Prime Minister Nepal has tried to defend himself, arguing that former prime ministers were given a free hand to dole out as much money as they wanted. He even got his assistants to prepare a list of how much former prime ministers spent while they were at Baluwatar and passed the list on to the media so that people would not censure him alone. The reality is, none of his predecessors had a free hand and there always was a limit on how much a given prime minister could actually spend. But his predecessors, like him, chose to spend as freely and as limitlessly as they wished. Mr. Prime Minister, the point is, someone has to do things differently, someone has to initiate the change, and someone has to set a precedent. Mahatma Gandhi famously said, "Be the change you want to see." It is sad that you chose to be just one of the same breed when the people are clamoring for a different style of leadership-- for a different character in their leaders.
Prime Minister Nepal should have been thankful to his ministers and senior bureaucrats at the Prime Minister’s Office who took an initiative and cut his discretionary powers to fork out largesse. By doing so they released him from the burden of obliging anyone and everyone who knocked on his door for financial assistance. With the provision in place, he could have explained to people seeking that favor that his hands were tied. And they would not have blamed him since the provision was introduced while he was abroad. Instead, Nepal chastised his ministers for trying to manacle him and took his own initiative to revoke the provision. What a blinkered attitude! How can you be blind as a bat to what is in your own best interest, prime minister?
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