Monday, January 30, 2006

Khim Lal Bhattarai Arrested


I just talked to this guy last night, past midnight, which would make it Monday morning Nepal local time. Looks like he got arrested not long after. I have a bad feeling my phone call might have had something to do with it. His phone sure was being tapped. Or just that he is the most visible student leader over ground. Gagan is underground.

He leads the student wing of the UML. I got his email address from him, and then emailed him.

The first time Gagan Thapa ever addressed me was in an email. It read "Dear Sir." I was embarrassed. Gladly not long after it became "Paramendraji" after I made it clear I wanted to be addressed by first name. Khimji kept saying "Sir." This was our first conversation. Maybe that is how they address each other.

Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 20:41:52 -0800 (PST)
From:"Paramendra Kumar Bhagat"
Subject: यहाँ सँग गफ भयो। खुशी लाग्यो।
To:Send an Instant Message khimbhattarai@yahoo.com
 
खिमजी।

यहाँ सँग गफ भयो। खुशी लाग्यो।

गगनजीसँग न्यू यर्कमा नै भेंट भएको हो। वहाँले मलाई चिन्नुहुन्छ। अहिले त शायद
अन्डरग्राउण्ड हुनुहुन्छ क्या रे वहाँ। माधव नेपालजीले पनि मलाई चिन्नुहुन्छ।

आइडिया के भन्दा खेरि देशव्यापी पम्फलेटिङ गर्ने।
http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com/2006/01/blog-post_19.html

त्यसकालागि पैसा प्रवासबाट, संगठन ८ विद्यार्थी संगठनको।

तर त्योभन्दा अगाडि इमेलबाट गर्ने। त्यसकालागि ८ विद्यार्थी संगठनका केन्द्रीय स्तरका सबै नेताहरुको इमेल र जिल्ला
स्तरका सबै नेताहरुको इमेलको एउटा मेलिङ लिस्ट तयार पार्ने।

८ विद्यार्थी संगठनका केन्द्रीय एवं जिल्ला समितिका इमेल ठेगाना भएका सबैको इमेल ठेगानाहरु एक ठाउँमा जम्मा गर्ने। र
त्यो लिस्ट मलाई पठाउने। सबै एकैचोटी जम्मा भएपछि नै पठाउनुपर्छ भन्ने छैन। १०, २०, ५०, १०० गर्दै पठाएहुन्छ। मेरो
ठेगाना paramendra@yahoo.com हो।

न्यू यर्क र अमेरीकामा जस्तो काठमाण्डु र नेपालमा इमेलको इस्तेमाल त्यति व्यापक न होला। तर इमेल फोनभन्दासस्तो र
सुरक्षित पनि हो। तपाईहरुको फोन सरकारले पक्कै ट्याप गरिराखेको हुनुपर्छ। त्यसैले इमेलको बानी नपरेका साथीहरुलाई
पनि बानी पार्न लगाउनु पर्यो।

http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com/

अरु विशेष अर्को इमेलमा।

I had talked to another student leader not long before that, from the Deuba Congress. He was not much into email, he made it clear.

The king seems to be heading for a heightened confrontation. This guy is not exactly trying to compromise.

Student leader Bhattarai arrested NepalNews

Student leader Bhattarai arrested

Plain-clothed security personnel on Monday have taken firebrand student leader, Khim Lal Bhattarai, from Lekhnath Marg in the capital, Kathmandu, Monday.

President of the CPN (UML)-affiliated All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), Bhattarai, was arrested this afternoon from Thamel shortly after taking part in a protest rally organized by the group of eight student unions against the royal takeover of last year.

Bhattarai is being kept at the Police Training Academy at Maharajgunj, according to reports.

Hundreds of political leaders, human rights activists and media personnel have been detained across the country ahead of the municipal polls announced by the government.

The opposition parties have called to boycott the civic polls slated on February 8 saying that the exercise aims to further consolidate the direct rule of the king.

Officials, however, say municipal poll is a meaningful exercise of democracy. nepalnews.com by Jan 30 06

Student leader Bhattarai arrested Nepalnews.com, Nepal - 2 hours ago
Plainclothes Police Arrest UML’s Student Wing Chief NewsLine Nepal
ANNFSU President in custody Nepaleyes, Nepal - 7 hours ago
Youth Leaders Stress on Peaceful Agitation NewsLine Nepal, Nepal - Jan 25, 2006 They ruled out any possibility of dialogue with the king, warning that the agitation, which they claimed to have moved on for democratic republic, has posed a question on the future of monarchy. .... Nepali Congress leader Chandra Bhandari expressed determination on yielding the desired results through the agitation, claiming that the on-going agitation will not end in any agreement or consensus. “The agitation will not conclude without constituent assembly election,” Bhandari said, claiming that the agitation cannot be suppressed by any means....... Gagan Thapa, former General Secretary of Nepal Students’ Union, said the agitation would not come to an end until it achieves the election to a constituent assembly. “The downfall of the autocratic government is inevitable,” Thapa said, accusing the palace of hatching conspiracies to thwart the agitation. ....... Khim Lal Bhattarai, President of ANNFSU, said the agitation would bring about a complete change, adding that the youths were ready to sacrifice their life for such a change........
Street demo continues, 26 arrested, 55 injured Kantipur Online, Nepal - Jan 23, 2006 ANNFSU, the student wing of CPN-UML, took out a protest rally at New Beneshwor. ANNFSU President Khim Lal Bhattarai addressed a corner meeting that followed the rally...... NSP (A) leader Yadav manhandled, arrested Policemen on Monday arrested Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) vice president Bharat Bimal Yadav, while the latter was addressing party men to mark the 5th memorial of the party's founding chairman late Gajendra Narayan Singh at the party office in Tripureswor. Policemen manhandled Yadav while taking him under control, NSP cadres alleged. Yadav is being kept at Kalimati police station.

If the king does not opt for reconciliation, for dialogue, for a constituent assembly, I don't see how ending the monarchy will not come before going for a constituent assembly.

I am for the South Africa option, but that option is only possible if the king plays ball.


I also sent this out to the Sailesh Acharya and Dinesh Prasain duo in Delhi yesterday. They are the people behind Loktantra.

Loktantra Issue 1
Loktantra Issue 2
Loktantra Issue 3
Loktantra Issue 4

Loktantra: Backbone, Guiding Light, Iskra

We democrats are non-violent, but we have to be super aggressive in terms of getting our message out to the widest possible cross sections of people all across the country so as to raise the political consciousness of the people and foment action on the ground. Loktantra has put forth impressive four issues, has collected a wide spectrum of really impressive writers. And it has a wide readership. But it could do more, little in terms of the quality of the writing, but much, much more in terms of circulation.

Print Version

Write up a budget proposal and send it this way. We will try and raise money. But you have to be seen taking the lead all the way. That makes it easier to raise money. Don't feel shy. Those in America can not do what you are doing, all that you are risking. So let them do the little they can: give money. And do book keeping. It is basic. You do book keeping, you get to raise more money in round two. This is not a trust issue. This is a professionalism issue. It is basic. People at the other end (1) do not want to be seen asking for money, and (2) are leery of book keeping. Need to get over it. Or you are hurting the movement.

Money and printing will be the easy part. Nationwide network will be the hard part. My suggestion would be to have the eight student organizations set up something clandestine. That will be our best bet. Also have safe houses right across the border in India, all along the border. So you print in India where it is cheap, and then you smuggle it in. Or it could be printed several different places: Benaras, Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Nepalgunj, Birgunj, Janakpur, Pokhara. You email the stuff, and they print it. I don't know. You decide. Printing all in one place is cheaper, but printing many places is safer.

We sell the print version. If not become for profit, this magazine should at least break even. So the money you raise is only to take off. Say as much in the proposal.

Pick the top, hard-hitting articles for pamphleteering. Pamphlets are much easier to carry around.

PDF, Email

Keep up the good work. Expand your mailing list. Go to the bottom of my blog and find a great way to compile a really large mailing list. Actively ask all your readers to send you email addresses of all Nepalis they know. Let's go hugely global. This part is free. But all those Nepalis out there in the world have personal contacts inside Nepal they are in regular touch with. We "bounce" the message through them.

Online Version

Why not take it from PDF to online? Use unicode. This will ensure even wider circulations. More articles can be crammed in. Webpages are easier to navigate than PDF documents. The mag can be hosted at one of the free sites like Blogger.

Display Google ads. Also solicit donations. People could use PayPal or Moneygram or whatever.

Put up a box that allows you to collect email addresses of people, those who might want to be notified as soon as a new issue comes out. With this framework I think it might become possible for Loktantra to come out once every two weeks, or even every week. Especially if you were to solicit contributions in Nepali. As in authors submit articles in Unicode itself.

Some advantages: (1) Publishing a new issue online is as easy as copy and paste. (2) Wider circulations inside as well as outside Nepal. (3) Virtual immunity to blocking by state authorities. People outside can copy and paste into the body of email and send it in. (4) Revenue generation to allow print penetration into Nepal. This might be the NUMBER ONE reason to do it. PDF restricts us to the already converted. Let's penetrate every wada in the coutry by using the 8 student organizations.

So you are not looking at one magazine but perhaps three. You are looking at an online presence that is huge and with rolling submissions. You have no incentive to limit contributions. Then you pick the best articles for the PDF and print versions. You sell the print versions across Nepal.

Whip up your stable of writers! Let's rumbo.

Visitors

30 January10:22University of North Texas, Denton, United States
30 January10:37Internet Qatar, Qatar
30 January10:38The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, United States
30 January10:57Intelsat, United Kingdom
30 January10:58Wanadoo France, Puteaux, France
30 January11:01The City University of NewYork, New York, United States
30 January11:45The World Bank Group, Washington, D.C., United States
30 January11:50The World Bank Group, Washington, D.C., United States

30 January11:59Iowa State University, Ames, United States

30 January13:48Citi Corporation, United States
30 January14:07ClinTrials Research, United States
30 January14:29The World Bank Group, Washington, D.C., United States
30 January14:37University of Texas, Arlington, United States
30 January14:43The World Bank Group, Washington, D.C., United States
30 January14:55University of British Columbia, Canada
30 January15:15Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United Stat


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Sunday, January 29, 2006

RNA To Deliver Mail


The rumor mills in the diaspora have been working over time, the word is out: soon the RNA will be delivering mail in Nepal. The brave sons and daughters of Nepal who fought both the world wars in the distant corners of the planet and won numerous Victoria Crosses fighting and dying across the world and today guard from the Sultan of Brunei to the warlords in Africa have proven no less adept at their assignments at home.

After the RNA stepped out of its barracks, there are few state responsibilities it has not taken upon itself. They fought where the police had fled, like in their barracks. They searched homes that had never felt any state presence prior, not received any visitors from the state including those who go around asking for votes. They dug roads. The blocked roads when safety asked for it. They visited rooms of editors and FM stations, lest the media not feel its presence.

For every such act of valor, the king doled out awards, mostly cash awards in the form of fattened budgets, enhanced perks, and expensive cars, or recognitions like the royal medals, namely the Gorkha Dakshin Bahu and the like.

Then the state treasury ran out of money, the RNA ran out of missions, and the royal palace ran out of medals and excuses.

One fine morning a royal advisor came up with the idea.

"Your Majesty, considering we now only issue stamps with your cute face on them, and the RNA has not visited as many homes recently as it used to, and it is important we make our presence felt, especially since the enhanced rural activities of the seven parties after the sinister 12 point agreement, I hereby recommend we mobilize the army on a war footing. Let's deliver mail!"

The king promptly awarded the advisor one of the last remaining medals, and issued orders to the effect.

Rumor has it the RNA is to capture the postal service in a midnight raid, take over, and then start delivering mail. The postal service may still keep its background workers, but all those who actually delivered mail will be put on paid leave until further notice.

Keeping safety in mind, villages will be marked as sensitive, very sensitive, and super sensitive.

Mail is not to be delivered in the super sensitive villages. People from those villages will be required to walk over to the district headquarters to pick up their mail. Since there will be no way of informing who received mail and who did not, villagers will just have to follow their hunch, and make the best guesses they can. And if the villagers not show up, and the mail for any particular village exceed one ton, the entire bulk is to be dropped onto the village by helicopter at or around midnight in some surprise visit.

Villages categorized as very sensitive will receive mail once every two months, and the delivery will be made by a battalion, and not by a lone army person. These are tough times.

A small army unit will deliver mail in the sensitive villages once a month. They will be given the equipment to be able to call in additional help any time.

An ordinance is to be passed. Noone may inquire about lost mail.

"My attention has been brought to something called email," Pyar Jung is said to have opined at one secret meeting of the top generals. "We will take care of that too during the second stage. We have to extend our security umbrella over all kinds of mails, for that is the royal desire."

"We ran out of things to do," Pyar Jung added. "I mean, we excelled at everything we tried, pretty much."

Letters addressed to the top 200 politicians, human rights activists, journalists and student leaders are to be considered disappeared, a secret circular states. They are to be considered so unholy they are not even to be read, not even discarded. They are to be simply ignored.

For these new services, the RNA is to present a budget to the government. The budget is expected to be passed without discussion. At that point the RNA will be taking half the state budget, since more than half will mean the palace will be getting less than half, and that has been thought to be unbecoming and anti-national.

With this takeover the RNA will have pretty much encroached upon the entire state apparatus. Then, it is rumored, it will be keenly eyeing the various segments and industries in the private sector. There might be reverse privatization, if only to inject some RNA efficiency to the private sector of the economy.

Loktantra

Loktantra Issue 1
Loktantra Issue 2
Loktantra Issue 3
Loktantra Issue 4

Visitors

29 January12:39Telecom-Egypt Data, Egypt
29 January16:039 Telecom, France
29 January16:12Wayne State University, Detroit, United States
29 January17:46Cisco Systems, Inc., United States
29 January18:34United States Army, United States

In The News

Student unions, professors oppose TU’s decision to extend vacation NepalNews
FNJ, NBA to observe Feb 1 as ‘black day’
EC distributes election symbols for municipal polls
Two Maoists killed in Khotang clash
NIDC to be converted into company
North American Coordination Committee of NRN set up
University teachers to stage pen down on Feb 1
FNJ team on visit of far-west
Nepal to cancel some local elections Daily Times, Pakistan
600 Nepal candidates withdraw over threats Monsters and Critics.com
Maoists force Nepal poll pull-out The Statesman
Nepal candidates abandon election BBC News
11 rebels, 2 soldiers killed in Nepal China Post
Nepal rebels threaten candidates Toronto Star
Student activists boycott Koirala movies Mid-Day Mumbai
Nepal's municipal elections to be held in time: official People's Daily Online
Nepal under reign of terror as king unleashes army to crush revolt Guardian Unlimited, UK
Nepal opposition to intensify anti-King stir on Feb 01 Zee News, India
Seven parties alliance to step up protests in Nepal Zee News
Nepal Opposition to intensify anti-King stir Hindu
Expats become Nepal's biggest money spinner Taipei Times, Taiwan
Nepal King invents ‘democracy’, promotes it Indian Express, India
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