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Ideology is to a political party what capital city is to a country: the center from which authority and structure emanate. Kathmandu no longer calls all the shots in the new federal setup. Yet if there were to be no common federal capital, the federal project would unravel amid chaos and anarchy. Kathmandu sets broad contours for the country’s governance, offering a framework within which individual provinces and local units operate. Likewise, a political party is established around a central ideology around which other party structures and personnel coalesce.

Business-minded Nepali Congress leaders often make a mockery of the party’s governing ideology of ‘democratic socialism’. Similarly, CPN-UML’s power-grabbing top-brass often give a lie to ‘people’s multiparty democracy’, the party’s unique brand of communism. Yet even when their leaders and cadres go astray, they can always rally around the unifying ideology. Such ideology gives political parties unity and coherence, the glue with which to bind the loose organization. In its absence, political parties can quickly lose direction and unravel, as we saw with Rabindra Mishra’s Sajha Party or other Nepali outfits that have been formed around themes like anti-corruption and good governance.

When the popular TV presenter Rabi Lamichhane announced his new Rastriya Swatantra Party on June 21, he too promised to root out corruption and give the country the kind of politics it needs. But he outlined no governing ideology for his party. Catchy slogans and personality cults might be able to amass votes in the short run but for the party’s sustainability it must have an underlying political ideology.

What do the new party’s adherents believe in, for instance, that those of Congress or UML don’t? In the party unveiling ceremony, Lamichhane only outlined its functioning and structure, promising to work out the nitty-gritty later. We earnestly hope that the party can in the near future also settle on its core ideology. The country desperately needs alternative political forces. It would be a tragedy if Lamichanne’s new outfit, unmoored by lack of political ideology, too veers fatally off-course.

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma’s open involvement of vested interests in the budget-making process—as first reported in Annapurna Post, our sister publication—is inexcusable. Late in the night before the budget-presentation, Sharma, as reported, invited a pair of outsiders into his chambers in the ministry. He then asked finance ministry officials present there to “lock the door”. The minister said the two guests were “tax experts” who were authorized to tweak tax rates “on my behalf”. While the identity of one guest has been disclosed (he was a former finance minister official himself), the identity of the second guest remains unknown.

This behavior of Finance Minister Sharma is wrong on multiple fronts. One, when the budget is being finalized, no third person is allowed any access to it in order to prevent vested interests from influencing (and profiting from) the country’s economic blueprint. Two, it is not for the minister or his proxies to dictate tax rates, which should rather be set by senior ministry officials–all experts in the field–after widespread deliberations and careful cost-benefit analysis. But Sharma effectively ‘outsourced’ budget-making.

Following the Annapurna Post report, the ministry’s spokesperson put out a lame statement that does not in any way absolve Minister Sharma of his financial crimes. There cannot be two ways about it: Either Sharma has to credibly refute the allegations against him or he must resign. His highly irresponsible actions that directly affect the lives and livelihoods of 30m Nepalis merits no less. This is not the first time Sharma has been in controversy in recent times. A few months ago Sharma (successfully) lobbied with the government to sack Nepal Rastra Bank Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari when the latter tried to stop a business group from illegally sending money abroad. (The Supreme Court later overturned the sacking.)  

His shambolic 11 months in office make it clear that Minister Sharma has little knowledge about running the country’s economy and even less compunction about abusing his office for personal gains. About time he was replaced by someone more qualified for the job on both these counts. 

Much of the recent controversy over the proposed Nijgadh International Airport in Bara district could have been avoided. Successive governments pushed the ‘national pride project’ without a clear understanding of the trade-offs of building an airport smack-dab in the middle of a dense biodiversity-rich forest. Nor was there much of a plan on the resettlement of the villages that would be uprooted during its construction. As a part of a highly ambitious plan, 80 sq. km of land was cordoned off. It was three to four times the area covered by even the biggest airports in the world. Besides an international airport, the plan was also to build a smart city from the ground-up–with the whole enterprise expected to cost around an eye-watering $6.5bn.  

Most aviation experts reckon a fourth of the area being proposed is enough to build a world-class airport. This would not only dramatically lower project cost but also pose less of an environmental challenge. On the other hand, if the airport and surrounding structures were to sprawl over 80 sq. km, a whopping 2.4m trees would have to be felled. The idea of the smart city was also rather daft: there are plenty of nearby cities that can be easily upgraded to service the new airport. No wonder the Supreme Court had to intervene and ask the government to stop building the proposed airport that didn’t seem to be making any rhyme or reason.  

But there is also no alternative to Nijgadh. After a decade and half, the three airports purpose-built for international air-traffic–TIA, Pokhara and Bhairahawa–between them won’t be able to handle half the volume of expected air-traffic. Of all the proposed sites for an alternative international airport, Nijgadh is also the only place where international flights will be able to start their descent in Nepali airspace–a huge consideration given India’s reluctance to allow third-country carriers in its airspace.       

As many aviation experts have pointed out, a top-notch international airport can be built at Nijgadh for around $3bn, and with minimal environmental damage and disturbance to the lives and livelihoods of those living in the vicinity. Time then to go back to the drawing board.  

The Tara Air Twin Otter crash near Jomsom that killed 22 people on board is a grim reminder of the challenges of flying over Nepal’s uneven terrains and navigating its unpredictable weather. Following the crash, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has issued a new directive whereby planes can fly only if the weather of the entire route is clear. Earlier, only the state of the weather at the take-off and landing sites were factored in. This should make the Nepali skies safer in the otherwise accident-prone pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. Yet that too will be no foolproof guarantee against accidents. 

Besides highlighting the dangers of navigating Nepal’s treacherous terrains, the tragic accident on May 30 has again put a spotlight on the country’s failure to properly monitor and regulate its civil aviation sector. Most aircraft accidents in Nepal are attributed to ‘pilot’s error’ and yet it is hard to think of a single tangible measure that has been taken to minimize such errors. In fact, there are reports of pilots being put under pressure to fly even in bad weather. Nepal is also yet to take one safety measure that could have the biggest impact on air-safety: separate the regulatory and service-providing arms of CAAN. The merging of these duties in one organization creates conflict of interest and increases the chances of grave accidents. 

Nepal has made an improvement in the international civil aviation regulator ICAO’s safety audit scores (but not in the investigation of air-crashes, a measure in which the country’s scores got worse). Yet due to its failure to split up CAAN, the country’s carriers are still banned from European skies. The ban in turn dissuades European travelers from visiting Nepal, a tourism dependent country. 

As the charred bodies of crew and passengers are still being identified, this is not the right time to apportion blame. Why the Twin Otter crashed will be known only after a thorough study. But this is certainly the right time to ask why we as a country are not doing more to minimize the frequency of such tragedies.