list, a Chinese, commands respect everywhere. When asked about my whereabouts in Uttarakhand, India, a man told me that though I did not look like one, most Nepali migrant workers in Uttarakhand were labourers. I had to swallow my pride.

Interests and interference

We Nepalis debate endlessly about national pride, sovereignty and territorial integrity. However, it is ironic that we always relegate economic issues to the margins. Politicians who claim to have a vision for tomorrow talk about democracy, secularism, state restructuring, ethnicity, equality and debate on a whole gamut of issues but hardly talk about their vision of making

Nepal an economically prosperous and self-dependent nation. Even when they discuss economic issues, they speak mindlessly. The Maoists talked about generating 20,000 megawatts of power in 10 years. All the boasting about

their grand vision of making Nepal the next Singapore or Switzerland was amusing at best.   

Foreign assistance always comes with strings attached. The Chinese, Indians, Americans and the European Union, followed by almost all on the list of donor countries, have their own interests in Nepal. There was a time when we, for all the right or wrong reasons, squarely blamed India for openly interfering in Nepal’s internal matters. Now the Chinese, Americans and Europeans are doing it openly. And we only have ourselves to blame.

Excessive reliance on foreign aid and the way it is readily available to Nepal because of its growing strategic importance has spoilt us. For long, we have squandered every opportunity that could inch our country towards economic empowerment. Bitter squabbling among political parties, even on issues of vital economic importance, has prevented us from attracting

foreign investment in the energy

sector. Though a predominantly agricultural country, we hardly produce enough to feed our almost 30 million population. Our economy suffers from a chronic shortage of labour but we send able-bodied men and women to toil in the most inhospitable conditions abroad. Unfortunately, pressing economic issues seldom capture our national consciousness, mired as we are in issues of class, caste, ethnicity and religion.

Ignore and perish

Shopping for groceries in Panitanki, West Bengal, India, a small border town across the Mechi river, my mother-in-law and I had a minor argument with a shopkeeper. We pleaded with him to treat Nepali customers fairly for if

we stopped coming, shopkeepers like him would have to down their shutters for good. In a light-hearted manner,

he replied that if we Nepalis didn’t come, we would surely die for want of food and other essentials, dependent

as we were on purchases and exports from India.

The man was right, for the truth is that we are overwhelmingly dependent on others. So long as we are flush with aid and remittance money, we can shop and pay lavishly for exported goods. But these are not perennial sources. Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, to name a few, are not evergreen pastures. Once remittance and foreign aid, our major economic lifelines stop flowing, we might not have the money to import even the most basic items. The Sword of Damocles may fall anytime. If we continue to ignore economic issues, many of us will surely perish.

Bimoli is a lecturer at Siddhartha College of Management, Damak