Imagine this: It is 2050 (AD). Four successful governments have completed their tenures, and the current one is due to complete its tenure next year. The outbound migration, averaging 3,000 a day in 2022, has decreased to mere hundreds. Young people still leave the country, but of their own choice, traversing the world with their disposable income. A Nepali, on average, makes $10,000 a year, thanks to a stable political climate and steady high economic growth, made possible by a competitive, outcome-oriented political culture.

Following the 2026 elections, Nepal enacted a series of institutional and policy reforms that eventually allowed it to catch up with the middle-income countries. Recognising the importance of energy and transportation networks in unleashing economic growth, the country funnelled resources into building infrastructure, connecting remote areas with main transportation arteries. Similarly, thoughtful and sustained investments modernised the education system, improving the retention rate and promoting quality. The system cultivated a growth mindset, nurtured ingenuity and unlocked human potential. As the barriers to learning lowered globally, Nepal integrated AI, alongside strong guardrails, into education, preparing new generations for a dynamic digital economy that was still taking shape.

With intentional educational investments, the 2050 Nepali generation possesses impressive skills in math, science and language, allowing them to rank in the top 15 in critical reading and math skills globally. The college environment facilitates students to take on entrepreneurship from the get-go across a wide range of fields, from agriculture to technology. At the same time, the vibrant higher education system produced thoughtful artists, writers and leaders who question the political system and any of its excesses, nudging it to be better, creating a virtuous and upward cycle of civil and political leaders.

The workforce developed on a par with the economy, allowing Nepalis to obtain jobs that pay dignified wages. The government’s technical assistance and support programmes empowered start-ups conceived by ambitious college students to take flight within days, giving them the confidence to launch their products in the giant economies next door. Pairing economic growth with progressive policies, Nepal minimised the inequality gap that haunted several countries. The country became emotionally tighter and more inclusive, electing people from marginalised communities to the country’s top posts, while fighting against the calcified roots of exclusion.

It is 2050. The chapter on the Gen Z revolution, whose basis was corruption and gnawing inequality, is buried somewhere in the social studies textbook. The well-funded education system means learning is fun, and students dress and reenact major political events. Nepali teenagers have mental dissonance, wondering how a corruption-free country could have been so corrupt in 2025.

The present

The election campaign is in full swing, creating a festive environment. Seen as a referendum on old parties versus the new, the election can serve as an important moment to reimagine the polity and the future.

Confronted with a difficult set of circumstances, originating from the macro-level, where geography curtails our potential, politics orphans us; the need for survival throws most of us teary-eyed to faraway countries. We have learned to incinerate our dreams. So, an imagination of a future where we’re not just struggling but thriving with family, decent jobs and a clean environment in our own country, seems almost preposterous. Yet, as political tectonic plates shift, we receive this narrow window every decade, where we see hope to reimagine the future.

The 2026 election offers a window, which many would hope is the last time the plates shift and hopefully become stable, sweeping away the musical-chair politics and the corruption it breeds. With a potential new era of political leadership on the horizon, can we dream of a day beyond just mere struggle, where the hamster wheel of survival can come to a halt, there are no tariffs to climb up the self-actualisation pyramid to dream big, and our politics facilitates the realisation of our human potential rather than destroying it?

This election is hopefully more than a popularity contest and instead showcases political parties’ attainable visions of what a Nepali life can look like in 1, 10 and 25 years. To pair with their visions, the leaders should lay out concrete policies and plans of action. Old political parties, defensive and cornered, are still busy making sense of what befell them in the last quarter. While new leaders have generated some hope among the public, their public electoral pitch of not being old guards does a gross disservice to themselves and risks losing a momentous opportunity to introduce politics of bold imagination.

From present to desired future

In their recent book, Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson decode an underlying playbook that led the US to achieve its multi-faceted scientific, economic and geopolitical objectives across time: To get to a future one wants, one needs to invest in resources that will help them get there. Following World War II, the US heavily invested in long-term research primarily out of concerns for national security and economic growth. The authors note how the sustained investment produced essential, transformative products like mRNA vaccines and the Internet, ensuring US technological dominance.

We could borrow the same framework to reimagine our future. For example, if we want a country where fewer people migrate out of compulsion, we need to funnel more resources to neutralising several components that facilitate it. A complex issue, the state would need long-term intellectual and capital resources to understand and monitor out-migration and eventually design cost-effective policy options to slow down the rate. The more resources we put in to solve the issue, the more assuredly we can materialise the goal. Similarly, with other collective dreams of 2050, the more resources we put towards them, the more palpably we can realise them.

Conclusion

Nepal can put a generation of old politicians out of power and welcome new faces. However, the latter will not go far if they lack bold, long-term, attainable visions. We need feasible yet creative plans that direct resources to the visions most supported by the public. While I fear the elections would largely be a popularity and revenge contest, pitting the new against the old, I hope, with time still in place, serious-minded politicians espouse and practice a politics of hope and reimagination.