South Block attitude not encouraging on Kalapani

From Yubaraj Ghimire

New Delhi, July 31 - Prime Minister G P Koirala arrived here tonight on a week-long goodwill trip, but a rigid posture of the South Block even before the official talks have begun has come as a damper to his spirit.

South Block, the Foreign Ministry of India, has apparently turned down a suggestion put forth by Nepalese Ambassador Dr Bekh Bahadur Thapa, that India should withdraw its army from Kalapani pending the bilateral negotiations to decide who it belongs to.

It’s now entirely up to the political leadership, specially Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee , to veto the South Block move. But there are so far little indications that he would go that far.

PM Koirala, accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister , Chakra Prasad Bastola, and a host of secretaries, is all set to touch upon various issues including inundation of Nepali villages in Banke district following construction of the Laxmanpur barrage by India without Nepal’s concurrence besides Kalapani . Nepal feels that India’s move amounts to encroaching or violating the international principle on border management.

In addition, Koirala is going to raise the Bhutanese refugee issue seeking India’s mediation in getting nearly 100,000 refugees back to Bhutan. India has so far maintained that it’s essentially a bilateral issue between Nepal and Bhutan.

Premier Koirala is to meet President K R Narayanan and Prime Minister Vajpayee besides other leaders of the government and opposition side. Indian officials have said India would seek further assurance from Nepal that it would effectively check what it calls "Pakistan inspired activities against India".

Meanwhile, our reporter in Kathmandu adds that before leaving for New Delhi today, Prime Minister Koirala reiterated that his was a "confidence-building visit" between the two countries, more than anything else.

Talking to the press gathered at Tribhuvan International Airport he said he was leaving with all the good wishes of Nepalese people, and would return with the same from Indian public and the Prime Minister.

Referring to the gap of four years since any Nepali Prime Minister visited India, Koirala said "I would try to link the gap that has surfaced in the last four years."

Sher Bahadur Deuba was the last Prime Minister who visited India on February 1996.

"I will be putting opinion of Nepali people in front of the Indian authority," Koirala said.

 Nepal skeptic over PM's visit outcome

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 31 - On the day Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala leaves for India on an official visit, General Secretary of the main opposition CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal shed doubts about whether the visit would be a fruitful one.

Addressing the House of Representatives, the Lower House of Parliament, Nepal said he was not too optimistic about the prime minister’s India visit.

"People are wary and uncertain about the outcome of the visit," Nepal told lawmakers, adding that the recent issue of Laxmanpur barrage has put a dent in the Indo-Nepal relations.

Nepal has been blaming India for violating international laws by constructing the Laxmanpur barrage and the adjoining afflux bund through a unilateral decision.

The Indian Embassy has maintained that India did not violate any international laws, and that the main barrage structure, along with the guide bunds, "has not resulted in, and is not likely to result in, any inundation or submergence of villages on the Nepalese side".

The construction is likely to inundate around 33 villages in five VDCs of Banke district and the five meters tall structure of the barrage does not have an water outlet which would lead to immediate displacement of more than 1,500 people and affect thousands of others in southern Banke district in the mid-western Terai.

He said that the recent leaking to the press of the so-called Nepal Gameplan was a deliberate attempt to defame Nepal. In the report that was published in an Indian magazine, India has claimed involvement of Nepalese politicians, businessmen and media operating against India in Nepal.

Nepal has repeatedly denied the allegations and assured that its territory would never be allowed to be used for activities against any friendly nations.

"Is the prime minister going to make the same mistake he made during his last visit signing the Tanakpur agreement?" Nepal said. "If he is admitting the relationship between the two neighbours have been cold in the recent time, then why is he leaving on a visit prematurely without adequate preparations?"

Prime Minister Koirala left today for New Delhi on an official visit.

Nepal, India should shun rhetoric, adopt pragmatism

By Akhilesh Upadhyay

KATHMANDU, July 31 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is on his first foreign visit since he took office in March. And his favored destination is none other than India. Rightly so. It was an outing that was long due. The two countries are far too tied up to ignore their official ties.

That said, never have Nepal-India relations been on such a low since democracy was restored in 1990. Yet, Koirala’s is the first prime ministerial visit since Sher Bahadur Deuba flew to New Delhi in February 1996 to sign the Mahakali River Treaty, hailed then by both sides as a ‘milestone’. After four long years Mahakali continues to remain a pipe dream mired in one controversy after another and underscores the sorry state of bilateral relations. Both deserve better fate.

But much more has transpired between the two neighbours in recent months. That’s alarming. The relations that once showed so much promise - especially in the early days of democracy in 1990 when Nepalis felt that Indian leaders had contributed their bit in bringing down the Panchayat regime - are now in tatters.

Fortunately, Koirala realizes that there is an urgent need to mend it, to put the relations "back on track," the prime agenda for his five-day visit which according to his own admission otherwise remains "agenda-less".

Nepal-India ties are on a free fall in the aftermath of the Christmas-eve hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight last year shortly after it took off from Kathmandu. And whatever little the two sides were doing - Foreign Ministers and Secretaries exchanging visits - to arrest the sorry situation, relations were blown to pieces in early June when an Indian intelligence report wildly alleged that a cross section of Nepali society was hand in glove with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI in stoking anti-Indian feelings and using the open border to launch terrorist activities in India.

New Delhi needs more diplomatic finesse than that.

It’s time both the sides abandoned their routine rhetoric and took a fresh - and bold - approach to put the bilateral relations on a firm footing. The giant southern neighbour will do well to make amends, taking a departure from its condescending neighbourliness. Nepalis feel that they have been given a raw deal in Kosi, Gandaki, Tanakpur and now Laxmanpur. India can’t wish away the sensitivities of a tiny neighbour.

New Delhi’s classic approach towards Nepal to alternately blow hot and cold has proved counter-productive, given a high degree of mistrust here against India. The Gujral Doctrine - that famously called for non-reciprocity while dealing with smaller neighbours - at least admitted that the problem existed. Now it’s time Indian leaders acted on it. They instead continue to ride roughshod over Nepal’s sentiments.

There are numerous examples that prove the point: Imposition of extra customs duties on Nepali exports denying the favoured nation trade status as enshrined by the bilateral trade treaty, deliberately stonewalling on border projects (Laxmanpur Barrage is the recent disaster).

Nepal on the other hand will do well to appreciate India’s security concerns, rather than parroting "we will not allow Nepali soil to be used against any of our neighbours." You cannot wish away geography, or the geo-political realities that is contained within.

The fact that the Indian Airlines plane was hijacked from Kathmandu, flew to India, then onto Pakistan and to UAE before finally heading for Afghanistan underscores that modern-day terrorism is pretty much a cross-border phenomenon and governments need one another to combat it. So is the case with Nepal’s own security problem - the Maoist uprising.

This makes Koirala’s India visit all the more important. With all their difficulties and suspicions, both the neighbours need each other - a fact that should be best realized by the mandarins in Shital Niwas and South Block.

Minister of State Alam resigns

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 31 - A junior minister accused of being involved in an abduction case resigned today after a judicial commission indicated his involvement in the case.

The resignation tendered by Minister of State for Forest and Soil Conservation Mohammed Aftab Alam to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has been accepted today.

The main opposition CPN-UML had accused that Alam’s brother had kidnapped and physically abused a party worker in Rautahat few months back and the minister was protecting the criminals.

"It cannot be said that the actions took place without the direction, protection, support and cooperation of Minister Mohammed Aftab Alam," a ruling from a three-member judicial commission investigating the case said.

The commission headed by Judge Govind Prasad Parajuli with Agni Khanal and Sher Bahadur K.C. had decided on a 2-1 vote.

The incident had disrupted the last few days of the Winter Session of Parliament after CPN-UML lawmakers disrupted the House demanding the resignation.

The session was prorogued amid chaos, slogans, protests and even gherao from CPN-UML lawmakers who for a week stalled House proceedings seeking the resignation.

And when it was time to begin the budget session of the Parliament, the government approached the main opposition and reached a compromise.

In the truce reached between the government and the main opposition, an agreement was reached to constitute a judicial commission to look into the Rautahat case.

The government side had been insisting that it could not sack a minister without a prior investigation in the case.

The two sides had agreed to accept the verdict of the commission and the government promised to sack the minister if the commission found him involved in the case in any way.

A day before the abduction, Minister Alam’s house had been bombed, burned and then looted by armed robbers. The commission had investigated the alleged abduction and the attack on the minister’s house.

Kamaiya emancipation needs total revolution

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 31 - Nepal has not achieved anything big in Kamaiya (bonded labourers) emancipation with just an announcement by the government.

Swami Agnivesh, a senior activist of the bonded labourers liberation movement in India made this observation in a function held here today to declare Prakash Kaphley International Solidarity Award. He said only a full-fledged revolution would discontinue this inhuman trend of slavery.

The chairman of Bonded Labourers Liberation Front of India, Swami said "Those who dreamt of terminating bonded labourers from Nepali soil should face tougher fight in legal and political fronts. Only a revolution can discontinue this inhuman slavery."

Agnivesh said every other Indian citizen is living a slave’s life even after half a century of freedom. According to an Indian law those living on less than the minimum wage are bonded labourers. "Democracy does not merely mean voting rights to the people, it includes that of food, employment and education," he added.

General secretary to Human Rights Protection Forum Krishna Prasad Shivakoti said that the statistics of the affected bonded labourers are changing day by day. He demanded an authentic report on bonded labourers who have been affected by the hasty freedom. Further, he urged the government to provide them with soft loans to help them for small economic activities.

"Though the decision was historic, the government has made no preparation to ease the troubles of bonded labourers"

Former minister and standing committee member of CPN-UML Modnath Prashrit claimed that the unplanned and populist decision of freedom of bonded labourers had put them into even worse condition. He said the decision-makers had learnt from the preparations made by Chandra Sumsher, who had provided the freed slaves with land, over a century ago.

CP Mainali, the coordinator of Patriotic Democratic Front said that the landmark decision of the government lacked proper homework, which threw out thousands of families in the streets.

In the same programme, Sri Lankan human rights activist Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam was announced winner of the Second Prakash Kaphley International Solidarity Award, posthumously.

The award was instituted by GRINSO-Nepal and Prakash Kaphley Memorial Foundation (PRAFOUND) in 1998.

Dr Tiruchelvam, a lawyer, politician, academician and human rights activist was a part of the think tank behind the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord and played a key role in the 1995 constitutional reform and devolution programme of the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration. He was assassinated by LTTE suicide bomber on 29 July 1999. The US dollars 2,000 award will be given on 10th of December this year.

Modern trends to stay despite social censure

By Amar Pradhan

KATHMANDU, July 31 - If age old cultures, traditions, rituals were considered a part and parcel of the Kathmandu Valley, the modern list of entertainment, headed by dance restaurants and discos are set to become the permanent entity of this dusty capital.

This has dismayed those in Kathmandu who were hoping that the operation of the dance restaurants and discos would be stopped.

The rumours of the government putting a full-stop to their operation was rife not even less than a month ago.

Sources close to the headquarter say that senior Home Ministry officials and senior police officers contemplated seriously on this most talked about issue.

According to the source, a decision was finally reached after long debates to leave the matter as it is: allow the dance restaurants and discos to continue, but with added restraints, sources say.

Even surprising from a general citizen’s point of view is the existing stance of the senior police officers in this regard.

"At one place we take great pride in entering the 21st century while on the other hand we are sceptic about dance restaurants, disco, cabin restaurants, pools etc," says Chief of Valley Crime Investigation Department and Superitendent of Police (SP) Rabindra Pratap Shah.

SP Shah strongly feels, in this world of entertainment, where people are hungry for recreations, the demand for them is so high that it is near impossible to put a full stop to these "sources of entertainment".

On the other side of the coin, there are many who firmly believe that dance restaurants and discos have contributed largely to the already existing social ills.

Government employee Ram Lal Shrestha, whose only daughter studies in VS Niketan Higher Secondary School is more than worried by the catching "modern trends" of society these days. "Just as the government kicked out polluting tempos from the valley, dance restaurants and discos should not be allowed to operate," he says.

Many parents like Shrestha feel that they are not very comfortable facing their own children whenever they return home late.

Police Officers also do not negate the fact that incidents of social distruction fist-fighting or social ills for that matter are on the rise but dance restaurants and discos alone can’t be held responsible for that.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Govinda Thapa believes that the only solution now lies in managing them properly. Thapa also indicated that that’s the line of message police have delivered to the Home Ministry.

Recent raids on dance and cabin restaurants already indicate police have started a more watchful eye on them. "Police have started taking off the curtains from the cabin restaurants," said a restaurant owner in Tripureshwor showing the now open looking cabin apartment.

"We’ve been told to be more ‘civilized’ with our dance shows," says a dance restaurant owner in Baneshore insisting not to name him.

Police dies in Maoist ambush

NEPALGUNJ, July 31 (PR) - A police head constable died in ambush laid by the underground Maoists today around Dhangshi river, Rolpa near the district headquarters Liwang, police said.

According to the police the Head Constable Surya Bahadur Budha was a resident of Dolakha district.

Hundreds appeal against ineligible voters

BIRTAMOD, Jhapa, July 31 (PR) - Hundreds of appeals have been filed here at the Election Commission Office (ECO) to void the ineligible citizens from the voter’s list.

According to Krishna Pokhrel, Chief Name Registration Officer at the ECO Jhapa, some 4773 appeals have been filed at his office which is in line with the Act regarding Voter’s List-2052. The Act stipulates that appeal against any non-Nepali citizen could be formally filed at the concerned ECO within December 31 of the concerned year.

On constituency basis, appeals have been filed against 134 persons in Jhapa constituency-1. Likewise, appeals have been registered against 1384 persons, 2063 persons and 3263 persons from Jhapa constituencies 2,3 and 6 respectively while only one appeal has been filed against one person from constituency-4.