Tuesday, June 21, 2005

1000 Multifarious Uses Of Article 127


Article 127 can be used to:
  1. Dissolve parliament.
  2. Revolve parliament.
  3. Evolve parliament.
  4. Involve parliament.
  5. Resolve disputes.
  6. Light fires.
  7. Ignite hailstorms.
  8. Erupt volcanoes.
  9. Inititate earthquakes.
  10. Clean up Bagmati.
  11. Stop Bagmati in its tracks if it refuses the clean up.
  12. Cause a catastrophe upon Prachanda.
  13. Find out Prachanda actually is not a person but a doll the Maoists worship.
  14. Unearth secrets.
  15. Divulge secrets.
  16. Propagate secrets.
  17. Secretly propagate.
  18. For propaganda.
  19. Turn Girija into a permanent backbencher.
  20. Turn Baburam illiterate.
  21. Turn Ram Chandra Poudel silent.
  22. Invite the Dalai Lama to Lumbini.
  23. To create information.
  24. To disseminate information.
  25. To send out trojan horse viruses across the internet.
  26. To intervene in foreign countries.
  27. To redefine democracy and human rights for the new millenium.
  28. To refine oil. Mustard oil, custard oil, bastard oil, let's start oil.
  29. To install a salt factory.
  30. To stall a revolution.
  31. To forestall dialogue.
  32. To go comatose.
  33. To fend off criticisms.
  34. To inuagurate.
  35. To suffocate.
  36. To obliviate.
  37. To promulgate.
  38. To sustain.
  39. To disdain.
  40. To despair.
  41. To conspire.
  42. To prosper.
  43. To whisper.
  44. Conquer.
  45. Obliterate.
  46. Resolve Kashmir, Palestine, Ireland and Capitol Hill disputes on a permament basis.
  47. Say hello to Moriarty.
  48. Play golf with Moriarty and send Ram Sharan Mahat into fits: "Made my blood boil."
  49. To tour: China, Dubai, Dhaka, if possible, Macau, Hong Kong, Trinidad, Fiji, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, North Korea.
  50. Alleviate Fidel Castro's loneliness.
  51. Make Musharraf feel like he is the modern day Karl Marx, a man with influence beyond his land.
  52. To send Advani to Pakistan on a clean up exercise.
  53. Arrest, release, re-arrest, re-release, re-re-arrest, re-re-release Deuba until Deuba gets tired of it.
  54. Send 50 police officers after Deuba, 150 after Girija, 250 after MaKuNe and 350 after Peter Pan Giri. Send the leftovers after Prachanda, if there are any.
  55. Magically disappear 20 million rupees from Nepal Bank Limited and make it reappear in Bangalore.
  56. Hijack democracy, and give it back one ounce at a time, because it is not Dashain yet.
  57. To wake up Bishta and Giri from the near dead.
  58. To pronounce Badri Mandal as an almost cabinet member.
  59. To induct RK Mainali into the cabinet, and have CK Mainali green with envy.
  60. To militarily capture Gorkha from the Maoists.
  61. To discover the People's Army folks are seldom in uniform.
  62. To bring an end to RNA desertions.
  63. To send an arrest warrant after SD Muni.
  64. Turn Sharad Chandra Shah onto the soccer field so the people can take a good look at him.
  65. Revive street demonstrations.
  66. Tease the idea of parliamentary revival.
  67. Go abroad where even uncensored media don't talk no nonsense.
  68. Prune grass on the Narayanhiti lawns.
  69. Fly helicopters.
  70. Land in some Yadav's backyard, and claim it for a helipad.
  71. To nationalize all private property to pre-empt the Maoists.
  72. To get rid of FM radio stations forever, and instead introduce the use of loud speakers.
  73. To send spies to Delhi to find out what the Indian newspapers have been up to.
  74. To prevent Sikkimization, Tibetizatinon, fossilization, renaissance, and revolution.
  75. To stay put, dig heels and pass it on as resolve.
  76. To fundamentally misunderstand George W.'s "terrorism" rhetoric and blame it back on George W. because W. can't pronounce words right in the first place.
  77. To make the Dharahara stand up straight.
  78. To jump off the Dharahara with a handy umbrella, open it up only half way down. Like Mao swam down the Yellow River to recapture the imagination of the great proletarian Chinese people.
  79. To congratulate Kim Jong Seriously Ill on his gimmicks like he congratulated.
  80. To challenge Prachande to a nationally televised debate. Also to be webcast for the 700 protesting Nepalis in Washington DC who Gorkhapatra claimed had been hired for a sum total of $35,000. That is $50 a piece, Hem Bahadur style.
  81. To enhance tourism.
  82. To energize the economy.
  83. To ameliorate the situation.
  84. To do other good deeds on the shopping list.
  85. To challenge Girija to spell his name.
  86. So Pashupati Rana ain't nobody no more. And?
  87. For royal participation in street demonstrations as an outreach program.
  88. Celebrate monsoon in ways never done before.
  89. Take away all the holidays for one year, so people realize what they might be missing. It ain't just democracy.
  90. To mistake Moriarty as the ambassador from Greenland, and shame him into resuming military aid.
  91. Threaten to cut his water supply and blame it on the monsoon if the threat need be carried out.
  92. To build a east west Gyanendra Highway in the Himal region to rival its counterpart in the Terai.
  93. Make it four lane.
  94. Pretend all residents of Ramechhap are tourists.
  95. Hang up the phone every time Vajpayee calls. He is no longer Prime Minister.
  96. Say, Chandrashekhar who?
  97. Root for the Scindias so the Indians can have a taste of monarchy too.
  98. Offer to go back to Gorkha. The rest of Nepal can go to hell.
  99. Invite all exiled politicians to a party at the palace. Arrest them after getting them drunk.
  100. Declare the civil war over.
I am sure King G can come with the other 900 items on the list.
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Monday, June 20, 2005

Full Democracy Soon?


Looks like the threat of a Maoist-Democrat alliance is already working. We have a top Indian minister claiming Nepal is on the verge of restoring full democracy, although I would like to know where he got his information from. On the other hand we have a senior Nepali minister threatening the democrats, that they will be treated like the Maoists should they form an alliance. Carrot and stick? Empty threat? So if the Maoist-Democrat alliance comes together on the issue of Constituent Assembly, you are going to send the army after the democrats? Come on.

Isn't this minister guy the same one that routinely gets into trouble with the Supreme Court? Looks like he is speaking out of his back pocket. Isn't this the guy that imposes imaginative sackles on the press, and when the press asks the king about it, his reply is that such decisions have yet to reach his desk? I mean, this minister guy, does he think he is the modern day Jung Bahadur or what! He sure is going on a tangent on a routine basis.

As for a restoration of full democracy, I will see it when it happens. Frankly, I don't see it in the cards. Although it would be wise of the regime to head that way.

The Maoists have taken their attacks to a whole new level. They are now targeting district headquarters, it seems. If only a few of those were to fall, that would be a major blow to the regime. The war is psychological.

The Maoists are not pretending they have given up on their original goal. And that is why engaging them is the better route to go. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer, as the saying goes. If you engage them, you stand a chance to tame them. If you stay away, they run amok. Besides, if the consensus is for a political solution to the civil war, that translates into engaging them. So do what you say you will.

If the Monarchists keep digging their heels, the foreign powers will continue to stay away. And I am not sure the recent RNA stunt of trying to buy arms and ammunition from private global markets is exactly a great move on their part. First, the US routinely passes laws prohibiting American companies from doing business with regimes it disapproves of. I would think other democracies do something similar, or are capable of the same. Second, India-US-EU holding back military supplies is not a military move, it is a political move. If the Monarchists see it purely in military terms, they stand to challenge powers like India into changing gears.

Monarchists Invited To The Maoist-Democrat Alliance

The Monarchists have been alarmed by the gelling Maoist-Democrat alliance around the idea of a Constituent Assembly. They need not feel excluded. They are very much welcome to the same alliance. It is not some exclusive club.

Peter Pan Giri and company, stop whining and instead turn the Maoist-Democrat alliance into a Monarchist-Maoist-Democrat Grand Alliance. Seize the moment. It's called Constituent Assembly. It is called going to the people.

E-Mail From Gagan Thapa

I received an email from Gagan Thapa earlier today. I am thrilled. He got arrested when Dinesh (Prasain) was on his US speaking tour, and we all took it very personally. It is good to know Thapa now is beyond arrest, and is politicking freely.

Thapa's point is the four point agenda of the seven parties is a great starting point, but not entirely enough. And that as the movement chugs along, more progress is to be made.

In The News
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CPI (M), CPN (M)

Communist Party Of India (Marxist), Communist Party Of Nepal (Maoist).

CPI (M) is destined to become larger than the Congress and the BJP in India so as to enshrine a strong Third Front in that ocean of a country. It is the fastest growing party in India. The average age of its member is 40. It is a young party. Its leadership, Prakash Karat, is young.

The Nepali Maoists could learn from the CPI (M). Come into the mainstream and take over the power. That is the surer way.

Actually if the Maoists were to take to heart my proposal for a total, transparent democracy, they might actually have something to export to them communists in India. India should be working to abolish the veto, not trying to become a member of that club that should not even exist in the first place. The UN Security Council is an anachronism.

It is a brave, new world. The future is now.

I was just reading the CPI(M) program. And their 2004 manifesto. Both could benefit tremendously if the concept of total, transparent democracy were to be taken to heart.

In The News
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Sunday, June 19, 2005

Prachanda's Meaningful Statement

This is another thing I like about these Maoists: they will put out press statements in PDF format. My source of their such statements is the INSN site, that Dinesh (Prasain) and his colleagues run, arguably the best, and perhaps only, site of its kind. The Maoists have the INSN on their mailing list.

After this statement, I will no longer try to seek dialogue with Baburam. My questions have been answered. The ground has been laid. Now it is time for business. And that has to be conducted by the representatives of the seven parties. Commentators like me need to stand guard and keep commenting.

Some observations I make:
  1. The Maoists are not like the LTTE, not like the Khmer Rouge, not like the Shining Path. The Nepali Maoists are rather unique.
  2. Of the three camps, they are the most open book. Their organization is the most secretive, but their ideology is the most open book. Compare that to someone like Girija. He is oh so accessible, but half the time not even Girija knows what Girija is thinking.
  3. The Maoists will not give up on their long term goal of a communist utopia, but then that is like saying the Nepali Congress will not give up on its ultimate goal of totally eradicating poverty in the country, nor the other parties. Such goals do not get in the way of the business at hand.
  4. The Maoists do mean rule of law, and multi-party democracy. It is a major disservice to the peace process to doubt their commitment on these fundamental issues.
  5. And they do feel like they have finally found common ground with the seven parties on the idea of a Constituent Assembly.
And that brings me to my newest request. Folks, get into dialogue mode. Talk directly. If Baburam and company are still in Delhi, let them engage the exiled Nepali leaders there. Try some face to face communication. Get on the phone. Meet.

I can understand groups not being able to hold talks when they have no common ground. But that is not the case with the Maoists and the democrats no more.

Why? Because the very idea of a Constituent Assembly hinges on dialogue. Start now. Especially when the third camp - the Monarchists - people are nowhere close to getting into dialogue mode. The only way to tip the balance is for the Maoists and the democrats to engage is some major league dialogue.

Get down to work! That is what it boils down to.

Once such dialogue gains momentum, the Monarchists will also come around to it. They will not be able to stand the isolation.

That is how peace will be made.

I keep offering my Proposed Constitution as the meeting point for all three camps, and I do so again.

Talk, damnit!

In The News
  • Prachanda Statement
  • Maoist Control Right Under Kalapani United We Blog
  • Kathmandu looks beyond Delhi for arms Calcutta Telegraph, India
  • Deuba's detention is "unconstitutional" Hindu, India
  • Maoists hijack bank vehicle, loot Rs 0.6 million PeaceJournalism.com, India
  • Dude, Where's My Parliament? Samudaya.org, AZ
  • Joint Declaration Common Agreement And Commitment People's Democracy
  • Exhibition stalls emptied after King left Kantipur Online, Nepal The much-publicized “Promote Nepal 2005”, exhibition, inaugurated by King Gyanendra in Doha, during his Qatar visit on Tuesday, was emptied soon after the King came out of the exhibition..... There was no significant participation of Nepalis though there are more than 100,000 Nepalis working in Qatar.
  • Experts hail vision for Nepal as transit economy PeaceJournalism.com, India
  • Nepalis near Indian border said using Indian cell phone service Monsters and Critics.com, UK
  • Indian national arrested for supplying Nepal Maoists Monsters and Critics.com, UK
  • Three Nepalese Maoists arrested Outlook (subscription), India
  • King Gyanendra firm on his roadmap Telegraph ..... On two separate occasions last week, His majesty King Gyanendra has firmly reiterated his continuing commitment .... He chose to underline the importance of the judiciary in interpreting the constitution. This is a pointed reference to the tendency of the politicians to interpret the constitution on their own....... the King's moves under Article 127 and 27. ..... the King followed up on his Friday's statement calling for talks with the political parties stating that discussion should center around how the political sector proposes to deal with burning national issues such as peace, corruption, good governance and fiscal discipline....... the King, has been succinct that the restoration of the parliament is unconstitutional and the King's constitutional role can't defy the constitution..... the only constitutional possibility of restoring parliament which is through the elections...... the King has said nothing new ..... the arbitrary closure of FM Radios, the stoppage of government advertisements ...... the government's silence on the proposed press law amendments ..... The King has made it clear, here too, that these regulatory moves have yet to come to his table. Until then, perhaps, the media will be allowed to agitate....... King Gyanendra has abundantly made it clear that he would proceed his way come what may...... King Gyanendra opines that why it is so that only the monarch has to remain in the boundaries of the constitution? ..... maintained that he would not "restore" the parliament as demanded by the political parties for he thought it would be an act thoroughly "unconstitutional" ...... a fierce political confrontation in between the monarch and the political parties is in the cards ...... until and unless the King restored the parliament, no talks with the King were possible...... King is not apparently going to budge an inch from his standpoints ..... The fact is that Nepali leaders would submit themselves to foreign powers willingly but would summarily neglect the Nepali power that is a national power in the hands of a Nepali from head to toe...... Koirala's love for Delhi durbar is so intense that he preferred to land in Delhi straight from Hong Kong after attending to a Chinese invitation instead of coming to Kathmandu...... An innocent Koirala perhaps does not know that how the Indian establishment is extracting benefits from his innocence....... Analysts say that Koirala as a Nepali has every right to confront with a Nepali King for a cause that is genuinely Nepali. But to invite enemies in the solution of Nepali cases or seeking their clandestine favors would be suicidal...... Friends can be changed, not the neighbors. This is Nepali tragedy, a permanent one indeed.... Rule through ordinance: In my view, it’s not a good system to rule through ordinance. But the country now is being governed by rule of law and not by the rule of the jungle..... On Protests: We understand in which season and month protests are conducted....... King Gyanendra is all set to pay an unofficial visit to United kingdom immediately after his trip to Quatar, Doha......... Dr. Bhattarai, a highly intellectual personality as he is, does not allow his rival space to breathe and retorts with equal intensity and magnitude. ...... Analysts in Kathmandu conclude that some sort of fierce personality clash is currently going on in between the two giants of the insurgency and the two appear not to reconcile with each other on their respective positions on the presumed India factor..... Let's wait what the Indian newspapers have yet to reveal in this regard.
  • Need For Tolerance And Persuasion Keshab Poudel Spotlight With the arrogance of power, people at the establishment side are inciting civil society members and politicians saying that they are just a bunch of people with no public support....... American ambassador to Nepal James Moriarty is criticized by a section of people in the ruling as well as in opposition side for pursuing the idea of reconciliation. ...... Even the leader like B.P. Koirala was criticized by them for his call for reconciliation between patriotic monarchists and patriotic democrats....... The government ministers are accusing the opposition leaders and opposition leaders, civil society, media; lawyers are challenging the authority of the government through street....... “We will punish those who violate the law and regulations. If police use force to maintain law and order, there is no question of violation of human rights,” said vice chairman Dr. Tulsi Giri. “The duty of the government is to protect the law to guarantee the rights of the citizens.”....... “This government is unconstitutional. There is no need to respond to statement like those given by a ghost of Panchayat era,” said Oli. “It is everybody’s right to oppose this unconstitutional government.” ..... if political leaders like Girija Prasad Koirala – who has been championing the genuine cause of millions of Nepalese like democracy and freedom - is begging support from Indian prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, why can he not tolerate the arrogance, if there is any, of the King of his own country...... not only took to him to a foreign capital but also made him knock the doors of all shades of politicians of a chaotic democracy of a big neighboring country.... Former deputy prime minister Acharya, who is now isolated from main stream politics, has been very unstable ...... An agitation of lawyers may carry the news for next day but that is it........ “We don’t have time to read and listen to the voice of person like Dr.Giri, whose appointment is unconstitutional. We don’t care what first vice chairman Giri means,” said CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal . “Our struggle is with King Gyanendra as he has to choose the course.” .....
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Constituent Assembly Will Still Be A Lot Of Work In The Form Of Political Dialogue


The seven parties did a wonderful thing when they came up with their four point agenda: (1) revive parliament, (2) all-party government, (3) peace talks with Maoists, and (4) constituent assembly.

But now they are stuck on it.

Reality has to be faced. Strategies and tactics are supposed to be dynamic things.

It boils down to doing homework. It is called political dialogue. You can do it now, or you can do it after (1) and (2) have materialized. You can not change the king's intransigence. But you can work on your unwillingness to talk. To each other and to the Maoists.

The party leaderships need to talk to their own young cadres. The new generation is seeking fundamental reform. These are not Maoists. These are people in the seven parties. And the four point agenda just is not enough for them.

Then there are the Maoists.

The seven parties have been invited by the Monarchists for muninicipal elections and by the Maoists for local elections in 10 western districts.

I think the seven parties should do all they can to engage the Maoists in dialogue.

You can wait until you have a Constituent Assembly. Or you could start work on a proposed constitution right now. The document does not have to take final shape as yet, but agreements and disagreements can be worked on right now.

So I think it is wonderful that the seven parties have launched the Nepal Democracy and Human Rights Advocacy Centre in Delhi with the express intention of holding talks with the Maoists.

In The News

    • Nepal parties to boycott planned municipal elections Reuters AlertNet, UK

    • Nepal rebels say will not target civilians Reuters AlertNet, UK ...... Nepal's Maoist rebels said on Sunday they would stop targetting civilians in their bloody campaign to overthrow the Hindu monarchy ...... Our party has issued special instructions to all cadres, (our) People's Liberation Army and other units not to carry out physical attacks on any unarmed person until another decision ...... People found to be government informers would be detained and tried in Maoist courts ...... a day after Nepal's seven mainstream political parties urged the Maoists not to kill their workers and disturb their pro-democracy campaign against King Gyanendra

    • Opposition to boycott Nepal elections Japan Today

    • Nepal advertises for new weapons BBC News The Royal Nepalese Army said it was looking for various types of arms, ammunition and explosives, armoured personnel carriers, tanks, aircraft, helicopter gunships, communications equipment, optical instruments and security equipment.

    • Nepal education officers said to have held clandestine meeting ... Monsters and Critics.com, UK Indications are that the Maoists will withdraw their strike from educational institutions, following a clandestine meeting held between the government education officers and top Maoist leaders on Friday [17 June]..... the committee held talks with Lalit Dhanal, central member of the student union of the Maoists..... The Maoists showed some flexibility in the issues they had raised

    • Nepalese army seeks new sources for arms:- Webindia123, India

    • Nepalese Army seeks arms from foreign suppliers Press Trust of India Nepalese Army has invited foreign-based manufacturers and distributors for supplying defence equipment

    • RNA asks foreign arms suppliers to provide weapons Kantipur Online, Nepal

    • UN stresses on Nepal’s conflict resolution Kantipur Online, Nepal conflict could never be resolved by suspending democracy and civil rights.... Nepal is on the verge of becoming an economically difficult state..... Afghanistan, where the conflict, once fragmented, gave rise to small armed groups

    • Nepal Maoists deny killing policemen's wives, son(LEAD):- Webindia123, India Radha Devi Singh, 42, was the wife of constable Man Bahadur Singh, Durga Devi Aiyar, 22, was the wife of constable Upendra Aiyar, and Laxmi Shah, 23, was the wife of constable Keshav Shah..... Laxmi's one-year-old son Dipendra was also killed ..... But the rebels issued a statement, denying any involvement in the "inhuman, criminal" act.....Prabhakar alleged that the killings were a result of "internal quarrel" within the security forces...

    • EU asks Nepal Maoists to return to talks:- Webindia123, India The EU presidency issued a statement in the wake of the communist guerrillas ambushing a civilian bus

    • Maoists positive over seven parties’ call NepalNews "Now, although late, the parties have given commitment to constituent assembly, absolute democracy and an end to the despotic monarchy." “In consideration with the historic demand of the movement against authoritarianism as well as the request of the seven political parties, we hereby give special direction to all organs of the party, the People’s Liberation Army and the new people’s government, not to carry out physical attack on unarmed persons even if they are criminals”

    • Seven parties back Deuba’s resistance against Royal Commission NepalNews Leaders of the seven-party alliance, which is waging a pro-democracy movement, Sunday met former prime minister and the Nepali Congress (Democratic) president Sher Bahadur Deuba at Police Academy in Maharajganj where he has been detained since last two months.... Madhab Kumar Nepal .... CPN (Marxist Leninist) general secretary CP Mainali, People’s Front Nepal chairman Amik Sherchan and other central leaders of the alliance also met Deuba collectively today whereas Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala “could not afford time” to meet the beleaguered former PM.

    • Royal Nepalese Army asks foreign arms suppliers to enlist with it NepalNews the RNA has asked foreign suppliers to make available their company’s profile, ISO certificate of their products and has made it mandatory to inform it about their local agents within 30 days.

    • Democracy and peace: challenges ahead Nilambar Acharya NepalNews The talk about the dialogue between the "constitutional forces" has no practical sense without first returning to the constitution itself....... Russia of Stalin, post-Shah Iran, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Taliban's Afghanistan ..... Nepal's modern social and political forces have to act without vacillation ..... Seven political parties have proposed a road-map to democracy and peace on May 8, 2005. It is a non-confrontationist, conciliatory and reformist proposal ...... No proposal can be more modest than the one put forward by the seven political parties for bringing back the derailed constitution to the track by reviving the House of Representatives....... Three more years for February regime without elections and without democratic control are apparently needed to erect absolutist structures in place of the democratic ones..... while one side is enough to make a war, two sides are needed to make a peace...... unacceptable government cannot produce acceptable elections..... the joint statement issued on July 30, 2003 by former chief justice Biswanath Upadhya and six other persons including myself involved in the making of the present constitution...... talk about unavailability of explicit and well-formulated wordings in the constitution for reinstatement of dissolved House...... the last ten days of October 1990 when the Palace produced a parallel draft of the constitution that was not acceptable to the political parties...... Democracy is not a gift to the people but is their inherent right...... Multiparty democracy and constitutional monarchy are not equal in their strength, in their role, in their durability and in their universality. Multiparty democracy can exist without monarchy, but constitutional monarchy cannot survive without multiparty democracy..... Rule by proclamations, decrees, ordinances, making arbitrary appointments, creating structures like non-party government headed by the king himself and without prime minister, Royal commission for control of corruption, creating posts like vice-chairmen of the Council of Ministers, zonal and regional administrators, making royal will as the source of authority, obstructing the reactivation of the constitution are the manifestations of absolutist course of monarchy. The constitution is not what the palace feudal complex or the authors of February regime and their serfs say. The constitution is what the constitution says. It is not a secret document, everyone can consult it and make his or her own judgment. Besides, there are universal principles of multiparty democracy, which have been flouted...... What will they do if the monarchy, contrary to any sane logic, continues to insist on its absolutist course? How long will they confine themselves within their modest programme?

    • Maoists holding local elections from Sunday: Report NepalNews ..... Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is holding local elections in its “base areas” from Sunday, a pro-Maoist newspaper reported..... Janadesh weekly ...... in ten districts in western Nepal described as `special zone’ by the Maoists...... on June 19 and 22 in Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan, Pyuthan, Dang, Gulmi, Baglung, Myagdi, Arghakhanchi and Kapilvastu ...... chief and deputy chiefs of Village People’s Government (VPGs) and chiefs of Ward People’s Government will be elected through these elections. The (Maoist) Election Commission has started the election process from May 29 and several candidates have already been elected unopposed ...... the Maoists had called mainstream political parties to take part in the elections ....... a strong possibility of some “independent candidates” getting elected to the local bodies. People supporting the royal regime and frauds have been barred from taking part ..... keenly wanted the parliamentary parties to take part in the elections.......

    • Maoists Are Financing Their Revolution With Himalayan Viagra Nepali Times Every able-bodied person is up on the mountains collecting yarsagumba..... This unique Himalayan fungus that grows like a worm out of the soil after the snow melts is in high demand internationally. Called ‘Himalayan viagra’ for its alleged potency, prices have shot up as China becomes more affluent....... yarsagumba is the district’s lifeline .... nobody wants to miss this opportunity, they have to earn enough now to last them the whole year... In the absence of government, the Maoists have now monopolised revenue collection from yarsagumba in Dolpa..... Rs 180 million revenue from yarsagumba taxes...... One kg of yarsagumba costs Rs 5,000 in Dolpa and Rs 18,000 by the time it gets to Nepalganj and $3,000 by the time it gets to Shanghai..... “It is very difficult to see the yarsagumba, you have to have very keen eyes” ...... Although no one admits it, all civil servants, traders, NGO workers and shopkeepers pay the ‘revolutionary tax’...... Teachers and students are made to dig bunkers and trenches to thwart an ‘Indian invasion’.

    • Maoist Meetings Jana Aastha 15 June A Maoist delegation under Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Baburam Bhattarai has been busy meeting Indian political party leaders in Delhi and Nepali politicians currently in Delhi. Most were face-to-face, while a source said Girija Prasad Koirala spoke to the Maoists on the phone. But the Maoist met UML leader Bamdeb Gautam who reached Delhi via Lucknow. Among others that the Maoists met are: NC-D leader Pradeep Giri, Chandra Deb Joshi and Krishna Prasad Sitaula from the NC, Unity Centre Masal’s Prakash. However, the Maoists did not meet Masal’s Chief Mohan Bikram Singh but his Spokesperson Chitra Bahadur KC who reportedly poured his angst against the Maoists. The rebel group leaders also had informal sessions with diplomatic representatives of India, America and Britain. The political leaders who met the Maoist duo told them the crisis could not be solved through violence but only by working with the king to bring the army under jurisdiction of parliament. According to one leader present at the talks, the Maoists were not sure that the Indians trusted them.

    • Regional Security Or Democracy? Both by Dipta Shah Nepali Times Aside from the apparent divide within the Maoist leadership, the most important post-February First development within Nepal has been the formulation of the seven-party alliance. This is a feat we haven’t witnessed since 1990...... American policy-makers appear to have selected the only viable path to achieving both security and democracy simultaneously by refusing to fall prey to the prevailing polarisation..... Bhattarai’s alleged engagements with CPI-Marxist leader Prakash Karat could be a positive development. ......India’s status as a regional power is inextricably tied to her performance as a regional stabiliser is a reassuring realisation -especially for Nepal where Indian moves are constantly misconstrued as evidence of imminent invasion...... Admission of guilt is insufficient if the only alternative is indefinite agitation. Rigid positions are untenable if room for inclusive politics is decimated. Propagation of petty gossip and name-calling is counterproductive when the ability to absorb and interpret is lacking. Using threats as political leverage when their ramifications are not fully understood is risky and there is a danger that such threats may become self-fulfilling prophecies.

    • Trial And Terror Nepali Times Indian and Nepali politicians tried in New Delhi last week to convince Maoist ideologues to join the mainstream through a constitutional compromise. But the comrades know that as soon as they put down their bombs, they will be chased out of the villages.... sustainable peace-building... needs visionaries.
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Sangram Morcha: A New Political Party (1993)




I worked on this book in 1993. It was supposed to launch a political party.

Sangram Morcha: A New Political Party (1993)

Instead it sent me off to the Sadbhavana, more accurately then not yet formed Nepal Samajwadi Janata Dal: supposedly I was too strong on the Terai rights issue for the founding members to stick around. And it also got me an admission to the University of Chicago, but the money part did not work out, so I went elsewhere, later. "Not for your numbers, but your actions and words."

I guess I get to tell Comrade Baburam, Sir, you are not the only one with a book, though mine is not as long. But then yours is not online either. And I must admit yours has much more depth, from what I hear, it is much more rigorous.

In The News
  • Game of Golf Stirs Up Criticism of US Role in Nepal Washington Post, DC Arrested in a crackdown on civil liberties, politician Ram Mahat was languishing in his jail cell last month when a guard slipped him a daily newspaper. There on the front page, he said, was an article that made his blood boil....... It reported that the U.S. ambassador, James F. Moriarty, had played golf the day before in Katmandu with Crown Prince Paras ......"he saw this as a good opportunity to get a personal impression of Paras since they had not conversed before." ..... Critics also accuse the embassy here of exaggerating the threat of a Maoist takeover...... the Maoists are active in 70 of Nepal's 75 administrative districts..... 2002, when Deuba, the prime minister, dissolved parliament, called for new elections and then sought their postponement...... The officials expressed doubts about the parties' demand for a restoration of the dissolved parliament, which the king has dismissed as unconstitutional, and expressed support for the king's plan to hold municipal elections, which the parties have dismissed as window dressing....... as if the embassy is making excuses for a monarch who, in their view, is largely to blame for the political crisis
  • Ratna Park as political theatre Kathmandu Post, Nepal Ratna Park and the Media Park are the achievements of democratic Nepal
  • Bagmati calls for action, not empty pledges Kathmandu Post, Nepal
  • Once foes, now co-workers Kathmandu Post, Nepal Dozens of former security personnel and ex-Maoist rebels are co-workers in the coal mines of the Jaintia hills of Meghalaya.
  • Parties decide to boycott Municipal polls Kathmandu Post, Nepal
  • Nepal parties vow to boycott civic polls Peninsula On-line, Qatar
  • Nepalese say no to Nepal! The Statesman, India the number of Nepalese returning to their villages and towns from their Indian jobs has decreased dramatically
  • Gender disparity in SLC performance ‘alarming’ Himalayan Times, Nepal the percentage of girl candidates in 2060 BS was still only 42 per cent and the pass rate was just 17 per cent.
  • A music concert in Nepal’s capital nearly turned into a chaotic ... United We Blog, Nepal
  • Japan has continued to extend various kinds of assistance to Nepal PeaceJournalism.com, India
  • Economic growth slides down to 2% Gulf Times, Qatar
  • Nepal Maoist conscript surrenders, says children 'massively used' ... Monsters and Critics.com, UK She admitted that she was involved in the Khara attack that occurred a few months ago..... she said the Maoists have used many children in their warfare. "Though they do not take children in offensive operations, they are massively used for other works" ....
  • Nepal soldiers asked to stay away from buses:- Webindia123, India
  • Chinese help for Nepal's army under UN guise?:- Webindia123, India can defend the delivery on the ground they have been bought by the army and are supposed to be used abroad for UN operations...... a team to train soldiers in international human rights laws.
  • NEPAL: Police intervene into peaceful demonstratons; dozens ... Asia Pacific Media Network, CA
  • SLC result nil in 10 schools in Mugu Kantipur Online, Nepal
  • Nepal's war wounds PeaceJournalism.com, India
  • Youth leaders call for restructuring of state Kathmandu Post, Nepal "Equal focus must be given to how to make the democracy a pro-people system by effecting drastic changes in the country's socio-economic and political structure,' said NSU leader Gagan Thapa...... "As long as the present unitary structure of the state exists, armed struggle will always prevail." ..... "It's (constitution's) rationale has finished now." .... Shanker Pokhrel, central committee member of CPN-UML ..... "Changes in party leadership won't do enough for reforms as candidates are still chosen by leaders to contest elections instead of by the electorate." ..... Pradip Raj Poudel, another student leader, said the seven-party alliance's common agenda of reforms still lacks a concrete roadmap for ensuring meaningful reforms in society. "The challenge to sustainable democracy can recur in the future,' Poudel added...... Nabindra Raj Joshi, former deputy mayor of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, advised political parties not to delay the launch of reform programs.
  • Govt's act on FM radios manipulative Kathmandu Post, Nepal
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Saturday, June 18, 2005

Activist Judges Could Save The Day


I often think about this. What could bring to an end this political paralysis?

Could it be Girija? But then the guy is so one dimensional. He does not seem to feel the importance of back channel communications. He has already said the Maoists need to cease violence if they want to talk to him, so his part with the Maoists is done! That is how he thinks.

Could it be other political leaders? Girija dominates.

Could it be the Maoists? They are more secretive than even they need to be. They put out statements. Their capacity for dialogue is limited.

Could it be the king? The guy is in no hurry. He is more in a mood to wait out the stalemate than to speed things up.

I think if the Supreme Court justices got proactive, they could end up playing a decisive role. All they have to do is make the royal government members feel like they are not above the law. They could start out by declaring all attempts to take away civil liberties are unconsitutional. Bureaucrats may not take away people's rights. That could slowly snowball into their reviving the parliament, unilaterally.

When the legislative has been washed away and the executive hijacked, the judiciary should step forward and save the day.
  1. Nepal apex court issues notice to royal government Outlook (subscription), India
  2. Present Subedi before the court: SC Kantipur Online, Nepal
  3. Produce re-arrested Subedi: Apex court Kathmandu Post
  4. Shahi faces contempt of court again Kathmandu Post
  5. SC to home minister: Furnish written reply Kathmandu Post
  6. Challenge against FM radio news ban filed in Nepal's Supreme Court Monsters and Critics.com, UK
  7. People's Front Nepal leader rearrested after freed by Supreme ... Monsters and Critics.com, UK
  8. Contempt of court hearing Gorkhapatra, Nepal
In The News
    • Nepal parties will boycott polls BBC News, UK

  • Nepal Porters, in Labors of Hercules, Carry Double Their Weight Bloomberg Porters in Nepal routinely carry double their body weight in loads balanced with a head strap ..... White Europeans carry about 25 percent of their weight on average .... trips of 62 miles (100 kilometers) or more ..... the male porters generally weighed about 114 pounds (52 kilograms) and the women about 93 pounds. The men carried 220 pounds or more and the women about 66 pounds to 77 pounds on average ...... We can carry something like 25 percent of our body weight and an African, 60 percent and a Nepalese on average 100 percent of body weight ......
  • Nepalese Porters May Be World's Most Efficient Haulers National Geographic A typical Nepalese porter carries a load nearly as heavy as he is. When he does, the porter burns less energy per pound than a backpacker would need to shoulder about half the same weight.... More than 500 men and about 100 women carried about 30 tons of material to the market that day .... "they're [generally] not very well equipped [and] have very bad shoes." ..... "On a steep incline," Heglund said, "they'll walk for as little as 15 seconds and rest for 45." ..... their "enormous loads" set the Nepalese apart, Kram added. "It's a good scientific puzzle, how they [conserve] energy when walking." .....
  • Nepalese parties developing forum in Delhi, trying for dialogue ... Monsters and Critics.com The seven agitating political parties have decided to develop Nepal Democracy and Human Rights Advocacy Centre, which is based in New Delhi, as an international forum of the Nepalese...... The political parties are busy raising funds from Nepalese and the international community. Leaders of the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), the Nepali Congress (Democratic), Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi), Professor of Jawahar Lal Nehru University S.D. Muni et al are involved in the development of the forum..... the forum is trying to start dialogue with the Maoists.
  • Pankaj Mishra: The People's War INSN In a few frenzied minutes, he killed his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, a brother, a sister and five other relatives before putting a pistol to his head. Anointed king as he lay unconscious in hospital, he died two days later, passing his title to his uncle Gyanendra....... the bookshops, trekking agencies, cybercafés, bakeries, malls and restaurants were empty..... the vendors of carpets, Gurkha knives, pirate DVDs and Tibetan prayer flags ..... He said that Maoists had bombed the private school he sent his children to; he worried that his servants might join the guerrillas, who controlled 80 per cent of the countryside and were growing strong in the Kathmandu Valley....... What the country needed now, he declared, was a strong and principled ruler, someone who could crush the Maoists. He said that he missed Dipendra: he was the man Nepal needed at this hour of crisis...... Dipendra’s three years as a schoolboy in Britain had radicalised him. Just as Pandit Nehru had discovered the poverty of India after his stints at Harrow and Cambridge, so Dipendra had developed a new political awareness in England. He had begun to look, with mounting horror and concern, at his homeland. Returning to Nepal, he had realised that it would take more than tourism to create a strong middle class, accelerate economic growth, build democratic institutions and lift the ninth poorest country in the world to the ranks of modern democratic nations. As it turned out, he had been thwarted at every step by conservative elements in the royal palace....... Frustration in politics rather than love, the businessman claimed, had driven Dipendra to alcohol, drugs, guns and, finally, to regicide...... conspiracy and rumour have long fuelled a particularly secretive kind of court politics...... the press has little influence over a largely illiterate population easily swayed by rumour..... King Gyanendra appeared on national television to blame the palace massacre on a ‘sudden discharge by an automatic weapon’......the new king himself, who was allegedly involved in smuggling artefacts out of Nepal, and on his son, Paras, much disliked in Nepal for his habit of brandishing guns in public and dangerous driving – he has run over at least three people in recent years, killing one. More confusingly, the Maoists claimed that they had an ‘undeclared working unity’ with King Birendra, and accused Gyanendra, and Indian and American imperialists, of his murder....... atmosphere of secrecy and intrigue ..... February, when Gyanendra adopted the Bush administration’s rhetoric about ‘terrorism’ and assumed supreme power..... When I arrived in Kathmandu, fear hung heavy over the street crossings, where soldiers peeped out from behind machine-gun emplacements. Men in ill-fitting Western suits, with the furtive manner of inept spies, lurked in the lobby of my hotel. Journalists spoke of threatening phone calls from senior army officers who tended to finger as Maoists anyone who didn’t support the king. Many of the people I wanted to meet turned out to be in prison or in exile. Appointments with underground activists, arduously made, were cancelled at the last minute, or people simply didn’t turn up...... 20,000 M-16 rifles from the US, 20,000 rifles from India, helicopters from the UK..... the high mountains, ravines and rivers – almost perfect terrain for guerrillas..... the emblems of Western philanthropy – new computers, armed guards, shiny four-wheel drives in the parking lot – that I had seen in December in Afghanistan..... a bizarre feeling of normality prevailed, best symbolised by the vibrant billboards advertising mobile phones (banned since 1 February) .... in a local newspaper, a Dutch investor described the Nepalese as an ‘extremely corrupt, greedy, triple-faced, myopic, slow, inexperienced and uneducated people’, and declared that he was taking his hair-replacement business to Latvia....... Western diplomats and United Nations officials – darting in their SUVs from one walled compound to another – speculated about a possible assault on the capital by guerrillas..... the middle-class Nepalese, denounced by the Maoists as ‘comprador capitalists’ ..... a country where almost half of the 26 million people earned less than $100 a year and had no access to electricity, running water or sanitation; a country whose small economy, parasitic on foreign aid and tourism, had to be boosted by the remittances of Nepalese workers abroad, and where political forces seen as anachronisms elsewhere – monarchy and Communism – fought for supremacy...... a recipient of religions and ideologies – Buddhism, Hinduism, Communism – from India; even today, the country’s 60 ethnic and caste communities are regarded as little more than a picturesque backdrop to some of the world’s highest mountains....... As in the so-called princely states of India, the British were keen to support despotic regimes in Nepal, and even reward them with territory; it was one way of staving off potentially destabilising change in a strategically important buffer state to Tibet and China..... a source of cheap mercenaries. Tens of thousands of soldiers recruited by the British from the western hills of Nepal fought during the Indian Mutiny, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and in the two world wars. The Gurkhas also helped the British suppress political dissenters in India, and then, more violently, Communist anti-colonialists in Malaya in the 1950s...... The end of the British Empire in Asia didn’t lead to rapid change in Nepal, or end its status as a client state...... In the 1950s and 1960s, as the Cold War intensified, Nepal was the forward base of the CIA’s operations against China.... Few among the so-called international community protested when, after a brief experiment with parliamentary democracy in the 1950s, King Mahendra, Dipendra’s grandfather, banned all political parties...... The representatives of the Panchayat, largely from the upper castes, helped themselves to the foreign aid that made up most of the state budget, and did little to alleviate poverty in rural areas. The king also declared Nepal a Hindu state and sought to impose on its ethnic and linguistic communities a new national identity by promoting the Nepali language...... What leads the sensitive prince to drugs and alcohol often forces the pauper to migrate. Millions of Nepalese have swelled the armies of cheap mobile labour that drive the global economy, serving in Indian brothels, Thai and Malaysian sweatshops, the mansions of oil sheikhs in the Gulf and, most recently, the war zones of Iraq. Many more have migrated internally, often from the hills to the subtropical Tarai region on the long border with India..... Mukti Raj Dahal, the father of the underground Maoist leader, Prachanda ..... Though he is tormented by stomach and spinal ailments, he exuded calm as he sat on the verandah of his two-roomed brick house, wearing a blue T-shirt and shorts under a black cap, a Brahminical caste mark on his forehead....... selling food fried in peanut oil and tea in sticky clouded glasses ..... the army marching men out of overcrowded prisons and executing them. My companion, a Nepalese journalist, was nervous. He knew that the soldiers in the countryside attacked anyone they suspected of being a Maoist, and journalists were no exception. Many of the soldiers barely knew what a journalist was...... few places in Nepal untouched by violence – murder, torture, arbitrary arrest – and most people live perpetually in fear of both the army and the Maoists, without expectation of justice or recompense...... He appeared both bemused by, and admiring of, his famous son, whom he had last seen at the funeral of his wife in 1996....... how his son had got interested in Mao or Marx in such a place as Chitwan, which had no bookshop or library...... Prachanda had got involved with Communists when he couldn’t find a good job with the government and had to teach at a primary school in his native hills of Pokhara....... Prachanda comes across as an ideologue of another era: he’s an embarrassment to the Chinese regime, which is engaged in the un-Maoist task of enriching Chinese coastal cities at the expense of the hinterland, and feels compelled to accuse Nepalese Maoists of besmirching the Chairman’s good name...... the haphazard schooling, the useless degree, the ill-paid teaching job in a village school, all of which seem to lead inexorably to a conflict with, and resentment of, unjust authority....... Educated, but with no prospects, many young men like Prachanda must have been more than ready to embrace radical ideas about the ways that an entrenched urban elite could be challenged and even overthrown if peasants in the countryside were organised....... in the 1950s, a famous Communist leader called M.B. Singh travelled in the midwestern hills and acquired followers among the Magars, one of Nepal’s more prominent ethnic groups now supporting the Maoists...... ‘class enemies’ – big landlords, policemen, bureaucrats –...... The Indian government responded brutally, killing and torturing thousands....... successive Indian governments have steadily reduced subsidies for agriculture, public health, education and poverty-eradication, exposing large sections of the population to disease, debt, hunger and starvation. Almost three thousand farmers committed suicide in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh after the government, advised by McKinsey, cut agricultural subsidies in an attempt to initiate farmers into the world of unregulated markets..... In recent years, Naxalite movements, which have long organised landless, low-caste peasants in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, have grown quickly in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – where an enfeebled Indian state is increasingly absent – to the extent that police and intelligence officials in India now speak anxiously of an unbroken belt of Communist-dominated territory from Nepal to South India....... As fractious as their Indian counterparts, the Nepalese Communist parties split and split again over petty doctrinal or personality issues...... In the early 1990s, however, few people in Nepal could have predicted the swift rise of Prachanda and the obscure faction he led...... hardly anyone noticed when on 4 February 1996 the Maoists presented the government with a list of 40 demands, which included abrogating existing treaties with India, stripping the monarchy of all power and privileges, drafting a new constitution by means of a constituent assembly, nationalising private property, declaring Nepal a secular nation and ending all foreign aid...... the Maoists began their ‘people’s war’ by attacking police stations in six districts four days before the deadline...... much of the new power and charisma of the Maoists came from their ability to launch audacious attacks on the police and the army...... The military wing of the Maoists initially consisted of a few ill-trained men armed with antique rifles and homemade weapons.......also attacked roads, bridges, dams, administrative offices, bridges, power plants – anything they felt might aid the counter-insurgency efforts of the government...... looting police stations and buying from the arms bazaars of India ..... In November 2001, the Maoists launched 48 attacks on the army and the police in a single day, forcing the Nepalese government to impose a state of emergency. More than 5000 people died in the next 15 months, the bloodiest period in Nepal’s modern history...... Their cadres – estimated to number as many as 100,000 – travel to deprived areas ..... It’s clear now that what happened in 1990 was less a revolution than a reconfiguration of power, sanctified by elections, among the old royalist oligarchy and an emerging urban middle class. Many courtiers and sycophants of the king managed to reinvent themselves as parliamentary politicians, often joining the Nepali Congress, the political party that ruled Nepal for all but one of the next 13 years....... both of which continued to be led by upper-caste men motivated largely by a desire for money and power ...... Elections were held frequently, and a procession of governments – 13 in as many years – made Nepalese democracy appear vibrant...... In 2002, Dalits, low-caste Hindus, had an annual per capita income of only $40, compared to a national average of $210; fewer than 10 per cent of Dalits were literate...... absolute poverty continued to increase in the late 1990s, even as Kathmandu Valley benefited from the growth in the tourist, garment and carpet industries, and filled up with new hotels, resorts and villas..... The Maoists in Nepal had their first ready constituency among rural youths, more than 100,000 of whom fail their high school examination every year. Unemployed and adrift, many of these young men worked for other political parties in the countryside before becoming disillusioned and joining the Maoists...... he seemed to be ‘passing his days’ ..... he still used them despite having left the Maoists because he had no other vocabulary with which to describe his experience of deprivation and disappointment....... he had joined the Nepali Congress in 1992, when still in his late teens, and become a personal aide to a prominent local politician..... They received no money for their services, but slept in the politician’s house, ate the food prepared for his family, and travelled with him to Kathmandu. Mohan said that it was a good time, the early years of democracy. He liked being in Kathmandu, especially with someone who had a bit of power. But he couldn’t fail to notice that the politician returned less and less often to his constituency in the hills and often refused to meet people who came to his door asking for jobs, money and medical help. He was surprised to hear that the politician was building a new house for himself in Kathmandu. Soon, he felt he was not needed, and one day the politician’s wife told him to eat elsewhere........in 1995, one of his friends introduced him to the Maoist ‘squad commander’ in the region ..... Operation Romeo .... an instance of ‘state terror’ ..... The police, according to the report, invaded villages in the Rolpa and Rukum districts, killing and torturing young men and raping women...... He said the Maoists were simply another opportunistic political group; this was why he had left them. They were interested in mobilising ethnic communities only to the extent that this would help them capture ‘state power’; they weren’t really interested in giving them autonomy...... Using rocks and hammers, they often broke all the bones in their victims’ bodies before skinning them alive and cutting off their tongues, ears, lips and noses....... Criminals had infiltrated their movement, and some Maoists now made a living from extortion and kidnapping..... constrained in their political thinking by revolutionary methods and rhetoric created in another time and place. Prachanda, for instance, is convinced that ‘a new wave of revolution, world revolution is beginning, because imperialism is facing a great crisis.’ ....... When the subject is not world revolution but the specific situation of Nepal, he can be shrewdly perceptive....... Few journalists venture out of their urban bases .... the nervous soldiers at checkpoints ...... a few men quietly informed us that Maoist guerrillas were hiding in the nearby forest, where no security forces ever ventured and from where the Maoists often escaped to India ....... The scene in the square appeared normal at first – women scrubbing children at a municipal tap, young men drinking tea, an old tailor hunched over an antique sewing-machine, his walking stick leaning against his chair – but the presence of the Maoists, if unacknowledged, was unmistakable...... He didn’t know who had built the bamboo gate; it had simply appeared one morning..... The parents of the victims had exhumed their corpses from the shallow graves in which the army had quickly buried them and discovered that two of them had been wearing their school uniforms. Like much else in Nepal, this would not appear in the newspapers....... The Maoists have shown themselves willing to negotiate and even to compromise: in July 2001 they dropped their demand that Nepal cease to be a monarchy....... any Maoist concessions to bourgeois democracy are unlikely to please Gyanendra, who clearly wants to use the current chaos to help him hold on to his power...... the Maoists are far from achieving a military victory; and the Communists in India are unlikely to extend their influence beyond the poverty-stricken districts they presently control....... the nature of a democracy that is protected by an autocrat...... the turnout of voters does nothing but empower and legitimise a native elite willing to push the priorities of its Western patrons.......
  • Republicanism: How About A Real Public Debate? INSN 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...... Fifteen years later, the palace stepped in to claim a role it believed it never had relinquished under the tripartite agreement...... 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? ..... may be ready to shed some of their doctrinaire policies and rhetoric in exchange for legitimacy ..... The Nepalese Maoists continue to espouse aspects of the Cultural Revolution — including class conflicts and retribution – which modern-day Chinese communists would prefer to forget...... India, extreme left-wing insurgencies grip some 40 percent of the country’s 593 districts..... Growing cooperation between the world’s two most populous nations cannot mask the reality that they are also competitors. The limits to conciliation have been on display for some time....... Despite India’s full recognition of Tibet as an integral part of China, Beijing has hardly shown unequivocal reciprocity on the issue of Sikkim, the Himalayan kingdom India annexed in 1974. China’s reticence on India’s candidacy for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council provides yet another illustration of this complex relationship........ China wants the Nepalese government to stay clear of any foreign (Indian or the U.S.) influence that could make trouble in Tibet. 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...... a permanent U.S. delegation to talk with China one a variety of international issues, including Burma, Nepal and Sudan....... the Pentagon likely would not mind having another emergency air base or logistics center close to Pakistan and Central Asia..... “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” .... Rhetorical threats must not be allowed to take the place of substantive discussions. The accusation that King Gyanendra in this day and age is bent on reviving autocracy is an insult to the intelligence of the Nepalese people...... Sanjay Upadhya, a Nepalese journalist based in the United States, has been a Fulbright Scholar at New York University
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