Nepal has made significant progress in tourism sector this year. At the close of Nepal Tourism Year 2011, Nepal hosted over 700,000 tourists in the country. This is itself a big achievement in tourism sector.  Nepal Tourism Year 2011 faced several hitches from the early stage. The budget allocated for the program was released just a few months back. Along with this, the plan to strengthen national flag carrier, adding two more aircraft, was foiled at the last minute. Despite these bleak aspects, one needs to recognize the progress made by the organizers.  As Nepal has already announced Visit Lumbini Year 2012, the campaign to promote the tourism in Nepal will take a new turn.


It is unfortunate that when more than a dozen of poor people have already died due to cold wave in Nepal’s southern plains, no political party has felt a pinch about this. However, Nepali Congress, Nepal’s major political party, called a general strike ignoring the suggestions given by various organizations and even heads of diplomatic mission. This showed the apathy of political parties towards their citizens.  This was not the first time Nepali Congress organized such bandha against the wishes of the people. This kind of political agitation is a normal practice in Nepali Congress politics. In a country where impunity is the rule and everyone is making the mockery of rule of law, establishing democratic culture is a long way off. Nepal’s present political context is that all political forces share the same value, that is bandha. There is no difference in liberal Nepali Congress, radical Maoist, moderate CPN-UML and other many regional and ethnical parties as they resort to this practice. The time has come for retrospection on Nepal’s political culture.


As Nepalese Christians community are celebrating Christmas, we would like to wish our readers, patrons and well wishers Happy Christmas and Happy New Year 2012.


Keshab Poudel
Editor

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