The Onus Is On The King

The Maoists Could Do More

The Maoists have refuted allegations of abductions and extortions. It is important that they are hitting back with words like this. They should do more of this and more often. When your enemies spread lies about you, and you don't hit back with rebuttals, the people end up believing the lies.

Maoists refute allegations of extortion, abduction NepalNews .... Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the entire rank and file of the party were engaged in political and activities aimed at serving people as per the spirit of the ceasefire. He said it was not the policy of his party to `abduct’ teachers and students and that such reports were nothing but the ‘planned propaganda’ of the royal regime...... Mahara has also alleged the security forces of taking into custody their six unarmed cadres at Bahadurpur of Palpa district in western Nepal and executing them last week (Sep. 24). The Royal Nepalese Army, however, said the Maoist cadres were killed in two-way clashes after the security personnel opened fire in self-defense after they were attacked.

This war of words will take them much further. I urge them to offer rebuttals on a regular basis. I think now the question no longer is if there will be elections to a constituent assembly. It is only a matter of when, and which party will win the most votes, and which party will emerge the largest, second largest and so on.

It is only a matter of time that elections to a constituent assembly will be held in the country. The Maoists should function within two parameters.

1. Do things that aid the peaceful mass movement for democracy so as to hasten the interim government and the constituent assembly. Continue the ceasefire, no abductions and extortions. Massive grass roots organizing. Major peaceful protest programs. Peaceful co-existence with the seven party coalition.
   
2. Do things to try and emerge one of the largest parties in the country during and after the elections to a constituent assembly. They will also have a lot of time to do this after they have become part of the interim governemnt after the peace talks. So do it step 1, step 2, step 3. The time for competition among the parties will come. But that time is later. And there will be plenty of time.
   

By the way, I got to meet Howard Dean the other day: Dean Was In Town Yesterday. That was a great feeling. (What's Going On In Nepal, Email From Madhav Kumar Nepal, To: DFNYC)

The onus on the king has been building.

• There is a widespread belief nationally and globally that the king did not react to the ceasefire the way he should have. It has become so obvious to the whole world the king's goal is not peace. Tell me of another instance anywhere else on earth where a major armed group declared a unilateral ceasefire. These Nepali Maoists did a really cutting edge thing. That was their best military move during the entire decade of their insurgency.
  
• If it is also true the Maoists are not engaged in abductions and extortions, the king stands further exposed. Why are his people spreading lies? Since they failed to derail the ceasefire, now they want to spread lies about the Maoists?
  

The country needs a new constitution not because the 1990 constitution is wrong or inadequate, which it was, but because the country as is has no constitution. There is an unconstitutional government in power right now. There is this major constitutional vacuum.

The Maoist-Democrat alliance needs to vigorously fight the war of words. There has to be massive grass roots organizing by all eight parties. The work is to get hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets.

The RCCC has managed to attack the Supreme Court itself. That shows there is much desperation in the Monarchist camp. This has got to be one of their last hurrahs. The regime is slowly but surely imploding.

I have been telling my local DFNYC comrades, just wait a few months, Nepal is going to hit the world headlines. When people overflow into the streets in the hundreds of thousands.

A Contact Group comprised of the EU, US, UN and India is underway to being formed. That group is the one that will recognize Nepal's unilaterally declared interim government. All of Nepal's current ambassadors will get derecognized immediately.

Even the RPP is tilting towards coming out into the streets. That should really tell you which way the winds are blowing. If they don't take part in the street protests, they are going to disappear as a party. It is a question of survival.

In The News

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Reciprocate ceasefire, hold talks with parties: European Parliament NeplNews .... welcomed the ceasefire declared by the CPN (Maoist) and calls for an indefinite extension of the Maoist ceasefire...... establish a Contact Group, made up of Nepal’s key partners and international organisations (the EU, the US, India and the UN), in order to provide coordinated international action with regard to Nepal....... provide rehabilitation for the 30,000 Kapilvastu villagers displaced by violent conflict...... renewed its firm call upon the Nepal government to re-establish the Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office (TRWO) in Kathmandu and to allow the representative office of the Dalai Lama to resume operations in providing relief services to Tibetan refugees as an implementing partner of the UNHCR........

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Giri orders to register the land of National park to individuals ..... 13.79 hectare (407.14 kathha) of land at Bardiya's Kalwariphanta in the name of specific individuals ...... Luv Shumsher JB Rana, Siddhi Sumsher JB Rana, Bel Sumsher JB Rana and Phanindra Sumsher JB Rana..... Som Shumsher Rana had written to Dr Giri claiming that they missed out the registration of the land in the 2021 BS survey....... the District Development Committee Bardiya has seriously objected to the move.....

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RPP criticizes the government's performance ..... the party will go for the agitation demanding restoration of the democracy...... RPP is in the view that formation of all party government is essential to find the negotiated settlement of the Maoist insurgency ..... Intra-party rift is widening in RPP over whether the party should side with the king or political parties.
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Laborers organize protest against amendment in Labor Act Nepalnews.com, Nepal

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Pro-democracy rallies continue Kathmandu Post, Nepal

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Problems of Madhesis highlighted Gorkhapatra, Nepal Leaders of various political parties and intellectuals have expressed the view that the Madhesi community has been oppressed and neglected for centuries ...... Nepal Terai Intellectuals Society .... the media has also not given due coverage to the problems of the Madheshi community...... leader of Nepal Sadbhavana Party Devendra Mishra, CPN-UML leader Jitendra Dev, leader of Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi) Hridayesh Tripathi and a host of speakers said that the Madhesi community has still not got the right place in the national politics.......

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Police Offices’ Renaming Reminds of Panchayat Days Himalayan Times, Nepal
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‘King wants new statute’ Himalayan Times, Nepal

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Seven-party Front ‘keen’ to Avoid Friction With King Himalayan Times, Nepal “Giving up the desire to rule would solve the problem.” ..... “in the event the monarch does not act in the right light, Indian support to the alliance may further solidify.” ..... The King, however, can be said to be having three options — cracking the whip on political parties, playing the civic polls card or yielding to the demand for an all-party government.... a larger section of the political forces, including the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Rastriya Janshakti Party (RJP), however, are backing the idea of an all-party dispensation which would shape up as a measure of reconciliation.
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Stir to be more intense after Tihar: Leaders ..... a well-managed and much bigger people’s movement will be launched this winter. It would culminate in the termination of the political crisis in the country...... another stage of the movement would be started after the Dashain-Tihar interval. “An ocean of people will be seen in the capital this winter that will sweep away the monarchy and its autocracy altogether,” said Yubraj Karki, central committee member of the CPN-UML........ thousands would court arrests and prisons would overflow with activists, and it would result in what the Nepalis have been dreaming of for the past two centuries. “Autocracy will be thrown out of the scene as it happened to Hitler, Suharto and many other dictators in history. We strongly hope the King of Nepal may not have to meet the fate that the King of Iran met” ........ Krishna Sitaula, Nepali Congress central committee member, said despite the government’s threat to brand anybody who contacts the Maoists as a terrorist, the seven political parties would continue their efforts to hold talks with the Maoists and try and bring them to mainstream politics......... the King has created two pillars — the Maoists’ activities and the Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC). The first failed with the unilateral ceasefire, and the second failed after Sher Bahadur Deuba and Prakash Man Singh challenged the RCCC ........ Tanka Rai of the CPN-ML said the King’s allegation that foreign money has flooded the capital was a direct insult to the local people. “The King should either prove it or retract his statement.......

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Govt Defends RNA Action The Ministry of Defence said in a press release on Saturday that the action taken by the RNA against three of it’s servicemen in reference to the Maina Sunuwar case was in accordance with the country’s prevailing law. It said even though the court martial handed down a six-month jail sentence on the accused, in addition to suspension of promotion for two years and ordered to pay compensation worth Rs 100,000 to Sunuwar’s family, the three accused officers served six months in army custody. The ministry expressed deep regret over comments made by Human Rights Watch that the action taken by the RNA against the guilty was a “cosmetic gesture” and said the army’s action has sent a clear signal that those guilty of rights abuses will be punished irrespective of their ranks.
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Global law body fears new crackdown in Nepal Peninsula On-line, Qatar

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Schools bow down to Maoist threat, over 600 students flee PeaceJournalism.com, Nepal

The Maoists Could Do More

The Foreign Powers Need To Come Clean On The Constituent Assembly Question
The Maoist Ceasefire: The Devil In The Details
The Royal Court
Madhav Nepal, Commander Of The Movement
For The First Time In A Decade, Permanent Peace Feels Possible
Ahobhagya Shaubhagya: Confusion InThe Monarchist Camp
Email From Madhav Kumar Nepal
Tulsi Giri Is Beyond Redemption
Options For The Maoists And The Democrats
The King, The Army, The Ceasefire
Beyond Royal Rule: An ICG Report
Alliance Of Steel

The Democrats are doing their very best, although they still have some clarifying to do. The international community is staunchly with the democrats. The Nepali diaspora is strongly with the democrats. The movement is making progress.

The Maoists have declared a military ceasefire. But they also need to declare a political ceasefire. It was the RNA that benefitted the most from the military ceasefire. But acts of abductions and extortions send the wrong signals. One, that the Maoists are only preparing for another round of fighting. Two, they do not have faith in the democracy movement that is underway. Three, they might do the Lenin thing and step back from the democratic republic tune and still gun for a communist republic.

The abductions are in the hundreds. I don't see how those are helping them in any form or fashion.

So if the Maoists are serious about their democratic republic tune, they need to provide total space to the seven party coalition so the movement can take off faster. This is not going to be a Kathmandu only movement, although Kathmandu will be key. This is going to be a nationwide movement.

I don't think the Maoists are attempting a Lenin here. I think they are just not thinking clearly enough. Intellectually they have moved to a democratic republic from a communist republic, but their habits are still old. To go for a democratic republic means to work to win the hearts and minds of the people.

The movement will still succeed with or without the Maoists. The constituent assembly elections are going to take place, with or without the Maoists. My point being, the Maoists hurt their political future by not transforming themselves more.

The ceasefire was a great move. Now they need to make another great move and bring abductions and extortions to a total halt so as to further strengthen the Maoist-Democrat alliance. The Monarchists will not do business with them, the democrats are willing to.

If the Maoists do that, the seven party alliance as a whole might come clearly for a democratic republic.

If the Maoists stop the abductions and extortions, the seven party alliance will come under tremendous pressure to come for a simple program of an interim government and a constituent assembly.

That is what the Maoists said they wanted. And now they are about to get it. So they need to measure up. They need to do their part.

Bring a total halt to all abductions and extortions, so the country can get a constituent assembly sooner.

The ceasefire was a brilliant move. This move would be even more brilliant. This would really earn them a lot of popularity among the people.

Republic Of Nepal: Blog

A few days back I came across this blog: Republic Of Nepal. It is only three months old, and it has three members. I have been quoted in a recent blog entry. There is a strong republican sentiment among the young, that's for sure.

In the eve of French revolution in 1789 when entire France was suffering from famine and hunger, the French Queen, Marie Antoinette was told that people were dying from hunger and they were rioting and demanding breads, in reply she said “ Don’t do they eat cake”. Many historians believe that it was her lavish life style, like 1,600,000 lives ($ 100 million) diamond necklace, which fueled French revolution. And she was executed in 1793 at the age of 37.

The only reason the ‘protests against regression’ is not taking momentum is suspicions that the general public have on the political leader's credibility. Once they are assured that leaders wouldn't heed any signals from palace for tête-à-têtes as the protests take momentum, no one could save king’s regime, even the god himself.

I recently read write-ups in the second issue of Loktantra, from formidable moist leader Dr. Babu Ram Bhattari to proclaimed socialist think tank Pradip Giri, but today I want to quote Parmendra Bhagat:

अहिले को विश्‍व राजनीति समानताको आदर्श भइरहेको राजनीति होइन . नेपाल मा अमेरिका र भारत भन्‍दा पनि प्रगतिशील लोकतन्‍त्र स्‍थापना गर्न सकिन्‍छ .जित सुनिस्‍चित छ .

I will mention it one more time that 'time makes more converts than reason.' That, even though Thomas Paine said in the circumstances leading to the full-fledged American revolution against the British colonialism, is still valid in our context. We just need to do our duty, and the detractors right now will later come to join us.

हाँगो भाँचेर
देश काँहा बन्‍छर राजा राखेर……….

When I was back home last December, I wasn't expecting to see bombs lying around in the middle of the highway, and people walking by it without even giving it an apprehensive look, as if that thing covered in the bucket was nothing more than a joke. People were stranded on both sides of the town, as there were noone to defuse that bomb. Actually that bomb remained there for next couple of days. I was scared to see kids go near the bucket to peer inside trying to fathom may be the depth of the problem plaguing the society. I was amazed at how those little kids became so brave that they were not afraid of the bombs anymore. Couple of days after, there was another bomb on the middle of the ground. This time somebody actually thought that was just a joke and tried to move it. It exploded. Luckily that person escaped with minor injuries.

In The News

• King to visit Western region from 4th Oct NepalNews
• Return to the constitutional fold, ICJ tells the govt. Howen called upon the Nepal government to respond to the three-month-long unilateral ceasefire declared by the Maoists nearly a month ago....... “If the two sides really desire peace, they now should not only both declare indefinite ceasefires, but also commit themselves to a human rights code of conduct, which could be monitored by the newly –established UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) field operation,” said Howen. “Monitoring of respect for such a human rights code of conduct, and other confidence-building measures, could significantly reduce violence and create an environment in which peace talks are much more likely,” he added ...... The ICJ welcomed what it called signs of increasing independence and courage of the Supreme Court in considering habeas corpus writs and ordering the release of detainees held illegally by the security forces...... “Especially in the absence of parliament or a democratically elected government the Supreme Court plays a vital role as a protector of people’s rights,” said Nicholas Howen...... Howen said it was up to the Nepali people to decide what type of constitution they wanted........ Howen further said the Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) was an extra-constitutional entity and that it violated the principle of separation of power enshrined in the Nepali constitution....... Howen said (the mission) found a sense of foreboding in civil society that an intensifying political conflict between the King, who assumed direct power on 1 February on one side, and the political parties and civil society on the other, may lead to a new crackdown by the government....... civilians in the districts continue to be caught between brutal violence and extortion carried out by the Maoists and gross violations such as extrajudicial executions and torture carried out by the security forces......
  
• CIAA files Charge-sheet against eight people
• Government gives one billion rupees to NOC
• Maoist leaders Yadav, Ale Magar produced in court Yadav and Ale Magar raised their fists and chanted slogans in front of TV cameras as they were driven away in a police van from the court. Both of them are being tried on charge of ordering the murder of then chief of Armed Police Force (APF), Krishna Mohan Shrestha, his wife and security guard in January 2003....... Indian security agencies had detained Yadav and Ale Magar from their rented apartment in New Delhi in February last year and later handed them over to Nepali authorities where they were kept under army custody......
• NSP-A to reconsider constitutional monarchy adopted the proposal filed by 21 district presidents of the party demanding to delete the provision of constitutional monarchy from the party statute ..... The party has said that the problems dogging the country could be resolved only through the elections of the constituent assembly...... The meeting also protested the king's directives to shift zonal and regional headquarters from terai region saying it is against the madhesi community.......
• RCCC advises court not to poke its nose in royal decision The Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) has advised the Supreme Court not to intervene in any question regarding its formation or its decision to jail former premier Sher Bahadur Deuba and former minister Prakash Man Singh, among others....... In response to a show cause notice issued by the apex court, the Commission said, “All the works executed by the king are purely political ones and such works related to state authority and exercise of sovereignty cannot be question in the court as per Article 31 of the Constitution,” RCCC Secretary Shambhu Bahadur Khadka said in his written replies submitted to the apex court on Monday.
• Nepal moving toward democracy: Indian delegation Sify, India .... the movement for restoration of democracy in the Himalayan Kingdom would intensify after the ensuing festival season..... The struggle for democracy in 1990 took 60 days. We hope it will take less time now ..... Asked about the incident of stone-throwing and waving of black flags against them, Yechury said "in a democracy there is a right to protest. We only want the King to give such rights to everybody".
• Movement for democracy in Nepal to intensify: Delegates Press Trust of India
  
• 'Restrain actions that give legitimacy to monarchy in Nepal' Webindia123
  
• Guerrillas release 150 teachers in western Nepal Xinhua, China
  
• International jurists urge Nepal to reciprocate Maoist truce Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
• Global law body fears new crackdown in Nepal NewKerala.com, India
• People want democracy sans monarchy: Nepal Kathmandu Post, Nepal
• Agitation not for retaining constitutional monarchy: Leaders Kathmandu Post
• The New York Rally And Further PeaceJournalism.com, Nepal
• Maoists Ceasefire Is A Good Thing PeaceJournalism.com
• ‘Transfer cease-fire into permanent peace’ Gorkhapatra
• ‘Front’ cracking up, PEOPLE not responding and FOREIGN money ... PeaceJournalism.com
• Maoists still terrorising people: ThapaSurya Bahadur Thapa has observed that the Maoists are still giving continuity to terrorising general people by carrying out the acts of abduction, extortion, forced donation, interference on educational institutions and obstruction on the movement of people in the country in spite of their unilaterally declared three-month armistice.
• Jet Airways bomb hoax triggers panic in Nepal Hindustan Times, India
  
• Nepal royalists stone Indian team BBC News, UK
• ‘Melamchi project to be completed within time’ Gorkhapatra, Nepal Minister Gauchan said that the government needed support from every sector including media, as the Royal Step of February 1 taken by His Majesty King was fallout of the popular aspiration of the people. “The Royal Step was a compulsion to save the nation from the crisis, as the political parties had created chaos in the nation during their democratic practices in the last decade”..... Nepalese people are demanding peace and prosperity instead of agitation, strikes and strife. “The political parties are playing an out of tune music” .....
  
• Alliance Will Succeed This Time, says Madhav Nepal Himalayan Times, Nepal while addressing a press conference organised by the Press Chautari Nepal, in Janakpurdham. The international community is also showing solidarity towards the ongoing movement of the seven party alliance, he added. “I’d like to assure you that by the end of December, a huge mass will be protesting against the present government and it will be beyond the government’s capacity to control it” ...... UML alone has plans to organise several other programs in addition to the regular protest programmes of the seven party alliance. UML will organise protest meeting at the regional, zonal and village levels...... General secretary Nepal also accused the government of trying to force the Maoists to break their unilateral ceasefire and resume violent activities...... Dr Ram Sharan Mahat said at a meet in Ghorahi, the district headquarters of Dang, that monarchy would not last even for a minute if the Maoists gave up weapons and joined mainstream politics......
  
• Mystery aircraft over Janakpur
  
• Three-month detention letter to students Kathmandu Post, Nepal
• NEPAL: Talks possible with present govt, says Maoist leader Asia Pacific Media Network, CA
• Nepal Army officials let off in schoolgirl murder case NewKerala.com, India
• Nepal urges Maoists to join political mainstream Gorkhapatra, Nepal
• Nepal rebels killed in clashes despite ceasefire Reuters
• Guerrillas abduct 100 teachers, students in eastern Nepal Xinhua, China
• ‘Attempt to scrap constitution lethal’ Kathmandu Post, Nepal