The lockdown has left hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers to languish across the country and along its borders. Hunger and children’s cries are Nepal’s sore spots that have come out as stark realities of the nation’s financially weak population.

“Nepal as a country might be poor but its citizens are rich,” is something we were all led to believe. Who wants to be called poor? Lucrative financial status, real or fake, gives a sense of pride. Piggybacking on this belief, politicians have forever wooed Nepalis and never actually bothered to improve the country’s economy.

Today when the country, its citizens, and economy are reeling under the threat of Covid-19, Nepali politicians who hold the helm of driving development are discussing about power-sharing.

A boy who had been walking for ten hours sleeps at the floor near the police station after being stopped as he walked to his village during the twenty-sixth day of the lockdown imposed by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Lalitpur, Nepal April 18, 2020. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

People maintain social distance as they wait for food distributed by the volunteers during the thirty-six days of the lockdown imposed by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at a slum in Kathmandu, Nepal April 28, 2020. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is facing pressure from his own party members to resign from his post.

After perennial hours of meetings, Oli yesterday made an offer to make Bam Dev Gautam the next prime minister and Madhav Kumar Nepal the third chairperson in NCP, just to quell their anger for the time being.

Rift between Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal along with other party members has widened after the PM unilaterally brought two controversial ordinances — one to facilitate split in parties and the other to allow the Constitutional Council to take decisions on the basis of majority.

Oli has been accused of taking unilateral decisions without following the party’s directives ever since he came to power in 2015.

Why should a common Nepali, as interested in national politics they might be, be concerned about the petty squabbles among filthy rich politicians, especially at a time when people are finding it hard to afford basic needs?

Change of leadership and governments come when politicians are not satisfied with each other’s share of power, not because the country or its citizens are faring badly. This has always been the case in Nepal regardless of the regime that ruled this tiny nation.

Politicians, be them from the ruling or opposition parties, had neither the interest nor the energy to protest Oli’s way of making one-sided decisions.

The draconian IT Bill, Special Services Bill, Media Council Bill, Medical Bill, none of them bothered the politicians because such bills would work in their favour and only against unsuspecting dissenting citizens.

The gradual transition of a democratic country into a fascist one did not make politicians get out of their homes, host incessant meetings, and demand a change in leadership.

Selecting a leader on the basis of their ability to give persuasive speeches has been a deep-rooted tradition among Nepalis. The most common question Nepalis ask when talking about a change in leadership is “if not him (it’s always him and never her) then who?”

It’s someone who’s candidacy is backed with credible works done in the past instead of their verbal eloquence.