Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Headline

INDEPTH ANALYSIS:
Girija card for the King and Maoists

Kathmandu : Many political brains would wish to suppose that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is now a sinking horse politically speaking.

However, he is not to what others wish him to be so.

Prime Minister Koirala has so many political cards yet under his sleeves which if played in a discreet manner, he can not only lengthen his prime ministership for quite some comfortable time but concurrently can effectively distance the Maoists from being inducted in the government apparatus until their arms/weaponries were completely under the control of the UN supervision.

The two visible cards what Koirala possess with him were the Maoists card for the King and the King’s card for the Maoists.

Early last week, Koirala made a shrewd hint at the Maoists that if they pressed him hard on political matters or did not obey his dictates he would use some other “lively and effective mechanisms” that still lay under his sleeves in order to tame their increasing appetite for being in power.

Prime Minister Koirala have had to use the King’s card last week to indicate the Maoists that the now archaic monarch wasn’t a defunct celebrity and that he could be elevated to his former ranks should the Maoists disobey to his instructions and orders as regards the matters pertaining to the handling of the affairs of the State.

Of late, insiders in the congress say that the Maoists have been provoking Koirala through their erratic utterances and deeds. Perceptibly, say the NC insiders, Koirala too as a political creature has a limit to withstand the Maoists excessive pressures on this or that pretext.

It was perhaps these pressures coming as it did from the other camp that Koirala had told a TV channel last Wednesday evening at his official residence that “look! How the Maoists have been committing blunders after blunders. The Maoists are answerable to the shooting that took place in Lahan which took its toll”.

In effect, Koirala was indirectly hinting at the Maoists that they had been adding fuel to the fire in the Terai events. To recall, the Maoists cadres led by Matrika Yadav reportedly fired a bullet that killed an innocent student to which the Maoists agree verbally but were yet to accept it technically. Prachanda is on record to have said that they were yet to ascertain that the bullet that killed one Mahato was fired by their guns. Prachanda says the “investigations” were going on.

It is this Maoists’ growing and increasing highhandedness in Lahan and elsewhere perhaps encouraged Prime Minister Koirala to let the cat out of the bag.

The King from his long hibernation came out of the Royal Palace last Tuesday, January 23, 2007, and went up to Basantapur Durbar Baithak in order to “listen” to the hymns that the priests as a matter of routine and practice chant in front of the King on the auspicious day of Shree Panchami-the day devoted to Goddess of learning-Saraswati.

The King not only made his presence felt to the countrymen by being in the Basantpur palace but to the surprise of many an intelligent political brains, he was honored with the same national anthem which have become anathema for a section of the political paraphernalia after the April change last year.

The military men accorded the same honor and welcome to the King as they used to do in the past.

Nothing was typically different in the “grand-show” except that the presence of the human heads was at an all time low and that the King had grown his moustache for some unknown private reasons. He came. He saw. And he left the venue.

Various TV channels telecast this rare event beamingly. Some even focused their camera onto the grown moustache of the King. This was indeed a puzzling and an exceptional stance. That was there for all to see.

It is simply incredible and hard to take it for granted that the King could have gone to attend to the annual ritual on that particular day without the green-signal receiving from the Prime Minister’s office. The rumor that the King went there on his own is hard to gulp. Likewise it isa difficult to imagine that the King could have gone there on the advice of the attending military top-hats.

The King drove in his car. Spent some thirty minutes there. Listened to the sacred hymns. Took the military salute and returned back. This was incredible given the changed political context.

What was also visible that the King still commanded respect and honor from a section of the people and the armed forces.

This was not the end of the entire show. What was baffling is that none of the political leaders, including those of the Maoists, spoke a word against the King’s presence in the Basantpur Palace and accepting army honor with the same national anthem. This was puzzling indeed.

What messages such events convey after all?

Intelligent analysts have taken this Koirala-stance as a sort of subtle warning to the rebel camp that if they created disturbances and pressed him to move fast ignoring the constitution, the concerns of the international community and the expectations of the people at large, he would have no option left other than to use the King’s card. But is the King still a force? This question demands an intense debate among the Nepali academia.

Who knows the same tactic, read the Maoists card, Prime Minister Koirala is using to calm down the monarch?

Be that as it may, Koirala’s political acumen in handling the affairs of the fragile and fluid state with proper finesse is undoubtedly increasing. At least this much is visible.

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Upendra Yadav versus Comrade Prachanda in KTV DEBATE

Kathmandu: He was bit nervous. He was slightly aggressive as well.

His arrogance was there for all to see. What was also evident that he did not like cross questions from the media man at all. Perhaps he thought that when he made any comments that should be not only final but binding on all as well.

He is Comrade Prachanda who exhibited all these surprising behavior while talking to a Kantipur TV "DEBATE" programme on Saturday, Januray 27 evening.

His opposing side led by Upendra Yadav, the leader of the Madeshi Mukti Morcha, comparatively spoke not only in a modest manner as regards the problems being confronted by the Terai people but also put his demands in a logical manner. Yaday presented himself to the viewers of the TV that evening as a qualified intellectual who have had authority and the reasons to speak on behalf of the Terai population.

Comrade Prachanda while explaining the turmoil in Terai summarily dumped the blame onto the heads of some reactionaries, some vandals who, as Prachanda called it, were covertly been assisted by the Hindu extremists from neighboring India.

This was not all.

Prachanda in the course of the interview with the KTV, also tried to demean the entire Terai voices by saying that the Forum did not existed at all. "Purely the agitators were working in the interests of the reactionary forces", is what Prachanda said of the Forum that has been championing the case of the Terai population since two weeks or so.

Look what he says, “The state can't entertain the demands of smaller groups like the one that is on the streets today if such groups come to the streets tomorrow forwarding meager demands", is how Prachanda indirectly hinted the government not to invite the Terai leaders for talks.

What was evidently visible that Prachanda did not like the manner some other groups raised the genuine issues of the Terai. Prachanda perhaps felt that an issue that should have been raised primarily by the Maoists has been taken up by some other "less credible" sections of the Terai society.

Moreover, what became clear the next morning was that the leader of the Forum, Upendra Yadav, had been a close associate of Prachanda until three years back.

The fact is that, to recall, the day New Delhi police nabbed three Maoists leaders, Matrika Yadav, Suresh Ale Magar and Upendra Yadav, by design or otherwise, the Indian policemen handed over the first two Maoists leaders to the Nepali government. Yadav, for some unknown reasons, was detained for some months by the Indian police, as claims Yadav, and later released. According to Yadav, he was put in a concentration camp for well over a year and then released him. This is his claim. What is underneath his release is beyond any one’s imagination. Analysts can only guess as to why he should only be released while his two other comrades were deported to Nepal.

This event perhaps annoyed Prachanda and forced him to think that it should have been this Upendra Yadav who managed the arrests of Matrika and Suresh Aley.

The other point the TV viewers noted was that for Prachanda, Upendra Yadav was a "traitor and escapist" who had cheated the party. Perhaps it is this Brahminic psyche of Prachanda that he forcefully said that the State can not entertain the demands raised by a small section of the society. But then question arises as to whether the Forum led by Upendra Yadav is indeed a meager group as suggested by Prachanda? Who else better knows this Yadav than Prachanda under whose command Yadav is presumed to have spent some good number of years together.

Analysts say that Prachanda's unwillingness to talk to Upendra Yadav was guided more by his arrogance recalling that how could the Supreme Commander of the party could bend down to his own one time junior associate?

"We know that they are escapists. They have ulterior motives. They are opportunists. They even don't call them a Nepali citizen. They are being driven by some Hindu extremists and some landlords in India. While Matrika and Suresh were arrested by the Indian police, how come then this Yadav be released? This is a big question", is what Comrade Prachanda angrily said during the KTV interview.

Now let’s see how Upendra Yadav defends and pushes his demands in a thoroughly gentle manner.

He says in his opening statement that the Terai has awoken from deep slumber. The Teraians now have come to the streets in order to ensure and secure what was thei due. In the process, the Teraians too have equipped themselves with guns.

He lamented that when his Forum came to the streets, both the Maoists and the government fired bullets at them which in effect encouraged the agitating Teraians to go berserk. According to Yadav, all that he and his Forum wanted for the Terai is a sort of regional autonomy, proportional representation and a federal structure for the Terai population.

That Upendra Yadav too was a qualified speaker having the needed and the adequate fluency in English language came to light when he summed up his demands by saying, in his own words, “ there should the institutionalization of social democracy; discrimination in any form or for that matter manifestation must be eliminated ( stress added).

In his opinion, the interim constitution that has just been promulgated by the parliament is a bundle of vexed sentences and that the constitution in itself is a discriminatory in more ways than one.

He says, we are ready to go for talks. But where to go?

Asked as to why they have resorted to armed violence?

Pat comes the reply.

“It’s not like a dinner party. During revolutions, such events become a common feature”, is what he says straight implying that he have had to resort to violence when they were pushed to the wall by the State.

He dismissed the rumors that his forum enjoyed the support from the now defunct Palace.

“These are just hollow and baseless rumors”, says Yadav in a free and frank manner.

Summing up his statement, Yadav sees the Nepalganj sad event as to have been “state sponsored”.

How the state and more so the Maoists take the Forum’s challenge will have to be watched.

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Nona’s demise; a severe set-back to Koirala

Kathmandu : Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has lost a friend, a long time associate of the party and above all he has lost a close relative who was always behind him under all circumstances.

The sudden demise of his sister-in-law, Nona Koirala the other day will definitely have a profound impact not only in his functioning of the affairs of the state but on his frail health as well.

Nona Koirala, as some insiders of the congress say, was not only a source of inspiration for Prime Minister Koirala but remained always behind Koirala as a solid rock as and when situation so demanded.

With the loss of Nona Koirala, the mental anxieties of the Prime Minister must have doubled as there is no such a personality an that too a leading one as Nona proved for herself when she was alive, who could inspire and encourage the Prime Minister to proceed with his charted and determined plans.

Insiders in the congress say that Girija Prasad Koirala never discouraged his sister-in-law as and when she came up with brilliant political schemes and mechanisms in order to steer the nation.

The fact is that since the advent of democratic system in the early 90s, Nona Koirala, was the single lady in relation who supported each and every political moves of Koirala and ever encouraged her brother-in-law to strengthen the party structure and solidify the congress unity.

With this loss that is definitely an irreparable one in every sense and aspect, the Koirala family has not only lost a champion of democratic values but the entire congress has been stripped off a veteran, and a rock solid congress leader.

Analysts say that Nona’s disappearance from the material world will have a profound impact not only in the functioning of the state affairs by the Prime Minister but would also in some way or the other dampen the cordiality that had been the hall mark of the Koirala family in the days to come.

Analysts though have no such substantial interests in other’s family affairs, however, wish that the cordiality that remained intact for decades and decades should continue more vigorously as this particular loss in the Koirala family has the chances to further enhance the already frail health of the Prime Minister.

Undoubtedly, Nona Koirala’s demise has come at such a critical period when Prime Minister has so many Himalayan tasks ahead to get it sorted out much ahead of the CA polls and thus any further deterioration in his health conditions might push the country to yet another crises of the unimaginable order.

The Prime Minister though is equipped with all the dictatorial powers by the constitution now in force, but then yet he, as a human being, too has his inner feelings and as a simple creature too needs love and honor not only from his private family members but this he deserves from all the national population.

Analysts at times remain puzzled in thinking as to what would be the fate of this country if some untoward incident befalls in the Koirala family?

Analysts remain firm and determined that it is Koirala’s towering political personality that has so far checked the country from going to the precipice. Or else, had there been some other political personality other than Koirala, the country would have already been the victim of unprecedented may hem, chaos, civil war plus the chances of foreign intervention as well.

Nona Koirala though belonged to Koirala family and was a member of the congress, but then yet, her democratic credentials and commitments towards the system deserve applaud from all.

More than that, care should be taken that this loss to the Koirala family must not come heavily down against the already feeble health conditions of the Prime Minister.

By and large, the Prime Minister as a human being has lost a longtime associate of the party but also a political personality who always stood behind him.

Analysts at the Telegraph condole the death of Nona Koirala and pray the Almighty to offer eternal peace to the departed soul.

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Maoists’ spreading Christianity: Indian Media reports

Kathmandu: Amid allegations from the Maoist leadership in Nepal that there has been infiltration from the Hindu extremists groups from across the border creating havoc in the Nepali Terai while supporting the Palace led forces in Nepal to create civil unrest in the country of late, the Indian media with BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) tilt-allegedly a party with majority Hindu following, have come heavily down against the Maoist leadership in Nepal giving reference to their religious leanings.

Recent write-ups emerging from across the border have indicated that the majority of leaders in the Maoist camp were Christian converts. The Pioneer- allegedly a BJP mouth piece is carrying out news articles claiming that the majority of Maoist troops are either converted to Christianity or are still in the process of indoctrination by their Christian leaders who are also leading a communist revolution.

The same newspaper further claims that Ms. Hisila Yami- wife of Maoist ideologue Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, who is present in the interim legislature is a radical Christian.

Few weeks back, The Pioneer also claimed that the whole family of Sita Dahal- Maoist politburo member and also the wife of Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda- the Maoist supremo, was converted to Christianity few years back. Adding further the report claims that the recently nominated international bureau chief in the Maoist camp, Mr C.P.Gajurel, nom de guerre “Gaurav” was involved in spreading message of Jesus in the only Hindu Kingdom.

At this juncture when the western missions residing in Nepal have been critical to the Maoist joining the main stream politics, finally with the goal of joining the interim government, a section of Indian media giving reference to the religious leanings of the Maoist leadership is surely trying to create distaste against the Maoists’ with the fear that the only Hindu Kingdom in the world will be abolished if the CA polls are conducted with the Maoists carrying weapons and as well being in the government.

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Mukherjee continues meeting Koirala

Kathmandu: In the wake of continued violent protests initiated by splinter madhesi groups of the CPN-Maoists in the Terai region bordering India, the Indian head of mission Shiv Shanker Mukherjee met P.M.Koirala to discuss current political standoff in the country, sources at the PM’s residence disclosed.

Ambassador Mukherjee was the first among all heads of foreign mission in Kathmandu to comment on the Terai matters. He hastened to make comments in exclusively Nepali affairs at a time when the Nepali leaders were composing the statements in their brains.

Amid allegation that there have been infiltration of Hindu extremists from India to create unrest in the Nepali Terai while supporting Palace sponsored forces, the Indian Ambassador Mukharjee talking to the press recently said that, “We have 1800km long open border with Nepal and I cannot comment on the allegation without proper investigation," he added.

To recall, Comrade Prachanda in his fresh Kantipur TV interview telecast January 27 had summarily alleged that his party had come to know that some Hindu extremists and some landlords from the adjoining area in India have had been extending overt and covert support to the Terai riot.

To recall, Ambassador Mukherjee had met Prime Minister Koirala two days ahead of the finalization of the interim constitution. It could be a mere conjecture indeed that Ambassador Mukherjee’s meeting with Prime Minister Koirala this time encouraged Hridayesh Tripati, a minister from the NSP-A quota to resign in the name of the Terai demands.

To add, former Indian ambassador to Nepal Mr. Shyam Sharan while visiting the Terai during his tenure as an ambassador to Nepal had said that India holds lots of stakes in the Nepali Terai.

Kuch hai bhai

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