Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Kathmandu: Matured and knowledgeable analysts opine that while bringing about a political change of this Himalayan order is a different thin, however, they concurrently maintain that to "institutionalize" the collected gains in a stable and amicable manner is an altogether an Himalayan task.

Indirectly they appear to hint at the manner the freshly reinstated parliamentary leaders and the widely known lethargic/and tainted leaders of the not so distant past were geared towards the speedy dismantlement of the traditional institutions could well be an act made in haste.

They concurrently hasten to add that any act done with wisdom and assessing its far reaching impact for the well being of the people and the country would not only be wise but ever lasting as well.

It appears, they explain, that the leaders who were no less than "old wine in new bottles" and who have had not a very bright and brilliant past that still is in the memory plus the people who felt the brunt of their rule have begun exhibiting to outmaneuver even the Maoist's courage and bravery.

This is absurd, claim the independent analysts and converge to agree with the Maoists leaders' Comrade Prachanda and Dr. Bhattarai who have recently said that they too were aghast to see the old-men crying earth-shaking slogans much sharper and penetrating than in the recent days more so after the conclusion of the twenty-day movement that recently rocked Kathmandu and different parts of the country.

Nevertheless, there is one old-political man considered to be a master brain of Nepali politics who dominated the country's political scene for over four decades plus appears to have taken the fresh political overtones with which the new parliamentarians and the government of the day was dealing the state of affairs of the nation.

This old man who is no other than Surya Bahadur Thapa, a widely acclaimed liberal democratic leader having a sort of sympathy for the institution of the constitutional monarchy too considers that the changes that were being brought into effect should have been brought not in a haste which implies that he was against the manner political decisions were being taken by the new government.

Thapa who is also the chairman of the Rastriya Janashakti Party Monday took serious note of the unfolding political developments in the cou8ntry in the recent days. His party reacting to the government's present political overtures said, among others, that "The Rastriya Janshakti Party-the RJP- expresses concern that political decisions on every issue might lead to anarchy and suggests the government to prioritise the "genuine" Maoists issue in order to guarantee security and unobstructed movement of the people rather than engaging in other issues".

The RJP's concern is meaningful in the sense that, firstly, it has come from a political force that was neither a partner in the seven party alliance nor verbatim subscribes to the views charted and propagated by the revolutionaries; secondly, the political overtones of the party's freshly expressed concern does hint that the party would prefer slow changes in the political arena than what was being done instead and thirdly would want the real AND THE MOST PRESSSING ISSUES OF THE Maoists to be addressed first and foremost and , fifthly, sees that if the manner in which the government of the day was making far-reaching political decisions might facilitate the way for the resurgence of anarchy .

The RJP which is on session is learnt to have made four targets to be discussed at its ongoing session, namely, present trend of taking political decisions on every issue; how to focus on the Maoists problem-the daddy of them all-; restructuring of the state and avoiding further political conflict between the King and the seven-party alliance".

Analyzing at the four point agenda of the RJP to be discussed, what comes to the fore is that the RJP is equally concerned over the present trend which the RJP sees might widen the differences between the King and the seven party alliance than what it is today already in effect. This also means that the RJP still, firstly, sees the King as a force and secondly, implies that any future collision in between the King and the seven parties might invite untold sufferings to the people and the country. And most importantly, the RJP in showing a bit of concern towards the position of the monarch does imply that the party still reveres the monarch and would wish the institution of the monarchy not only to continue but valued by all. In an indirect manner, the RJP concludes that the monarchy was still a force in the present scheme of political developments.

Thapa -considered to be a very intimate "friend" of India and equally revered by practically all the prominent Nepali leaders and more so Thapa's personal rapprochement with NC President Koirala, analysts presume, must not have ventilated his bit-reconciliatory tones for nothing.

The meaning lies here.

Some sharp brains even consider Thapa's concerns as to have been the proxy intimation of neighboring India and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Koirala, for example, has time and again says that his party's agenda was not a republican one. Whatever, his party have had been raising in the past were a sort of pressure on the King to yield to his demands. Most recently, his close confidante, Krishna Sitaula, now the Home Minister, a day ahead of his becoming minister had bluntly told that his part has yet to endorse the agenda of disproving the monarchical institution altogether.

Be that as it may, even in these adverse political circumstances King Gyanendra has fortunately found one political animal that has been talking about him caring little all the possible allegations that might pour on him after a few days. Should this mean that slowly but very steadily, the King's followers until a weeks ago who enjoyed most during his rule will come to the front from sudden "hibernation" to shield the monarch? Keep the fingers crossed!

-Say no to foreign intimidation-
Preservation of the sovereignty, freedom and geographic indivisibility of the nation-state should be a priority

-Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai, NCP-M

Kathmandu: No discussion or for that matter the analyses would be complete in the given political storm that swept the nation for a big change without touching upon how the Maoists look at the emerging political scenario and how they perceive the events that have been unfolding after the restoration of the parliament Whether it is as per their line of thinking and considerations or not, must be analyzed.

How Prachanda and Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai take the events initiated by their colleagues-in-parliament becomes all the more important not because the two known ideologues of the radical communist movement provided a shape to the said movement but also settled the politics for the now restored parliamentarians to take benefits as well.

However, what is clear from the recent explanations of the communist duo is that they will not settle for less and towards achieving their avowed aims they would go to any extent.

This is a sort of warning to the parliamentarians from the top-hats of the Maoists party to act fast and not be complacent with whatever gains have been bagged so far.

In their opinion, much remains to be done yet and that seen and unseen forces might intervene in the process if the colleagues in parliament dilly-dallied the politics.

Comrade Prachanda says bluntly to all and sundry that theirs coming for talks neither be viewed as weakness nor their lust for grabbing of power. He, nevertheless, acknowledges the government's fresh initiatives taken with regard to extending invitation to the Maoists for talks.

By implication, he recognizes the fact that he is attending to the talks with a government that has just taken a formal shape with the King's declaration. But then concurrently he also implies that the King have had no other options left than to respect and honor the storm of the movement.

Initially, Prachanda is on record to have said that restoration of the parliament by the King will be unfair.

Now let's look what Dr. Bhattarai has to say in his fresh article printed May 9 in Janadesh weekly.

Firstly, Dr. Bhattarai opines that his colleagues in parliament now have suddenly acquired a new posture that contradicts to what had been agreed beforehand. Dr. Bhattarai demands a quick delivery which his colleagues in the seven party appear delaying for unknown reasons. Dr. Bhattarai smells a rat and thinks that the government was thinking to invite the Maoists to talks first and then chart a new course over how to proceed with the elections to the constituent assembly and then later only dissolve the parliament and the constitution now in force.

He says this was a lengthy process. His line of thinking has been that dissolve the parliament and scrap the constitution or else in the process things might derail from the charted course.

He alleges some in the parliament and in the ministry to have been the opponents of the 12 point agreement and claims that with those personalities in power now the agreed and the targeted roadmap will be a far cry.

Secondly, and perhaps very importantly that is not only loaded with meaning but also provides some inkling into the likelihood of impediments in the process of achieving his desired goals if things were belated by roaming around the political peripheries only.

In effect what he says is that to expect that there would be elections to the constituent assembly and that would do away with all of the country's ailments so easily would be not only a day-dream but would also be a mistaken conclusion.

In order to do away with the possible risks in the meantime that might crop up in the process, he urges all the "colleagues now in parliament" to speed up the matter regarding the "procedures to be adopted, shape to be formalized and the contents that the assembly will have to be agreed upon in between the Maoists and the parliamentary parties".

Sooner the better, adds Bhattarai or else talking of an "abstract" constituent assembly would remain merely a talk as had happened as back as in the early 50s.

He then says that any delay in the finalization of the above mentioned "details" would allow domestic as well as foreign forces to play and the idea of the constituent assembly would die a premature death.

This means that he considers that foreign forces might come into action if things were delayed. However, he does not name any forces, which were likely to intervene.

Thirdly, Dr. Bhattarai maintains that the talk of the Army keeping under the control of the parliament will not be an easy cake to eat. He argues that the military as is expected represented a "class" and hence to change their minds through the use of simple mechanisms would not work. He then rebukes the suggestion of the dissolution of the Red army and the assimilation of the same into the national army.

Fourthly, he then says the movement will not come to an end unless the so far neglected farmers, unemployed youths, female folks, dalits and various ethnic tribes, including the men belonging to the Terai plains, do not get their rightful place in the society and autonomy. He suspects that the Brahminism that continues to dominate the seven party politics would provide their attentions towards these proposals.

Fifthly, he talks of the preservation of the sovereignty, freedom and geographic indivisibility of the nation-state. Dr. Bhattarai opines that time had come to free the nation from the "clutches" of the neo-colonists and "over-dependence" which have remained in vogue all along after the SUGAULI Treaty (signed tentatively in the year 1816–ed) . If we continue to be unable or fail to free the country now from what he calls in his own words "naked foreign intervention" that has been continuing since 1950s and say good bye to the "tradition" of foreign interference, the clamor for a LOK-TANTRA will remain only in talks and a debate.

Dr. Bhattarai perhaps is hinting at a neighboring country which more often than not pokes its nose in Nepal's internal affairs. This has almost become a practice to which apparently Dr. Bhattarai indicates in a strong manner. How the subtle message of Dr. Bhattarai the country hinted at takes will have to be watched.

However, he has no good words for America as well.

Dr. Bhattarai significantly takes Richard Boucher's Nepal arrival immediately after the movement and takes his coming as a sort of "interference" over which he is surprised to observe the stoic silence acquired by his seven party colleagues.

This means by implication that America can never be at friendly terms with the Maoists and vice versa.

He then urges all to maintain diplomatic relations with all the countries in a manner that is just friendly but suggests all not to "'gulp" the bitter pill of their "interference in exclusive Nepali issues".

Those who have had suspected Dr. Bhattarai's nationalist credentials last year (presumably during a somewhat ideological tussle that had cropped up in between Prachanda and himself) will have now to change their mindset as his strong nationalist fervor appears present more than those who claim themselves as staunch nationalists. Kudos to Dr. Bhattarai!

Finally, he sums up his article by saying that the movement was still on. He urges all forces in the country to unite and forge a sort of "broader democratic republican front". He concludes by saying that only one scene has been over of what he calls "APRIL REVOLUTION". Many a scenes will follow in the future, he predicts.

Compiled and analyzed from Dr. Bhattarai's article published in the Janadesh Weekly on Tuesday-ed

Maoists' distaste for some ministers in the cabinet

Kathmandu: The inclusion of some particular ministers in Girija Prasad Koirala's new cabinet has invited criticisms from different quarters including those from the Maoists as well.

Even the lay men who recall that those who have had least contribution at time and during the movement have been picked up for prestigious portfolios in the cabinet and say that such whimsical elevations of their rank and stature" bodes ill" for the future political course of the nation.

Those who have come under scathing criticisms of the people and the Maoists were the UML leader Khadga Prasad Woli from the UML and the present finance minister, Dr. Ram Saran Mahat.

The Maoists sources even claim that while the people were shedding their blood in the Kathmandu streets, Dr. Mahat was playing Golf with the Military generals and that too in a very friendly manner.

For the UML leader Woli too the Maoists have reservations aplenty.

Neither the people nor the Maoists saw any substantial contributions of the UML leader Woli who has been awarded the portfolio of the country's Foreign Minister.

The UML leader K.P.Woli, for some, is a man supposedly to the Nepal's Royal Palace. Others who know him from close quarters find some connections of minister Woli with India.

Nevertheless, there is yet another section well inside the UML party itself which believes that Woli has been sent to the cabinet from the party quota simply to avert any possible threat to his position by the party boss-Madhav Nepal.

Party insiders say that K.P. Woli and Madhav Nepal never remained friendly and both have internally concluded that "only one tiger can have a place in a single den".

This speaks as to why Madhav Nepal so pleasingly sent his nearest and dearest "unfriendly rival" to the hot-seat.

Talking of Woli's expertise in foreign relations, no body in Nepal has so far heard that Woli is an expert on the conduct of the relations in between countries. Albeit, he has committed to memory the dogmatic IDEAS propounded by Marx, Lenin and Angels and that is what he should have done being a communist leader.

Rumors have it that Woli was seen loitering in the company of some known Royalists at time of the movement and hence his least contribution to the movement. Albeit, Woli, a fluent speech makes as he is, in the mean time have had been making lectures against the monarchy, though.

The Maoists claim for Dr. Ram Saran Mahat is meaningful and loaded with significance. As per their claim and as printed by their own paper Janadesh dated May 9, 2006 for public consumption, what comes to the picture is that Dr. Mahat is the one who never accepted the very intent and the content of the Maoists-Seven party twelve point understanding reached in Delhi on November 22, 2005 and derided at the same tooth-and-nail.

To the extent, reveals the Maoists mouth piece in its fresh issue wherein the paper explicitly claims that it was only Dr. Mahat, the congress member who summarily rejected the theory that the parties in agitation should advance as per the spirit of the said agreement with the Maoists. The paper also adds that when the King first time invited the seven party to send him a consensual candidate for the post of the Prime Minister, it was singly Dr. Mahat alone who proposed at the party's CC meeting that this moment should have got to be exploited at the earliest.

Insiders in the congress at times find Dr. Mahat close to the Palace. Others in the party see him closer to the views of the developed West more so of the American stances vis-à-vis Nepal and her affairs.

If the latter version of the allegations against Dr. Mahat are true then the Maoists who consider America as their prime enemy, as did the UML in its formative days to recall, have abundant reasons to keep Dr. Mahat's activities under supervision and remain suspect of his fresh political overtures.

The Maoists even claim that with personalities like Dr. Mahat in the cabinet, their envisioned political goals might not be that easy to achieve as they have been longing for a decade or so.

Be that as it may, all these unsubstantiated reports may or may not have an impact on the political processes as mentioned by the Maoists and the general people alike.

But then yet what is for sure is that people remain skeptical of the Girija preferences for his cabinet, for example, the inclusion of Dr. Mahat.

To recall, Dr. Mahat is the one who in the not so distant past have had to resign from the Deuba ministry on having found to have "wealth" deposited in foreign bank accounts. Later only after a longer period, he was again included in the cabinet.

While home minister Sitaula is a newcomer in the cabinet, Mahanta Thakur is a close chum of Koirala and a congressman who feels comfortable while deriding at the monarchy. Koirala himself is not an anti-monarchist.

Sharp brains differ on the key issues of CA

Kathmandu: Ideas differ when brains vary which is only but a natural phenomenon and more so in a democracy people or for that matter intellectuals could differ as a matter of their exclusive "democratic" rights.

This is what has been happening in the country of late.

The question of the elections to the constituent assembly is what is boggling the minds of the Nepali leaders, academia and more so of the common men who have yet to understand as to was a constituent assembly?

Thus it becomes natural and obvious for the leaders or for that matter those who have some knowledge about what it was in essence, how it should come into being and more so what positive gestures it would provide to the people than the past system, to educate the common men who practically were unknown to this entirely new phenomenon that is being discussed in practically all the sectors of the Nepali society.

The fact is that the seven parties appear to differ with each other on how to proceed with that?

Some say the ongoing parliament could command and make it go straight to the elections to the constituent assembly. Others differ.

To the extent that leaders differ with the intellectuals and the lawyers. All possess different modes to go to the assembly elections.

However, where they converge is that the nation should go to the assembly elections as soon as it could. They also converge on the possibility of the derailment of the entire idea if any delay is made in the declaration on the holding of the elections to the assembly.

For example, a leader of the NSP-Anandi Devi , Mr. Tripathi says that the parliament in session can straight declare going to the elections or else if we stuck into the nitty-gritty of the 1990 constitution, it could pose hurdles in the process.

To some extent Professor Krishna Khanal who once served Prime Minister Koirala as his political counselor too agrees to Tripathi's views in this regard. However, senior advocate Shambhu Thapa opines that it is not the assembly elections that would draft the constitution but instead a draft committee formed thereafter will write the constitution which will have to get endorsement of the two-third majority of the elected members of the assembly.

Prof. Khanal says further that even the parties who possess different views on politics must converge at some point to have a "common point" prior to going to the assembly elections. He then argues that the existence of this constitution will not lead to the elections to the assembly.

While some demand an interim constitution, lawyer Thapa opines that such a constitution could in no way be a panacea for the solutions to the current issue confronting the nation today.

All in all, it appears that quite some time will in the process be taken to make the lay men aware of the internal dynamics of the assembly elections.

Mahara against facilitation of "power centers" for talks

Kathmandu: The spokesperson of the Maoists' party, Krishna Mahara, has said that if the incumbent government exhibited its seriousness to have a "composite" and meaningful dialogue then it is only but natural that his party's supremo, Comrade Prachanda will himself in person lead the talks on the negotiating table.

"If the talks attained a new and positive heights naturally our top boss will come to the talks" is what Mahara says in an interview with the Janadesh weekly dated May 9, 2006.

Mahara expressed certain strong reservations on the manner the American Assistant Minister for South Asia, Richard Boucher, freshly had a tête-à-tête with Chief of the Army Staff, Pyar Jung Thapa. Mahara says that Boucher has come at a time when we all were prepared for the talks to settle the issues. This meeting, he adds, bodes ill for the talks.

Mahara opines that if some neutral and independent and internationally acclaimed observers wish to facilitate our talks would be welcome. However, the spokesperson makes it abundantly clear that his party would reject the presence of any "international power center(s)" to avoid the possibility of the imposition of their own political preferences.

ENBREF:

500 children killed in the conflict

Kathmandu: The national coordination for children as zone of peace (NCCZOP), an organization working for the welfare of children has said around 500 children were killed, and an equal number seriously injured, in the 10-year long violence unleashed by Maoists in Nepal.

The NCCZOP also urged all concerned to pay attention to the medical care as well as psychological support for such children. While children have been used in the war in many different ways, it is their education that has borne the worst brunt, it said.

$1.2 billion for reconstruction

Kathmandu: The government of Nepal has appealed to the international community for a monetary help of $1.2 billion for reconstruction and rehabilitation.

Rameshore Prasad Khanal, joint secretary in the finance ministry while talking to the Reuters News Agency appealed that, "Our preliminary estimates show that we will need about $1.2 billion for post-conflict reconstruction." He said the economy had the resilience to bounce back. "In 1990 we grew close to 5.0 percent but in 2001 growth declined to 2.0 percent. Once the conflict is resolved we can clearly go up to 6.0 percent and maybe 7.0-8.0 percent later."

US$4.08 Japanese government support to Nepal

Kathmandu: The state owned Radio, Radio Nepal reported that Japan has approved the utilization of the Counterpart Fund of 286 million Nepali rupees (4.08 million U.S. dollars) for the implementation of nine projects.

The government of Japan has approved seven different projects in the agriculture sector, according to the report. These projects will be implemented by various agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

Indian leaders face threat from Nepal: Indian Media

Kathmandu: Indian media claim that in the wake of threats emanating from Nepal, the Indian government has beefed up security of Left party leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja.

The decision to upgrade the security of Yechury, CPI-M Polit Bureau member, Raja, CPI National Secretary and Nationalist Congress Party General Secretary D P Tripathi was taken after intelligence inputs suggested that they face "some threat from Nepal".

Norway to resume support

Kathmandu: Norwegian Minister for International Development Erik Solheim while attending a press conference before winding up his four-day visit said, the financial assistance that was stopped since the dissolution of the democratic government in February 1, is to resume the financial cooperation after the formation of democratic government. The visiting minister said that Norway will not have any major role like in Sri Lanka in the proposed peace talks with the anti-government guerrillas here butcould assist in monitoring of the cease-fire in Nepal.