Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Prachanda says it was a "compulsion; Rana says it was "unfortunate"

Kathmandu: Political events are happening as it were expected.

The detachment of the government towards the ceasefire announcement of the Maoists for two consecutive periods beginning September 3 last year finally "compelled" the Maoists to break the ongoing unilateral ceasefire.

The Maoists unilateral ceasefire announcement ended this January 2 which now brings the entire country under their full fledged wrath more so against what they say "armed forces" and their "paid informers".

Nevertheless, the Maoists supremo, Prachanda, in a some what mild but yet strong worded statement assures the Seven party alliance that his party would remain true to the commitments that his party has made recently through the signing of the debatable agreement or for that matter understanding with them.

All put together, a critical scenario comes to the fore in the impending days.

Meanwhile, the seven party alliances appears to have been badly disturbed by the end of the Maoists ceasefire which in several ways than one could have impact on their what they call "peaceful" agitation.

That the seven party alliance would be the one hard hit by this end of the ceasefire announcement becomes clear from the very fact that Prachanda has in no uncertain terms indicated in the fresh statement that his party would do all it can to expose or for that matter disturb the "farcical elections".

The agitating parties though have declared that they would summarily boycott the impending municipal elections and would in the process seduce the possible voters not to go to the polls but with this non-extension of the ceasefire by the rebels but now they have reasons to conclude that the Maoists would make every effort at disturbing the polls even going violent. If the Maoists would do so, and we have every reasons to believe that they would do so because it is their words, would mean that the parties in agitation can't escape the general blame from the innocent people and the government of supporting the violence because of their signing of the agreement with the rebels wherein both the contracting parties have vowed to disturb the polls.

The seven parties have begun feeling the impact of the end of the ceasefire.

Not all is lost in the process. Analysts at the Telegraph see some silver lining in what has been said by Comrade Prachanda and the government's spokesman, Shrish S. Rana in the wake of this sudden political development.

Look what Prachanda says: We have been compelled to end the ceasefire. This means that had they been provided some breathing space by the State forces, they would have considered the general opinion both coming from within and without with regard to the extension of yet another ceasefire. Or even that means that had the State reciprocated their ceasefire announcement (perhaps they too expected this from the state hopefully) and halted the ROLPA combing operation that killed some of the Maoists' key planners, for example, Kim Bahadur Thapa alias SUNIL, chances were brighter for the extension of the now ended ceasefire.

Prachanda's use of the word compulsion is strange but then yet has some olive branch for the State machinery. Nevertheless, Prachanda in his statement does hint that should there be a conducive atmosphere for Roundtable conference then towards the formation of an interim government which would later conduct the constituent assembly election, his party could rethink of yet another ceasefire. This leaves some room for peace. Not bad.

Now let's look at what Communication minister Mr. Rana has to say of this end of the ceasefire announcement made by none less than Prachanda himself.

"It's unfortunate", is what Rana says who is also the government's spokes man.

Look at the word "unfortunate". This implies that had the rebels extended their ceasefire period for yet another term, the government would have thought of reciprocating the same in order to initiate talks with the rebels. Or in other words, the government too had been expecting the extension and could have thought of so many things as to how to effectively utilize those extended periods. However, this was not forthcoming this time and hence it could have been "unfortunate".

"Had the Maoists addressed the ceasefire to the government, the entire event would not have ended this way", says a political scientist referring to what Mr. Rana said. Mr. Rana also wants to hint that the Maoists while announcing the ceasefire took no notice of the State and hence the State had no plausible reasons to reciprocate. Sounds logical indeed.

But then yet minister Rana, without losing confidence forcefully says that the State was ready to meet the possible challenges arisen after this end of the ceasefire.

"We are prepared", is what minister Rana says to the BBC world service when he was asked to comment on the end of the cessation of the hostilities by the Maoists.

A cursory glance at what Prachanda says in his fresh statement reveal that his party incurred heavy losses at the hands of the State security forces in the recent weeks. This attack from the other camp might have come to his party as a bolt from the blue. Completely unexpected at least when their unilateral ceasefire was yet to end.

Thirdly, the CPN-M might have concluded that should the party do not react to the overtures of state forces in Rolpa, a sort of feeling will spread here and there that the Maoists have become pretty weaker in the recent months which would mean to subscribe to the views recently reiterated by Dr. Tulsi Giri about the rebels.

Dr. Giri at a press conference held recently in Katmandu had very strongly said that government forces were coming heavily down against the rebels mostly in the areas falling in the remote West of the country.

In order to keep the morale high of its cadres and also to provide an impression to the general public including those in the government that the rebels were not yet a sinking horse and not a spent force, the Maoists supremo appears to have taken a new decision.

This decision is dangerous in the sense that it would bring the two warring rival "Nepali" forces face to face thereby weakening the country from within.

Nepali scholars paint gloomy picture of Youths

Urge State to address their concerns and define the age; demand inclusive democracy

Kathmandu: Nepal's widely acclaimed scholars who count in the present scheme of this appear pretty concerned looking at the growing disenchantment being expressed by the nation's youth on matters of politics, unemployment, theirs being mis-utilised by the political forces as "instruments for power gains" whether by the legitimate forces or those residing in the jungles.

The learned intellectuals also fear that if the present trend of seeing the Nepali youths as instrument for change continued for long then they predict that soon a day will come when the Nepali youths for their survival sake either will flee the country for good in search of education, employment and personal betterment or will add to the devastation of the country's development infrastructures by aligning themselves into the unconstitutional processes. In addition to these, the frustrated Nepali youths might plunge themselves into the addiction of sedative drugs thus creating more and more problems to the society and the government.

The scholars say Nepal is yet to define the youths. They say the lack of a proper definition of youth in the Nepali context is adding to the problems to all the sections of the society more so to the youths who fall in this category.

What should be the age group of the youths to be classified as youths? Many question.

Others say, Instrumentalisation and indoctrination of the youths for ulterior motives and gains have got to be stopped and hence urge the State top come up with a siitable policy on Youths so that this group which is bewildered gets a solace.

There are yet some more intellectuals who see if the youths were accorded due priorities in the process of national development could act very much and very convincingly as "locomotives" for development.

On the other hand, some see the role of the media in bringing back the now almost "derailed" youths to mainstream society by providing them true guidelines which is what they lack from their own environs.

They see media possessing immense role in providing in the youths a sense of patriotism, and a sense for nation's development.

It was in the periphery of these thought provoking discussions/deliberations the media seminar on "Youth and Peace" was concentrated at a Telegraph Weekly/Friedrich Ebert Stiftung seminar held December 30, 2005, last year at Everest Hotel in Baneshwar.

About a dozen plus of the scholars holding of Doctoral and Professor degrees and a good number of foreign policy experts and a sizeable chunk of hard-working media men were seen taking part in the media seminar on youth and peace.

Initiating the formal program, Mr. Dev Raj Dahal, the country Director of the FES in Nepal, painting a very gloomy picture of today's youths of the country, opined that he saw a sort of "hidden conspiracy" going on to weaken the loyalty of the Nepali youths to the State by "de-culturating" and "instrumentalising" them. This should not have happened, implies the FES scholar.

"Todays' youths are the product of dislocated society where they do not find any anchorage to tag along", summarizes Mr. Dahal of the plights of the youths in the country.

However, he has some prescriptions for the youths as well. He says, "civic education to young people alone can transform the youths into citizenship and enable them to fulfill their restless aspirations for freedom, peace and social justice". He urges youths to remain internally vigilant that would facilitate among them a sense of awareness of the things which were likely to influence what he calls, "concerns".

Presenting his working paper on Youth and Democratization at the first session of the said seminar, Dr. Rabindra Khanal, a teacher at the political science department at the T.U opined that since the present day youths of the country were confronted with so many challenges and if those challenges were not Addressed by the State then the youths might "deviate from the hard task of nation building and will instead create more and more social, political and economic turmoil and ultimately lead this country to such a state from where anyone can rarely come up again.

Dr. Khanal says, "if peace is restored most of these challenges will turn into opportunities. In his consideration, it is the political conflict that is currently on in the nation is the key for all the social evils which needless to say has engulfed the youths and diverted their tender brains into a violent ones.

Several scholars from the floor sought clarifications from Dr. Khanal .

Speaking from the chair, Prof. Dr. Madan Kumar Dahal-the chief of the Economics Department at the T.U, lamented that the Nepal as a nation-state yet lacked the very definition of the Youth in the Nepali context.

"Youths are the engine of growth and development" said Dr. Dahal, adding that it was this section which if neglected could bring untold social sufferings in the society and thereby to the government.

According to Dr. Dahal, working for a ADB funded project on Youths, he had tried to define the Youths as those who fall between the age of 14 to 29.

However, Prof. Dahal says that according to the UN definition, those who are well below 40 or at 40 could well be categorized as Youths.

"I urge the government and the others concerned not to undermine the issues and the problems of the youths to which they were confronting with and come up with a suitable policy that took proper care of this age group or else the State will be inviting unimaginable calamities for itself which would be very difficult to handle with", concluded Prof. Dahal.

Mrs. Savitri Thapa-Gurung, a teacher at the Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus under the T.U. presented her paper on "Youth and Development-the Gender Perspective". In her paper, Ms. Gurung opined that crime and conflict affect the youths very badly. According to her, a sizeable chunk of Nepali youths between the age group of 15-30, have joined the Maoists which could have been made possible because of theirs pressing issues and problems being left unattended by the State machinery.

Exclusion of the youths from the mainstream society by the managers of the State could have also been one of the prominent reasons for the Nepali youths to feel alienated, adds Ms. Gurung.

" Lack of proper educational environment or opportunities for their skill development, a large number of Nepali youths are not only helpless but directionless as well", continued Ms. Savitri.

Talking of the lack of gender equality in the country, Ms. Gurung maintains that the absence of it becomes an impediment in the development of weaker sex and hence the country's development remains unbalanced.

Winding up her paper, Ms. Gurung talks of the need to manage the ongoing the conflict by restructuring the entire Nepali society and facilitating the way for a sort of "inclusive democracy", as it is this system that, according to her, an egalitarian society could be established.

Volley of questions from the floor greeted Ms. Gurung to which she answered at a later stage.

Speaking from the chair, Ambassador Keshav Raj Jha, a noted foreign policy expert of the country said that the state must respond to the issues of the weaker sex as this section has a tremendous role in the task of nation building. He also appealed the State to look into the just grievances of the Nepali youths on time or else a frustrated and utterly neglected youths could add more burden to the already pained state.

Ambassador Jha, nevertheless, reminded the august gathering that in the past decades, the state used to have certain programs aimed at uplifting the status of the youths. However, in these days, he saw the absence of lucrative programs for the youths.

"Special programs should be designed by the State authorities to enhance the hidden intelligence and capabilities of the youths as other countries near and far have done for their youths", concluded Mr. Jha from the chair.

Offering his vote of thanks, Narendra Prasad Upadhyaya, the chief editor of the Telegraph Weekly urged the government of the day to utilize the latent potentials of the youths in the task of nation building. He appreciated the attending participants for their active participation in the seminar deliberations.

Is India really concerned this time?

Kathmandu: Political analysts of the notorious types at this newspaper have tried to link the declaration of the end of the cessation of the hostilities by the Maoists Monday afternoon through a strong worded statements with some events of political nature that have fortunately or even most unfortunately happened right here in Kathmandu and New Delhi.

To come back to the point, let's analyze the meeting that took place in between one of Nepal's conspiratorial brains, Mr. Surya Bahadur Thapa, the chairman of the newly emerged Rastriya Jan Shakti Party and all-encompassing diplomat posted in Kathmandu, Ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee.

This meeting, let's presume made in haste, in between the two has taken place minutes after Comrade Prachanda declared that his cessation of the hostilities stood cancelled henceforth.

To recall, former prime minister S.B.Thapa is considered to be in the "good book" of the Indian establishment since the very good old days of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Reports say that the Indian establishment takes Mr. Thapa as a Nepal political creature who has the capability and the required ability to cool down the irritants that more often than not mars Nepal-India bilateral ties even at time when he is not in power.

This meeting of the two different "nationals" assumes greater significance in the light of the fact that during his recent whirlwind tour to this Himalayan Kingdom, Shyam Saran, the Indian foreign secretary, spent most of his time, the first day of his arrival to be precise, with Surya Bahadur Thapa. What transpired in between the two political giants from Nepal and India that time is any body's guess given Thapa's widely publicized "intimacy" with the Indian government.

Now the same has happened in between Ambassador Mukherjee and our own national Mr. Thapa, albeit a shrewd political personality whose contributions to Nepali politics can't be dismissed, and that too minutes after the momentous declaration of the rebels hinting at the end of the continuation of the ceasefire that they unilaterally carried along for all along good four months beginning early September last year.

Should this mean that Ambassador Mukherjee was in full knowledge of such an overture from the Maoists quarters? Or is it that Ambassador went to see his very special Nepali friend to minimize the damage, if any, that this fresh declaration would have on along the porous Nepal-India border?

Is India so much concerned of such an impact or effect?

Yet another interesting event that happened Monday evening is that of all the peace loving nations of the world, London and Washington included, it was India which "reacted" to the Maoists fresh declaration? Indian comments came hours later of such a declaration.

The fact is that the Maoists declare that they will henceforth not extend their unilateral ceasefire. It is after this announcement, Ambassador Mukherjee rushes to the residence of Thapa in the afternoon and later within a short span of few hours, the Indian government calls this end of the ceasefire as an " unfortunate" event, which is more or less similar to what the government's spokes person Minister Shrish Rana says of the event.

The events that have followed in series here in Kathmandu and in New Delhi has some significance, albeit of political importance.

But then this time the Indian comments are bit different, which provide an impression that they too were somewhat shocked with the rebels' fresh decision.

That the Indian government too had pinned high hopes from the rebels gets reflected when they say that " we have consistently called upon the Maoists to abandon the path of violence and terror; accept the discipline of multi-party democracy, and work for a political settlement that contributes to the political stability and economic prosperity of Nepal".

A close look at the Indian comments made Monday evening speaks of the following:

Firstly, she wishes the rebels to shun violence and terror; secondly she would want the insurgents entering into the mainstream politics; thirdly she would love if the rebels worked towards finding a settlement to their problems meaning through a dialogue perhaps, and finally India would want a stable and an economically prosperous Nepal.

The Indian tone this times appears bit different than what it used to be in the past. Could be an outcome of fruitful and meaningful dialogue that took place in between Shyam Saran and King Gyanendra.

Analysts here say that India if so desired that a meaningful dialogue in between the state and the rebels was urgent and necessary, it could do so easily for a variety of explained and even unexplained political reasons. It is time that India looked upon Nepal as a trusted and tested friend and did the needful so that her "traditional" friend in the Himalayas comes out of the mess that is facilitating killing of the Nepalese by the Nepalese.

But the million dollar question remains: Will India come forward with no strings attached? What will be her agenda as a "broker" of peace in this beleaguered country?

Is India really concerned this time?

However, looking at what Robert D. Kaplan says in one of his fresh article, Who Lost Nepal? Says that "While India does not want to see throngs of refugees from a Maoist Nepal stampede into its already unstable state of Bihar, India also enjoys the fact of a weak, divided client regime next door.

Who knows what is in the minds of the Indian establishment?

Indian film festival in Kathmandu

Kathmandu : The Ambassador of India, Mr. Shiv Shankar Mukherjee announced today( Dec.30,2005) in Kathmandu the organisation of the Indian Film Festival in Nepal from Janaury-March 2006. The Festival will comprise screening of six celebrated Indian films:

 (i). Mughal-e-Azam (ii). Chaudahvin Ka Chand (iii). Pyaasa (v). Bobby (v). Hip Hip Hurray and (iv). Garam Hawa

     The Festial will begin at Dharan in Ganesh Talkies on 7 th January 2006 and will continue there on 9 th and 10 th January 2006 . Thereafter, it will be held in Janakpur (14-16 January 2006), in Birgunj (20-22 January 2006), in Pokhara (20-22 February 2006), in Nepalgunj (24-26 February 2006) and in Kathmandu (3-5 March 2006).

     The Festival is being organised by the Embassy of India in collaboration with B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation (BPKF), states a press note issued by the Indian embassy here dated December 30, last year.

ENBREF:

NEPAL : Under age workers contribute ten percent of GDP

Kathmandu: It is estimated about 32,000 children now are working in the stone quarrying industry of Nepal and a majority of them are between 11 and 13 years of age reports Xinua News Agency quoting a Nepali expert on the issue concerning children in Nepal.

More than 40 percent of all stone quarry workers are migrants and many of them come to the city looking for better jobs, even more fleeing a devastated rural economy and the real possibility of getting caught in the cross fire of a war between the guerrillas and the government's security forces since 1996, said BijayaSainju, chief of CCEN.

Taliking to Xinua Mr Sainju declared that under age workers now make up a full quarter of the workforce, contributing at least 10 percent of Nepal 's total GDP.

New British envoy appointed

Kathmandu : Dr. Andrew Hall, a former first political secretary to New Delhi is appointed a British ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal . Dr. Hall also severed as Deputy Head of Mission , First Secretary and Consul in Kathmandu from 1991-1994.

Massive RNA scam disclosed

Kathmandu : The Office of the Auditor General- Nepal alleged that the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) has been using its Welfare Fund haphazardly, media reports claimed last week.

The allegation against the Royal Nepal Army came after former soldiers filed a case in the Supreme Court four years ago complaining that they had been kept completely in the dark over salary and perks under U N missions and about the amount deducted for the fund.

The UN paid $60 a day to a single Nepali army soldier in the 1970s but the Nepal government gave them only $4, it was reported.

NT to construct tallest building in South Asia

Kathmandu : The Nepal Telecom (NT) is making preparations to construct one of the tallest buildings in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region, declared Sugat Ratna Kansakar, the NT chief in Kathmandu talking to the reporters.

According to Kansakar, the cabinet in a meeting held last week had given the NT permission to construct the building. The building to be constructed at the Jawalakhel NTC compound in Kathmandu will have 30 to 35 storeys. Transmission systems of the Nepal Telecom will be installed on top of the proposed building.

China adds grants to a polytechnic institute

Kathmandu : China has agreed to provide additional grants for the construction of a polytechnic institute in central Nepal , declared a Nepali government official last week.

"China has agreed to grant additional 125 million Nepali rupees (1.79 million U.S. dollars) for the construction work of Nepal Banepa Polytechnic Institute at north suburb of Banepa town of Kavreplanchok district, some 25 km east of Kathmandu," Surya Bahadur Sakha, director at Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) Polytechnic Division of Nepal, told Xinhua.

China had already agreed to grant 335.53 million Nepali rupees (4.79 million U.S. dollars) for the construction and related work of the project on Aug. 5, 2005 , Sakha noted, adding, the earlier grant did not include the construction of retaining wall, land leveling and sewage drainage at the construction site.