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VOL. 27, NO. 25, February 29, 2007 (Falgun 17 2064 B.S.)
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Geo-political Realities
By alluding the oil crisis to Nepal’s geography, prime minister Koirala gives a political colour to it – rightly.
By A C ORRESPONDENT
There has been no solution yet to the fuel crisis in the capital valley.
But at least the problem has been diagnosed, going by what prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala said last week.
According to Koirala, the land-locked geography of the country is the major cause of the crisis.
He made a veiled reference to this in his inaugural speech at the donors’ consultation meeting.
Koirala attributed the country’s economic hardships to its land-locked ness.
Reports have it that he was forthright in private conversations at family gathering at Baluwatar.
The prime minister even dropped the suggestion that the diplomatic channel would have to be used to pull the country out of the present crisis.
Clearly, Nepal’s landlocked ness has to do with its practically India-locked geography.
The former Indian ambassador Shyam Sharan used to phrase it the other way round. “ Nepal is not India-locked, but India-open”, he would say.
Many in Nepal however have the feeling that Delhi still has a closed mindset over Nepal – a legacy it inherited from the British colonial rulers.
Having seen through a number of crises in dealing with Delhi in his 60 years of politics, Girija Prasad Koirala knows this better.
That is the reason; he believes that Delhi holds the key to the April elections.
But the current fuel crisis, if continued for long, could affect the polls.
It will make the transportation of election materials and officials difficult. Campaigning will be hit as well, as candidates would be constrained to travel in their constituencies.
More important, the rising discontent over the fuel shortage has the potential to spark a fire in the street making the polls impossible.
So, the oil crisis does not seem to be an economic one alone. Nor is it linked with the Terai agitation alone.
Prime minister Koirala’s reference to the land-locked ness as a cause of the present crisis will work or not is difficult to predict at this point of time.
If the past is any guide, Koirala has the ability to make a proper diagnosis, but he lacks the wisdom of prescribing the right medicine to cure the ills.
KP BHATTARAI Birthday Party
The 64th birthday party of former prime minister has left some interesting messages
By A CORRESPONDENT
King Gyanendra made news – one more time. The occasion was the birthday party of former prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai.
Bhattarai used his 84th birthday bash as an occasion to bring people from all walks of life together.
The beleaguered monarch was one of them. Expectedly, it made headlines. So did the octogenarian leader’s reiteration on the need of monarchy for “the next three centuries”.
What did not make headlines was no less interesting – politically.
The ambassador from the influential southern neighbour, Shiv Shanker Mukherjee, was conspicuous by his absence at the monarchist Nepali Congress veteran’s birthday-luncheon.
But his Chinese counterpart in Kathmandu, …… spent a good one hour at the Rato Baithak of the Himalaya hotel.
He was seen sharing the lunch table with the UML general secretary, Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Pakistani ambassador, Sohail Amin, was also at hand to wish Bhattarai a happy birthday.
MKN was one of the two top leaders of the leftist partners of the governing seven-party alliance attending the party.
The other was CP Mainali of the United Left Front.
Former prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa too was conspicuous by his absence. But not his bete-noire during the two’s panchayat heydays, Kirtinidhi Bista.
As Bhattarai cut the birthday cake, UNMIN chief Ian Martin spared time to be beside him, before rushing to the Yak and Yeti Hotel to make a presentation at the donors’ consultation meeting.
