Kathmandu: As the government-Maoists talks threatens to lengthen and as Opposition to Deuba centers around demand for early conclusion of talks, the conclusion of festival season this year ends with the widespread understanding that politics is to ignore the real problems of the mundane masses pertaining to the economy. The fact that government measures regarding essential supplies during peak festival demands proved futile and the business community gained from profiteering in, for example, sugar, illustrates the virtual incapacitation of the Deuba administration.

The general public now must live with the fact that there is no administration. If the law and the order situation was the focus of government previously, the government-Maoists talks appears not to have prevented the Maoists from selectively kidnapping, blackmailing, killing and robbing. This is so much so that it is now virtually impossible to distinguish political violence from the lay criminal activity. De-capacitating the administration has virtually resulted in mob-rule allowing the criminals to mix with radical politicians. The festival season this year was the most expensive no doubt. But this year violence found no reprieve during the festivities.

Curious watchers find the overt emphasis on politics befuddling. There is no public comment on the impact of worldwide recession on the Nepalese economy. There is no official caution in public on impact of the Afghanistan tensions in the region. When even neighbors such as India and Sri Lanka have begun soaring up their economies against the impact of falling exports and the radical reductions in tourist arrivals, Nepali officialdom appears to have little in the cards by way of creating options.

Surprisingly, this is despite longstanding acknowledgement that major non-agricultural economic mainstays have been on the slump since years. The carpet, the Pashminas’, garments, these export mainstays have shown radical reductions in sales since last year. Other handicraft demands have plunged. Even agricultural exports seem unable to complement their dearth of earning given that demand at home has yet to be met. Nepali industry is approaching ruins as admitted in the government fiscal policy itself. The banking sector has over extended. Both loan demands and interest payments are precarious.

Regardless, public discussions appear to shy away from these hard realities. It is only the business sectors particularly, the tourist sector that appears to be shouting hoarse. The dangers of long-term heavy investments in Nepal have been exposed starkly.

With investments threatened, further investment scared, infrastructural investments destroyed, the chances of the country going bust become so real in Nepal that politics has reasons not to talk about it in public. This absence of discussion however doesn’t prevent the public its effects. Costs are rising, as the most expensive festival season did demonstrate. The price of the Nepali rupee is decreasing. The chances of complementing income are shrinking. It is this that makes reach to political moneys more precious. It is this that makes for crisis in the country.