Great Expectations
Nepali Times ईspecial 13 - 19 March 2026 #1302
Hello all,
We in Nepal wait with bated breath as the Balen Party (BP) prepares to name its Cabinet in the coming days and navigate the country to a new dawn. Since it does not have to please demanding coalition partners, the party decided to keep only 15 ministers and even include non-elected specialist technocrats. Bravo.
But, as the great American philosopher, Spiderman, once said, “With absolute power comes absolute responsibility.” A near-2/3 majority is like a supertanker, it is impressive but it takes ages to change direction. The expectations of Nepali voters are so high that the government does not have the luxury of failing or getting enmeshed in scandals. Even minor ones.
But there is hope. Hope that under the new Great Helmsperson, Nepal will turn a new leaf. Every day in every way things will get better. To increase its chances of success, the new Primary Minister may need to keep lofty promises for later, and start with visible improvements like he did as mayor of Kathmandu by placing potted palms at traffic intersections and wiring the lampposts at Mandala with red green and blue LED lights.
He could start with five low-hanging fruits that are easily done:
Completely eradicate corruption from all levels of government.
Create 500,000 jobs in the coming year so no Nepali has to migrate overseas for work.
Instead of graduating from LDC to middle-income status, leapfrog to become a developed country by next year.
Turn Nepal’s trade deficit with India into a trade surplus within this fiscal year.
Make education free for all Nepalis till university level.
Now that we have those niceties out of the way, time to get down to brasstacks. The immediate reality is that the new government will be plunging headlong into the crisis created by the West Asia War as it takes office.
India gets 85% of all is liquefied natural gas from the Gulf, and Nepal imports all its LNG from India. If the Strait of Hormuz is blocked for another month, oil prices could hit $200 a barrel. An economic crisis in the Gulf will hurt remittances. Furthermore, if the war escalates hundreds of thousands of Nepalis will need to be evacuated and reintegrated back home.
Sonia Awale makes a sober assessment of what is coming for the RSP government in Rough Road Ahead for New Nepal Rulers, page 5. And in her Editorial, she goes into the RSP’s long and challenging to-do list (As Clear As a Bell, page 2).
The page 1-12 spread in this week’s Nepali Times follows up on the previous edition with the map of election results, and a breakdown of winning candidates by ethnicity and caste. No surprises there: more than 60% were from the dominant groups and only one candidate from the 165 FPTP winners was a Dalit. Long way to go, still (Big Blue Wave, page 1-12).
Special Correspondent Shristi Karki traces the origins of the RSP in the Bibeksheel Nepali party, and especially the mentorship of the late Ujwal Thapa (RSP’s Activist DNA, page 9).
And the centrespread is another simulacral analysis by Nobel Rimal looking into what made the RSP’s bell symbol resonate so effectively with Nepal’s electorate. The party’s public relations work on social media was done voluntarily in hyperreality by voters themselves (Nobody Ran the Campaign. That Is Why It Worked, page 6-7).
Madhes Province was a major battleground for candidates like Gagan Thapa of the Nepali Congress and Amresh Singh of the RSP, but is also where Nepal’s maternal mortality rate, child marriage, and female illiteracy are highest. But, as Shristi Karki says in her field report from Rupandehi, there are dedicated staff at hospitals who are trying their best to improve things with the help of a US-based non-profit (Motherhood in the Madhes, page 10-11).
Lastly, check out Nepali Times Editor Sonia Awale on Sanjay Silwal Gupta’s On Air with Sanjay #741 panel, speaking about how air pollution should have been top on the agenda of the parties going for election, and why it was not.
We should have a new government next week, see you back.
Kunda Dixit