मोदीलाई शङ्का गर्ने ठाउँ छैन

Modi Has Been A Blessing For Nepal
Modi Noticed A "Trust Deficit"

मोदीले जस्तो सोशल मीडिया प्रयोग गर्ने नेता विश्वमा अहिले अर्को छैन। मोदी नंबर एक नै हो। (Politician Number One: Modi) मैले भन्न खोजेको मोदीले के गर्न खोजे, कहाँ कति बेला के बोले, ती सब खुद मोदीकै मुखबाट सुन्न सकिन्छ। मोदी खुद आफैमा मीडिया हो। र मैले मोदीलाई बड़ो नजिकबाट फॉलो गर्दैछु। मोदीको नेपालसँगको अन्तर्क्रियाको मैले गहिरो अध्ययन गरेको छु।

नेपाल र मोदीबारे सबैले बुझ्नु पर्ने कुरा के हो भने मोदी संसारकै सबैभन्दा व्यस्त मान्छे। मोदी नेपाल आउनु अगाडि १७ वर्ष भारतको कुनै पनि प्रधान मंत्री नेपाल नआएको कारण छ: समयको अभाव। मोदी भने नेपाल दुई पटक आउन भ्याइ सके, फेरि आउँछु भन्दैछन्। मैले विश्वका थुप्रै देश घुमें, तर नेपालमा मलाई जुन किसिमको माया प्राप्त भयो त्यो कहीं पनि प्राप्त भएन भनेर भनेका छन।

मोदी जस्तो मान्छे नेपाल आएको नेपाललाई लाटरी परेको हो।

मोदी नेपाललाई ठग्छु भनेर हिंडेको मान्छे होइन। भारतलाई पनि First World Country बनाउँछु, साथै नेपाललाई पनि First World Country बनाउँछु भनेर हिंडेको मान्छे मोदी। मोदी पाउन भारतका जनताले वोट दिनुपर्यो, नेपालका जनताले वोट नै नदिकन पाइ राखेका छन। फोकटमा। यो त धन्यवाद भन्नु पर्ने कुरा हो।

संसारका धनी भन्दा धनी देश आफ्नो देशमा FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) भित्र्याउन तँछाड़ मछाड गर्छन। भारत, चीन, अमेरिका, ब्रिटेन -- सबैले। मोदीले भकाभक तीन महिनामा दुई बिलियन डॉलर नेपाल ल्याइदिए, अर्को ६ बिलियन डॉलर पनि ल्याउन लागेका छन। यो यदि हिंदुत्व हो भने मलाई यस्तो हिंदुत्व अझ चाहियो।

भारतमा मोदीले विकास बाहेक धर्मको कुरा गरेका छैनन् --- नेपालमा त झन गर्ने कुरै भएन। नेपाल धर्म निरपेक्ष राज्य हो --- आज पनि हो, भोलि पनि हो। त्यो छलफल समाप्त भयो। २००६ को अप्रिल क्रांतिको त्यो आदेश थियो।

प्रचण्डलाई एक जनाले सोधे, संसारका अधिकांश देश कुनै न कुनै धर्म सँग आबद्ध छन, नेपाल हिन्दु राष्ट्र भन्दिए के पो बिग्रिन्छ? प्रचण्डले भने ----- संसारमा जति बिकसित देश छन ती प्रत्येक धर्म निरपेक्ष नै छन। देशलाई निरक्षरताबाट साक्षरता तर्फ लाने हो, साक्षरता बाट निरक्षरता तर्फ होइन।

नेपालमा लगभग बढ़ीमा १,००० जति मानिस छन ---- पुलिस, प्रशासन, सेना, पार्टी, मीडिया, NGO आदि इत्यादिमा ---- जसको राष्ट्रीयताको परिभाषा नै नेपाललाई सकेसम्म लामो समय सम्म गरीब बनाएर राख्ने भन्ने छ। एउटा कुन चाहिं राणा प्रधान मन्त्रीले कॉलेज उदघाटन गर्दा रोए जस्तो। मान्छे टाठा बाठा हुन्छन् अनि हामीलाई टेरन छोडछन भन्ने डर। यसै १,००० मान्छेको जमातले मोदीलाई सकेसम्म गाली गरेको अवस्था छ। यो मोदीले देश झिलिमिली पार्ने भो, आपत पार्ने भो भनेर यो १,००० मान्छेलाई निल्नु नओकल्नु भइ राखेको छ।

नेपाल भारत को कुरै छैन, तराई पहाड़को कुरै होइन। राष्ट्रियता त हुँदै होइन। चार वर्षमा एक पटक वोट खसाल्नु बाहेक जनताको महत्व छैन भनठान्ने यो १,००० को अलोकतांत्रिक चरित्रको जमात। तर मोदी grassroots बाट माथि आएको मान्छे --- यो सानो १,००० को जमात र तीन करोड़ नेपाली जनता बीच फरक छुट्याउन सक्ने मान्छे हो।

हुँदा हुँदा यो १,००० को जमातले भारतबाट भाड़ाका टट्टू झिकाइ झिकाइ मोदीलाई गाली गर्न लगाउन थालेका छन।

मोदीकरणको नेपाली रूप

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Nepali Angels

(written for Vishwa Sandesh, the leading Nepali language newspaper in NYC)

I have an impressive track record as a Nepali in New York. I was the only full timer among the 200,000 Nepalis across America to have worked full time for the democracy movement back in 2005-06. It was not journalism, it was political work. It was digital activism. Then I did full time work for the Madhesi Movement a year later. Again, I was the only full timer among the 1,000 or so Madhesis that might be spread across America. That number is so discouraging. It is worse than the Madhesi representation in the Nepal Army, in the Nepali bureaucracy at large. A 1,000 to 200,000 ratio is not healthy. Madhesis are 40% of Nepal, but there is not proportionate representation in the diaspora any more than there is in the Nepali state apparatus. I have little patience with Madhesis with the Panche mindset, even for Madhesis with the Congress mindset. There is too much internalized prejudice going on.

Federalism has not happened yet. State restructuring has not happened yet. The agenda is very much alive. Although I personally feel like I have moved past all that to shift my focus to matters economic. What would be the lifestyle of someone who feels Nepal now needs to focus on economic development like a laser beam for the next 30 years?

Social justice for the DaMaJaMa - Dalit, Madhesi, Janajati, Mahila - is important in its own right, but it is also important because Nepal can not realize its full economic potential unless there is full blown social justice.

If the last election was a mandate for geographic federalism, I stand for Ek Madhesh Do Pradesh. Nawalparasi and west, Surkhet included, because Bhitri Madhesi is still Madhesh, could be a state called Western Terai. Chitwan and east, Udaypur included, could be Eastern Terai. Of course Jhapa and Morang will have to be part of it. You can’t take Surkhet, Chitwan, and Udaypur out of the Terai. Taking Morang, Jhapa, Kailali, Kanchanpur out of the Terai is outlandishly out of question.

Two states in the Terai, and four in the hills would work for me.

The more challenging part of state restructuring is where you eliminate several national ministries, where you downsize the Nepal Army to maybe 10,000 soldiers so as to open up funds for more teachers and health care workers, where you downsize ministries, because a federal setup should end up with at least one third fewer bureaucrats at all levels combined than what we have today. Federalism is supposed to be more efficient than the unitary state.

NRNs argue for dual citizenship the wrong way. They make it sound like they are these deprived people who need to be given their due rights. The truth is NRNs are the cream of the crop even when they go to some place like Qatar to do menial work; you have to at least be enterprising to be able to do that. The case for dual citizenship is that you put that arrangement in place so as to maximize the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Nepal. I took up Ram Sharan Mahat on this topic the last time he was in the city, and he did not seem to see the connection, and the dude is Finance Minister. Dual citizenship for NRNs truly is the magic bullet that would transform the Nepali economy. In this age of globalization all of the two million Nepalis spread across the world have to be thought of as ambassadors, and not just the less than 100 officially appointed ones.

And that brings me to the cream of the crop among the Nepalis in NYC. I have approached most of them for angel investing into this or that idea. You angel invest so an idea gets fruition enough that it is able to tap into the capital markets in this money capital of the world. But it is like the cream of the crop lack imagination. They don’t seem to connect the dots any more than Ram Sharan Mahat.

There is economic growth, and then there is economic revolution. Growth is around 5% whereas revolution is when you can make the Nepali economy grow at double digit rates year in year out for 30 years. That requires radical thinking, like angel investing.

A high school classmate/housemate of mine in Munich, Germany, across the pond, a biotech guy, recently wired 5,000 dollars to me to invest in my tech startup’s first round, and I am going to help him raise money for his biotech startup’s second round. What goes around comes around.

I highly recommend angel investing.

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5,000 Members

The United States possibly was one of the last countries for the Non Resident Nepali movement to enter. It flourished on all continents except this one for years. And finally when it arrived it had managed to accumulate 400 members in four years.

But looks like those days are over. A recent membership drive has put the membership past 3,000. And that is in large measure because you can get your membership online. Estimates of Nepalis in America put the number at 200,000. I think to expect the NRNA will get at least 5,000 members is modest. The NRNA deserves to become the largest Nepali organization in America.

The organization suffered because the democratic process was disallowed. But some recent changes are welcome. You should be able to get your membership online. Any member should be able to contest for Officer positions, and all members should be able to directly vote for those Officer positions. The committees that run the association should organize online meetings. You put those basics into place and the next thing you know you have a truly pan American organization. Geography is no longer holding you back. All book keeping should be kept transparent and online.

The empowerment of the community comes from the organization’s commitment to the basic democratic process itself. Such a commitment to democracy and transparency will jack up the membership base to consistently large numbers. People running for Officer positions would engage in membership drives to boost their chances, and that would be swell.

The annual ANA Convention has a long tradition, and it deserves to continue with it. That convention is as good a platform as any for the NRNA as well.

The dual citizenship issue remains the unfinished business of the NRNA. And that mystifies me. Because making dual citizenship possible for global Nepalis is the easiest and the single biggest step the government in Nepal can take for Nepal’s rapid economic growth. Nepali politicians who oppose Foreign Direct Investment, either through active opposition or, more likely, plain inaction, and those who stand against dual citizenship for global Nepalis are directly responsible for Nepali women ending up in the brothels in Mumbai, and Nepalis landing in body bags from the Gulf states. Those politicians are standing in the way of job creation inside the country.

Only a mass based NRNA in America can help with the cause of dual citizenship. A NRNA with 200 members simply does not have legitimacy. At 5,000 members you are finally talking. At 10,000 members you matter. The membership drive has to be ongoing.

There are more than 30 Nepali organizations just in New York City. There are tens of Nepali organizations in most major urban areas across the country. The NRNA could be that umbrella organization that brings Nepalis together across this country. And it is a good thing the association asks for individual and not organizational membership.

There is power in numbers. For the first time I have some respect for the NRNA in America. 5,000 has been that magic number for me. The membership number has to go past that for me to take the NRNA seriously. Leaders contesting elections and winning after massive membership drives have legitimacy. Enough of backroom deals and undemocratic appointments and shady court actions.

Once the NRNA in America gets the basics of democracy and transparency right and goes past 5,000 members, it will become a serious national chapter of the global NRN movement for the first time. And it might even claim leadership of the global movement at some point. It will be able to add muscle to the dual citizenship debate.

In a culturally diverse country like America, and especially in cities like New York, a well run NRNA will bring up opportunities for alliance building with organizations that represent other countries. Transparent and online book keeping will create opportunities for massive fundraising and creating new programs.

If the Officers of NRNA America will hold online meetings, that means the gulf between the NRNA chapters in the 60 plus countries is going to be zero. Everyone can come on Skype. It is amazing how Viber has taken off. The NRN movement was always meant to be global. But lack of robust coordination has kept the movement in the doldrums. I am for more skyping and less air travel. Use social media to the max. Keep all interested members in the know. Publish meeting minutes and money details on Facebook groups.

5,000 members spread across the country might mean those running for Office might also have to conduct primarily online campaigns. That would be interesting. That would also be cheap. Which means anyone could participate, and that would be a good thing.

I have wondered out loud many times in many places as to why the top global Nepali entrepreneurs are not out of America but rather Second World countries like Russia. If America is the ultimate country, what gives? One of the things holding the community back has been a lack of large, mass based, democratic, transparent, robust organizations. Minus that the community has been nimbling along with some sort of an inferiority complex.

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The For Profit Sector

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (26.8.1919-5.9.1997); at a pro-life meeting in 1986 in Bonn, Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(published in Vishwa Sandesh)

The For Profit Sector
By Paramendra Bhagat (www.paramendra.com)

More than 80% of the people in America work for private companies. That is how they put food on the table. Another 15% or so work for the government. This economy requires 5% of the people to stay unemployed if it is to have a robust labor market. As in, a 100% employment rate is highly undesirable. That is why governments deem it worth it to issue out unemployment benefits: keeps the labor market fluid. The non profit sector steps in for those who don’t receive unemployment benefits or welfare checks. And then there are the uncared for untouched by the private, public and non profit sectors. Those seek Mother Teresa. Sadly, that still leaves a segment of the population that is truly uncared for, especially so in the global context.

In poor countries the private sector might be weak, the public sector might be relatively too dominant and getting in the way, the non profit sector might be overly strained or barely existent. But even there most people work private sector jobs to put food on the table for their families. That includes the informal sector in countries like India. The informal sector of the Indian economy comprised of businesses that don’t hold licenses and don’t pay taxes is rather large. And then there is the mafia that also largely revolves around money making. In some countries of Latin America the drug mafia is so large it functions as a parallel government. The Mumbai origin Dawood Ibrahim is listed as one of the 40 richest people in the world.

In the scheme of things I think the royal throne goes to the entrepreneurs in their multitudes. Entrepreneurs are not rich, greedy people lording over the hapless. They are people who create wealth and jobs. They pay taxes with which governments invest in people’s education, health and infrastructure. Entrepreneurs literally create wealth out of thin air. Bill Gates’ 50 billion dollars is not money he stole from someone. Those 50 billion dollars simply did not exist before he came along. And good thing he is putting that money to good use through his foundation. He has been fighting poverty like he were some kind of a Maoist.

The corporation is one of the greatest inventions ever. And entrepreneurship makes sense for people in all income brackets. I am a huge fan of micro lending. Everyone deserves access to not only education and health but also credit.

Abraham Lincoln did what no entrepreneur could have: he ended slavery. And someone like Gandhi is both Lincoln and Mother Teresa. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh ran his enterprise like a non profit. There is no denying the role of the leaders of various sectors. But as a country like Nepal moves towards a decided economic focus, I think appreciation for entrepreneurship will have to take deep root in the culture.

A country like Nepal that has numerous communist parties and it looks like most of the major non communist parties also call themselves socialist, I think interesting concoctions can be imagined. You can have companies that are partly owned by the government, you can have companies that are majority owned by the government. But for the most part it is best if the government stays out.

A left leaning country runs the danger of wanting to kill the hen that lays the golden egg. Nehru was key to India’s independence, but he also gave the country his gift of socialism, which was well meaning, and perhaps made Cold War sense to him, but that has also meant the legacy of too much red tape and misallocated resources with India ending up with the much derided “Hindu rate of growth” for decades.

Unleashing the entrepreneurship potential of the new generation in Nepal is partly a policy challenge. Some warning signs are the mindless, xenophobic rhetoric against Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that seems to have a permanent place among a segment of the Nepali political spectrum. The choice is clear. You can bring in foreign capital, or you can send away your workers to Dubai and Malaysia to labor in uncertain circumstances. After Baburam Bhattarai signed BIPPA, a pro FDI agreement, his own Deputy Prime Minister stood up against it to score cheap, misguided political points. I was perplexed. Hostility to FDI is a sure recipe to a perpetuation of poverty in Nepal. Is poverty what Nepali nationalism all about? As in, to lose poverty is to lose the essence of what Nepal is all about? Beats me.

China never tires of pointing out how much more FDI it attracts year after year as compared to India. FDI is not only a good thing, it is something any sensible country competes for. That includes the rich economies.

I would hope that the Maoists would learn to respect entrepreneurs the way they have worked hard to accept other political parties. Their pro poor origins would be best reflected in the resources they should be able to marshal for education, health and infrastructure. Get the literacy rate up dramatically, up the vaccination rates. Train tens of thousands of health care workers and send them out to the villages, Mao style. But do not kill the hen that lays the golden egg. Let entrepreneurs run full speed.

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