Clean people must be in politics: DPM Shrestha

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Apr. 15: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha has stressed the need for 'clean' people in politics.

At the special collective Dhamma Puja organised in Kathmandu on Friday to honour Guruma Dhammawati, the first Nepali nun and the first non-Burmese national to be awarded with the title ‘Sasanadhaja Dhammachariya’ (roughly translated as the flag-bearer of the Buddhist religion), Minister Shrestha said that honest people with firm ideals needed to join politics to transform the nation.

"We cannot leave politics only to dirty people and expect a prosperous country," he said, emphasising the need for 'ascetics' in statecraft – ascetics like him. 

"I am a political hermit myself," he claimed. "I do not own a home and am also not married. I have a little ancestral property but have already announced my intention to give it to the party and the revolution."

Minister Shrestha stated, "We need to clean our politics to change our country." Shrestha also asked one and all to utilise the political transformations achieved to better the lives of the people. The Myanmar government has also awarded Guruma 

Dhammawati the recognition as an Aggamahagantha Wachak Pandit (great reciter of the text).

Dhammawati, presently 89 years old, left her home in Okubahal, Lalitpur at the age of 14 to pursue a Buddhist education. She walked from India to Myanmar and studied at the Khemaram Nunnery in Moulmein, Myanmar for 14 years. At the age of 29, she returned to Nepal to share her knowledge and, for the past six decades, has devoted herself to social work and women empowerment.

Noting this, Shrestha praised the Guruma, which means teacher, and said that it was an honour for him to get to meet her. He also promised to visit her Dharmakirti Monastery at Shreegha, Kathmandu soon.

He also called Dhammawati an international religious ambassador of Nepal. Home Minister Shrestha also felt that Buddha's teachings are very relevant for today's politicians and especially called for everyone to meditate to centre their thoughts and reach closer to the truth. 

He also shared that through their eighth general convention, the CPN (Maoist Centre) had adopted the principles of meditation. 

Similarly, as the Home Minister, he pledged to have members of the security bodies practice meditation too.

Deputy Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Sunita Dangol also spoke on the occasion and said Guruma embodied many virtues that people needed to learn.

Shrestha, who spoke after her, responded to this point in particular and questioned how right the KMC, as an institution that sought to adhere to Dhammawati's principles and example of social welfare, was in not collecting garbage from the Singha Durbar, the Prime Minister's residence at Baluwatar and the President's 

Office at Sheetal Niwas based on a specific political context. Heads and representatives from diplomatic missions, monks and nuns from different Buddhist sects and members of community organisations were also present at the programme and expressed their admiration for the Guruma.