Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Kathmandu: The velocity with which the Nepali politics last weekend took a astounding turn that many a matured analysts in this country have had to squeeze their own skins in order to ascertain whether they were day-dreaming or whatever have had happened on the ground in the domain of political sphere were a reality?

It was a reality in real sense of the term as much as was visible and was given to understand.

It will nonetheless take some time to substantiate as to whether the rebels were really a tired lot that demanded a safe and smooth landing or were just trying to play a more precarious game with the State by resorting to yet another premeditated move in order to win the hearts of the parliamentary parties firstly by piercing into the body-politic of a system for which their dogmatic vocabulary possess abhorrence of the highest order and secondly to "rip to shreds" the entire system in such a manner that were beyond repair.

The possibilities are there for both. However, the manner Comrade Prachanda expressed his love and concern for his own badly worn out motherland and the way he luminously interpreted his ideas for restructuring the state gave an impression that Prachanda have had "voluntarily" brought himself closer to the "competitive" politics abandoning his own past authoritarian doctrinaire.

But then yet whether Prachanda came closer to the parliamentary system or he brought the other camp closer to his "philosophies" of the bygone era is still a mystery and analysts at this paper leave this debate to the perusal of the Nepali academicians for intense and logical discussions.

Analysts are reminded of United States Ambassador James F. Moriarty speech of February 15 wherein he had envisaged in advance that the much publicized November 12 point agreement arrived at in between the Maoists and the agitating seven parties in New Delhi had pushed the parliamentary parties to the political influence of the Maoists.

Whether Ambassador Moriarty was correct in appraising the gist of the 12 point agreement then or he were mistaken in his judgment will come to light in the months that lay ahead.

How the Maoists behave and play a role in the total restructuring of the State to which they are unswerving now upon assuming power in a months time from now will determine their inner desires and intents.

But then yet what is startling and hair-raising is that the Maoists are all set and prepared to enter into the mechanism of the State and that too in a legal manner at a time when the world's two largest democracies, India and the United States of America, have yet to delete the names of the Maoists from the list of the terrorists. In their eyes the Nepali rebels yet continue to be terrorists. To the best of the knowledge of the Nepali analysts both the countries have so far not sent any indication to the new Nepal government that they have already facilitated the way for the Maoists to come to power. Analysts presume that the US and the Indian establishment will sooner than later intimate of their fresh decisions about the Maoists prior to their entrance into the main body politic of the nation. Or else it would be an awkward situation for the Nepali State to elevate the ranks of the Maoists as a freshly changed political entity that is ready to abide by all the prevailing universal rules of competitive politics.

The Maoists' coming to power will not only legitimize their party but would also provide them a chance to get absolved from all of their past crimes, if any, that they committed during the entire period of the insurgency. The State will have no power to make them answerable for whatever they did in the past. This part is interesting indeed.

The American catch-22 situation is understandable. It were, if one were to recall, the United States only which clearly in the not so distant past (recall Moriarty's countless speeches made in Kathmandu and then Bouchers' comment in Delhi on April 9 and in between Donald Camp's presentation at the House Committee perhaps March 15) that the US would resist tooth-and-nail any such eventuality that facilitated the Maoists taking over the power structure in Kathmandu.

Now that the Maoists have been "invited" by the parliamentary parties, more so by Premier Koirala, to take part in the government, it remains yet to be seen as to how the US gulps this bitter pill?

The expected comment from the US, analysts believe, would be "it is up to the people of Nepal to chart their political course on their own and hence the US un-necessarily would not like to make any comments on the fresh political happenings in Nepal. But the US government reserves the right to wait and see how the rebels take part in the competitive politics ".

Should this mean that in a months time from now the US Ambassador will have to "shake-hands" with the rebels turned Nepal's ministers? Perhaps he will have to!

Let's see how the developed West, more so the American administration, sees Nepal's -in the communists terminology- "great leap forward" that has been made possible by the change of hearts of the Maoists.

Be that as it may, the sudden political events that happened in this country last weekend must have jolted several brains around the world and they must have cried Jesus Christ!

Have the Maoists' really changed themselves from their inner hearts will remain a Himalayan question for long time to come?

Grand "polarization" in Nepali politics set in motion; Brahminic dominance remains intact

Kathmandu: The country's politics is now poised for a grand crack which will presumably chart the future course of the nation.

The fact is that the polarization had already begun in the country as back as in last December itself, but then yet due to some obvious circumstances or better say "compulsions", the process of political polarization had not taken a start.

Now the ground and the politics is all fertile and is prepared to witness what we at this paper had predicted at the fag end of the year that has gone by.

The polarization process has been provided a go-ahead nod by none less than Shri Girija Prasad Koirala, the prime minister of the country, on June 14. This he hinted in a roundabout or better say affirmed when he was in Biratnagar, his hometown, last week wherein he told a select group of the press that he will go in for a "ceremonial role" for the King in the coming scheme of Nepali politics.

Now that Koirala has spoken a role for the King should mean that his "remarks" will be taken as the party's line of "consideration" and thinking hereafter. In effect, Koirala is congress and vice versa.

Albeit, Koirala, one has to admit it, acts adamantly for whatever he speaks and this time what could also be expected that he would concentrate his entire efforts in securing a "ceremonial" role for the King come what may.

The logics that he provided to the journalists to shield his pronouncements in favor of the King may not get total and unconditional support from his own party's rank and file but then if the NC's past history were any indication then one will have to admit that what Koirala says or speaks becomes as good as a law that is compulsorily binding on his cadres and senior leaders' alike.

Those who dare to go against his ideas and views are either expelled or sidelined for good.

It is not that Koirala's fresh "love and honor" for the King has gone unnoticed in the party. Yes! His utterances have come under sarcastic criticisms by his well-known detractors who claim that Koirala prior to making such a Himalayan decision must have brought the matters to the perusal of the central committee members.

Koirala's habit is to move ahead caring little who speaks what against him. In due course of time Koirala and his clique will tame the errands that have dared to challenge the feelings of Koirala and that too in the open.

Time will tell as to whose theory prevail finally in the party.

For sure, analysts admit that henceforth the Nepali Congress will abandon the republican line and will go in for a Nepal with a limited role for the monarchy.

King Gyanendra has now reasons to be pleased with Koirala's fresh political overtures. How the King rewards Koirala and in what form will have to be watched. Koirala indeed has come as a savior for the monarch in the given changed political context.

Coincidently, a Brahmin has implanted the seeds of the polarization. A Brahmin's brain and talent has come to work, which will henceforth be strongly and definitely challenged by other sects of the nation. This is for sure.

Castes other than the Brahmins have been incessantly alleging that the nation has reeled under the tyranny of the Brahminic hegemony from centuries and hence this class must be tamed for good if the nation were to prosper.

Allegations apart, the hard fact has been that it is always the Brahmins who have dominated Nepal's political scene whether it is the Nepali Congress or for that matter the UML and very surprisingly even the Maoists.

Look at the names of the CC members of these parties: mostly are the Brahmins. Whether the inclusion of the Brahmins in these parties is a calculated move of the parties concerned or is it a phenomenon by "default" only time will tell.

One has not to go farther as to how the Brahmins have dominated the high-command of the Maoist party whose cadres are ready to die for their Brahminic leaders, FOR EXAMPLE, comrade Prachanda and Dr. Bhattarai, both are Brahmins who have been seen by their cadres as emancipators. Strange it might appear but this is a fact.

To come back to the point of the initiation of the grand polarization process, it is here again that yet another Brahmin who has dared to challenge Koirala's hidden love for the King. He is none less than Prachanda a k a Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal ( we will henceforth use his real name but without ignoring the name which provided him name and fame both-ed), however, declared that "parties were free to carry their agenda at their will at time of the constituent assembly elections. He nevertheless, assured all and sundry that he and his party will go in for "no role" as such for the King.

This makes it abundantly clear that Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoists leader will have his own agenda and that being no role for the King even if Koirala went against his political preferences.

This charismatic Brahmin, Mr. Dahal, accepted the challenge posed to him and his party by Koirala in less than twqo days after Koirala's announcement for a role for the King.

Mr. Dahal accepted the Koirala challenge on Friday last that corresponds to 16 th June.

What becomes clear from all these utterances of these two diametrically opoosed Brahmins, one in the NC and the other in the Maoists party, that the nation will henceforth be divided in to two halves: the first being the accumulation of the "liberal forces" opting for a role for the King and the other one lead by the "Left" forces who will champion their case without giving any role as such for the King.

The nation thus stands radically "polarized". Oh these two Brahmins!

Not surprising therefore that once again the nation has been left to the mercy of the Brahmins. Let's admit this fact.

Admittedly, this polarization will bring closer the entire scattered and even organized "liberal democratic" forces to one point, on the contrary, it will also provide a grand opportunity for the Left meager forces to unite and come into the fold of what has been envisaged as a "Broader Left Front".

Understandably, the leader of such grand congregation of the liberal forces will be led by the Nepali congress headed by Koirala and in all likelihood the broader left front will be commanded by Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Thus the nation will henceforth follow this political trend. However, how the diametrically opposing views will have its impact in the governance of the country when the liberal forces will have to adjust themselves with the radical communists in the new coalition in the government that is in the making will have to be carefully watched.

More interesting would be to watch the reactions and the comments of the developed west and the largest democracies in the world of the "unbelievable" and "unimaginable" political equation functioning in this country?

Nevertheless, Pushpa Kamal Dahal has assured that he has a vision for a new Nepal. He has also told that Nepal is not a lost case yet.

By and by, the conspicuous absence of military wing commander of the Maoists, Ram Bahadur Thapa alias BADAL( a non-Brahmin) at time of the Friday's negotiation with the State, forces the analysts to presume that not every thing was well inside the Maoists camp. Rumors have it that Comrade Badal, a close and intimate supporter of Prachanda, apparently was not in favor of the Maoists so suddenly presenting herself as a moderate force in the people's eyes.

Analysts hope that things will go without aggravating the prevailing mood for a peaceful order in the country.

UML to be hit hard by Maoists dominance of Communist politics

Kathmandu: With the unexpected emergence of Comrade Prachanda in the country's political scene and that too in a bold manner that he exhibited through his brilliantly polished deliberations made last Friday evening, the top-hats of the United Marxist-Leninist party, the UML, are rumored to be in a state of shock and find themselves in a very tight spot thinking on how to face the Tsunami like advance of the Maoists in the country's politics.

The fact is that the UML stalwarts had not expected that Prachanda will so easily come for the talks and that he would in no time win the hearts of the people.

But the fact is that he came, he saw and conquered many a hearts in the country and in the process, as the rumors have it, that he is all set to steal some of the "talents" from the UML itself.

Thus the sum total for the UML would be inviting the "trouble" for the party.

Rumors have it that many a top-leaders of the UML were considering on the lines of switching their allegiance in the favor of the new force that is all set to enter into the Nepali politics with a big-bang by abandoning their relationship with their mother party-the UML.

Though the names have not yet been declared or confirmed but then yet the fresh political overtures of some selected few in the UML party who have been found eulogizing the Maoists leaders or for that matter the party of the rebels more than their own were taken into account, then what could be fairly said of the UML is that the party will have to work hard to check the possible desertion of its senior leaders in the days ahead.

What could have been the factors that might have prompted some of the UML leaders to desert their mother party? The possible answer that has been made available to the people is that the UML has lost its original charm and sharpness. Secondly, some even say that the UML is a party of the communists for namesake only. Others even allege that the UML leaders have lost their communistic credentials long time back and have exhibited their greed and lust for power and pelf and hence the UML no longer remains a party of the communists.

Against all these sad background for the UML, for those communists in the UML who wish to remain as a communists in its truest sense of the term will find a suitable place in the Maoists camp whose sharpness and dedication for the oppressed sections of the Nepali society remained intact that was made loud and clear by none less than Comrade Prachanda last weekend at the Prime Minister's residence.

The fact is also that Prachanda's political height and political acumen that he profoundly exhibited last Friday evening dwarfed practically all the parliamentary leaders seated close to him.

If one were to compare the speeches made by Prachanda and Madhav Nepal made at time of the press conference last Friday evening, what could be safely said that while Prachanda stole the show through his balanced, well thought and meaning loaded explanations, Madhav Nepal on the other failed miserably and even could not summarize the gains of the eight point agreement that they have had with the Maoists.

The President of the NC-D, Sher Bahadur Deuba as usual made his listeners to laugh.

Others were not allowed to speak.

All in all, Prachanda's grand presence in the country's political scene will have its profound impact on the politics of the UML and also on the meager communist parties.

They will have only one option left with them: join the Maoists force or perish.

It is in this light Comrade Madhav Nepal's gloomy face should be understood.

Prachanda and Tamrat favor downsizing national army

Kathmandu: Nepal's academic circle remained shocked when they listened from none less than the Maoists supreme leader, Comrade Prachanda, that Nepal no longer needed a national army of the sort what Nepal has today and that the nation can manage the law and order situation with the strength of a meager thousand personnel.

This was a grand depressing revelation indeed wherein a competent leader of the country's would-be politics saying that what the hell Nepal army had done so far since the signing of the Sugauli treaty in 1816 till to date?

Humiliating though it was for the national army, even Prachanda's "thought-provoking" explanations forwarded in favor of his ideas and views were not taken in good taste by the matured political pundits of the capital.

Interestingly, Prachanda's idea for downsizing of the national army has come at a time when only recently Kofi Annan's special advisor on Nepal affairs, Samuel Tamrat, revealed that "he had agreed with the New Delhi authorities on the matters of downsizing of the nepali army".

Tamrat made these revelations in Nepal upon the completion of his "second" trip to New Delhi where he had repeatedly gone in order to "catch" the solutions for the Nepali ailments.

Matured analysts remain surprised over Prachanda's admittance matching with what Tamrat said a month back.

More surprising is the fact that India from the very beginning has been intending to see a weakened strength of the Nepali army for obvious reasons. India could have undeclared frightening reasons indeed. It might not be Indian interests to see a swelling Nepali army. This could be read as Indian interests over the matters.

But then Prachanda, a Nepali national who is full of nationalistic fervor no less than the staunch nationalists, speaks in the same line and tone as Tamrat and Indian authorities have in their inner hearts. How come these absurds happen? Is this a mere conjecture or has some thing significant underneath?

Analysts have taken Prachanda's pronouncements in their own way. In their opinion, he could just have been ventilating his wrath over the national army's presence in Kathmandu might not have allowed his people's militia to capture Kathmandu. In other words, the army's presence in Katmandu in good strength prevented the militia from capturing power centers located in the capital. This means obviously that the Nepali army men were the villains in his eyes.

But then yet, when Prachanda has said that the nation can be run even by downsizing the army, it would be wise enough to wait for some time and see how the Maoists maintain law and order situation with the strength that Prachanda has in his mind.

What else the analysts can do other than to patiently await the arrival of the rebels in power.

"Informers" of the security agencies must be exposed!

Kathmandu: There has been growing demands of late from a section of the Nepali media that the very prestigious and the good names of those journalists be publicized who have had been amassing DASHAIN funds from the government's various agencies since the restoration of the democratic order as back as in 1990.

They say that the Dashain festival is not a one-time affair. Such festivals did come in those good old days also every year and hence the names of the recipients of such funds either from the ministry of communications or for that matter from the Home Ministry, from the army and the police be printed much the same way this time the names of a selected few had been printed by the government.

There are many who suspect that many a good number of the so-called today's LOKTANTRIC journalists in mask had been secretly serving the army and the police as "informers" and in lieu they must have had been financially honored at time of the Dashain festivals in the past by those security agencies.

Since the logic appears to be as good as any thing, the government, which claims it to be a Loktantric one, must not hesitate in making public the details and expose those who have been claiming more catholic than the Pope.

Will the government dare to do so? It will not because if it is done so might bring about a sort of earthquake in the present establishment itself.

The fact is that many a Loktantric media men of today had been amassing wealth from the past democratic governments formed immediately after the restoration of the democratic order in 1990.

Of late there has been a growing tendency in a section of the nepali media of assassinating the characters of even those journalists who have a track record of practicing real journalism in its truest sense of the term with the required dedication for the profession.

The rotten eggs must be penalized. Publish the names of the rotten eggs that pose themselves as LOKTANTRIC ones which they are not.

ENBREF:

More than 900 missing in ten years

Kathmandu: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), data indicated that at least 915 people, including guerrillas and civilians, have gone missing since the conflict started 10 years ago.

Of the 915 missing people, 583 were the guerrillas, who went missing after they were arrested by the security forces, while the rest were "disappeared" by the guerrillas, NHRC indicated.

Nepal Police in cleaning operation; receives UN medals

Kathmandu: With the view of keeping the works of the Nepal Police up-to-date and making its services more effective, acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Om Bikram Rana unveiled 11-point future policy.

The plan will give priority on improving the behavior, courtesy and habits of police personnel through the organization of different training, making the crime investigation more competent, professional and evidence-oriented, establishing more human rights cells for protecting and ensuring the basic rights of people, developing an efficient administration mechanism by amending necessary Police Acts, and extending the community police services.

Meanwhile, Nepal police working under UNMIL (United Nation Mission in Liberia) were awarded the United Nations Military Medal at their Freezone of Monrovia base. The UNMIL also lauded Nepal's presence for peace mission and added that it’s role is pivotal to achieve the mission's over all mandate of establishing and maintaining peace.

€5 million for victims of conflict and Bhutanese refugees: EU

Kathmandu: An EU-Nepal statement indicated that the European Commission has allocated €5 million to assist conflict-affected vulnerable people in Nepal as well as Bhutanese refugees living in the country.

€3 million of this decision is dedicated to assisting vulnerable rural populations affected by the conflict and €2 million will be dedicated to helping the 107,000 Bhutanese refugees.

The statement also said that this new funding will help to provide access to clean water and sanitation, nutrition, food security, health care and protection for the victims of this forgotten crisis.

UN welcomes Nepal move

Kathmandu: The United Nations has welcomed the agreement between Nepal government and the Maoists.

Matthew Kahane, UN Resident representative for Nepal, indicated it as "a roadmap to peace and reconciliation".

He added that, “the UN, if asked officially to mediate, will examine it very carefully to see how it can help."

UNHCR prefers third country resettlement to repatriation

Kathmandu: "It is very clear that the 16 rounds of bilateral talks did not produce tangible results in terms of repatriation of the refugees. Even a single person was not repatriated after the bilateral talks," said the resident representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Abraham Abraham while talking to reporters. However, he did not elaborate the reason for the repeated failure of bilateral talks.

He added that the resettlement of Bhutanese refugees lodged in Nepal to a third country is possible if there was no possibility of their repatriation or local integration.

He also hinted that without India’s help repatriation of the refugees are impossible.