Nepali Congress kicks off gala convention
Koirala denies corruption in Lauda Air deal

Post Report

POKHARA, Jan 19 - The tenth general convention of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) started here today amidst a grand ceremony that gathered thousands of people from all over the country, leaders of the national parties and foreign representatives.

Prior to the formal inauguration program, a procession participated by thousands of people and blessed by pleasant weather began from the local party office at B P Chowk and ended at the Pokhara Stadium, where the formal opening ceremony is being held. Addressing the inauguration program all the party leaders pledged that the party would remain united "forever" and would not tear apart.

Speaking at the inauguration function, Prime Minister and the party president Girija Prasad Koirala said that the party would not break despite attempts from "various quarters".

"Neither will Congress split nor can the Congress government be deposed," said Koirala. "Those expecting the Congress to break are just day dreaming. NC will come out even more united and stronger after this convention."

Referring to the calls to hand-over the party leadership to the younger generation, Koirala said that the election of half of the CWC members was a process of the leadership hand-over. "However, the younger generation has become impatient to grab the leadership," he said. Koirala suggested the younger generation to maintain patience and not to move in haste.

Koirala also refused the allegation of corruption in the shady Lauda Air deal and suggested the party leaders to retrospect into their past. " If we look back and try to recall our past lifestyles then we will easily identify the corrupts in the party," said Koirala.

Speaking on the occasion, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said that he was contesting for the position of party president "to make Girijababu the most successful and historic Prime Minister of Nepal."

"Girijababu had made three crucial promises to the country when he came to power but has not succeeded in fulfilling them. My election to the party president will only assist him to fulfil his commitments," Deuba said. "I have no work, I am capable and have proved my ability to lead by leading a coalition government that was looking towards three different directions."

Koirala had committed to restore law and order in the country, arrest corruption and provide good governance when he came to power last March by deposing his friend-turned-foe Krishna Prasad Bhattarai.

Deuba made a public promise on the occasion that if elected to the post of party president he would never act against the Prime Minister and never be biased towards a certain group of party-workers disregarding others. "I will not dissolve the district committees if they do not support me or cancel the active membership of the party workers who do not support me," said Deuba.

Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who has publicly supported Deuba and has urged the convention representatives to caste their votes in his favour, today refrained from speaking openly for Deuba. "The responsibility to guide the party and the country is in your (partyworkers) shoulder, so use your conscience while you choose the leader," said Bhattarai.

Former deputy Prime Minister Shailaja Acharya attacked Deuba saying that he was presenting the general convention only as the contest for leadership. "It is not only a question of division of posts among the leaders but the larger issue facing the convention is a question of morality." She warned that the party would head towards dissolution if the convention failed to give the party new life and direction.

The convention, which was earlier scheduled to begin its close-session business today evening, will only meet tomorrow morning. Besides endorsing the amendment in the party statute the session would also start discussions in the policy papers. Over 1,477 convention representatives and 27 others who were nominated by the party president yesterday will take part in the close-door deliberations.

Ex-Kamaiyas continue to encroach forest land

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MANEHERA, GAIDI (DHANGADI) Jan 19 - The ex-Kamaiyas, who forcibly occupied undesignated forestland here yesterday, kept on building sheds throughout the day today, despite protests from the locals, police, forest office and the local administration.

The locals tried to stop the ex-Kamaiyas several times, Thursday and Friday from building sheds in their community forest area but failed to stop them. The ex-Kamaiyas are using bamboo, beshram (a type of bush), hay and plastic to make their sheds.

"Unless the Government provides us with land ownership documents of the land it gives, we will not leave this place," says Bhojiya Chaudhary who is busy building a shed along with his family.

Approximately 2900 ex-Kamaiyas in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts forcibly occupied around 1500 bighas of undesignated forestland and started building sheds on Thursday.

It has been reported that officials from the Forest Office have forced the ex-kamaiyas leave the Masuriya and Mahadeva forest areas.

Assistant Forest Officer Dhirga Raj Koirala has reiterated that in no circumstances the Forest Office would allow encroachment of forestland.

Narendra Raj Paudel, the Chief District Officer of Kailali, accused the NGOs that they were instigating the ex-kamaiyas to forcibly occupy the forestlands for their interest.

"The Government is distributing lands to the ex-Kamaiyas. This chaotic situation has arisen due to some NGOs, who only have their interest in mind," he said.

The Government has already started four different programs supported by foreign donor agencies that only includes the ex-Kamaiyas.

"The NGOs fear that they will loose a big source of income after the Kamaiyas are allotted with the promised lands and given employment," Paudel further accused.

Meanwhile, final preparation is going on for identification and distribution of land in four additional Village Development Committees (VDCs) in the district. Land identification process is going in Thapapur, Bauniya, Pratappur and Kota Tulsipur VDCs.

"We will not return to the district headquarters (Dhangadi) until we finish the distribution process in these four VDCs," said Maheswhore Neupane, a Land Reforms officer.

He explained that it was the duty of the Commission for Resolution of Land-less Squatters Problem, to provide the ex-Kamaiyas with land ownership certificates after the distribution of land.

When contacted, the officials in the office of Commission for Resolution of Land-less Squatters Problem, said that no responsible officer was present in order to answer the question.

Meanwhile, the central party office of CPN-UML has issued a press release defending the ex-Kamaiyas’ actions and accusing the government of delaying their rehabilitation process. The press release also demanded that the government distribute land and provide the ex-Kamaiyas with their land ownership certificates as soon as possible.

HR activist ‘Chintan’ attacked

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KATHMANDU, Jan 19 - A group of unidentified people attacked human rights activist and lawyer, Gopal Siwakoti Chintan on Wednesday night, Chintan said today.

According to an email sent here today by Chintan, a female voice in telephone that evening called him to go to New Plaza Chowk, near the office of INHURED-International- of which he is the director. The woman urged him to go there very soon, saying that it was very urgent.

"So, I went and waited for 15 minutes, but no one showed up. I was thinking of come back. All of sudden, somebody hit me and I was unconscious," Chintan said. He was later taken to the Model Hospital by his staff and two passers-by. He is currently taking rest at his house. The email said that there are three stitches on his head, his right leg is fractured, nose broken and there are bruises all over his body. Asked what the police was doing, Duty Officer at Ward Police Office, Singhadurbar, Chandra Choudhari, informed that plain-clothes policemen have been deployed to find the culprits.

The reason why Chintan, who besides organizing other campaigns holds live interaction programmes on burning social and political issues, was attacked was not immediately clear. Meanwhile, various human rights organizations today issued press releases demanding action against those involved in attacking Chintan.

RSF concerned over FM news ban

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KATHMANDU, Jan 19 - In a letter addressed today to the Nepalese Minister for Information and Communication, Reporters Sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders -RSF) has protested against the government’s recent move to ban private radio stations’ broadcasting of their own news programmes.

This was stated in a press release issued today by the Paris-based oragnization.

"Even though the broadcasting license given to these stations provides for this restriction, the authorities have until today, shown a degree of tolerance," says the press release. "RSF sees this decision as a negative step backwards, which represents an attempt to limit press freedom by depriving the Nepalese population of independent news. RSF asks the minister to go back on his decision and condemns `all pressure on private media’".

A sudden decision by the Ministry of Information and Communication on January 2 which was circulated to radio stations only on January 16, banned the broadcast of independent news and current affairs on FM radios.

Two classes of Congressmen underscore party divide

By Ameet Dhakal & Meena Kaini

POKHARA, Jan 19 - Nepali Congress (NC) is no more one party. And it is not because the two
warring factions within the NC have decided to split the party or are likely to do so.

Anyone who saw the crowds at the local NC party office in Pokhara, and did the rsounds of the scores of lavish hotels patronized by some NC leaders and workers, will immediately notice the "two parties" within this largest political party of Nepal.

To any observer present at the local party office, the ruling NC would appear a party of the lower middle class, or even a party of the poor who form the bulk of the nation’s population. But this world is far removed from the extravagant cocktail parties at the flashy hotels where senior NC leaders and functionaries while away their time. There is some credence, it seems looking at this set of party workers, to the charge of "liberal bourgeoisie" leveled by communist cadres against the Congress.

Despite their avowed commitment to the common goals and policies of the Nepali Congress, these two groups of party workers are totally a different set of people: they have different social background, different value system and different dreams.

Most of the people at the evening party were holding mobile sets. But a 70 year-old Congress activist from Morang district named Rameshwor Bhattarai, no less a Congressman, was carrying chiura and kurauni wrapped in a piece of cloth to keep him going through his days in Pokhara.

Bhattarai is looking for a dharmasala to shelter him. The organizing committee has arranged for food and shelter for five days at the cost of Rs 600. Bhattarai questions: kina ra kasari maile tirne (Why and how should I pay)? This reflects his frustration. He recalls how some of the party cadres whom he had offered dui chhak bhat (two meals and shelter) before democracy have enormously prospered during the last one decade. "Some of these people are here as convention representatives but they deny to recognize me," Bhattarai says.

The Pokhara General Convention has offered a good chance to the grass root party cadres to see and realize how a new class has emerged and benefited out of democracy. The line up of the luxury vehicles in front of the local party office is a reflection of this reality to them.

"Life of the rural peasantry is becoming difficult every day...leaders who have driven all the way to Pokhara in their Pajeros in this convention is not going to solve any of their problems," a convention representatives from Sindhuli district says.

The Pajero lineup in Pokhara, however, does not only belong to the political leaders but also to bureaucrats and businessmen who have benefited equally, if not more, in the post-1990 period. And these were the people who largely financed the evening parties and cracked jokes about the ban on alcohol sales announced by local authorities in Pokhara. As usual, they once again mocked and flouted the rule.

If Pokhara today serves as the venue for the gathering of Nepal’s political party in its historic convention, it is also the place this week where the business-bureaucracy-politics nexus can be seen in all its ‘splendour.’

A small group of these people (comprising chiefs of government departments, a private airline owner, a journalist-cum-party cadre and others) gathered at Dragon Hotel Thursday evening were busy discussing business deals. It is this class whose interest is no more in conformity with the interest of the grass root party workers, who flocked to the local party office Thursday afternoon like going to some sacred shrine.

These party workers still revere Democratic Socialism and wait for "a shelter, two meals and school for the children," which the late B P Koirala, NC’s founder and leader, dreamt and described as the requirement for a typical Nepali family. But liberal market policies have a way of vanquishing socialism, and so is the case with today’s Congress. Very few in the ruling elite of today have faith in Democratic Socialism, despite whatever the party manifesto says.

However, it is not that these party workers are oblivious to this fact. "We know this change, in fact B P had told us... he always used to warn that with the advent of democracy a new class of people with vested interest would overshadow the real party workers," Surya Prasad Regmi, a convention representative from Syangja district, says.

Neither are they unaware of the sea change that the world has undergone during the last four and half decade since B P Koirala propounded Democratic Socialism as the party’s guiding principle. "Ok this principle could be too old or even inappropriate to lead the party but where is the new one?" Regmi asks.

It is this crisis of ideal leadership in the party that makes people like Regmi look back with nostalgia. If B P were alive he would definitely lead the party out of this ideological void and chaos, Regmi says.

Though they miss a personality like BP, it is their association with late Koirala that still keeps them in the party, repressing all of their frustration and disenchantment. "We joined Congress during our youth only because of BP but he did a great injustice to us by dying too early," 60-year old Regmi says.

Angry old Thinley of ‘Caravan’ is angry still

By Narayan Wagle

KATHMANDU, Jan 19 - He raged, hollered, shouted and otherwise terrorized the entire cast of Caravan, the famous Eric Valli movie about salt traders of Upper Dolpa. Today, he is still very much the angry old man portrayed in the 1999 film. Yes, this is the story of Thinley Lundup Lama, simply "Thinley" to legions of movie-goers.

As in the Oscar-nominated film, Thinley today is angry. Angry that his 37 year-old son is gravely ill, angry that he does not have enough money to treat him, and angrier still because his friends are nowhere when he needs them the most.

"My friend, Eric Valli, (who directed Caravan) is abroad. Here my son is sick. If he were here he would have helped me. But where are my other old friends?" Thinley lamented to this reporter the other day.

In a dingy room at Bouddha, where he is tending to his sick son, the old protagonist of Caravan reflects on life. He still remembers Valli, his decades-old French friend. "He is my best friend and second father to my son," Thinley says. He remembers the day when the Frenchman chartered a chopper to airlift his sick younger son to Kathmandu for treatment. That was when the shooting of Caravan was still going on. "He halted the shooting and took my son to cure him."

But his elder son is not so lucky. The young man is suffering from severe back and chest pains. And the father does not have enough money to treat him. Thinley rushed to the aid of his son in Kathmandu after his daughter sent a telegram asking him to come with lots of money to treat the sick son "if you are a father." When he got the telegram, Thinley was herding his yaks high in the mountains of Jumla, 10 days walk from his home in Saldang, Upper Dolpa. His 40 yaks is his only source of income.

"I am in a dilemma," says Thinley. "Should I look after my yaks in the remote mountains or stay in Kathmandu to nurse my bed-ridden son? We from the Upper Dolpa face a lot of hardships."

He says that Eric would have assisted him had he been here. "There is no one here who understands my problems," he laments.

Thinley wants to visit Nir Shah, co-producer of the Oscar-nominated English sub-titled movie. He still harbours a ray of hope that something or someone will turn up to aid his son’s recovery.

His son’s illness aside, Thinley is also concerned about the development of his homeland. He said he had heard that Nepali distributors of the film had promised to spend some money in Upper Dolpa for development. "But this has not materialized," says Thinley.

Meanwhile, Co-producer Shah says that Rs 2 million, collected from the movie screening was spent on movie publicity and preparations for the trip to Hollywood for the Oscar ceremony. Shah says that the movie had also been lent to some social organizations for charity shows. "Another fund should be set up if Upper Dolpa is to be assisted," Shah said.

The French producers of the film, meanwhile, have done their bit for Upper Dolpa. They sent two local children to school in Kathmandu and assisted in installing solar panels in some houses in Thinley’s village.

Thinley now says, he probably will have to return to his village soon to tend to the yaks. "I left them in the care of my neighbours, but they can’t look after the animals for ever. Without the yaks, we have nothing."