Nepal, April 17 -- The last major story of Bikram Sambat 2082 was how collectively wealthy our new cabinet is. The ensuing furore-albeit confined mostly to social media, the preferred venue nowadays for debates and discussions-focused on the fact that almost all the ministers have done pretty well for themselves. Questions were raised about how it was possible for these relative youngsters to have accumulated so much; insinuations made that something somewhere does not sound right; and there were calls for the ministers to prove their wealth was all kosher.

It is easy to understand the source of such angst. Having long been socialised to view politicians as folks who do nothing but politick their whole life, we idealise leaders like the ...