Thursday, May 12, 2005

Madhesi Rights: Abhi Nahin To Kabhi Nahin


I feel the Sadbhavana has been making two mistakes.

One is the party's continued split. The personality clash between Tripathy and Mandal continues unabated. Mandal is Tripathy's Deuba. It must be said that it is harder for members of powerless groups to exhibit unity. The tendency is towards disintegration, to falling easy prey to the power structure, to getting used by the adversaries. This non-communication might be a microcosm of the larger reality in the country. The Maoists are not talking with the other camps either.

The second is the Sadbhavana going along with the big dogs like the Congress and the UML without bargaining for a new political set-up. The 1990 constitution has to go. The Sadbhavana has to realize that. After all, it is the party that burnt the document some time in the 1990s. Now the precondition for peace in the country is something the party has wanted all along but curiously has put on the backburner when it needs to put forward the most.

Too many Bahuns in the big parties want somehow to go back to the old order. The sooner they realize that is not possible, the sooner the country will see peace. Parties like the Sadbhavana help the cause of peace by getting assertive with their social agenda.

The crisis in the country is also impacting the social dynamic between the component social groups all the way to the diaspora. That rethink is a good thing. Old social thought patterns need to be dissolved to make way for new ones.

I was delighted to hear yesterday of the formation of the ANTA, a kind of a social outfit for the Madhesis in the US. This is a sign of much-needed assertiveness. The echo has to be heard back in Nepal.

I expect to work closely through my personal contacts in the Sadbhavana to reach the rest of the parties with my proposed constitution. I don't know of any other blueprint in circulation that seeks common ground between all three parties to the conflict.

Sending A Message From Washington To Kathmandu, The Washington Post
By Nora Boustany
Wednesday, May 11, 2005; Page A14

Nepalese from across the United States will gather at LaFayette Square at noon Sunday to protest their monarch's revocation of democracy, press freedom and human rights. The gathering comes as many foreign governments are losing patience with King Gyanendra and his harsh tactics against a Maoist insurgency in the Himalayan nation.

Gyanendra suspended most democratic institutions in 2002 and declared absolute rule Feb. 1. Human rights activists, student leaders and politicians have been disappearing by the thousands as the military suppresses dissent and criticism of the palace, while pursuing the Maoists in the mountainous countryside with increasingly brutal force.



Sujata Koirala , a member of the Nepali Congress party and daughter of former prime minister G.P. Koirala , will be joining the protesters Sunday. She has direct experience with the violence in her country -- she was almost killed this winter when a bomb exploded at her house in Nepal. She blames the attack on the army.

Nepal's former ambassador to the United Nations, Murari Raj Sharma , will address the crowd. "People look over their shoulders before opening their mouths" in Nepal, he said in a statement. "They are frightened."

On Monday, Gareth Evans , president of the advocacy organization International Crisis Group, sent a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair , Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan , urging concerted action to restrict military aid to Nepal until democracy is restored.

After Gyanendra declared absolute rule, India and Britain suspended military assistance to the country of 25 million and broke off diplomatic relations. But the United States did not cut off its $22 million military aid package, which is used to purchase M-16 rifles and finance military intelligence training, among other things.

The letter from the International Crisis Group said conflict in Nepal has intensified since Feb. 1, with at least 655 people killed. State security forces "were responsible for at least 530 of those deaths, many apparently innocent civilians, and the Maoists have killed 125 people, many of these also civilians," the letter said.

"King Gyanendra's self-imposed 100-day deadline to restore order and lay out a road map for democracy and peace in Nepal will pass on 11 May, with only limited progress towards these aims," the letter said. The king officially ended absolute rule last week, but human rights groups say that arrests and killings continue.

Christina Rocca , U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asia, arrived in Nepal Monday and is scheduled to meet Gyanendra to press for a return to democracy.

An advocacy director at Amnesty International, T. Kumar , urged Rocca "not to miss the opportunity to send a strong message to the king that the United States will not sit silently and provide any military assistance until restoration of human rights and democracy in Nepal."

Yesterday, after Rocca publicly called for the restoration of democratic liberties in Nepal, the government freed four detained opposition politicians and India said it would partially resume the military aid it had suspended, according to the Associated Press.

The insurgency dates to 1996, when Maoists bent on abolishing the established order, beginning with the monarchy, began a campaign in the countryside. They capitalized on disgruntlement with a system that had concentrated money, land and power in the hands of high-caste Hindus and a few tribal chiefs loyal to the monarch.

The rebels have extended their power by raiding police stations, seizing guns and extorting money from business owners. In the meantime, the king has struggled to respond. He dissolved parliament in 2002 and has fired three prime ministers, moves that are not sanctioned by the Nepalese constitution.

Today, Nepalese villagers are often trapped between the gun muzzles of insurgents who demand food and lodging, and soldiers who come looking for the rebels. Before the soldiers leave, they often line up farmers and execute them for suspected complicity, according to Dinesh Prasain , a human rights activist from Nepal.



"The army justifies its human rights violations by saying, 'Look how brutal the Maoists are,' and they are," Prasain said. "But since 1996, 12,000 people have died. The state security forces have killed close to 7,800 Nepalese while the Maoist rebels have killed about 4,200, a ratio of two to one." The figures have been documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations and other organizations.

"We understand the role of the army is to fight the insurgency, but it also has to be accountable to the people of Nepal and respect human rights and international humanitarian terms and conditions," said Prasain, a sociologist.

Two million people have moved to neighboring countries as refugees, Prasain said. In February, he joined that list, fleeing to India with four members of his Collective Campaign for Peace, a coalition of 40 organizations. By his account, hundreds of activists continue to report on human rights violations through an underground network.

It remains risky work. Last Thursday, Gagan Thapa , a student leader, was snatched by police as soon he was released by court order. "They have this revolving-door system," said Prasain.

Now Prasain is in the United States, brought here by Nepalese Americans in an effort to raise awareness of the crisis in his country.

"I really would like to go back," he said, "but what good would I do in jail?"

May 12
May 11
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Lifting Emergency: Was It A Major Step?


The political parties have called it an "eyewash," but I disagree. My big fear was the Monarchists might try to scrap the constitution and start afresh. But the lift shows the king might be stretching a few articles of the constitution but he is at least trying to adhere to it. That is good news.

So, yes, I think it was a major step. Not enough, but big enough. The fundamental rights have not been restored, political prisoners have not been released. But things would have been worse had the emergency not been lifted.

Plus, I don't think the king thought he could deceive anyone, least of all the international community on the issue for it to have been an eyewash. I think he is trying to send a signal. As in, here is a major positive step from my side, now your turn to reciprocate. I don't think he ever thought the lift will fool the foreign powers into thinking democracy is back.

I understand the political parties are the ones who are having to bear the brunt of 2/1. So I understand their impatience. But it might not be such a good idea to be totally dismissive. Instead, perhaps the lift was a positive step in the right direction, but the king has still a few major steps to take.

The three "horses" continue to pull in three different directions.

In The News
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Sunday, May 08, 2005

Pradip Giri: DaMaJaMa



I just read this term coined in a Pradip Giri interview. DaMaJaMa. Dalit, Madhesi, Janajati, Mahila. I am impressed. The guy is going places.
  • Political Economy And Social Movements by Arjun Karki ..... Most analysts, particularly foreign, have tended to treat the Maoists as terrorists, insufficiently appreciating the social conditions which have given rise to a range of social movements from below...... more than 81% of the labour force is engaged in agriculture and close to 90% of Nepalese people live in rural areas...... nearly 99% of the total investment in Nepalese agriculture is made in land, human and animal labour and primitive equipment and only 1% in modern means of production..... exposing a significant proportion of rural people to acute livelihood and rights vulnerabilities..... archaic and repressive sociopolitical structures and from outside by its particular relationship with India through which global forces are mediated..... some large absentee landowners still covertly hold large areas of land.. likely to be senior government officials, members of the Rana nobility and other representatives of upper castes..... 8% of Nepalese are totally landless and of those who have land, 65% are poor peasants owning only 10% of land. In the terai, big landlords, owning more than 10 hectares each, control more than half the land....... primarily ‘owner-cultivators', tenant and tenant-cum-owner cultivators who own small pieces of land, produce for their own consumption and depend largely on family or exchange labour, parma , within their own communities. However, in some cases they employ occasional and permanent labourers such as haliya , kamaiyas and haruwas ....... the vulnerable people who gain access to some land can still be tied to landowners through usury and bonded labour conditions...... Golchha, Dugar, Chaudhary and Jyoti groups and some members of the royal family....... manage big commercial farms and tea estates, grow off-season vegetables and run cut-flower businesses exclusively for the market...... the upper level leadership of all the political parties, including the Communists, is dominated for the most part by the landed class. This landed gentry not only controls politics and bureaucracy but also industries such as hotels, tourism, carpets, garments and trade...... they serve not the interest of Nepalese people and nation, but the transnational corporate regime as traders, businessmen, industrialists and commission agents...... Nepalese merchant capital has been transformed into comprador capital instead of developing into national industrial capital and thus does not play a progressive social role..... mentality of the upper social classes continues to be feudal.... Despite political changes in 1951, 1960 and 1990, the basic structure of the state has remained unchanged. The role of the state has been to maintain internal security and appropriate the surplus produced by peasants and other social classes in the form of taxes to maintain the state apparatus and continued control of the ruling classes...... ordinary people in Nepal never had an opportunity to become thalu or thulo manchhe even after the restoration of multiparty democracy...... 60% of the former pancha , who ruled Nepal for 30 years under the autocratic panchayat prior to 1990, had joined Nepali Congress, the ruling party of Nepal, 20% joined the CPN (UML), ML and Sadbhawana parties with the rest in the Rastria Prajatantrik Party...... The legislature of Nepal consists of the king, the House of Representatives and the National Assembly called the Parliament...... most candidates for the parliamentary election are selected by party bosses and party bureaucrats as per the interests of the party ‘sponsors' and thus show little practical accountability to the people who elect them....... most judges are sons and daughters of big landowners and merchants and other ruling elites...... Occasionally, they are publicly criticised for their proximity to mainstream political parties and corruption...... most junior police and military officials are sons and daughters of poor and oppressed middle peasantry, senior officials of the military and police are usually related to the members of the royal family and belong to the upper castes such as Rana, Shah and Thakuri....... Those who are loyal to the ruling elites are sent to the accessible urban centres and lucrative places for corruption and bribery. But those without ‘connections' are packed off to more problematic sites such as Maoist insurgency areas..... the police officials killed in the Maoist insurgency come from poor and oppressed social classes who are themselves already exploited by their own bureaucracy...... the district forest office. In the name of protecting forests, aided by police and military, they are often involved in the eviction and exploitation of landless settlers, bonded labour and other poor peasants whose livelihood depends upon forest products and resources. They engage in logging forest products in partnership with other rural elites and their accomplices...... the entire system is corrupt, and ordinary people have little hope from the state machinery for ensuring equity, justice and sustainable rural livelihoods...... after the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, the number of NGOs significantly increased, from 10 in 1960, to 37 in 1977, 193 in 1989, and to 10,555 in April 2000...... Many ‘inactive' NGOs are initiated by senior politicians and government bureaucrats in order to secure foreign funds for their own vested interest rather than deal with socioeconomic and political challenges. Those active in the remote villages for building or supporting people's organizations rarely enjoy good relations with the state machinery...... Their efforts are seen as donor-driven and supply-led, implemented without a proper understanding of the forces that create and perpetuate poverty and injustice in Nepal...... Donor assisted NGOs are often considered as agents that promote globalization and the opening up of the Nepalese economy and market in the interest of global financial regimes...... most foreign aid to Nepal poured in to promote human rights and democracy, it failed to ensure either..... foreign aid, constitutes a major instrument to escape the low income, poor savings and low investment trap ...... 1846, 1950 or 1990 – India's role was central..... ongoing Maoist ‘people's war', have taken shelter in India...... More than one-third (35%) of foreign direct investment originates from India, followed by the USA (18%)...... India exercises more control in Nepal than any other South Asian country..... combined failure of both the state and political parties which explains the growing hold of radical social movements from below.
  • An Unavoidable Force by Hari Roka ...... livid realists drawing outlandish comparisons between the Nepali Maoists and the Khmer Rouge..... the same people who denounce Nepali Maoism as a primitive ideology have no enlightened comments to offer on the primitive institution of Nepali monarchy..... T he complete takeover has surprised most observers of Nepal, including the political class, diplomats and journalists. Even after eight weeks, the king's motivations have not been grasped in their entirety....... There were no recent stunning Maoist military victories on the battlefields of rural Nepal to provoke any immediate concern in the palace-military bloc. If anything, the two sides had long since ceased to engage each other in any major military encounter....... the king's measure was driven in large part by the steady acceptance of two crucial Maoist demands within the political over-ground..... mechanical thinking on the part of the two major political parties...... Till then they had held fast to the belief that the main danger to their existence came from the Maoists..... T he Nepali Congress had launched two ferocious and unrestrained police attacks on the underground that invited inevitable retribution. The CPN-UML believed that the retaliatory elimination of NC cadres would strengthen them at the expense of the latter...... NC believed that the CPN-UML base would eventually be weakened the most....... pleading with the king to unleash the army on the underground. This came at a heavy price because the deployment of the army was made contingent on the surrender by parliament of its sovereignty through the imposition of emergency, the abrogation of civil rights and the dissolution of civic institutions...... Deuba that was most oriented to a military solution because it had the least presence among the masses...... the palace and the military were in no mood to be restrained by the limiting provision of the constitution. Instead, the king chose to invoke the overriding provision in the constitution by which he could constitutionally make constitutionality defunct...... the Kathmandu intelligentsia who denounced the idea of the constituent assembly merely because the Maoists had raised it...... leaders of the student wings of the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML raised the banner of the republic for the first time in the political overground. At this point the Maoists had won their second ideological victory in the mainstream of the Nepali polity...... The lure of ‘appointed power' destroyed the unity of the moderate opposition....... the views of the NC and CPN-UML cadres were no longer in sync with that of their leaderships..... The moment the overground was contaminated with the one Maoist demand that threatened the monarchy with extinction, the parties became irrelevant to the palace and were promptly discarded........ the conservative tabloid Nepali Times...... The king has provided the political forces the impetus for aligning against the palace...... Unless a strategic alliance is forged between the Maoists and the mainstream political formations, neither side will achieve the minimum conditions for success...... T he Maoists have indicated their willingness for such an alliance but the top level leaderships of the parliamentary parties are yet to respond. It is not clear whether they will seize the opportunity or squander it. Indications are that they have not learned much from their own tragic history. The CPN-UML has said nothing at all except to call for a struggle against autocracy, not monarchy. And Girija Prasad Koirala has said nothing more than what he has been repeating tirelessly and pointlessly for the last three years – that the defunct parliament in which he commanded the largest single bloc should be revived.
  • The Monarchy And Democracy In Nepal the monarchy is an independent variable which affects all the other political variables. Monarchy is not under serious questioning...... Kathmandu-centrism. The elected MPs started settling in Kathmandu, irrespective of where they were elected from...... There are various models in practice in Europe, but we ended up adopting the British model...... representative democracy ..... more participatory democracy as is being practised in the Scandinavian countries ..... monarchy itself is the real barrier to democratisation in this country..... failure of the political parties to democratise themselves..... The draft prepared by the constitutional commission was revised by the palace. The provision of referendum on key national questions was not included in the final version...... We had thought then that since there is a wave of democratisation everywhere, the king couldn't conspire again.'...... The 1990 constitution did not keep the king within the constitutional boundary. It is an ambiguous constitution..... 1990 happened to work for the people. Roads, electricity, education will develop in their time but we could not address people's basic needs, in particular the needs and expectations of dalits and janajatis....... ‘If any difficulty arises in connection with the implementation of this Constitution, His Majesty may issue necessary Orders to remove such difficulty and such Orders shall be laid before Parliament.'....... the case of Holeri where the army did not follow the order from the PM.'...... Was it not Man Mohanji who went to the palace and requested the king to stop the dissolution of the parliament when Girija Babu dissolved it? ..... The Nepali Congress and UML are the main parties who have structures throughout the country. But their attention is towards the king. They are conservative in making budgetary allocations to the local government and the devolution of power...... The Maoists do not seem sincere on social transformation. They have only used the people from lower level politically...... Our party itself does not have a clear vision. Struggle for what? ..... The political parties also function like the administrative system – the leaders operate as if they are the bosses. They consider people only as clients and voters. We need to work towards building an active citizenry.'...... Leadership in Nepal is status-quoist in action though revolutionary in party documents ...... Nepal Congress abandoned the issue of constituent assembly in 1958..... ‘The Maoists are against the constituent assembly… if the Maoists are serious they should first bind the monarchy constitutionally.' ...... literacy rate has gone up from 26 per cent in 1990 to 52 per cent now ..... The king has no courage to throw the constitution into the gutters...... The Maoists first banned the activities of political parties and then the parties gradually vacated the villages. So all the space became vacant for the Maoists...... The king has kept caste differences functioning for his own interests. The tradition of washing the feet of the king is still being kept..... King Mahendra destroyed forests and the environment in 1960. He resettled people in the hills of the terai so that the madhesis will not come up...... one costume, one language, one king and queen and one country ..... The present constitution of Nepal does not accept the notion of a minority...... We have not been able to internalise democracy. We still think that the king is powerful. We have the Maoists who are also emerging as a powerful force...... Many a time bills passed by parliament did not come back from the palace, but the parliament did not ask about it....... a need to get rid of unwritten privileges.'..... This is why people are not participating well in the movement of the agitating political parties. This movement has to be democratised....... People were made into “consumers” of democracy. The local issues were marginalized.....
  • Interview: Pradeep Giri The movement in 1990 was a sudden and spectacular success..... their ideological perspective as well as organisational structures remained weak and support base narrow, consisting essentially of students, youth and activists..... assess the democratic parties in terms of larger systemic factors and not merely the conduct and competence of leaders..... They thought that the invisible hand of the market could take care of the aspirations of people while they would rest and recuperate after the long innings in jail and in exile....... cannot be compared with parties in evolved political contours of western societies. They are a new phenomena in a land for long ruled by kings and generals and dominated by a feudal patriarchal mindset....... The Khas elite, which comprises of upper castes of the hills, have dominated the country since its inception..... Dalits, women and ethnic groups have been empowered for the first time. Support for the Maoists emanates from these groups...... The Maoists also have a good chance of being accepted provided they look more like a political party and less like a martial outfit...... Masses are usually apathetic till the last hour. They come forward to tilt the balance in the final stages. It is the cadre and the leadership, particularly the middle-rung activists who will play the most important role. They serve as the link between the top rung and the masses. Such a strata is already active in Nepal. Once the central leadership arrives at a clear and common goal the movement will take off...... the Maoists are also a product of democracy. Young girls today refuse to be sold in brothels of Bombay and are instead taking up arms to fight. This is a move forward....... The Maoists must realise that if they remain where they are now politically, they will reach nowhere...... The parties happily basked in the glory of a powerless office and the Maoists mistook this office for power and attacked them...... parties should not expect Maoists to come praying for amnesty ..... He will buckle under the same pressure that has forced sultans, Ceasers and czars out across the world. A popular mass upsurge ...... Gyanendra survives at the mercy of the army elite and international forces..... I am wary about how long international pressure can be sustained. They don't have an accurate understanding of the reality..... he can surrender his powers to an interim government ..... Forming a constituent assembly is the only way out of the present predicament ..... no proposed solution to the problems of Nepal can ignore or bypass the Maoists. The Maoists are committed to participating in elections to a constituent assembly ...... The Nepali people do not need a monarch. It is the monarch who is fighting to survive..... Affirmative action is essential for what I call the ‘ Damajama '– Dalits, Madhesis or the people of the Terai, Janjati or the ethnic groups and Mahila....... We need to combine the insights of Marxism with the inviolable values of liberal democracy.
  • What The People Feel by Krishna Hachhethu .....‘king in council of ministers' in 1951, a combination of ‘sovereign monarch and elected parliament' in 1959, and recently ‘king in parliament' in 1990 ..... ‘The days of monarchy being seen but not heard, watching the people's difficulties but not addressing them and being a silent spectator to their tearstained faces are over.' ...... initiating a system of executive monarchy in contravention of the 1990 Constitution...... parties and leaders concentrated more on power politics and self-aggrandizement, breaching democratic values and norms, which in turn contributed to an intensification of political instability, anarchy and chaos...... between July 1994 and October 2002. The House of Representatives was dissolved six times, special sessions of the parliament were summoned seven times, and the government changed 12 times..... intensification of power-centric intra-party conflicts, defiance of party whips, disintegration of parties, horse trading of members of parliament, manipulation of constitutional loopholes, political intervention by the palace and the court...... 61% of the respondents feel that people do not enjoy equal rights; 58% feel that everyone is not free to speak one's mind. Even the minimal achievement of democracy in ensuring that the people have the power to change the government they do not like is doubted by as many as 41%........ courts scored highest at 30% respondents expressing very high trust in the institution, followed by the election commission (26%), local government (25.5%), army (25.5%), police (21%), civil servant (21%), central government (19.5%), parliament (17%), and political parties (14%)....... Nearly two-thirds of Nepali citizens stuck to democracy, with only 10% prepared to accept dictatorship in some situations; 28% said democracy or dictatorship did not make a difference to them ...... level of support for democracy in Nepal is comparable to that in a long-standing democracy like India and is much higher than many countries of Latin America..... 64% ‘strongly agreed' that the ‘country should be governed by the people chosen by fair elections', only one-fourth ‘strongly agreed' that the ‘country should be governed by the king.' The figure was even lower, only 11%, for army rule......... (79%), affirmed the suitability of democracy in Nepal...... When asked to choose what they liked most about a democracy, 68% chose freedom to speak and act, something they have been denied by the imposition of emergency in the country...... the king's intervention of 4 October 2002 ..... 84% surveyed Nepali citizens observed that things got ‘bad' or ‘very bad' after this intervention ...... 63% chose constitutional monarchy while the remaining were split between the 22% who preferred executive monarchy and the 15% who wanted a republic...... a clear residue of yearning for king's rule among the less privileged sections of society: among women, rural dwellers and the less educated....... support for abolition of monarchy goes up with education and exposure and reaches 29% among the highly educated...... the support for executive monarchy declines sharply with age: 35% of the elders support this idea while only 18% of the young and middle aged respondents are for an executive monarchy...... A majority of respondents, who come up with definite answers, suggested the need for a round table conference, an interim government including the Maoists, and a new constitution....... opinion in favour of a ‘round table conference' is distinctly high, as 69% opted for it. Some 22.5% respondents suggested new election of the HoR. Only a thin minority of 5.5% respondents favoured a reinstatement of the dissolved HoR....... 68% men and 71% women, and 70% villagers and 66% urban dwellers stamped on ‘a round table conference'....... a greater support to the round table conference than a fresh election of the HoR...... Choice to ‘round table conference' stepped up from 66% in hill to 72% in terai to 80% in mountain...... Support to the round table conference climbed up distinctly with the increase in education, from 60.5% (literate) to 70% (school level education) to 75% (higher level education)....... close to half the respondents (49%) favoured the formation of an interim government including the Maoists. 29% respondents were in favour of a new elected government. Those who stood for all-party government consisted 20.5%....... (51%) favoured framing a new constitution ...40% respondents suggested amendment of the constitution. Those who stood for retention of the present constitution without any amendment was very thin, a mere 9%....... Among the surveyed Nepali citizens who subscribed to a new constitution, the overwhelming majority (76%) supported the election of a constituent assembly....... accepted in terai by a substantial majority of 76%, followed by 74% in the hill region, and 50% in the mountain...... To overcome the nine-year long armed conflict, Nepali voters (among those who come up with a definite answer) suggested, by a clear majority, to go for a round table conference, interim government including the Maoists, and a constituent assembly ......... The king's claim to represent popular will and aspirations in the royal proclamation is not backed by any of the known and reliable instruments of public opinion like free and fair elections or a referendum...... survey offers little evidence to support the king's presumption about popular will...... King Gyanendra's action of 1 February is not quite in line with, if not directly opposed to, the way the people of Nepal think....... the coming days will be hard for the king.
  • The Future Of Democracy by Krishna Khanal The Nepali Congress (NC), which was instrumental in bringing democracy to the country, had functioned from neighbouring India and had little organizational network within the country...... the country failed to evolve coherent institutional behaviour, compatible practices, able leadership and a political culture....... By 2000, the Maoists were on parity with the state, with their parallel rule in many districts...... the country faced acute problems of governance with growing corruption at the political level, governmental instability and leadership failure – leading to an internal breakdown of the system...... he allowed a situation to develop in which the constitutional process could not proceed....... indicators of democracy – participation, authorization, representation, accountability, transparency, responsiveness and solidarity ....... revival of absolute monarchy, irrespective of form, cannot be sustained. Nor can the one-party authoritarianism advocated by the Maoists...... a federal versus unitary state, monarchy versus the republic, Westminster parliamentary model of government versus some form of accommodative or consociational arrangement, proportional representation, multilingual policy, secularism, ethnic autonomy with the right to self-determination, framing a new constitution through an elected constituent assembly...... Until recently such voices were not only considered irrelevant but ‘primordial' and ‘parochial' by a hidebound political mainstream of both the establishment and opposition. But now these issues are expressed in the policy and programmes of all major political parties, including the government....... 100 ethnic and caste categories and 92 languages ...... Chhetri and Brahman, which comprise 15.80 and 12.74% ...... 59 officially identified ethnic groups ..... Out of 92 languages recorded by the 2001 Census, up to 12 have less than 1% speakers each...... Nepali ... 48.61% ...... Although they collectively make above 7% of the total population, dalits too are internally divided. The largest sub-category, Kami, alone makes up more than half the hill dalit population and is also comparatively better off in socioeconomic terms than the other dalits....... adibasi/janjati (i.e. the original settlers) comprise 59 groups: 18 in mountains, 24 in hills, 6 in inner terai and 11 in terai...... estimated at 36.4%. The largest of them are Magar (7.14%) in the hill and Tharu (6.75%) in terai...... Madhesi is an ethno-regional identity of the terai people .... make over 31% of the total....... Madhesi, which comprises 54 groups, both caste and ethnic....... three broad ethno-regional categories – parbatiya/khas, mongol/ kirat and madhesi. ... none of these groups makes a majority ...... Hindu (80.6%), Boudha (10.7%), Islam (4.2%), Kirant (3.6%), Christian (0.5%), Sikh (0.0%), Jain (0.0%) and others (0.4%)........ Kirant, first time enumerated as a separate religion, constituted 1.7%....... Some ethnic groups, such as Magar, Rai, Limbu, previously treated as Hindu, have now dissociated themselves from Hinduism as their religion....... undergoing an unprecedented assertion of ethnic, lingual, religious and cultural identities and rights........ current state, in effect an ‘instrument of dominance' by the hill high-caste Hindus ...... crux of recent ethnic, dalit and madhesi activism and demand for state restructuring is aimed at ending the ‘established pattern of dominance'...... contradictions and weaknesses, both systemic and extra systemic.... Unlike in many other constitutional monarchies, the king of Nepal was solely empowered to amend or repeal the law relating to succession that nothing in the constitution would ‘affect the custom, usage and tradition relating to the order of succession to the throne by the descendants of His Majesty'....... Although there is separate ministerial portfolio for palace affairs, the palace secretariat, which is responsible to the king alone, functions independently of the government administration...... It has been demanded that the private property of King Gyanendra be made public and those of the late king, Birendra, nationalized...... All through the constitution-making process, he repeatedly tried to assert an independent role...... some of the crucial recommendations of the original draft, such as the provision for referendum for changing the basic structures of the constitution were dropped and many ambiguous provisions retained which later created problems....... Against the provision and spirit of the constitution, the king started exercising his discretion to nominate members to the National Assembly from 1993....... he began to consult the Supreme Court even on such issues like the dissolution of the House of Representatives, assent to bills passed by the parliament and, in later years, sacking and appointing the prime minister at his own discretion...... Although the king took recourse to Article 127 of the constitution as justification, his action is difficult to reconcile with the provisions and spirit of the constitutional system. The present king seems determined to claim a role above normal practices of a constitutional state, barely concealing his contempt for party politics and desire to prevail politically....... Under a non-functioning public administration, politics became corrupt and stagnant. With political leaders seen as weak and compromising...... The majority government of the NC in 1991 failed to survive a full tenure, unable to manage the relationship between the government and party executive and to resolve conflicts....... The UML, which had emerged as the largest party in the house, instead of trying to make a coalition with other parties and ensure stability, opted for forming a minority government of its own....... fluid parliamentary equations expedited both corruption and degeneration of parliamentary norms...... misuse of government funds for appeasing MPs, distributing privileges, amassing of personal property, and other similar instances of corrupt practices shattered people's faith in political leadership....... Nepal faced an all-round failure of governance....... government soon began to withdraw banks, police posts and other agencies from the villages.... Those who differed with the Maoists were forced to abandon the villages and shift to secure places in the district headquarters or other urban centres...... Nepal tops the list of countries with people missing. Among 1430 cases of disappearance, the state is directly accountable for more than 1000...... Concomitant with the political class losing its grip, the security regime has expanded its hold over civilian life...... The supply of essential commodities, even food and medicine, has been regulated in the hill districts so that the Maoists may be denied access to them. Because of these steps, civilian life has only worsened – threat, extortion, torture, displacement, disappearances, rape and killings, have become a regular feature of people's lives in most parts of the country....... a ‘single scheme of Hindu caste universe' through a national code of social order...... Absolute monarchy, Nepali language, Hindu ethos and centralized politico-administrative structures were considered as the basic ingredients of national integration....... the local units of government were ill-equipped to govern and provide leadership...... The majoritarian model of representation continued to perpetuate the dominant caste groups' control over the politics and administration...... Although most of them have party-affiliated women, ethnic and dalit organizations, they cannot influence party policy and leadership structures. The aspirant women, ethnic and dalit leaders too remain loyalists rather than assert their role...... the house remains dominated by Chhetri and Brahman, who occupy more than 50% of the total seats ..... the ethnic groups remain dissatisfied, first because the local bodies have limited powers and are too dependant on the central authority for resources, which is again controlled by the dominant caste groups...... Instead of broadening inclusiveness of the polity through structural reforms as suitable to the multicultural diversity of the nation, the ruling elites under the democratic dispensation too resisted the aspirations for change........ ethnic and dalits groups have lost confidence in mainstream political parties and their movement is growing outside the party fold...... The Maoists call for the ‘right to self-determination' and ‘ethnic autonomous rule' has appealed to the sentiments of many ethnic and dalit communities. They were thus able to build alliances with these groups and form joint fronts against the state...... The rebellion, beginning with isolated incidents of violence in the remote villages of some mid-western and few other districts, has now grown into a full-scale nationwide insurgency...... Politically there exist differences of opinion among the political parties about the nature of the problem and strategies for its solution...... Even those who participated in the electoral process and won seats in parliament did not subscribe to the parliamentary system. The objective of their participation in the election was to ‘expose the weaknesses of bourgeoisie democracy' and continue the ‘revolutionary struggle' from the parliamentary front....... In the beginning their main targets were the local cadres of Nepali Congress. Other parties, including the palace, were not threatened. Even within the ruling party, this remained a matter of concern only to those who held government positions....... The chief of army staff (COAS), demanded the ‘lasting and continuous political commitment of all the political parties and the entire citizenry' if the army were to be involved in the internal security and development plan ( Kantipur, 21 April 2001). There were several other instances of the army chiefs expressing reservations and criticizing the government and political parties for their failure to ensure peace and security pushing the state ‘towards dissolution'. Such an attitude raised suspicion as to whether the army had made an independent assessment or taken its cue from the king....... the army chief continued to attack the political parties and party leaders for their non-submission to military supremacy....... a Maoist takeover of the polity or a negotiated settlement seems unlikely in the immediate future...... 2001 and 2003. But on both occasions talks failed and after each interlude there was fierce fighting with the state losing further ground..... During the first round of negotiations the government insisted on a constitutional monarchy and reform within the limits of the 1990 Constitution (Wagle 2001). The second time it was prepared to rewrite the constitution, which implied the framing of a new constitution, but insisted on retaining a constitutional monarchy. It also ruled out the election of a constituent assembly because that could threaten the monarchy....... Nepal Sadbhavana Party and janjati parties along with various ethnic groups have opposed the unitary political structure and demanded a federal system since the very beginning of the 1990 Constitution....... The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has pleaded for the right to self-determination and autonomy for various nationalities. Other major political parties are not even open to debate the idea of federalism in Nepal, ruling it out as divisive...... favouring hill high caste domination and depriving ethnic communities of their traditional territories, languages and culture, and subjugating them to a Hinduization process...... Though the Maoists stand for a republic, they are silent about the role and status of the monarchy. This seems to be deliberate and strategic because they want a new constitution to be framed by an elected constituent assembly, which would mean that the people would decide the fate of monarchy through elections. While responding to the Maoists during negotiations, the government came up with the proposal for constitutional changes, which also admitted several of the above points ( Kantipur , 18 August 2003). However, the government too was silent on such issues as autonomy, monarchy, army, secularism and referendum........ The major political parties are thus vague about ethnic issues and avoid any specific commitment to autonomy....... In multicornered contests between the major political parties, even a candidate securing about 20% of votes could be elected....... the king has not been willing to reconcile with the political parties and allow constitutional reforms. His strategy is to buy time and ensure that the monarchy is retained....... The Maoists want a round table conference of all parties, including the representation of the king and civil society...... Kathmandu-centric political structures can never be democratic and accountable in a true sense, and provide space for those groups who are at the periphery. As is evident, despite democratic experiments since 1990, the power structure that prevailed for centuries has not been transformed in any real sense......... Elections to a constituent assembly should not be ruled out simply because it has been demanded by the Maoists. It has now become a political necessity...... it is likely that the future constituent assembly will have a republican majority. Indeed, this seems to be a major fear of the monarchy which, with its command of the army, is least likely to accept a CA unless its continuity is assured....... It would be too idealist to expect a ruling monarch to allow a peaceful transition to a republic..... Reports from the Maoist-controlled areas also suggest that they show little tolerance for dissent. Unless the Maoists allow free political activities and normal civilian life in the areas of their control, such suspicion would remain and the negotiations become more difficult.... In Nepal, the extra-constitutional tendencies are high both in the extreme left and right political camps.....
  • Dateline: Nepal 1994 22 May: UPF splits into two groups, one led by Niranjan Govinda Vidya and another by Baburam Bhattarai (the Bhattarai group later turned into CPN-Maoist)..... 10 July: Dissolution of the HoR and recommendation for a mid-term poll by Prime Minister G.P. Koirala on account of defeat of the government's annual policy and plan in the parliament due to absence of 35 dissident MPs of the NC....... 10 August: Bhattarai group of the UPF decided to boycott mid-term election...... 1996 13 February: Formal launching of the Maoists' ‘people's war'...... 2001 19 July: Prime Minister Koirala resigns on account of non-cooperation by the army on the Holari incident..... 2002 22 May: PM Deuba dissolves the HoR and recommends a mid-term poll to which King Gyanendra promptly consents...... 3 October: PM S. B. Deuba, with the consent of parliamentary parties, recommends postponement of mid-term elections......
  • The Indian Media: Time To Introspect the collective astonishment at the royal move in India ..... more than Rs 300 crore worth of military aid to the RNA ...... The Times of India , The Indian Express , The Hindu , Outlook and Frontline between October 2002 and December 2004...... the media rarely went beyond official statements and issues of immediate concern to South Block. ..... rare to come across analytical pieces and editorials seeking to explain the movement and its various dimensions..... widespread poverty, discrimination and a state structure that thrives on exclusivity ...... Aid is believed to have strengthened those who advocate a purely military solution, undermined alternative modes of conflict resolution, further militarized society, besides increasing human rights violations. ...... no reports on the relationship between the king and the RNA, an aspect crucial to understanding the nature of the present coup ...... .................. people are arrested by the state without reason, without cause, with no recourse to justice, with no one outside knowing what may happen to the arrested person ..... Children are raped. Entire families are psychologically affected. ..... When a writ of habeas corpus is filed, the courts order a release. The person is released and rearrested. Then he disappears...... and extrajudicial killing are incidents, but torture in custody is not ..... The security forces executed a senior district leader of a party that was part of the coalition government before the 1 February coup. The party could not do anything about the matter........ The police and the armed police force was placed under the RNA in May 2003. It was made clear that charges of violations against the army would be investigated only by a human rights cell within the army. As a result, the RNA has been committing crimes against people, secure that it is itself both the investigating and adjudicating authority. ....... Doramba .. The judgement described the case as ‘a stray case of the boys occasionally making mistakes.' Who gave the orders is not known....... the RNA rewards the violators by promoting them and giving them more ‘challenging' briefs. The psychological scars of both the victims and the perpetrators will remain for the reconciliation and rehabilitation phase which today seems unimaginably distant. ..... Nepal is a signatory to an impressive line-up of international instruments. None of this has had any impact. ...... February 1 represents a logical next step in the move towards a full takeover of state power ..... Soon there will not even be any record of how many people were raped, killed, or taken into army barracks and disappeared. ...... Village defence forces (a revival of the US strategy during the Vietnam war) were created as early as 2001 ......The Maoists have reportedly killed 50 people in one month as ‘informers'....... Peace there will be in Nepal, only it will be the chilling silence of a mass grave.
  • Delhi mulls talks with Nepal rebels Calcutta Telegraph ..... Delhi is seriously thinking of opening a channel of communication with the Maoists, who according to estimates, are in control of nearly 75 per cent of the country...... Gyanendra has made it clear to Delhi and other world players that he was not willing to wilt under any diplomatic pressure and democracy in the country will be restored at a pace and time of his choosing.... even if India does not come to Gyanendra’s rescue, the armed rebels are not in a position to be able to take power in Nepal through force....... The leadership of the armed rebels has sent out clear signals in the past on establishing good relations with India......
  • Nepal's crown prince gets new image Times of India, India

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Prachanda's Letter Bomb Of 5/1


..... whole leadership of the CPN(M) along with Laldhoj (Baburam Bhattarai) is dedicated to fight until the defeat of autocratic monarchy and establishment of the Republican political System in Nepal.
..... Party central Headquarters all of a sudden received a letter of serious nature from comrade Laldhoj
..... he came, soon after three days, to register through his staff a letter
..... a very irresponsible method to express non-confidence towards the whole party and, in one way or another, influence the plan of counter offensive negatively.
..... showed in fact not only his disgust ..... exhibited an extreme individualist method to create pressure upon the party
..... the only condition of support or opposition to party’s ideology, policy, plan, program and the leadership has been his individual post and position
..... comrade Laldhoj’s individualist thinking, anarchist working style, intellectual arrogance and his factionalist activities against the central HQ were widely criticized in the Central Committee meeting
..... the basic concept “freedom of expression and unity in action” of democratic centralism
..... his metaphysical and anarchist outlook
..... MLM and Prachanda Path are correct until when comrade Laldhoj remains as a chief of the united front or state, development of ideology and development of democracy in the twenty-first century also remain correct; but if his position comes into question then all the things become retreat and regression before his eyes.
..... his main anxiety is not party and revolution but his individual position.
..... at an informal sitting, outside hall ..... that informal sitting (which took place at tea time)
..... his inattention in “listening to, looking at and understanding”
..... till he had some hope or confusion to remain as a chief of the state
...... party decision is not to remove him from the state but it is meant only to say that, in the present situation, it is appropriate to remain all of the standing committee members, including party chairman, unitedly in all the organs of party, army and the state
...... paying attention to the conspiracy the domestic and foreign reactionaries are escalating against the party and revolution, and the necessity of counter-offensive
..... our intellectual comrade Laldhoj
..... he has pretended not to have understood it.
..... the external enemy has been intensifying conspiracy of inner-destruction against the party in a planned way
..... giving reference to a faction inside the party he has tried to portray oneself at the role of defender of that so-called faction
..... all of the decisions in the past 11 years.. have been taken unanimously
..... when the party center ended all the possibilities of his representing a parallel headquarters.... he is now collecting materials to become leader of a faction.
..... extreme self-centered individualism existing within him is working from behind for this kind of serious deviation.
..... explaining and distributing, without any knowledge of party Headquarters, to anybody he meets with, the aforesaid letter
...... is following the footprints of right liguidationists expelled from party in the past that used to demand factional freedom ...... publicized his pluralist and liquidationist thinking
..... Very inferior method of amassing all the positive achievements developed by party the people’s war in one’s personal bag and placing all limitations and weaknesses in other’s shoulder has been used in that documentation.
..... bourgeois individualist intellectual arrogance, which preaches others by granting status of a thinker to own by oneself
..... Laldhoj’s life philosophy seems to have been guided more by Nitchse’s extreme individualist philosophy of subjective arrogance, which thinks oneself as a capable thinker and says that the fittest must rule
..... he will be victimized of bourgeois idealism that is expressed ideologically in the form of individualist anarchism, politically right capitulationism and organizationally liquidationism.
..... Party wishes that comrade Laldhoj, being ruthless against his mistakes and weaknesses, will follow the process of transforming oneself. Party will always remain ready to provide necessary help in that process.

Some conclusions I draw:
  1. The rift between the two is serious. But this does not mean the Maoists as a party are now weaker. The reverse might be true.
  2. It has partly been caused by the fact that the Maoists are facing tough times militarily. So the unity has come under strain. It is also making the two top duos seek a scapegoat, as in, if only you will do as I say, we would not be facing these tough times. They are internalizing the external factors.
  3. Prachanda is not in a position to physically harm Baburam who does seem to have a significant power base of his own. But he is being subjected to "purification," whatever that means.
  4. Prachanda is trying to consolidate his power base. Baburam is opposing that. And Prachanda is using the offense-as-best-defense strategy of accusing Baburam of being power hungry. Look who is talking. Basically the change is that Baburam is no longer "head of state."
  5. This guy Prachanda seriously thinks he is going to take over the country militarily. Or he is feigning it to boost flagging morales. Leaders of dictatorial outfits go down in defeat rather than change their mind. It is only democrats who are known to compromise and create new positions. His enemies might only have the Gonzalo Option left.
  6. Baburam is the moderate. Prachanda is the relative hardliner. Baburam's hand has been weakened for now. From Constituent Assembly the Maoists have now moved on to a Republican State. This is alarming. The democrats have even less common ground with the Maoists now. This increases the tendency toward military confrontation.
  7. Prachanda feels inferior to Baburam intellectually, and does not like it. He feels the need to belittle Baburam's "intellect."
  8. It is very important to realize what strain this virus is. The "realists" might have a point after all.
  9. But it also has to be seen that the Monarchists are not exactly on best behavior. The hardening of the Maoist stance can also be seen as the mirror image of the same. For example, the king's 2/1 move of suspending all fundamental rights has offended the Maoists. That is a dormant democratic spirit. Attempts ought be made to tap that. But for now it is a tussle between the two hardliners.
  10. I guess, in Nepal you have the Maoists, in Sri Lanka the LTTE.
In The News
  • India expects Nepal’s king to take more steps towards democracy Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
  • Nepal parties unite to fight king BBC News
  • Nepal make promising start CricInfo.com, UK
  • Nepal parties warn king of fresh street protests Reuters India, India
  • Nepal parties close to forming a common front Gulf Times, Qatar
  • Nepal parties set common agenda for democratic movement United We Blog
  • Nepali political parties term "emergency lift" as eyewash:- Webindia123 "The Maoist leaders informed us through magazines and even proclaimed that they are willing to not only join hands with the political parties but are also ready to accept our programmes. But after all this they are still targeting our leaders. Nothing much can be done unless they shun violence," Giri said.
  • Maoists threaten to close down two Nepal hotels:- Webindia123, India Nepal's Maoist insurgents Sunday fired a fresh salvo at King Gyanendra by saying they would close down two luxury hotels, owned by members of the royal family, from May 15..... Soaltee Crowne Plaza .... Fishtail Lodge.... The Soaltee, Nepal's first five-star hotel, started by the present king's uncle, the late Prince Himalaya, is widely regarded as being owned by King Gyanendra though the hotel authorities deny it.
  • Nepal's crown prince has an image makeover:- Webindia123 Crown Prince Paras was finally shown up in a different light by the private media this weekend ..... Paras Sunday made front-page news teeing off in a golf tourney and discussing his game with a reporter ..... Known to be fond of fast vehicles and sport, the crown prince's recent engagements however have been more statesmanlike ..... Following in his father's footsteps, Paras Saturday took part in the American Ambassador's Cup golf tourney, making him the first heir to participate in a public competition..... Paras played 18 holes in the company of US ambassador to Nepal James Francis Moriarty and army chief Gen Pyar Jung Thapa...... The Post described the crown prince, who took to golf about two years ago, as having a "pretty decent game although he downplays it" with "some tremendous shots"...... Paras reportedly even handed over his club to the Post reporter and asked him to take a shot...... "The first nine holes were nerve-racking but I am enjoying the last nine," the Post reported him as saying. Then he added in a flash of wit, "I should have started from the last nine.".... "Golf is a very difficult game," he was reported as saying. "But the beauty of it is, one plays against oneself and not others."..... the Post carried a photograph of his wife, crown princess Himani, dressed in trousers in a marked contrast to her usual garb of the traditional sari.... Last week, the royal duo had been seen several times at Kathmandu's Dasharath Stadium, watching football matches in the AFC President's Cup tourney, which Paras inaugurated. ..... The prince, a football buff, reportedly cheered the local Three Star Club..... If Paras succeeds in retaining media attention in the current positive way, he might usher in a new chapter of sports diplomacy.
  • Charting the course back to pluralism Nepali Times Three weeks ago, the United Nations decided in Geneva that the protection of human rights of Nepali citizens vis-à-vis the rebels and the security forces required an international presence of more than 50 international monitors. Ian Martin, the much-heralded head of the Nepal Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, is due to arrive on Friday. On Tuesday, the UN system in Nepal, in unprecedented action, called for full respect by the government for the principles of press freedom..... the reported comments of US Ambassador James Moriarty at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC last Friday, including reference to the February First action being popular among ordinary Nepalis, at the very least, does not inspire confidence in the intentions of the super power.
  • Army officer, police inspector killed in Nepal in Maoist attack Press Trust of India, India
  • Maoists murdered captured soldiers, Nepal Army claims Zee News Nepal's Army today accused Maoist rebels of murdering captured soldiers and said it hoped to bring the perpetrators in front of the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
  • Nepal frees student leader, former minister, re-arrests them Zee News
  • Gagan Thapa's Letter From Custody INSN .... lifting of insurgency is not aimed at creating environment for negotiation to solve the political crisis; it was just a concerted action to entrench the autocratic regime.
  • UML Democracy Bulletin 8
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Friday, May 06, 2005

The Seven Dwarfs


Seven political parties have come up with what they are calling a Common Minimum Program. The dialogue held was for days, but none of the discussions were made public. If they ended up saying the same thing they have been saying for a few years now, I wonder what it is they spent days talking about. Why could they not have done it in a minute? I believe they could have just nodded at each other, used some sign language, and put out a simple press statement: Same Old, Same Old. But no, they talked for days.

Their CMP: Revive The Parliament.

A parliament whose term has expired is a dead parliament. A sick parliament could have been revived, a dissolved parliament could have been revived, if there were such a provision in the constitution. But the parliament is dead. So is the constitution.

2005 is like 1990. This is not an election year like 1991, or 1994, or 1999. An interim government is the only option.

You can not accuse the king of dictatorial tendencies, and then turn around and threaten him with street protests if he were to not act dictatorial. Only a dictator could revive the dead parliament by playing god, because there is nothing in the 1990 constitution that allows the king to revive the parliament.

Basically you are asking him to repeat the extra-constitutional step of forming the Royal Commission to Control Corruption. I guess he could do that: revive the parliament. Supposedly he is above the law. So he could do just about anything. So you could ask. But you can not ask and then accuse him of being above the law.

So when you are asking him to revive the parliament, you are asking him to function above the law, beyond the constitution. I guess he could do that, if he really wanted to. But why would he want to? If he does not have to, if he can not according to the constitution. Let’s assume the king is someone trying to expand his personal power base. Then it makes no sense for him to revive the parliament. It is like Girija were telling him, Your Majesty, chop off your head and give it to me, please.

Another segment of the CMP: peace talks with the Maoists.

So these seven dwarfs want peace talks with the Maoists? They make it sound like when and finally the Maoists come to peace talks, something astounding will be revealed. The Maoists will propose Nepal go to the moon, and the seven dwarfs will ponder upon it.

Forget the Maoists, call me up, I will tell you what the Maoists will tell you. The Maoists want an all-party interim government that will hold elections to a Constituent Assembly. Is that news to you? Is this the first time you are hearing this? I am glad to be of service.

So a CMP can not possibly have reviving parliament and peace talks on the same page. Why? Because they are contradictory. If your sole focus is to revive the parliament, then you are sending a very clear signal to the Maoists that you are not interested in any kind of talks with them. And if they are not going to come to talks, Nepal will still have a civil war. The parliament will not bring the civil war to an end. It will give 205 individuals monthly salaries, it will give Girija a major ego boost, but it will not solve the number one problem in the country right now: civil war. Girija’s insistence on a revived parliament is like a stopped clock that is right about two times a day.

In case you have not noticed, Nepal is the number one hot spot on the planet right now. It is not Kashmir, it is not Palestine, not Chechnya, not inner city Chicago. The house has been burning. Desperate times ask for bold measures. Reviving parliament is not a bold measure.

The question is not if the Maoists will come into the mainstream. The question is will the political parties come into the mainstream.

When you go onto the soccer field, if the only thing you see is the ball and one goal post, you are not going to be able to make head or tail of the game. You have to see there are 21 other players, and another goal post, and a referee. Similarly the political parties will have to recognize all the players. They are still excluding a few parties. That is a no no. Invite all parties. And then recognize the two 800 pound gorillas in the room: the Maoists, and the king.

I used to think in terms of a Constituent Assembly. But I have revised my position. Such an assembly is like telling the king you might be asked to leave. That is like cornering him. What does a cornered cat do?

I think all political parties should come around to this proposal. The goal should be a co-existence for all the three players. All I ask for all players is that they make their opinions public on my proposal. Come participate in a public dialogue. We will talk back and forth until we reach common ground.

Wake up, Seven Dwarfs.

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