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The ignoramus (plural: ignorami) among you will of course ask silly questions like why, among all the crises afflicting this country at this juncture in our history, determining the height of the snow summit as opposed to the rock summit of Mt Everest is such a life-or-death issue. But you underestimate the importance not just to Nepal but also to the world of having the exact height of Mt Everest measured and authenticated by our own scientists. Especially because the Chinese have determined the altitude of the rock summit accurate to the last millimeter. But what you don't know is that this monsoon has dumped unusually heavy snow on top of all the debris at the summit, so if we measure Mt Everest this autumn, the height is going to be 8853m, at least five metres higher than the Chinese calculation. But time is of the essence because geologists say the mountains are moving north at 2.5cm a year, and the summit may soon be entirely in China.
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Whatever you may say about the lameduck primeministership of His Right Honourable JN, you can't fault his cabinet for having its priorities right. It decided to allocate 14 karods to build a new highway in Chitwan called Prachanda Path. In a country where most airports, hospitals and highways are named after personas who are deceased, it takes a lot of guts to name a highway after someone who is still living. But the cabinet proved it does not shirk from taking tough decisions. It can bite the bullet, it can take the bull by the horns, it can cross the Rubicon and burn its bridges.
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The other great decision taken in the budget was to allocate Rs 10 million to have all civil servants, who just got a 40% salary hike, wear uniforms to work. Civil servants will get free uniforms, while most school children in this country still have to buy theirs. All this of course, will be paid by increasing the tax on soft drinks by a whopping 75%. Tax on alcoholic beverages have also been increased, but by only 11%. As a permanent fixture in the neighbourhood watering hole, the Donkey would like to take the Financial Minister by the hand and personally thank him in no uncertain terms. Hic.
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And guess why Chairman Awe-inspiring was so eager to agree to the cabinet reshuffle and dump his left-hand man Com Mahara? Because he had an ace up his sleeves, viz.: secretly instruct JN to sit tight and not resign. Which is what JN did. In the meantime, Jhusil, freshly back from the Home of the Brave as well as the Land of the Free, proposes PKD as PM just so that he can thumb his nose at his own impatient colleague, Lion Brave. Looks like the baddies have taught the kangresis well about the benefits of a two-line struggle. Lotus Flower knows that Sushil Da knows that he got his five karod cut from the Darfur Kickback from GPK for election expenses in 2008.
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The reason Chairman Supercalifragilistic is again taken to wearing red polo shirts is not the weather. Must be on advice from his new Propaganda Bureau chief, Com Pasang. PKD has been abandoned by RIM and COMPOSA as well, and it's time to add red to the dress code.
