Kathmandu, Sept. 8 -- For many outsiders, Nepal must seem like a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Indeed, even Nepalis seem to think so.

In 2017, a Nepali Congress-Maoist coalition government led by Prime Minister Deuba concluded an agreement in Washington DC for a $500 millionUS-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)compact to upgrade Nepal's electricity grid and highways.

Signing it was Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki. Deuba is now prime minister again in a coalition once more with the Maoists, and Karki is the minister for law and parliamentary affairs. And four years later, the MCC is still stuck because of a clause in the agreement requiring that it be ratified by Nepal's Parliament.

Ever since it wa...