RN & NRN

NRNs (non-resident Nepalis) is a recent popular coinage to describe those who are Nepalis but do not live in Nepal. It is amazing how this prevalence gained fast clout amidst us, in our media, business, government and society. NRN is a new status symbol, an embodiment of prosperity and an attraction for matrimony. All doors open, friendly hands are extended and warm hearts offered to our over-sized brothers and sisters of Nepal. Who can ignore or overlook a visitor dangling a NRN portfolio? He or she can turn out to be a prospective investor in business, sponsor for higher education or, say, an eligible son-in-law or a daughter-in-law, or for that matter, a father-in-law or mother-in-law.



Isn’t it amazing how the well-acclaimed NRNs are trying to get back to an unknown identity of RNs (resident Nepalis) by demanding citizenship of Nepal on top of the citizenship of far more developed countries of the world? Does it not look incongruous at a time when greater and greater number of RNs are trying to convert into NRNs? Being fed up with power shortage, water shortage, fuel shortage, job shortage, security shortage and you name it, the resident Nepalis are physically fleeing the country, or, at least, dreaming of it. Those who have resources are transferring abroad and those who have none are quitting for making resources. Anyway everybody is well set to leave for a greener pasture. Why should any sensible NRN, at this time, crave to be a resident of a country that is full of problems with no solution in sight?



The only explanation we can divine in this otherwise inexplicable hankering is a cosmic cycle that seems to permeate the Nepali psyche at home and abroad. There is already a pattern emerging from the NRNs wanting to be RNs and the RNs wishing to be NRNs. No matter what age group one belongs to, no one is out of this inexorable enticement. The young people in Nepal are visibly leaving their country in hordes for jobs or education. In the opposite direction of the two-way traffic are the seniors, who are heading toward Nepal for what they call retirement in native soil and company of old chums. At least they are dreaming for it. Both are right to seek opportunity well-suited to their age and temperament. Should we not accept this nexus discernible in this movement of RNs into NRNs and return of NRNs to RNs a natural human urge? After all we have seen from our witness box similar cycle taking place in the form of our government shifting from monarchy to democracy, democracy to monarchy, monarchy to, again, democracy over the last 60 years. I dare not surmise beyond this limit to conjecture if history is going to repeat as it does in our country.



Dual citizenship, as it were, should not be considered a big deal. It is something Nepalis are familiar with, which, in fact, already exists in reality, if not legally. Have you not heard some ministers in our cabinet not only hold landed property in India but also in possession of Indian citizenship? Since I am not aware of any action taken against them I assume it is well accepted. There are many young boys and girls from Nepal who have traveled with Indian passports for lucrative jobs unmindful of legal or emotional hassles in doing so. For them, dual citizenship is a fact of life unlike for those who are seeking a legal recognition of an illegal practice. NRNs still hold landed property in Nepal and have no difficulty in conducting transactions on presentation of Nepalis citizenship certificates none of them parted with. Residence right that the NRNs are seeking from Nepali authorities too is available for all practical purposes. Has anybody heard any NRN being deported from Nepal for violation of residence permit? I have not and I don’t think anybody has. Why, then, is a big fuss over a non-issue?




What I have heard is growing complaints against haves-NRNs who are selling properties in Nepal and transferring the money to their adopted countries for housing or business investment. Critics even go to the extent of describing them as enjoying parental heritage with no obligations to them in return. Some are alleged converting black corrupt money into white. In contrast, it is the so-called labor class from poor families who remit their income, despite being relatively meager, to native land from the deserts of the Middle East and jungles of Southeast Asia. The volume is as big as that of the annual budget of Nepal to the tune of about 3 billion US dollars that is actually sustaining the society and preventing it from starvation. Who deserves greater credit and patronage in this centrifugal and centripetal process of monetary flight is a sensitive but interesting question. It is the uneducated youth, who are vulnerable to exploitation and insecurity during their sojourn abroad unlike their better-off countrymen. However, thanks to the smart guys in the NRN community the Nepali government is more attentive to the more privileged than the lesser ones.



What the NRNs fail to understand is the genetic and historic perspective of Nepali migrants. The Nepalis are a mobile aggressive people with an aptitude to adopt a new country than to sticking to the old one. Did they not settle down in the hills of India and Burma although unfairly kicked out at a later stage? Think of Siddhartha Gautam who was by far the first and the most celebrated NRN of Nepal. He left his kingdom, wife and child in search of universal truth and liberation. Would he ever have attained enlightenment if he did not leave his home with a mission in mind? Thanks to his NRN spirit that he achieved something for humanity and never thought of coming back to be RN. Princess Bhrikuti was yet another NRN who shined as a celebrity in Tibet for promoting Buddhism. Buddha Bhadra was a great NRN who spent his life in China for the same reason. He translated the Sanskrit Buddhist texts in Chinese and the Chinese Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit. In the field of architecture, Araniko is recognized as the most admired NRN in China. Jaya Prithvi Bahadur Singh too spent his lifetime abroad by advocating humanism. Of all the modern NRN, Upendra Mahato is emerging as the biggest investor, greatest organizer and best philanthropist. We have yet to ascertain those who deserve to be noticed as proud NRN.



It is wrong for the NRNs to be simply mindful of getting rich and turn back for social recognition. If somebody has a lurking political ambition behind citizenship issue, he/she should better learn a lesson from Dr Harka Gurung, Dr Bhekh Bahadur Thapa and Dr Devendra Raj Pandey in their unsuccessful bid at the polls. The NRN mission has been and should be a spirit of help. That is what our people did. The Gorkha soldiers’ mission was to help the British and the Indians at their most difficult times. That they are letting us down is a different matter. The menial workers are out to help build the skyscrapers in the Gulf and Malaysia. The brainy migrants are helping to run social services in the Western hemisphere. Let them not look back. Let them look forward to penetrate the society they live in and participate in all activities including political and governing bodies. Let the NRNs be judged from the number of RNs they can turn into NRNs. It is the wretched home government that should equally be reoriented to the new attitude of helping out instead of crying with a begging bowl for help. Let the classic song “Pharka he pharka Nepali” (return ye Nepali) be banned. Instead a new national rather international song be composed to give a message of “Na pharka, na pharka Nepali” (do not return ye Nepali) so that they would be able to establish new Nepal all over the world, overtly or covertly notwithstanding.



adityaman@hotmail.com

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