Confederation of Nepalese Industries Young Entrepreneurs Forum (CNIYEF) members met with Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai and his Chief Advisor, Prashant Singh at CNI Office on June 12 to learn in great detail about the challenges and opportunities Dr. Bhattarai sees for Nepal in the years ahead. The objective of the discussion was to learn from Dr. Bhattarai’s experiences from his political career as a student, as a Maoist leader and the Prime Minister of Nepal and what he sees Nepal in future. Therefore, the event was titled, “Nepal through the lens of Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai.”
In the beginning of the program CNI President Mr. Satish Kumar More welcome Dr. Bhattarai and initiated the discussion.
During the discussion, he stressed on the argument that politics cannot be separated from business and encouraged CNIYEF members to actively participate in political matters. Asked why Nepal is so far behind the rest of the world, Dr. Bhattarai went back in history to say that Nepal was among the top 25 developed nations in the 18th century but what followed after that (during the Rana regime and King Tribhuwan), Nepal did not make much progress as citizens were barred from exposure and opportunities. It has only been recently that Nepal has been on the path for development.
On China and India, he has a firm view that Nepal can be the bridge between the two super-nations and flourish economically. Although China can add great value to Nepal, Dr. Bhattarai believes Nepal will always be closer to India because of our history, economic ties and geographic accessibility.
Questions were asked on why his ideology changed from time to time for which he answered ideology is short-lived and has to change given the position of the nation. The ideology that worked during the Maoist revolution does not work today once the constitution was formed. He was also assertive on saying that Nepal needs a directly-elected President to run the office for accountability and impact.
Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai throughout the discussion remained positive about Nepal’s future.
