Let us congratulate our government for introducing the new civil and criminal code to replace the laws from when Jung Bahadur was still around. It’s funny that Jung Bahadur still stares at Singha Durbar while our so-called republican lads want to do away with anything related to the House of Shah. The only institution that still wants to give respect to the House of Shah is our Nepal Army.  Prithivi Narayan Shah still gets respect by our Generals. But of course, somebody must have forgotten to remind them that in New Nepal, our President is the commander in chief. But it’s a good thing that at least some of us don’t want to forget our past. And our politicians need to understand that as well.

It’s about time our incompetent government figure out a way to bring our great army under civilian control because our police chiefs spend their days in Dillibazar for corruption cases but our Generals make more and nobody can touch them. We want a professional army led by honest officers. We don’t want our army to be a construction company led by contractors. We know that we are not going to war with China or India anytime soon. It’s about time our politicians had the courage to think about how to cut down our APF and Nepal Army personnel and make it lean but highly-professional forces. Maybe, we can go the ‘Costa Rica’ way or just ask the UN wallahs to make our security forces get paid by the blue-plate wallahs as rapid reaction force to be deployed in conflict zones anywhere anytime.

Things were different then when only one family had all the fun. Today, we have hundreds of Shree Tins having fun and with provinces and what not, let us expect more freeloaders to enjoy the loot. But in the past hundred and fifty years, little has changed when it comes to the crimes being committed despite them being unlawful. Our Dalits are banned from entering temples and using public water taps. Our women are still tortured by ignorant fools by accusing them of being witches. Many of our sisters are burned and attacked with acid by their in-laws and husbands for failing to bring in enough dowry as per the demand.

We will have to wait and see if our government is serious enough to implement the laws of the land. We all know that our lawmakers are the real lawbreakers and the police, the courts and the government only want to punish the common folks while the thulo mancheys get away with everything.

This is the land where Lokman can offer Karods of Rupees to other thulo mancheys to try to save his job. Well, he failed but there must have been some sort of a deal to get him appointed as the head of the CIAA in the first place. Our thulo mancheys heading the security forces all seem to make Karods of Rupees. It’s the same with our hakim sahebs heading other government agencies. A low-level accountant at a municipality somewhere can steal Karods of Rupees. Now, just do the math and let us imagine how much our netas and hakim sahebs make when they are in the ‘hot’ kurchi!

So when will our corrupt netas, civil servants and other chors finally face the punishment for their crimes? Yes, we do have honest politicians, police officers and public officials as well but there are dime a dozen in the land ruled by thousands of pickpockets.

The new laws now make it tough for folks like you and me to spy against our own country while our hakim sahebs and netas have been doing just that for ages. Our thulo mancheys can supply sensitive information regarding national interest and get chiya kharcha, scholarships and gift hampers from foreign embassies. Will our Oli government go after the real traitors or only after those who are opposed to the government’s authoritarian natak? Our greatest communist government on Earth not only wants to restrict our right to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech but also wants to do away with the freedom of the press, religion and many more.

Oli and his courtiers tell us that we should be proud of them for having achieved so much in the past five months. But this government has yet to fix the roads in the Capital and has done nothing to minimise the loss of lives and property during the monsoon season. Yet, it boasts about the things planned for the future. Modi has promised a manned space natak by 2020, while we are still talking about railway lines from Kerung to Kolkata. Somebody needs to hire a geography teacher to brief our PM and his fellow mantris to teach them about our terrain. Most of us know that it is not impossible but very difficult to get trains running from one chimeki’s land to another.  Not much problem from Kathmandu to Kolkata but the Chinese side poses a lot of risks.

So, let us forget about railways lines and metro stations in the Capital for now. Just fix our roads first. Make our highways safer. Give us clean drinking water, well-managed sewages and end syndicates in food, education, medical and transportation sector. We cannot applaud on empty stomachs and empty pockets.

Dear Oli Dai, we the people are being ripped off by our byaparis everywhere. We, the people, are extorted by our civil servants for the government services we seek. We, the people, have to pay more taxes and yet get no respect at all. And yet you claim to be working for the people.

Yes, they are working for the 300 byaparis while making the lives of 30 million Nepalis miserable. So, let us not expect much from our netas, both ruling and those without power for now. They are all parasites.  They will continue to suck us dry till there is nothing left.

Guffadi is a grumpy old man who blogs at guffadi.blogspot.com. You may contact him at [email protected]