Head count begins in NC

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 29 A day after filing the no-trust motion against Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala the rebel camp of the ruling Nepali Congress is having a tough time keeping the lawmakers on its side.

The Koirala-camp today claimed that six MPs out of the 56 MPs whose signature was on yesterday’s list have withdrawn their support for the no-trust proposal. Koirala camp has claimed that - Prakash Koirala, Mahendra Kumar Raya, Nagendra Raya Yadav, Sabitri Bogati, Lekhnath Acharya and Keshar Man Rokka - have withdrawn their support.

A senior Cabinet minister today told The Kathmandu Post that the six MPs today confirmed their support to Koirala and more were likely to join by tomorrow.

Both the factions are now claiming to have certain MPs on their sides. The senior minister today claimed that five more lawmakers will come to the Koirala-camp by tomorrow including Narayan Singh Pun, whom the rebel-camp claimed as its supporter.

"These all claims about MPs withdrawing their support is coming in the news but we do not think it is true," said Chiranjivi Wagle, leader of the rebel camp. "Narayan Singh Pun is out of the country and has pledged his support to us," said Wagle.

Though the Deuba-camp seems to be losing hold of its supporters, the leaders of the camp claim that the no-trust motion will be passed and Deuba will hold power. "I am confident that the MPs who signed on the proposal will stand by it and support it," said Wagle.

Wagle told The Kathmandu Post that the claims made by the Koirala camp is a "propaganda to mislead people." He said that Keshar Man Rokka was still with Deuba side. The Koirala-camp claimed that he had withdrawn his support to the Deuba camp.

"The MPs themselves signed on the proposal now we really do not know if they have opted to withdraw their support due to some temptations," said Wagle.

The rebel-camp led by former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba marched to the party’s parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar on Thursday to file the motion against Koirala.

Deuba is challenging Koirala for the party’s presidency in the up-coming elections to be held during the party’s tenth general convention in Pokhara.

Deuba is backed by Koirala’s friend-turned-foe Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, whose signature is not in the list of 56 MPs that filed the proposal yesterday. Bhattarai reiterated his support to the rebelling camp immediately after the camp filed the motion at the parliamentary party office yesterday and urged more lawmakers to join the group. Bhattarai was deposed from power in March by Koirala.

The Congress parliamentary party wil have to decide upon the proposal within 15 days of the filing.

Frustration-fed riot and leaders' quest for power

By Ameet Dhakal

KATHMANDU, Dec 29 - The contagious violence that ransacked the capital this week over the rumoured-statement by Indian Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan has rapidly receded, though it will take few more days before the remnants of those days of fury is cleared away from Kathmandu streets.

Slowly the prickly sense of nationalism will settle, the broken windowpanes will find replacements, and may be within a few months or a year Hindi movies will return to the theatre and may go house full. But the loss of loved ones to bereaved families will remain irrevocable and will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

And, if this is how the two-day mayhem is going to be sucked into history but without any of the accompanying lessons learnt - especially by the political parties - that will be unfortunate.

But this is what seems to be happening. The renewed political squabbling in the ruling Nepali Congress has already shadowed the post-violence debate. Worse, the warring factions in the ruling party are trying to exploit the anarchism that ruled Kathmandu streets for two days for their narrow interests. The ruling establishment is questioning the timing of the no-trust proposal against the prime minister and is interpreting it as a "conspiracy" while the rebel camp is exploiting it as a failure of the government to maintain law and order.

Deep inside this anarchism there is, however, a more troubled message. Political parties may try to find solace on the assumption that this week’s frenzy was an outbreak of national sentiments. Not exactly. It was more of an expression of pent-up frustration - of being unemployed, of being disassociated from the family and of being neglected by the state.

Did anyone notice the mass that kept on pelting stones at police for hours, and smashed windowpanes indiscriminately? Overwhelming majority of them were unemployed youths, who can often be seen wandering aimlessly in Kathmandu. The other lot was of street children - the rapidly soaring mass in the valley. It was rather a classic manifestation of the social implications of the bloating unemployment, worsening poverty and growing intolerance in the society.

It is not only Kathmandu that witnessed such violence in the last one month. Biratnagar and Bhairahawa succumbed to similar anarchism last week. Why has peace become so rare in Nepali society?

Robbed by the Maoists insurgency on the one hand and by the non-performance (corruption) of the successive governments on the other, the sense of discipline and tolerance is rapidly evaporating today. Add to that, the rising dissent of various ethnic groups and the failure of the state to address these new realities and that will hint towards potential future unrest.

As the nation stands at this juncture, it is not out of the ordinary for the ruling camp to question the move to oust the present government. But what does it propose in return? More of the same incompetence, corruption and anarchy. Given their past records, neither Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala nor his challenger Sher Bahadur Deuba, inspire much hope.

During the tenure of both of these Nepali Congress stalwarts, institutionalization process suffered. Corruption increased ten folds giving rise to a number of Bhrasta Bahadurs (corrupts), currently evenly divided in both camps.

It is, therefore, not the change of the present government that really matters to the common people. What concerns the masses is (with or without the change of government) whether an anti-corruption squad formed under a strong anti-corruption law will raid the house of corrupts and confiscate the property that is not justified by their known source of income. And whether there will be more jobs...whether the state will heed to their legitimate concerns?

CPN (UML), businesses against bandh

KATHMANDU, Dec 29 (PR) - The Standing Committee meeting of Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) held here today decided not to support the Nepal bandh called by the nine left parties for January 1 and 2, 2001.

A press release issued here today by the main opposition said, it would not back the bandh call. The meeting also reiterated its demand for the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ram Chandra Poudel.

Meanwhile, a business delegation from Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Nepal Chambers of Commerce (NCC) and Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) met with the leaders of nine left parties today and asked them to call off the two-day nation-wide strike.

During the 30-minute meeting, the delegation requested the grouping to call off the strike, "which would otherwise invite a heavy loss to the national economy since it coincided with the international New Year."

"Though it is difficult to postpone a strike, which has been already announced, we will re-think on it," said Rabi Bhakta Shrestha, first vice-president of FNCCI quoting the General Secretary of CPN-ML, Bam Dev Gautam as saying. The strike, if not postponed, will cause a great loss to the nation’s business and tourism, which is already badly battered by the last few days’ violence, said Shrestha.

Industrialists say the recent violence in the capital has created a great damage to the country’s image among the investors. " We should stop organising bandhs to further worsen the deteriorating situation," said Rajesh Kaji Shrestha, President of NCC.

Kantipur to be published from eastern region

Post Report

BIRATNAGAR, Dec 29 - Kantipur Publications Private Limited is all set to publish Kantipur daily, the sister publication of this newspaper, from this eastern industrial town starting upcoming Nepali New Year (mid-April). Likewise, Kantipur FM 96.1’s current Kathmandu Valley-wide transmission will be relayed to eastern region from coming Falgun (February-March 2001).

This was informed by the Publications’ Managing Director Kailash Sirohiya at a function held here Thursday. According to him, the Nepali language mass circulation (Kantipur) daily will be published at the same time from Kathmandu and Biratnagar from mid-April next year.

The Kantipur FM 96.1’s Kathmandu Valley-wide transmission will be relayed to the eastern region via a new relay station set up atop the Bhedetar hill, north of Dharan in Sunsari district. The FM station was established three years ago, and a permission to set up the Bhedetar relay station was given five months ago by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Kantipur FM 96.1 is the country’s first commercial radio station operated by the private sector. The station started off with its 20-hour transmission in the beginning, but now the radio can be heard in and around the Valley throughout the day and night (24 hours).

Speaking at the prize distribution ceremony of Kantipur daily Sports Competition, Sirohiya said that the arrangement will tremendously benefit the readers of the country’s eastern development region as they can go through the newspapers early in the morning.

The newspapers are currently circulated either by air or by bus, and the readers get to read them only in the afternoon or in the evening, unlike the readers from the Valley and around who get to read them early in the morning.

Stating that the free-flow of news and information cannot, and should not, be blocked in the current age of information and communication, Sirohiya noted that the move was aimed at informing, educating and entertaining the masses of the eastern region.

Barsha would have been celebrating her b’day : Mother

By Sharad Adhikary & Nripesh Dhungel

Kathmandu, Dec 29 What crime had fifth graders like Karma Lama and Barsha Koirala done to deserve this fate?

Both had just appeared in their Second Term Exams and had a promising future ahead. But, who would have guessed, they were to lose their lives during the police firings that took place in the capital last Wednesday.

Hundreds of protesters, mostly aligned to student unions, were rioting in the capital for two days since December 26 over the "derogatory" remarks allegedly made by Indian actor Hrithik Roshan. Five people lost their lives in the two-day mayhem, including 11-year-old Karma and 12-year-old Barsha.

"If my only daughter’s destiny had not been otherwise, she would be celebrating her 13th birthday today," says Sunita Koirala, Barsha’s mother, with tearful eyes. "We had made plans to celebrate it with a visit to Manakamana temple."

Barsha was playing with her classmate Manjita Thapa on the bottom floor of Annapurna Guest House, Thamel, on the fateful day, when a stray bullet, fired by the police on the rioteers, came through the window and ripped through her chest. She died while undergoing treatment at the capital’s Bir Hospital.

Just before the incident, Barsha’s father had called from his office at Mitshubishi Corporation in Tripureshwor warning his daughter not to go outside because of the riots. She obliged her father’s bidding, but still lost her life.

"I asked the police to help us rush wounded Barsha to the hospital...instead they shouted at me and refused to help," says Sunita.

"I quickly patched a piece of cloth on the wound on her chest and rushed her to Bir Hospital in an ambulance... she was whispering: mummy, baba (daddy)..." Barsha died at the hospital that very day.

Barsha’s final death rites was done at Pashupati Aryaghat the same evening. But, till this moment, her parents have not forgiven the policemen who took their only daughter’s life.

"Barsha was peaceful and well mannered and easily made friends. She was very hard working," says Sulachana Sapkota, the principal of Adarsha Yoghari School, where she studied.

Eleven-year-old Karma Lama, a student of Deepika English School, shares a similar story.

While returning home from school, he was struck by a stray bullet in the stomach in front of Gopi Krishna Hall. He was rushed to the hospital by Krishna Jwala Devkota and Rajendra Thapa, two eye-withneses.

"Little Karma was repeatedly asking for water and his mother," the eye-witnesses said. "...He also asked when his father would be coming back from Pokhara." Upon hearing the news, Tham Bahadur Lama, Karma’s father, immediately rushed to Kathmandu from Pokhara, where he was stationed. Only to hear his son, pronounced dead, after 12-hours-long operation. Karma was the youngest of three sons in the family. His last rites was done at Swoyambhu. Bishnu Panta, Karma’s school principal, remembers Karma as one who always made other people laugh, played a lot of sports, and was very intelligent.

Tourists stranded at border due to fears of violence

By Jagadish Bhattarai

GORAKHPUR, India, Dec 29 - A large number of Indian tourists bound to Nepal to spend New Year holiday have been stranded at the Nepal-India border due to the reports of violence in Nepali cities over the alleged utterance of Indian film star Hrithik Roshan, reports received here said.

Over 1,500 Indians, led by Urban State Minister of Punjab, Ranjit Singh, were camping at Gorakhpur Railway station, 95-km south of the Nepal-border town of Sunauli, awaiting reports of return to normalcy in Nepal. The team was supposed to leave for Kathmandu from Sunauli today.

"We are hesitating to enter Nepal as Indian newspapers reported that people of Indian origin are insecure there," Minister Singh told The Kathmandu Post. Other Indian tourists visiting Nepal were also waiting for return to peace in Nepal.

"I returned from Narayangadh yesterday after I was briefed of the ongoing violence in Kathmandu" said Om Barma, an Indian national, from Chandigarh, who was staying in a lodge run by a Nepali national here.

Another Indian national, Jasbindar Singh, 35, from Saradar Nagar in Punjab, who had recently returned from Pokhara, said that he did not experience any protest against the Indians in Pokhara as reported by the Indian newspapers.

Meanwhile, in a press statement issued Friday, Gorakhpur-based Nepal-India Friendship Association expressed its deep concern over the Indian media reports that Pakistan’s ISI - Inter Services Intelligence - was responsible for operating anti-Indian activities in Nepal.