Even if Birendra's dynasty had not been destroyed and Gyanendra's autocracy had not existed, the process of exploiting the kingdom's wealth would have continued. But its character, tendency, style and form were different. Expenditure on government budgets, expensive tours, and royal amenities for the royal family continued to be misused of public taxes in various forms and styles.
(History is often written with tears and blood, written in darkness. But think what if those tears and blood had not been shed? If that turning point had not come?Kantipur has introduced a new debate series – 'Alternative History', in which we ask, 'What would have happened then...?'
If some decisive events in Nepal had developed differently, would we be a little happier today? Would we have been happy? Or would we have struggled for this achievement?
In the first series, we are going back to the 2058 Darbar Massacre – a night that changed Nepali political history in an instant.
From kings, queens, crown princes, palaces fell together, the map of power changed, maybe the pillars of the republic stood on that foundation.
But if it wasn't a murder - what would happen? Could King Birendra have negotiated with the Maoists and led the country to the path of peace?
Would he kill Shakti like Gyanendra and cause the downfall of the monarchy? Would the mainstream parties and the Maoists clash and destroy one or the other? And, would we now be witnessing development and good governance instead of corruption and despair?
Yes, we cannot change history. But we can think, understand, learn and draw a path to prosperity. Therefore, in this series, we will include the arguments of analysts, historians, writers, sociologists, students and ordinary citizens.)
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'Republic has turned into a factory for producing corrupt people' - This is the opinion expressed by Kamal Thapa, President of RPP Nepal, in a program on 18 Baisakh, 2082. Listening to Thapa's speech, it seemed that if the monarchy had remained in the country, Nepal would have been a "Ram Rajya" from the point of view of good governance and corruption control. After the people's movement of 2063 ended the monarchy, a new disease called corruption suddenly entered the country and destroyed the country.
In Nepali politics, those who have been referred to as 'mouse instinct' and who have been in power from panchayat to republic, may think that 'Gen G' or the later generation, who have not experienced his rule in the past and did not study history objectively, may think that the republic itself has become a factory for producing corrupt people. There was no such factory in the monarchy.
is incomplete without an objective study of the history of the monarchy before forming an opinion about the exploitation of state funds in Nepal. Even if the reign of Birendra, who created the image of a liberal ruler to some extent, and the autocratic Gyanendra, who controlled the democratic practice, is only studied in detail, many realities are evident. But let's imagine, if Birendra's dynasty did not happen in 2058 (Narayanhiti palace massacre) and if Gyanendra did not seize power in 2059, how would Nepal be today from the point of view of corruption control and good governance? Did state exploitation decrease? Would the amount of corruption among employees and politicians be less?
Before diving into this romantic fantasy, one truth we must understand is that Nepal's history of state exploitation and corruption did not begin with the republic. The history of corruption dates back to the era of Chanakya around 370-283 BC. In the divine sermon of Prithvi Narayan Shah, who united Nepal, it helps to understand the corruption existing at that time from the fact that "There is no sin in taking bribes and taking bribes, these two are the great servants of the king." Further digging into the history, it seems that during the reign of Ran Bahadur Shah, corruption reached a high level.
During the reign of Ran Bahadur Shah, who came to power in 1851, looting and exploitation of the national wealth was unimaginable. He took out a lot of wealth from Mulukikhana. He went to Kashi on 8th June 1857. He stayed in Kashi and created brahmalut on the national wealth. Rajarajeshwari had sent more than 160,000 to Banaras to entertain him.
In 1862, Ran Bahadur Shah returned to Nepal and there is a history of misusing Birta and temple guthis for his own pleasure. In the meantime, Mr. On Saturday 14 Baisakh, 1863, Sher Bahadur Shahi killed Ran Bahadur Shah in a gruesome manner in a court case about embezzlement of government money. During the time of Ran Bahadur Shah, the exploitation of the kingdom's wealth, which was concentrated in the palace and Bhaibhardar, was further increased by his successors, Rajendra and Surendra. If you look at
history, it can be seen that Since 1894 In the 9 years up to 1903, there were 8 changes of government. Many historical books have been published about the exploitation of state funds during the transition. One of these is Baburam Acharya's "Now this is never happening". It is mentioned that after Mathwarsingh Thapa became the Prime Minister in the month of January 1900, Chautaria Guruprasad Shah stole 12 lakh rupees from the state treasury and went to India.
This situation worsened during the Rana period. Capital flight increased. After the Bhandarkhal festival, On 3rd November 1903, Jung Bahadur decided to exile Rajya Lakshmi and send her to Kashi. After this, Rajyalakshmi took Rs.31 lakh cash and Rs.15 lakh worth of jewelery with her. which was state funded.
During the Rana period, the property of the state was used personally by the Rana ruler. According to Narayan Prasad Sangraula in his book History of Modern Nepal, there was no difference between national income and individual income during Rana period.
According to him, the Rana rulers used to deposit most of the country's income as their personal property in banks outside the country. Balchandra Sharma writes in the book "History of Nepal" - "Chandrashamsher exploited the country's economy and deposited more than 40 million rupees in foreign banks."
With the political changes of 2007, Rana was out of power. The monarchy became powerful. Even this did not reduce the speed and extent of corruption. Rather it spread in a different form. Different characters were involved. The then ministers Ganeshman Singh, Surya Prasad Upadhyay and Soovarnashamsher resigned after alleging corruption during Matrika Prasad Koirala's regime. The cabinet formed under the leadership of Tank Prasad Acharya also suffered a similar fate.
The then two ministers, Balchandra Sharma and Pashupati Ghosh, resigned after alleging fraud in the appointment of employees and corruption in the administration. After this On July 11, 2014, Dr. KI Singh was appointed Prime Minister. Singh said that due to the corruption of 12 to 15 million rupees from the country's treasury, the money should be recovered. On August 17, 2014, a commission was formed.
After this, the government led by him was dismissed by the then King Mahendra within 120 days. About the dissolution of his cabinet, he said - 'In order to eliminate corruption in my time, I was finding the root of it, while I was going I reached the door of the palace, the day I reached there, at that time my cabinet was dissolved (Mangladevi Singh's Nari Sanghar Pailaro Page No. 132).'
This situation increased during the Panchayat period. A periodical book on the history of Navaraj Subedi, a shrewd player in panchayat governance, is enough to understand the fact that the level of corruption was there during this time and how the court and its various characters were involved in it.
Alleging that the leaders were corrupt, the then King Mahendra had established a non-partisan panchayat system on 1st December 2017. After this The Prevention of Corruption Act 2017 was implemented on Chait 27, 2017. But the Panchayat itself was mired in corruption. The 'Gaon Fark Abhiyan', which was started with the aim of institutionalizing the Panchayat, itself became a hotbed of corruption.
The tendency of those who want to become leaders in the village to buy tickets with the leaders who have returned to the village was institutionalized at that time. After getting infamous due to corruption, the 'Gaon Fark Abhiyan' was canceled and the Panchayat Policy and Investigation Committee was formed. The committee also became a means of exploiting the state for the panchas close to the palace.
Not only that, there were 91 accused including the then Prime Minister Tulsi Giri in the carpet scandal in 2033 after the reign of the then King Birendra. Diss. In order to win the Panchayat after the referendum in 2036, then Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa and Navraj Subedi took more than 35 million sums from Chothmal Jatia on the condition of illegally granting them citizenship, allowing them to export banned snake skin and opening a cotton mill in Kathmandu.
Navraj Subedi writes about how corrupt the Panchayat governance system was in a section of his book History - 'After the plebiscite, the desire to earn money increased suddenly among the people of the palace... Ministers started to earn money. Honorable Members were made to remove the Marwari gold from the bank. ... The members of the National Panchayat also wanted money and the ministers themselves began to encourage the honorable as a porter to carry gold (Pages 55 and 56).'
In the year 2029, Shahi Nepal Air Services Corporation took 120,000 dollars for the first Boeing purchase by the members of the board of directors of the corporation. As mentioned in journalist Tirtha Koirala's book 'Bigreko Bato', some important part of it even reached the palace. Likewise, the corporation In the year 2044, there was more than 60 million corruption in the purchase of Boeing 757.
The practice of buying MPs started during the Panchayat period. . Members of Rashtriya Panchayat were involved in gold smuggling. Tribhuvan airport accused of smuggling gold. In the year 2043, then National Panchayat member Nar Bahadur Gurung was arrested. Explaining that time further, Navraj Subedi writes - "During the time of Birendra, we should have found out which of the secretaries and ADCs were not corrupt (Page No. 71)."
This situation happened during the direct rule of Birendra. These are only some of the incidents that were made public. Many of the corruption incidents that happened during that time when there was no press freedom may have been lost in history. The Panchayat system that lasted for about 30 years ended in the year 2046. After this, a multi-party system was established. But the involvement of different characters increased. After this, the scandal involving the sale of tickets of the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation, which was asked to bring more than 50 million ships, the Lauda scandal. In 2051, the sugar scandal of UML was reduced. In 2052, there were many cases of corruption It is argued that there is no direct connection between the existence of the palace and the absence of the palace. However, it is argued that it would not have contributed to the control of the state and corruption. The evidence is not found in history. If Birendra was alive, the sovereignty would not have been completely in the hands of the people and the power and resources would have been concentrated in the palace under the guise of the power The famous Swiss watch company, which failed to come to Nepal, took advantage of the political instability in the midst of the Maoist war and the palace massacre. He dissolved the party in the shadow of the palace and illegally exploited the public property. And the cases of violation of freedom of expression increased. He suppressed the Office of the Auditor General, which controls governance. During the period of 3 years from 2061 to 2063, luxury cars worth 37 million were used for the exploitation of autocracy Millions of rupees were distributed in the financial year 2059/60, 90 lakhs in 2061/62 and 88 lakhs in the name of autocracy. During this period, the exploitation of state funds increased. Before the start of the active rule of Gyanendra, in the financial year 2057/58, the government took over. In 2058/59, the budget of 61 million rupees was spent under the leadership of Kamal Thapa, who wanted to bring the republic. If Birendra's dynasty had not been destroyed, the exploitation of the royal family would have been different The abuse of the people's taxes continued in different forms and styles. Now, because the lions have penetrated into the republican system, if the royal institution had remained, then there would have been no freedom of the press and such incidents would not have come out It could have continued but the exploitation of the state's wealth would have continued. The question arises as to whether there was deep and structural corruption in the palace era, but there was no visible corruption due to the palace's control. But that is a matter of 'unseen' abuse, irregularity and abuse of the state in my understanding The system could have been the same or even more. The concept of amnesty was the same during the Panchayat period. The system of pardoning the Panchayat officials was during the Panchayat regime. The system of impunity started by the Panchayat was still strong If it were not for the despotism of Birendra, the country would not have been in a centralized state. It would have reduced the number of people involved in corruption The amount of corruption would have been higher than it is now. Although the 'open corruption' of the political party and the bureaucracy would not have been seen so openly. Therefore, the form of corruption would not have decreased. If we look at the history of the world, the exploitation of the state would have been the most if Gyanendra had not lived The underdeveloped structure of the state system and the lack of civil responsibility were likely to remain the same. In such a situation, the powerful officials of the palace would not have exploited the state funds. But the people close to the palace would have benefited from the license of the commercial companies and the import and export. If the government system of Nepal remained strong, The independence of the judiciary was disturbed in a different form than it is now, and the monitoring capacity of the civil society and the mass media was greatly reduced. That is, the form of corruption and state exploitation was different from the current one, that is, it was of the nature of giving benefits to a special class through the 'give and take' system In other words, the character will remain the same. For this, there is a need for transparency, the strengthening of the rule of law. As long as the government is not focused on the power of the government, the corruption will remain. The structure of corruption is woven by the same spider. The difference is only in form, not in character.
