Although this question appears to be directed at Balen Shah, deep down it is asking for a report card of our own political consciousness. Whom have we called “scholars” until today?

Someone who speaks loudly in Parliament for hours — a scholar.
Someone who mixes English and a little Sanskrit in speeches — a scholar.
Someone who announces plans to reform the country but takes “another decade” to reform their own party — a scholar.

Someone who commits corruption and then forms an “investigation committee” himself — an even greater scholar.

If this is scholarship, then Nepal must be a country full of scholars. Every government here was scholarly, every minister experienced, and every corruption scandal merely a “procedural weakness.” It doesn’t take much thinking to see what kind of country these scholars ran.

Half of the nation’s youth abroad.
Public land turned private.
Corruption scandals becoming routine.

And after every scandal, the same scholarly faces appear with the same speech:
“We will take action against the guilty.”