Nepal, May 26 -- Hari Roka, a Marxist close to the erstwhile Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and a scholar, was speaking directly on the subject of Nepali farmers and land reform in Nepal. Roka was the principal speaker at a colloquium organised by Nepal Alternative Research Society (NARS) in Kathmandu on May 19, 2019.

I was eager to hear Roka's views about land reform in Nepal because for the Marxist government of Nepal and its party, ironically, agriculture no longer appears to be a subject of priority. As a result of that, the very fabric of the Nepali economy and the very ethos of society shaped by agriculture is eroding in an alarming manner. I am saying this from both aesthetic and pragmatic sense because I grew in a farmer's fam...