The unprecedented growth of people power in Nepal cannot be appeased with piecemeal solutions. It demands equality based on the principle of "no affluence, no poverty".
Any indication of where Nepal is going requires an assessment of where we are coming from. And we have not yet come a long way. The past years have yielded little scope for reflection, analysis or honest criticism. In fact, we have almost lost the habit of intellectual discourse. And the most pressing area for discourse in Nepal today is that of populism. Understanding populism can help usher genuine development at the very grassroots.
The movement for democracy that overtook Nepal indicated that populism is not to be ignored. It was the people's sheer will power that saw the toppling of the Panchayat superstructure. During the most crucial days of the movement for democracy, the political parties were not leading, but rather were led by, the people. Pent-up emotions exploded in the public arena in a way that took everyone, even the most astute political analyst, by surprise.
Populism as a paradigm for development recognises that culture and motivation of the masses as meaningful, their lives purposeful, their knowledge valuable, and their constraints real.