Sacking of Mahesh Lal Pradhan (MLP) from the Council of Ministers on the eve of the Nepali New Year has sent out a number of messages particularly to the country's business community. Though the general analysis has attributed MLP's departure to his failure to properly handle the oil price hike and its aftermath which resulted in the death of a student and then in slight reduction in the prices of some of the petroleum products, a deeper analysis shows that MPL was preparing the background for his departure from the Council of Ministers ever since he assumed the office.

Right since taking the oath of office Pradhan had been taking an anti-liberalisation stance which he continued even after the royal address at Biratnagar in which HM the King unequivocally declared his commitment to free market economy. Disregarding the royal wish, the minister continued doggedly to implement his anti-free market ideology and tried in vain to reopen some state-owned enterprises that were already selected to be privatized. In this regard. Finance Minister Dr. Badri Prasad Shrestha seems to have effected a more logical change in his image of conservative economist by putting himself clearly in favour of liberal economy ever since he assumed the ministership.

Though some private sector leaders allege that Pradhan had also used his position to derive some undue advantages for himself as well as to his close relatives and friends, these issues are now less important after he has been out of the chair. The important lesson that the business community has to learn from this incidence is that mere claims of understanding the problems of the economy and the business sector are not going to help their representatives to make good ministers. Solutions to the problems are harder to implement than to suggest. The representatives of the business community must have a proper knowledge about the national and international perspective of the problems being faced before offering their advice and the solutions suggested must take into account these perspectives. Failure on the part of the representative of the community to recognize this reality will jeopardize the credibility of the entire private sector.

Given this strong likelihood, the business sector now has to be very careful in its stand on various issues that the economy in general and the private sector in particular are facing. This is more important now when the peace talks are going on between the Maoists and the government and the business community is strongly lobbying for its role in these negotiations. But such care is not being exercised sufficiently by the business association leaders in recent days. It seems they are being tempted by the cheap Maoist verbiage of protection to "patriotic" and nationalist" capital. What must not be forgotten is that the private sector business opportunities will flourish and economic prosperity will be possible only under a situation of liberalism in which the freedom of choice (such as that of professional and consumption) is honoured.