CPN-UML Chairperson and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has criticized the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s (RSP) call for applications to select candidates for the House of Representatives, saying the country and its politics are being made a “joke.”
Speaking at a program organized by a UML-affiliated organization of former soldiers and police personnel, Oli remarked that candidates are now being asked to submit applications “from the streets” in the name of political participation.
“Without targeting anyone directly, why should I keep making insinuations? But today the country is being made a joke. Politics is being made a joke. Political parties are sidelined, and then people who want to become candidates are told—submit applications from the streets,” Oli said.
He questioned the quality of individuals such a process might bring forward, asking whether it would attract people with “bags full of money or minds full of ideas.”
“What kind of people will come? Those capable of running the country, or those skilled only at making noise? People who speak the truth, or those who can spread lies? Looking at the people being projected these days is astonishing. Can the country’s condition get any worse than this? Is it acceptable to toy with the nation and its future in this way? But that is exactly what is happening,” he added.
Oli also criticized the media and the intellectual community, saying they have failed to be as vigilant as they should be under the current circumstances.
“Our media have not been as alert as they ought to be, and neither has our intellectual community. They appear to be swayed by emotion. A country does not develop through emotion alone, good governance does not emerge, and corruption is not controlled by emotional decisions,” he said.
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