Sunday, June 12, 2005

Badri Mandal: Sadbhavana's RPP Face

I don't know the guy, never met the guy. But I have followed his career since he defeated Shailaja Acharya in Morang and came into the parliament. He went on to chair the Sadbhavana party. He went on to become Deputy Prime Minister.

His public statements since 2/1 remind me of the split in the RPP. There are nine "dissidents" in the RPP who would like the party to endorse the king's 2/1 move. Interesting.

Badri Mandal beat the RPP at the game. He and the Sadbhavana faction he leads have done what not even the RPP has been able to do: the 2/1 move has been roundly endorsed.

If the current regime manages to chug along to the municipal elections, the RPP and the Mandal Sadbhavana would be in the fray. That will be quite a circus.

Mandal says 40,000 Madhesis have been denied citizenship certificates. That is such a lowball figure. Even the government claims 3,200,000 Nepalis have been denied those certificates. I would think at least two-thirds of those are Madhesis. That would mean 20 lakh Madhesis. And those are not my figures. If anything, the government figures have probably been put at the lower end.

I guess the Sadbhavana had itw own "two-line struggle" when the party split. But the Madhesi cause has not been hurt. Federalism has gained major currency. I can't think of one major party that is against it.

In The News
  • Former Nepalese minister may participate in civic polls:- Webindia123, India May 20, 2005 A former Nepalese minister, who has been charged with graft by the new government headed by King Gyanendra, has hinted his party may participate in the municipal elections scheduled to be held this year...... Badri Prasad Mandal, who heads the pro-king Nepal Sadbhavana Party, has asked the Election Commission to give voting rights to people from the plains though they don't have citizenship...... Mandal, a leader from the terai plains, was forest minister in the last Sher Bahadur Deuba government that was sacked by the king in February...... "There are about 40,000 people who don't have citizenship," Mandal told IANS. "Half of them would be above 18 and eligible to vote. We are asking the Election Commission to include them in its updated voters' list." ...... That is a clear indication Mandal's party would take part in the polls though at least seven other parliamentary parties have said they would boycott them....... In a public statement, Mandal has said the royal takeover would help to restore peace, and, instead of confrontations, the opposition parties should focus on peace....... Mandal, along with seven former ministers, including Deuba, faces allegations of graft levelled by the new government. ...... He has been accused of illegally disbursing money among party cadre from a government fund intended for the rehabilitation of victims of natural calamities and the Maoist insurgency........ While six of the accused ministers counter-accuse the king of trying to settle political scores, Mandal, however, has been holding his peace. ...... Mandal's own party was split in 2003 with the splinter group, which calls itself Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi), choosing to ally itself with the opposition parties....... Before it split, the party had five MPs in the last parliament. Currently, only two of them are still with Mandal.
  • Royal move to consolidate democracy, restore peace Gorkhapatra, Nepal - May 27, 2005 Gandaki zonal administrator Kumar Bahadur Karki ..... Chief District Officer Tek Bir Jung Rayamajhi ..... Also speaking at the program were central member of Rastriya Janasakti Party Narendra Wagle, central member of Rastriya Janamukti Party Shiva Lal Thapa ..... Meanwhile, in Mahottari, a huge procession passed through different streets of Jaleshwor Municipality Thursday wishing for the lasting peace in country. Commenced from local Shankar Square under the organization of Madheshi Friendship Center Nepal, the rally passed round the main bazaar and turned into a mass meeting where national Chairman of Nepal Sadbhavana Party Badri Prasad Mandal said that multiparty democracy would be consolidated and peace restored in the country following the February 1 Proclamation of His Majesty the king. ...... There is the need of peace for Nepali people who have been victimized directly or indirectly by the series of murder, violence and terrorism, said Mr Mandal adding that the problem therefore should be settled through national consensus among different constitutional forces....... Former minister Kamal Chaulagain and others also spoke at the program headed by chairman of the center Kishori Mahato.
  • Indian TV news channels allowed in Nepal Reuters India, India
  • Six Maoist rebels killed in Nepal BBC News, UK
  • Nepal journalists launch street radio Indian Express, India
  • Former Nepal PM to visit India:- Webindia123, India
  • Koirala meets CPM leader Yechury Chennai Online
  • Increase tourist flow to Nepal Kathmandu Post, Nepal
  • The National Flag Carrier Amid Triumph, Hope And Despair Gorkhapatra
  • I am unaware of being blacklisted: Giri Kantipur Online, Nepal
  • Call NTC, get SLC results Gorkhapatra, Nepal
  • Nepali Govt Secures 50,000 Jobs In Malaysia Bernama, Malaysia
  • Saarc summit to take place in Dhaka: PM Gulf Times, Qatar
  • Dhaka happy with new SAARC date:- Webindia123, India
  • Nepali gov't approves education regulation People's Daily Online, China
  • SAARC summit to be held in November India Monitor, UK
  • More ways to look up SLC results this year Kantipur Online, Nepal
  • Student leader’s detention term extended by 3 months Kantipur Online, Nepal
  • Govt a coterie of corrupt people: Khanal Kantipur Online, Nepal “The King himself knows Tulsi Giri’s past”
  • Kerala turns into the 'Gulf' for upcountry migrant labour Hindu, India
  • Nepal, Portugal share cordial ties: Shrestha Gorkhapatra, Nepal
  • Total road length reaches 17,192 KMs. Gorkhapatra, Nepal
  • Crown Prince gives prizes, certificates Gorkhapatra, Nepal
  • Politicians asked politicians to win confidence at home, not ... Gorkhapatra, Nepal Industrialist and businessman Mohan Gopal Khetan said that those who have gone abroad on pretexts like meeting leaders of foreign countries, for treatment or to meet the terrorists have only gone there because they have lost their credence here. ..... Khetan said that economist and former minister Dr. Devendra Raj Pandey has openly challenged the seven political parties saying if they accuse His Majesty the King of taking over power, they should first come out with their agenda ...... Khetan also rejected the so-called unity among the seven political parties ..... If they were really united why did Koirala went to meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress (I) president Sonia Gandhi personally ...... He came down especially on the lawyers and the press saying they have completely forgotten their professional loyalties. If not, what is the rationale of them coming down to the streets? ..... Dr. Sundar Mani Dixit ..... One of the most unfortunate thing of the Nepalese politics was that nothing is done in time. ..... Talking about the Royal proclamation of February 1, he said that it had brought a wave for peace in the country ..... Saying it will be a highly unfortunate for the country if the step taken by His Majesty the King fails, he added those who feel happy in such a situation have no love for the soil of this country.
  • Deconstructing religion Kathmandu Post, Nepal Religion is the most traditional and visible force existing in Nepal. The real challenge for us is how to use this force to create democratic minds and souls. For this, religions in Nepal need to be reformed.
  • Economic Diplomacy: Issues & Challenges By Ramesh Nath Pandey Kathmandu Post, Nepal Who should take charge of the country's economic diplomacy? Before that, are our diplomatic missions doing enough to pursue economic diplomacy? Before that, are they given the ways and means to do that? Before that, are they trained and oriented for the purpose? Before that, how different or similar are the concepts of foreign policy and economic diplomacy of Nepal? It would not be fair to blame the underperformance of our foreign office in areas it was never prepared and equipped for. ....... trade promotion, export promotion, tourism promotion, investment promotion, overseas employment promotion, information and communication technologies as well as inducting the role of non-resident Nepalis into Nepal's prosperity ...... There is nothing more dynamic than international economic relations in the contemporary world....... the big first question: who in fact should take the charge of economic diplomacy of the country. The one-liner answer would be that the private sector comprising business and industrial community should be the one taking the lead.... Forgive me if I hurt you, but the proposals should come with willingness to share the burden and cost as well as successes and failures. It should be a common endeavour, after all.
  • 40,000 Nepalese children displaced in armed conflict Xinhua, China
  • Koirala meets more Indian leaders Kathmandu Post, Nepal CPI leader A B Bardan .... former Indian prime ministers I K Gujral and Chandra Shekhar, and ex-general secretary of the CPI (M), Harkishan Singh Surjeet ..... Koirala is likely to return to Nepal on Wednesday.
  • Selling kidneys for a few rupees more Kathmandu Post, Nepal He had a scar just above his left waist and Rs 50,560 in his pocket when he returned home on May 31 after a three-month stay in India..... this man, a father of six (four sons and two daughters) who owns six ropanis of land ..... I went to India to make money (by selling my kidney) so that I could buy more land ..... Since Sambar underwent surgery a-month-and-a-half ago, he suffers incessant pain. He threw away all the medicines while returning home, as others advised him to do so, fearing police intervention while crossing the border. As a result, he has no medicine to take...... I knew that the broker (agent) got Rs 300,000 from the Indian patient… Whatever had to happen, it's happened. Now I am feeling frail.... the agents try to lure innocent villagers, who are very poor financially, to sell their kidney. They frequently visit the village ..... three women have already left the village with the same intention...... Another man, in a fit of anger, says, "What difference does it make if we say this? You will earn money by selling this (news)." It was later known that this man was Mohan Sapkota, the first kidney seller of the village. However, he said he was cheated after he sold his kidney.
  • ‘RCCC cannot control corruption’ Kathmandu Post, Nepal It's really good on the part of the media as they began revealing the present cabinet members' real faces.
  • Qatar's human traficking report Arabic News Women and men who work as domestic servants, some of whom fall victim to involuntary servitude .... Children trafficked to Qatar for exploitation as camel jockeys ..... excessive hours, late or nonpayment of wages, physical and sexual abuse, and withholding of passports ...... Child camel jockeys are overworked, malnourished, and physically abused. Some have been thrown from the camels they rode and suffered serious neurological damages. Most no longer remember where they came from...... The government provides no shelter for trafficking victims; instead, it detains and punishes trafficking victims for immigration violations....... institute a formal system to identify, care for, and repatriate these victims, including domestic workers and child camel jockeys
  • Lightening the load of child miners BBC News, UK Sudha is one of an estimated one million children who work in small-scale mining and quarrying across the globe .... 246 million children are child labourers .... 73 million child workers are less than 10 years of age ..... 2.5 million children work in developed economies ..... 2.5 million work in transitional economies .... 127 million - the largest number of working children under 14 years of age - work in the Asia Pacific region .... 1 million children work in mines or quarries .... 22,000 children die in work-related accidents each year ..... There is no way to check whether that wedding ring or bracelet in the jewellers has been produced with the help of child labour .... using children, some as young as five, as workers in mines......young workers cannot simply be removed from the equation; their families need to replace the money they would bring in, hence ongoing assistance is needed.
  • True justice knows no boundaries The Observer, UK the rights to food, health and clean water are as much human rights as freedom of expression or the right to a fair trial..... In Zimbabwe, we have documented not only torture, arrests, killings and the suppression of dissent, but also the manipulation of the food distribution system by the Mugabe government to starve political opponents........ In the Palestinian Occupied Territories, we have exposed both the massive human rights abuses by Israeli security forces which shoot, detain, torture and kill with impunity, and also the severe suffering of Palestinians because of Israeli policies and practices of border closures and curfews. Children can't go to school, pregnant women can't gain access to hospitals and men can't tend their orchards....... In Afghanistan, I have heard women tell me that the best way to protect them from violence would be to give them education and employment. In Darfur and in Goma, rape survivors have spoken to me of their need for healthcare as well as justice. In Nepal, men and women have described to me how a decade-long internal conflict has destroyed their livelihoods as well as threatened their lives....... What they do understand and demand are practical results and real changes in their lives. That is why Amnesty has never hesitated to criticise the massive corruption, abuse of power and deep discrimination in Africa....... Amnesty International has never been afraid, either, of speaking the truth to power. We do not believe that by criticising human rights abuses in the context of the US-led 'war on terror', Amnesty International is holding the US Administration to higher standards, as Cohen argues. On the contrary, we apply exactly the same universal standards to all governments. It is the Bush Administration that has claimed it is above, and its prisoners in Guantanamo Bay camp outside, the rule of international law...... Amnesty International made the right decision in 2001, shortly before I joined the organisation, to expand its mandate to cover economic, social and cultural rights.
  • Direction: Is Nepal safe for tourists? The Sunday Times, UK
  • Bread and Buddha Times Online, UK
  • Maoists bomb another bus; eight killed Peninsula On-line, Qatar
  • Marriage Is Still Causing Discrimination To Women Pressbox.co.uk (press release), UK
  • New SAARC dates to infuse momentum: B’desh Zee News, India
  • To America With Love by Anil Bhattarai INSN ..... respected citizens and members of parliament like Ram Chandra Poudel, Narahari Acharya, Amik Sherchan, Lilamani Pokharel, Navaraj Subedi and many others and human rights defenders like Krishna Pahadi continue to languish in jail ...... Mr. Moriarty watched a documentary on Nepal in Washington ..... an amateur video documentary about human rights violations by Nepal’s security forces (especially the police) during anti-regression movement that five-political parties represented in the parliament had launched immediately after the king usurped power on October 4, 2002 ..... what Nepali people have given our kings and their families and relations in the last two and half a century? Does he know that our ancestors had to part with more than half of what they produced in land to local representatives of the king–in the form of taxes, fines, tithes and what-nots? Or does he know that until 1950 almost all the able bodied human beings in Nepali villages had to provide labour for free to the state, on top of the taxes they paid ? Does he know that all the land and forest and water belonged to kings, their family members, and their close aides during most of our history? Does he, for that matter, know that there were many times when people starved, died of epidemics, and lived not beyond their forties precisely because they simply did not have enough food to eat? ...... after 1950. ..... they were not made to do forced labour like in the past. They were even exempted from land taxes....... what happened to billions of dollors–that initially came as grant, but gradually became loan to be paid back by Nepali people? Does he know who or which and how many families pocketed it? ...... after 1990 ..... But again political parties in power and in opposition began to give bit by bit back to the king which he was made to surrender back to the people in 1990. Didn’t the parties, for example, give him the right to appoint ambassadors although in the constitution he was supposed to act strictly on recommendation of the cabinet? Or wasn’t the case same about the appointment of members of upper house? Didn’t the parties raise his salary, his allowances and his palace expenditures? Didn’t the king receive all the BMWs and Jaguars and similar other cars for his pleasure and profit at people’s expense? Does Mr. Moriarty know that the king became one of the highest paid heads of state in the world when he is already one of the richest men in the world thanks to his “business” and inheritance as exclusive heir to the fortunes of Shah dynasty? ...... on October 4, 2002 the king snatched away the power to self-rule from people again. ....... the king did it with America’s full consent (and the full consent of British, Indians, Chinese, Europeans, lest we forget), and that is not a secret any more. All of them joined the chorus of ‘corrupt party leaders’ and ’saviour king’....... then the king took even more on February 1, 2005. He swallowed everything that people had got in 1990 in one go. ...... Mr. Moriarty denied that he supported the king’s move. But then, what is it that he is supporting if not king’s direct rule when he said the king did not have any option other than to do what he did on February 1, 2005 ? ...... Your Excellency, Mr. Moriarty, what exactly do you want the Nepali people to give to the king beyond what they have already given? It would be a solace to hear your answer because, then, we would know what exactly has remained with us after the king has taken almost everything from us.
  • DIG Gopalman And Chakadi In Nepal Police United We Blog .....the Police Station in-charge ordered his subordinates to take those birds. Few days after, a helicopter came and took them to Kathmandu. When the columnist reached that area he found the woman totally devastated ...... the same secretary told me that he brought a couple of young tiger on to his house. When his mood was off he used to feed meat to them. He also told me that he was aware of the act that keeping tiger at home is against law.
  • Feud Within Mandales United We Blog ..... Who is the biggest Mandale Nepal has ever seen? My answer would be Dr. Tulsi Giri ..... The man who declared publicly of surrendering his wisdom and independent sense to king Mahendra decades ago is now busy spiting venom against the agitating press and lawyers and political forces. ..... recent example is Prakash Koirala. He proved his qualification for Mandale by shamelessly supporting the Feb 1 royal takeover and speaking against the seven party Mass Movement. ..... an organization called Rastrabadi Biddhyarthi Mandal that was established in the late 70s (in 1979 or 1980). ...... the remnants of that force was still alive in today’s society in the name (and to some extent in the form) of a political party: Rastriya Prajantra Party (RPP). No doubt, RPP is a gang of Mandales. And in this gang, an interesting feud is intensifying day by day. The trophy of the feud is ‘Biggest Mandale in Post-Feb 1 Nepal.” ...... Padmasundar Lawati and Kamal Thapa ... They want RPP to clearly and publicly support the royal takeover. They want RPP to formally do what Tulsi Giri did four decades ago. ..... Pashupati SJB Rana .. want to avoid the street protest against the autocracy ...... the cold/hot or any other war between Lokendara Bahadur Chand and Surya Bahadur Thapa. These both names are the biggest names in Mandale fraternity. ...... Their feud goes way back to the 2040s when a no confidence motion was tabled and passed on Rastriya Panchayat against the then PM Thapa. A notorious group of three men known as Three Ps (Padma Sundar, Prakash Chandra Lohani and Pashupati Shamser) was behind that motion and that group was managed from the background by Lokendra Bahadur Chand. ...... Recently Thapa opened new party and Chand stayed in the old. Some like Lawati and Kamal Thapa are determined to break the party and weaken the Chand faction.
  • Will The King Listen? Kul Chandra Gautam Website ..... Gautam has drawn an analogy between Nepal and pre-1974 Cambodia. ...... “a failed state syndrome” term may irk those rulers of Nepal who still either underestimate the present crisis or are captivated by their own arrogance....... ..... the existing crisis of confidence and level of differences between not only the Maoists and the constitutional forces but also among the constitutional forces i.e., the King and the major political parties themselves, have been creating imperatives for “external mediation”. ...... The UN role can not be seen as a negative outside interference since Nepal is itself a member of the UN system. In fact, the current situation has been gradually providing grounds for undesirable outside intervention. The supply of arms and ammunitions, military equipment and helicopters by India, the US and the UK has already started the process of outside military involvement in Nepal. ...... “ King’s self-defeating policy” has been “threatening the future of both the monarchy and the state itself” ....... No one can justify the rationale for a dominant role of an individual power country or group of countries instead of positive role of the neutral world body-the UN- in Nepal when the situation goes beyond the control of national political actors. ...... time is running out to prevent catastrophic effect of the existing violent conflict ...... If the deterioration of the present situation is allowed to continue, Nepal either may have to face direct military intervention of individual power country or group of countries or the UN itself may come over to rescue the country from crisis ....... public statements recently made by Kofi Annan- UN Secretary General and Lalkrishna Advani- Deputy Prime Minister of India ...... the only alternative left is to deal with the Maoists by constituting an all-party government comprised of parliamentary parties. ......
  • Mistakes, Miscalculations by Kul Chandra Gautam
at No comments:

Saturday, June 11, 2005

My Audio Clips: Reflections



In The News
  • Nepal rebels attack bus, killing six soldiers, two civilians Malaysia Star, Malaysia The attack came several days after rebel leaders announced a policy of not attacking civilian vehicles or targets. ..... There was no immediate rebel comment on the latest attack.
  • Nepal king's deputy named in bank scam Hindustan Times, India ..... a scam in which money was taken from a state-owned bank as loan but not paid back...... Giri, a hardliner who favours a military solution to Nepal's Maoist insurgency, had gone into self-imposed political exile nearly 19 years ago...... Giri's personal assistant had called up the bank to check if the blacklisted chairman was the same person as the minister...... After the bank confirmed it, Giri himself called up the bank the next day and said he had no knowledge about Himalaya Plastic and any documents naming him were fakes ..... the minister denied any knowledge or involvement.
  • Nepal to push for UN reforms in Doha: official Xinhua, China
  • RIGHTS-NEPAL: Conflict Pushes More Kids to Work Inter Press Service (subscription), World his father, who was killed by Maoist insurgents during the Tihar festival last November for fleeing a rebel work camp after a month's forced labour ..... his mother, who left their family to marry another man) ..... he cannot go back to his village for he is a hunted boy. ..... After seeing his father stabbed and killed by cadres of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Dipak hurled a stone during a Maoist meeting a few weeks later ...... Girls fare worse than boys, and are more prone to sexual exploitation ..... they were forced to leave their villages due to threats from Maoists. Today they work in restaurants and carpet factories, among others, facing hardships that range from low wages to sexual abuse...... end up in Nepal's urban areas, either as domestic help, 'khalasi' like Dipak or child labourers in carpet factories, stone quarries or brick kilns........ Some children are fleeing the Maoists ranks, and so are hunted by both the security forces and the insurgents........ 32,000 Nepali children are currently working in 1,600 stone quarries ..... more than 10,000 children work in stone quarries, coal, sand, and red soil mines in Nepal, the majority of them aged 11 to 13. Most are young girls....... conflict has led to an increase in child domestic workers ..... the number of child labourers in Nepal, ages 5-14 now stands at 2.6 million ....
  • 'Willful defaulters serious threat to economy' Kathmandu Post
  • Nepal’s Vice-chairman of Council of Minister Among Wilful ... United We Blog, Nepal
  • Vice-Chairman Giri in blacklist Kantipur Online
  • Dr Giri in CIB blacklist Kathmandu Post
  • Maoists Lynch Two Civilians NepalNews.com a group of Maoists has brutally killed two civilians at Balahi area in the southern district of Siraha. Bisundev Mahato, a resident of Balahi village and Dev Nath Yadav of Fulkahapatti, who were working at a road project as labourers, were killed after being abducted by a group of armed rebels. Their mutilated bodies were found at Kabilas area
  • KP Bhattarai For House Reinstatement NepalNews.com .....said “he wished an immediate end to the King’s arbitrary regime” ..... he said jokingly, “If the House is restored, I will also come to the House.”
  • UML Gen Sec Invites Maoists For Dialogue NepalNews.com .... called upon the Maoists for dialogue and “encourage the parties” in their movement for absolute democracy..... “We are ready to sit for dialogue with the Maoists so as to address the issue of constituent assembly that they have raised” ......the measures the Maoists have adopted - murder, violence and abduction- in the name of people’s war have rather been strong tools against democracy. “Due to the increasing Maoist violence, the autocrat King has the pretext to rule in the name of providing security”
  • RPP Dissidents Announce Date For General Convention NepalNews.com Over 527 general convention members including 9 central working committee leaders registered a motion at the party headquarters on June 9 (yesterday) to call the general convention of the party within a month...... The RPP dissidents have been reportedly seeking for the party’s backing to the Royal Proclamation of February 1. In the contrary, the RPP central committee had called for immediate reactivation of the constitution, restoration of the democratic processes and press freedom in the country.
  • Maoist Army, Western Division, Statement
at No comments:

Friday, June 10, 2005

Girija Koirala, Bamdev Gautam In Delhi


Looks like they have been making the rounds.

June 10
  • Nepal rebels abduct journalist Sydney Morning Herald (subscription), Australia
  • Comrades in Delhi Nepali Times
  • Hydropower in Nepal Kathmandu Post, Nepal
  • ‘Abandoning Arun III a mistake’ Kathmandu Post
  • Time Expresses Solidarity With Nepali Press Kantipur
  • Winning A Peace From Global Perspectives Pressbox.co.uk (press release), UK
  • King Gyanendra to visit Qatar and UAE Zee News, India
  • King Gyanendra’s Promises Are Waning Fast World Press Review Even as the king was in the Indonesian capital promising a “strengthening of democracy in the country, sooner than later” on April 22, his men back home were running amok arresting pro-democracy activists and tightening the screws on democratic institutions....... A day after the king addressed heads of state of 52 nations in Jakarta, masked revolver-wielding men — later known to be policemen — stormed a meeting organized to mourn the death of a veteran communist leader and arrested some of the mourners...... the backdrop of such lawlessness ...... Over two-thirds of 37 central committee members of the Nepali Congress, Nepal’s largest political force, are still languishing in detention or are in exile. Likewise, three-quarters of the central leaders of the People’s Front Nepal, a communist party, are still in detention........ given the present atmosphere, the democratic forces are likely to go for head-on confrontation with the king .....
  • FM radios on warpath Nepali Times, Nepal The stations have already been broadcasting silence, blowing of conch shells and reading the news through loudspeakers from impromptu ‘studios’ at the main squares of all major towns...... nearly 60 non-government radio stations throughout the country employing 10,000 people and representing Rs 100 million in capital investment by businessmen, NGOs, district and village councils and ordinary citizens. Most stations are on the verge of bankruptcy because of a fall in ad revenues
  • Nepali security forces nab India's supplying arms to guerrillas Xinhua, China
  • 72,000 Nepali students without textbooks People's Daily Online, China
  • India and Nepal Maoists deny mutual ties Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran Bhattarai earlier had been accused by the Maoist hardliners as being soft on New Delhi after he insisted on fighting the king first before taking on India in the wake of February 1 palace coup.
  • Maoists loot ADB Bardia for the third time Kathmandu Post, Nepal ..... robbed Rs 398,000
  • Amnesty asks Maoists to probe landmine explosion Gorkhapatra, Nepal
  • Apology notwitstanding, Maoist excesses continue Kathmandu Post, Nepal Prachanda had issued a similar statement on November 16 after a passenger bus in Dolakha hit a Maoist-laid landmine on November 13, 2002, killing two civilians. In his statement, Prachanda had said such an attack was "beyond their imagination". At that time too, he had pledged to probe into the incident and had said the outcome of the probe would be made public. However, that never happened....... And yet another "beyond-their-imagination" incident occurred in Sarlahi on April 9 where a public bus hit another land mine in which five passengers were killed........ Likewise, when the Maoists went on a rampage attacking leaders and cadres of the People's Front Nepal (PFN) in September-October last year, Prachanda, in a statement on October 6, had said that the attacks were against "party policy". However, attacks on PFN members continued unabated for several months even after this...... The first ever public apology from the Maoist leadership came during the 2001 cease-fire when Prachanda had said the "forceful collection" of donations by Maoist cadres was against the party policy. That, however, didn't stop the Maoists from extorting common men and women.
  • Nepalese influx up The Statesman, India
  • Rising insurgency, economic hardship causing exodus into India Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran There have been "large population transfers" from the Himalayan Kingdom into India in the past few weeks....... Tourism is dead. Many factories have been shut down. Even as large population transfers are taking place, and villages are getting empty.
  • Choice for Nepal: People’s Government or Dictatorship United We Blog, Nepal The current royalist regime is busy churning out propaganda in books and film festivals; an essay competition on ‘The monarch’s role in Nepalese films’ being a perfect example......
  • Republicanism: How About A Real Public Debate? Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand In the aftermath of King Gyanendra’s February 1 takeover of full executive powers, the Nepali Congress, too, has signaled that its support for constitutional monarchy is, at best, driven by expediency...... Girija Prasad Koirala has been warning that the king’s political ambitions would compelled him to contemplate an alliance with the Maoist rebels to abolish the monarchy ..... Koirala’s one-time deputy, Ram Chandra Poudel, has gone a step further by asserting that King Birendra was not satisfied with the powers granted him under the constitution...... Fifteen years later, the palace stepped in to claim a role it believed it never had relinquished under the tripartite agreement........ Among the leaders still detained by the royal government after the lifting the state of emergency on April 30 are leading proponents of a constituent assembly. This is a key demand of the Maoists, who expect the elected body to transform the kingdom into a republic. The detentions indicate that the palace is ready for a showdown regardless of the quarter it emanated from........ Advocating a “fight to the finish for full democracy”, he may be contemplating some kind of alliance with the Maoists, who have acknowledged opening their own contacts with key Indian leaders. It remains unclear, though, whether the latest consultations would help clarify the republican agenda....... The current discussions on a constituent assembly remain superficial. Worse, they presume that the popular verdict is already known........ Will voting be conducted along the present first-past-the-post system or proportional representation? How can traditionally underrepresented groups expect their voices and concerns to be heard? Would the people’s representatives elected on diverse platforms assemble to vote on a future model? Or would the issue be put directly to a referendum? Considering the deep divisions in the electorate, how would each of the alternative outcome scenarios be addressed? Who exactly will be drafting a new constitution? Discussions have focused too narrowly on how the palace might react to an adverse result. How would the mainstream parties and the Maoists respond to an outcome not to their liking? ......... In the case of a republican victory, how would the ambiguities contained in the Maoists’ commitment to their ultimate goal of establishing a communist republic be addressed? ....... The Maoists, who have carefully calibrated their postures in keeping with the exigencies of the moment, may be ready to shed some of their doctrinaire policies and rhetoric in exchange for legitimacy ......... As for India, extreme left-wing insurgencies grip some 40 percent of the country’s 593 districts...... the Indian establishment might be willing to contemplate a Maoist-dominated republican Nepal under the presidency of, say, the Nepali Congress. ......... To further the goal of status quo in Tibet, China is integrating Nepal into the Tibetan economy, and laying a highway that will connect the two. Chinese President Hu Jintao, who served as Communist Party secretary in Tibet from 1988 to 1992, perhaps best understands the importance of this integration...... Publicly, Washington continues to emphasize policy coordination with New Delhi and London. Behind the scenes, Washington has engaged with Beijing ...... “In looking toward the longer term, the United States definitely wants as much of a presence on the border with China as possible” ....... “The U.S. military has bases in Pakistan, throughout Central Asia, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, and it has relations with Mongolia, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. Nepal is another link in the chain” ..... “Many in India's foreign policy circles are concerned that Washington may replace India as the dominant power in South Asia, assuming that Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan prefer the freedom that comes with casting their allegiance with a distant giant rather than one close to home.” ...... has dampened India’s hope of becoming the dominant power in the Indian Ocean and interacting with Washington as a near equal. ....... “The power that stations its space-linked surveillance, intelligence and navigation systems on Nepal's high mountains gets geo-strategic leverage over several Asian regions, from Central Asia to South-East Asia” ...... that King Gyanendra in this day and age is bent on reviving autocracy is an insult to the intelligence of the Nepalese people.
  • Koirala meets Vajpayee, Shyam Saran Kathmandu Post, Nepal Visiting CPN-UML leader Bam Dev Gautam is also continuing his consultations in Delhi...... On Sunday evening he met CPI leader D Raja. On Tuesday, he met former prime ministers V P Singh and I K Gujaral. Gautam is also meeting key cabinet ministers, PM Singh and UPA leader Gandhi later in the week........ During his meetings "he has been thanking all these leaders for their continued support to the peaceful democratic movement in Nepal," an aide to Gautam told the Post.
  • Koirala to India: Don't arm Nepal till democracy is restored Newindpress, India
  • Truth beyond self Kathmandu Post, Nepal There was a time when most of the agitating political parties had opposed even the idea of amending the 1990 Constitution. Now, they are demanding for an election to the constituent assembly..... Until February 1, striking an alliance was almost impossible...... the party leaders, who were seeking reconciliation with the monarch and who once hesitated to talk about a republic Nepal, are now listening to their young cadres..... Misunderstanding politics has always been the habit of losers...... The younger generation is becoming increasingly republican. The voice for a republican Nepal will be louder if the process of the reinstatement of democracy is further delayed...... all those who once defended constitutional monarchy, now watch helplessly at the growing number of people raising their voice for a republic...... our nation is growing younger and our society, politics and perception are ever changing. The hope, anxiety, power and the confidence of the young generation are beyond our comprehension. Anyone who is aware of the shifting paradigm should advise the King and his henchmen to act before it is too late...... what is not yet written in textbooks is written on the walls. And, if not on the walls, it is written on the angry faces. Read them.
  • Innocents lose in fight for Nepal Newsday, NY .... Feb. 1 in what most diplomats in Nepal privately call a coup...... Privately, some people here Tuesday raised the possibility that the Nepali army had planted the bomb that blew up the civilian bus to score a huge propaganda coup against the Maoists, who have suffered recent military defeats and a patched-up split in their top leadership. Why, some wondered, would the Maoists make such an obvious blunder when they are so vulnerable right now? ..... Tejbahadur V.K., 35 ..... He did not want to say what his last two initials stood for because his name reveals his low caste in this highly stratified society...... the reason for the fear even to be quoted in a faraway newspaper that the hill-bound Maoists are never likely to read ...... The Maoists had called a ban on motor vehicles traveling in the region. And when they do that, anyone found driving in the countryside is likely to be stopped, ordered out of their vehicle and made to watch while it's torched. The charred skeletons of cars on the roads of southern Nepal bear witness........ Monday's bombing is a public relations disaster for the Maoists ...... they want never again to experience the kinds of things that seem to happen every day in places like Iraq, and instead happened on a rural road here Monday morning...... "All of a sudden, the bus jumped and was thrown in the air and it landed on the ground," Gurung said. "There was smoke all over. I couldn't see anyone or anything. People around me were falling apart, gasping for air. I tried to walk but I couldn't so I crawled seven meters [about 23 yards]. It was very hot and there was too much smoke to see anything. It smelled like gunpowder.... "Everyone started screaming after the bus collapsed. Nobody knew what had happened. They were all shouting, 'What happened? What is wrong? Is the driver responsible? What is going on?' "
  • Cowardly Attack Kantipur ...... when a dog goes mad it gets scared of water, and when a government goes mad it gets scared of the press ...... The shameless government does not even care that the whole world is watching the unfolding brutality of the government against the press.
  • In A Debt Trap? by Ram Sharan Mahat A well-orchestrated campaign has been unleashed to smear the twelve years of democracy as failure. But facts speak otherwise...... improvements in the socio-economic status across all regions and ecological belts during a period of eight years ending in 2003/04. Poverty declined and common masses have higher income. They are better educated, consume more and live longer. The infrastructure has multiplied. Access to facilities such as roads, banking services, irrigation, schools, health services and improved drinking water has gone up dramatically...... The production and income structure has shifted away from being based on traditional agriculture..... democracy creates pressure to work more for public welfare. It is true more could have been done with better resource management and control of leakages, and with single-minded commitment to economic agenda...... The national debt increased from a level of Rs 80 billion in 1991 to Rs 304 billion in 2003....... As the country's investment requirements far exceed the internal savings and the revenue base, tapping into external savings, in the form of loans or grants, is inevitable....... loan is the principal form of development assistance ...... The apparently sharp growth in external debt is not due to over-borrowing, but largely due to depreciation of Nepali rupee vi-a-vis the international reserve currencies against which the borrowings were made. For example, one US dollar was equivalent to 74.75 rupees in 2003 as against 42.70 rupees in 1991...... the total outstanding external debt rose from US $ 1.39 billion in 1991 to approximately US $ 2.98 billion in 2003, an increase of 114 percent. During the same period the GDP in dollar terms increased by 117 percent....... The total national debt as percentage of GDP in 1991 was 66.8 percent of which domestic and external debts accounted respectively for 17.3 and 49.5 percent. This ratio has remained generally constant since then ...... Nepal's external debt stock is composed of concessional loans with long maturities and nominal interest charges. Some of the bilateral loans, like those from Japan and some Western countries, are eventually converted into grant..... At present, the international climate for poor and indebted nations is very congenial. .... demand for debt relief to poor countries like Nepal is increasing. The UK government has already agreed to pay back 10 percent of Nepal's total debt to the WB.
  • Madi's Mass Murder And The Future Of Maobad INSN ..... exploded a bucketful of sulphur compound under a passenger bus packed with 150 people ..... Traveling in the bus were a dozen army men in civilian clothing moving between the military posts of Baghai and Bankatta, many of them carrying weapons. For more than a year, the villagers of Madi had been warned by the Maoists not to allow this. It was impossible for the villagers to make such demands of the RNA, however ...... Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chieftan, apologized on Tuesday via email to media houses. But it is not clear from earlier gestures of contrition how much his writ runs any more among the young men whose heads he has filled with the romance of violence and in whose hands he has placed guns and explosives....... Madi is a convenient valley for Maoist activity, surrounded as it is by jungle on three sides, and separated from Bihar by one low range....... To the north, the rebel supply line passes through the national park, across the East-West Highway, past Pithuwa, up to the Chepang Hills, into Dhading and Gorkha beyond. What is known is that the Maoist commander of Madi Valley, carrying the name of Kshitij, was replaced a month ago. It is thought this might be related to the rift that has driven the rebels from top to bottom into ‘Baburam’ and ‘Prachanda’ camps....... The week previous to the bus attack, there had been extraordinary nighttime activity on the valley’s trails, with dogs constantly barking into the darkness. The wire-guided improvised explosive device (IED) was put in place on Monday night. The rebels placed the sulphur compound – a chemical used in rock blasting – in a ten-litre bucket and buried it under sand at the point at which the bus would divert into the dry bed of the Bandar Mudhe stream to avoid a broken-down bridge. Thick intertwined red and black wires snaked away under the sand and through kaans grassland for about two hundred metres to the point at which someone holding a trigger – most likely a flash mechanism – would have watched that morning as two tractors drove over the device, followed by one bus making its way up-valley to Baghai, and finally the down-valley bus, crammed with passengers inside and on the roof....... at about 7:55 am ..... water slowly fills the gaping cavity made by the bomb, as if it were a well....... The men who had left their seats to the children, women and elderly and chosen to travel on the roof mostly survive. They are blown away and land on the sand at some distance. Those inside the main cabin do not stand a chance..... “There were writhing bodies and torn limbs everywhere” ...... buffalo carts were pressed into service to carry others. ..... Of the 12 army men who had been on board, three died, four were wounded and the surviving five had dragged their companions to a nearby knoll and waited for rescue. Their guns and magazines were collected by the villagers ...... Soldiers, as citizens, can travel by public transportation anywhere they like when they are off-duty. All over the country, however, they also do so while on patrol, sometimes in civilian clothing with their M-16 rifles under wrap. This amounts to using civilians as shields against ambush by Maoists, who are increasingly relying on landmines instead of launching frontal attacks against military positions....... There they were in the list of the departed: Tharu, Gurung, Magar, Chepang, Bahun, Chhetri, and one Shrestha; a Little Nepal of migrants who had settled this fertile, picture-postcard valley originally inhabited only by the Tharu...... Madi has a very close-knit community, because it is isolated from the rest of the country by the national park .... Each villager of Madi feels the pain of what happened on that bus, because we are a special kind of community within Nepal ......The people we pulled out of the wreckage were all people we knew ...... An eight-year-old boy’s body is found in the sand, headless and unclaimed. Already in a state of decomposition, he is buried under a foot of earth which is then covered with a straw mat extracted from the wreckage; he is left there to await a claimant.... only the carcass of the bus remains. The inside is a mass of twisted steel, protruding beams and bloodied seat cushions. The twin-beams of the main chassis are bent like putty........ Everyone crowded into the driver’s section in the front seems to have survived, including the driver himself, 21-year-old Bikram Mahato. Only his body aches, he says, but he walks about as if in a daze....... Nobody has cooked a meal here since yesterday, we are in such shock. ..... his bereaved wife stands alone, vacant-eyed and lost. Says the eldest son, Krishna Subedi, “Why do they ambush the public like this? And why does the army take public transportation?” ...... of late politics has taken a back seat in their organisation as the military-minded hardliners have had the upper hand ...... individual killings, maimings and acts of terror that force the people into shocked submission. .... more than any other person or institution, it is the Maoists who have been responsible for stealing the people’s future. They have made political killings and violence commonplace in Nepal. They have dragged the army out of the barracks. They have made the monarchy arrogant and ambitious. They have weakened Nepal internationally and vis-à-vis India. And, most importantly, they have exploited Nepal’s under-educated rural youth, tempting them with the promise of change imposed by the power of the gun, shunning the much harder but more fulfilling path of social revolution........ at this late date their leadership obviously understands that the ‘revolution’ is slipping out of their hands even though their cadre may for the moment have the run of the countryside ....... He has apologized often enough, as he did after the Madi mass-murder, but his fighters seem not to be marching to his drum. He has told them, he says, to allow political parties to function on the ground. They do not listen. He says “Do not target civilians,” and they do....... There is today a real question as to whether the fighters will heed the call of the high command. And it is quite likely that the ground-level fighters are unwilling to put down their guns because they know that they will be run out of the villages and the districts the moment they do so........ “They had some friends here. Now, they have none. Some people used to give them shelter. But now no one will.” ..... “This question is particularly addressed to Prachanda, Baburam and Mahara: Why kill the people? You may or may not want to recall spending a full month in a particular part of Madi fourteen years ago. Do you remember who looked after you then? Just try and come back toMadi now, and you will see how the folks will chase you and your cadre away. They despise you…” ....... Make sure directives from the high command get implemented on the scorched ground. Next, drop the gun.
June 9
  • Nepal Puts Troops on High Alert Scotsman, UK
  • Nepal puts troops on high alert following wave of attacks Zee News
  • 14 soldiers, 6 rebels killed in Nepal clash Peninsula On-line
  • Nepal wants international assistance to end conflict Expatica, Netherlands
  • Nepal communist leader released Outlook (subscription)
  • Nepal calls for "international assistance'' to end conflict ReliefWeb (press release)
  • Security forces, guerrillas clash in far-western Nepal Xinhua, China
  • Over 200 killed in far-western Nepal clash: official Xinhua
  • Nepal frees 53 journalists Globe and Mail, Canada
  • Protesting Journalists Arrested in Nepal Guardian Unlimited
  • Arrested scribes freed in Nepal, vow to continue agitation Outlook (subscription), India
  • Over 60 journalists arrested in Nepal Zee News
  • Former Nepal PM Koirala calls on Sonia Hindustan Times, India
  • Nepal situation bothers Delhi Calcutta Telegraph, India
  • Sonia, Singh urge Koirala to initiate dialogue with King, Maoists Kantipur Online
  • NEPAL: Nepal court overturns closure order of radio centre Asia Pacific Media Network, CA
  • Nepal radio closure struck down BBC News ......In Nepal's second city, Biratnagar, they have begun reading 15-minute news bulletins over loudspeakers - a move others around the country are set to copy in a 17-day protest programme...... Last week, FM stations across Nepal simultaneously read out articles of the constitution relating to press freedom and also went off air for two minutes...... But the sector is struggling. Two stations serving remote areas have reportedly closed down as the government has not permitted them to buy new back-up transmitters.
  • Nepal on weapon hunt Calcutta Telegraph, India
  • Over 1000 Students abducted in Nepal Hindu, India
  • Nepal rebels apologize for civilian deaths ISN
  • RPP Rules Out Support To House Revival, Constituent Assembly Demands NepalNews.com ..... the party upholds “restructuring of the state so as to make it inclusive” rather than the demand of parliament reinstatement and the constituent assembly...... the immediate solution to the current problem was in constituting an all-party government...... RPP meet also urged the government to create conducive environment for municipal polls due this year - so that the opposition parties could join it...... eight dissident leaders including vice-chairman Padma Sundar Lawati and Kamal Thapa went out in the middle of the meeting after the majority leaders refused their demand for a special general convention to settle the policy issues. The dissident faction has been critical of the leadership for its opposition to the royal putsch of Feb 1.
  • US considering delay of rifle shipment Kantipur Online, Nepal
  • Nepal: Ominous Activism Across The Southern Border Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand Reminiscent of the pretext it used in the early 1970s to intervene militarily in what was then East Pakistan, New Delhi has started voicing concern over an increase in the number of Nepalese coming across the border, mainly due to the escalation in Maoist violence....... former Nepalese prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, the leader of the recently formed seven-party anti-palace alliance, is in New Delhi lobbying Indian leaders for support. Former deputy prime minister Bamdev Gautam, a leading member of Nepal’s main communist party, the United Marxist-Leninist, is also in the Indian capital ...... India’s decision to open direct talks with the Nepalese Maoist rebels. Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai ..... He is reported to have met Koirala and Gautam to work out a broader alliance against the monarch...... At least nine out of the country’s 28 states are experiencing strong extreme left-wing insurgencies. Some Indian analysts have described the Maoist insurgents as a greater threat to national security than Kashmiri separatists...... Alarmed by India’s annexation of the Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim in 1974, King Birendra proposed that Nepal be declared a zone of peace....... Once in power, these leaders amassed wealth and invested it in property, banks and businesses in India..... In recent months, the royal regime has been working to lessen Nepal’s economic dependence on India by, among other things, seeking to expand trade and commercial relations with China........ Efforts at developing Nepal as a transit point between China and India have received a fresh impetus. Nepal expects to provide the transit facility with the objective of expanding its service sector and physical infrastructure development........ a railway project linking China with Tibet’s heartland, which Beijing plans to complete this year, two years ahead of schedule. Recent reports say the Chinese government plans to extend the railway line to the Nepalese border. Chinese officials say the railway will bring in 5.64 million tourists to Tibet over the next five years. The Lhasa-Kathmandu bus service is likely to benefit. Nepal and China have taken special interest in developing the kingdom’s vast hydroelectric power potential...... a country coveting permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council cannot be seen invading another country...... The Tamil Tiger rebels, fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lankan Hindus in the north and east, later joined hands with the government to chase out the Indian soldiers..... seems to involve the formation of a coalition government assembling the parliamentary parties and formally dividing the Maoist party, already facing serious rifts...... The next phase of New Delhi’s plan involves the mobilization of the Indian army against the Maoist faction outside the peace process....... What is being proposed, in effect, is a major Indian military intervention in Nepal
  • Nepalese coup forces US to rethink shipments of rifles MSN Money
  • Nepalese coup forces US to rethink shipments of rifles Financial Times, UK “Here we are supporting a military dictatorship and a feudal monarch with no prospect of a return to democracy anywhere on the horizon,” said the aide. “How does this square with Bush's rhetoric about ending tyranny everywhere?”
  • The Ascendancy of Gyanendra Shah Samudaya.org, AZ Rambharosa Das Kayastha was registered in the citizenship rosters as Gyanendra Shah, born 1949 C.E., Janakpur........ Kathmandu had swelled to a population of two million souls by February of 2008—the frogs of the pond, who had lacked the courage to venture outside the valley....... Seti opened wider in Pokhara and Fewa drained to the drudge..... Cities in the terai weren’t spared either—but when cities fell, the poor rural populace dug their way out from the rubble of bamboo and straw huts and wondered what sins the city-folks had committed that the penance was so swift, so great....... In a show of brazen foolishness, dams on Marshyangdi, Kulekhani, Trishuli, Kaligandaki, Karnali and the Koshi barrage were destroyed in a concerted show by the Prachanda faction ...... There was just one such man who had survived the earthquake in Janakpur—Gyanendra Shah. Thus began the ascendancy of Gyanendra Shah of Janakpur.
  • Excessive force used during campus shooting: RNA Kantipur Online, Nepal
at No comments:

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

The Hardliner Democrat Approach


Monarchist. Maoist. Democrat.

The hardliner Monarchist dreams of an absolute monarchy, perhaps of military rule. The hardliner Maoist dreams of a communist republic, perhaps a mass purge of the "class enemies." What might a hardliner democrat look like?

The hardliner democrat would be an unflinching, uncompromising republican with a staunch stand on the peaceful, democratic process, so strong that the democrat's only interest in both the Monarchists and the Maoists would be to document all their human rights atrocities and crimes against humanity perpetrated over the past decade so as to send both of them en masse to the International Criminal Court at the first available opportunity. There would be no attempt at dialogue or negotiation or reconciliation with either of those two camps. It would be a strong, peaceful struggle to the finish.

The hardliner democrat would act on the irrelevancy of the king from day one, and declare an interim government of all the like-minded democratic parties, and seek recognition of the same from all the major powers, India, China, the US, the EU, and the rest. In recognizing the interim government, all the powers would cease to recognize the diplomats put in place by the Monarchists. Instead the representatives of the interim government would be recognized. The Nepali embassies worldwide would get populated by the ambassadors of the interim government.

Then the interim government would command the Nepal Army, the police and the bureaucracy. For them to defy the interim government would be to defy the legitimate government, and there are procedures in place to deal with that. They would be dealt with strictly, by the book. To follow the diktats of the Monarchists would fall in the category of treason.

Upon thus fully assuming power, the interim government would treat the "royal family" like just another private family in the country. Depending on the atrocities committed against the supporters of the interim government, the family might see its property nationalized, it might even get exiled. But if the interim government supporters might not have been subjected to any atrocities, the family would get to keep its property and live a private life thenon.

The hardliner democrat would refuse to deal with the Maoists. Instead it would seek to put a progressive constitution to a referendum that would be based on the concept of total, transparent democracy. The Maoists' political and social thunder would be unilaterally stolen. The Maoist leadership, along with the king and the army top brass, would be sent to the Hague. Capturing them would be the top priority of the law enforcement mechanism in the country. The Maoist cadres would be given a month to surrender in return for amensty and help with return to a civilian life. Those who might personally have participated in heinous acts would be exceptions.

This would be a possible hardliner approach from which the Monarchists and the Maoists can save themselves by taking the democrats seriously.

In The News
at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)