It has been over a 100 days of the KP Oli government and promises are all we have to show for it. For starters, I don’t really get our preoccupation with 100 days of this and 100 days of that – 100 days of Tarai protests, 100 days since the earthquake, and now 100 days of incompetence. It’s apparently meant to signify some sort of media concocted ‘honeymoon’ period we have afforded our politicians before we can start expecting results from them. I, along with the rest of this country, don’t really remember according the present government a honeymoon period, especially not when the country was on its knees battling issues on so many fronts. I can’t recall any of our suffering lot going ‘Oh, poor things! Let them have their time to sort out their ministries, their many get-rich-quick schemes and spout empty rhetoric while we all just struggle to get by and die of hunger and cold’.
Anyway, during this honeymoon period (that we did not grant) we have accused all our politicians of incompetence, indifference, and ignorance but the one thing we really cannot accuse them of being is dull. They have all been busy entertaining (distracting) us by making promises because in Nepal it is like blowing hot air and comes with no responsibility at all. No responsibility to do any research, survey ground realities, or consult experts before running their mouths off and certainly no inclination to follow through on those promises.
Cue all the ministers, government allies, and obscure two bit coalition partners all succumbing to a bout of collective ‘promise diarrhea’. This condition does have a lot of similarities with its physiological equivalent – most of all the frequency with which they keep on occurring (promise to end the blockade soon, promise to control black marketing, promise to solve the Tarai issue, promise to start the rebuilding process) and the lack of firm end results for both. I couldn’t think of a better analogy for their promises and I do apologize if it has ruined your breakfast.
Any discussion on the topic of commitments wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t discuss the one who sits at the top of the promise making charts: Our very own PM (Promise Man) KP Oli. While it may be a novelty for him to deliver his promises from a PM’s standpoint, he should sometimes stop to think if we, the people, haven’t heard it all before. After all, which PM hasn’t done the same old ‘end load shedding within a year’ routine? However, you have to give it to him for the originality of the ‘piped gas in houses’ promise. I mean, if we’re all honest, before the incredulity and subsequent collective anger set in there was laughter and lots of it. I have lost count of the number of times I have started conversations with strangers, cab drivers, policemen, neighbors without this topic bringing about peals of laughter.
You can forgive the people in Kathmandu – the very same people who have grown old waiting for water from Melamchi to flow through their pipes – for their lack of enthusiasm. There are other ridiculous promises like the east west metro connection that I don’t even want to get into. This entire spectacle and Oli’s speeches would be downright amusing in its naivety if it were not for his patronizing sense of delivery. It is quite unsettling to see him exude conviction (he must know something we don’t) in that folksy mannerism that is perhaps better suited to gullible ‘chautari’ audiences in rural Nepal than in front of wary urban masses. This is our Prime Minister, the leader of our country. It does make us wonder about the future of our country.
Our PM has already said that he does not intend to backtrack on any of his commitments no matter what people say behind his back or even if he is the subject of ridicule on social media. All of us doubters would love to be proven wrong but in all honesty we stand a greater chance of being struck by lightning. In the meantime, he would be happy to know that there are people on the Internet exhorting us to be more like him. This is KP Oli. The real world does not trouble him because he employs fantasy to escape real life problems. KP Oli is funny. He makes other people laugh. Be like KP Oli.
gunjan.u@gmail.com
Related story
Media persons should be represented in the future government: M...
