Resume talks

The underground Maoists are back in the headlines. They are already hampering the national census in the western hills. And now they have just attacked the police beat office and the area police office at Bhanuchowk in Dharan. They set off three socket bombs at the area police office Saturday night leaving two policemen injured including one whose condition is said to be serious. Earlier, the Maoists had set off a molotov cocktail at the police beat office, destroying the structure. Following the incident, the situation in Dharan bazar was tense. From the sketchy details available, the beat office is not used by the police and the Maoists may have targetted it to divert attention before moving in on the area police office which was their real target. It rather conforms to the Maoist dictum on making a noise in the east to attack in the west. In a broader sense the Dharan attack also tends to conform to another bit of classic Maoist strategy, that of consolidating the hold on the villages and then moving in on the towns. If that is in fact true, it could mark a new phase in the Maoist people’s war, with the conflict now being brought home to the hitherto relative safety of the urban areas.

The Maoist activity, coming after the relative calm of the past week or so coinciding with the palace tragedy and its aftermath, could mark a new phase in another sense also. The government has been putting all its eggs in one basket by targetting its Integrated Security and Development Package on the districts of the mid western region most affected by the insurgency. All along this has run the risk of the Maoists simply switching their people’s war from one part of the country to another and leaving the government’s strategic planning in considerable disarray. The attack in Dharan reminds us again of this possibility. We should be cautious about the likely frustrations of trying to fight a guerrilla war with conventional armed forces. Not that it has not been done, by the British in Malaya in the 1950s and by the Americans in Bolivia in the 60s. Both these cases involved external forces on a major scale. This is not something that Nepal can contemplate either financially or politically. The more so since there are indications that the Maoists have been cultivating ties with the Maoist movement in parts of India thereby possibly further strengthening their hand.

Initiation of talks with the Maoists in right earnest is the only real alternative, and has been so all along. We can no longer afford not to talk. Now that the country is gradually coming to terms with the tragedy that struck our royal family, it is time to pick up the threads of the negotiations. If this requires some sort of consensus among the major parties in order to bring them all on board, that should be sought also. Above all it means that the issue should be kept aloof from politics to the full extent possible. It is too important for the nation to be subjected to political party interests.

Tourism : Prospects and challenges

By Sagun S Lawoti

Humans, from time immemorial have been on the move. Right from nomadic life, travel derived much importance in man’s life. But for the zest and patience to explore and move on in search of food, shelter and security, chances are man could have become another dinosaur.

As evident, men soon formulated ways to adapt to nature in harmony and settle down. However, priorities have changed since. The art and means of living may have gone through transformation but the passion and drive for travel remain. Only that with time and advancement in technology the availability of choices has grown manifold. Man’s wanderlust prevails. Man, even to this day, continues to travel and explore.

In the present day context, a tourist is not alone a "person visiting a place for recreation" and tourism not just "the organization of holidays and services for tourists" as the dictionary says. It has its own diverse and specialized forms and connotations. Thus, tourism is not just travel and recreation but also exhilaration and education.

In similar vein, the tourism industry is not just another means of livelihood or trade. It is one of the major foreign currency spinners in the country—not to forget the employment opportunities it provides to the population. Considering the comparatively low investment and substantial returns, it is no surprise that tourism entrepreneurs brand its prospects on par with hydroelectricity—in which as we were repetitively told this country with a land area of 147,181 square kilometres is rich

Not that the tourism industry has escaped the attention of planners and policy makers. It has been getting its share of the pie in speeches and books. However, if tourism entrepreneurs are to be believed, the industry is being looked upon as "a cow to be milked". Besides discrimination in attitude, the complaint is also of inadequate infrastructure, programs, policies, and lack of farsighted vision.

Haphazard decision-making, irrelevant (as compared to the service rendered) fee structure, random collection of entry fees (like in Bhaktapur, Nagarkot, Boudha, Patan, Birethanti, etc) and the sudden out-of-the-blue airport tax hike by His Majesty’s Government and unasked for bureaucratic hassles, also cause private sector resentments.

Political instability and turmoil, bandhs, chakka jams, security concerns triggered by Maoist insurgency and pollution are other nuisances bugging this so-called smokeless industry. Unfortunate circumstances like the December 1999 IC 814 hijack are another bother. In retrospect, the Indian government’s decision to cancel all Indian Airlines flights to Nepal, following the hijack, had its repercussions. To cite an example, the first quarter of the year 2000 saw a drop of thirty-eight percent in the arrival of Indian tourists by air as compared to the preceding year.

Unfavourable incidents and the government’s lackadaisical approach are not the only reason for ringing the alarm. The private sector too has its shortcomings. Undercutting prevalent among trekking agencies, hotels, travel agencies, lodges, rafting agencies and even porters, has contribution towards the underselling of tourism products. Unlicensed operators, increasing number of low-budget backpackers, air safety concern are an addition to the ills.

But take note, Nepal’s tourism industry has its brighter side. The industry has indeed seen some remarkable development since its inception some forty-plus years back. Besides the homegrown trekking industry, there is a bevy of attractions such as kayaking, mountain biking, rafting, rock climbing, jungle safari, canoeing, paragliding, bungee jumping and ballooning that has grown and taken shape.

With the Himalayas that stand as a natural barrier in the north, Nepal has one of the best mountaineering offers in the world. Mt Everest, the tallest peak in the world, is of course the prize. With eight of the world’s ten highest mountains, Nepal not only has the best of attractions, but also attracts the best of mountaineers from the world over— the mountains are filled with heroic tales of success, failure and tragedy.

Indeed the tourism industry has undergone diversified growth. At one point concentrated on Durbar Squares, Pokhara or Chitwan, the industry is now trying to break free and diversify. Novel efforts have been put in to promote and project the one time Shangri-La in a more practical light. Similarly, Nepal has emerged as a hotbed for adventure tourism. Nepal’s popularity among international cinematographers too is on the rise. That the Imax movie Everest and the Oscar nominated Caravan—which turned out to be a marketing blessing-in-disguise—speak of that.

Nepal does have a wide variety of attractions from a high of 8,848 meters down to 70 meters above sea level. Thanks to Mother Nature the rugged and varied terrain is indeed a challenging and befitting ground for a wide variety of adventure and sports. The unfolding of ‘Trans Himalayan 2000’ in the Kingdom is a tell tale sign.

Rich variety of flora and fauna, the people, their (diverse) culture and religion call forth attraction and adulation. That is not all, however—inevitable there exists room for improvement. Like the Himalayas, Lumbini the birthplace of Lord Buddha could attract a larger number of pilgrims and tourists. Casinos too could bring in a fresh set of vacationers—as it stands, their reach has been limited to a few metropolises of the southern neighbour. Spectacular but less visited destinations like Shey-Phoksundo, Khaptad, Shree Antu and Kimathanka could be further exposed to tourism and access developed.

But to get to the crux of the matter, how so ever much one derives pleasure or feels free of responsibility in putting the blame on government shortsightedness, a growing sense of insecurity, bandhs or elsewhere, first-things-first it is us Nepalis who have to set our homes right. It is us who have to be sensitive and set our priorities right. If not, chances are ‘guest is god’ will remain a slogan and the industry starved.

Watch without battery

By Razen

Can you stop the time?" asked a teacher.

"Yes I can. I can remove the battery," a sharp student replied. A few would laugh if one tells this outdated joke today. This is not even a joke, but this can be turned it to a reality. You just need power and level of mentality to do that. If you have both, you can remove batteries of 23 million Nepalis at such a critical situation when all the people are running after the needles of the clocks.

We often read in state run newspapers that a big project is being launched to make an IT Park. IT must mean information technology, if I am right.

The undermetric ministers never get tired of reading out speeches that the world has become a small village, thanks to the modern information technology. That means they must know that it is impossible to block the World Wide Web.

However, the reality of this Himalayan Kingdom in the age of Pentium IV is still around the "removing- batteries" technique. The state media think that the whole of Nepali population will be easily blindfolded if they do not immediately announce the reality of something that is strong enough to shock the world. That is why all turned dumb as soon as they got the horrible news.

They might be celebrating their victory over the people's innocence when the "rumour" about the incident was the major topics in the Internet chatrooms, web newspapers, international radio stations and TV news. They were making hue and cry over it, quoting an responsible person from the government who remained tightlipped among the Nepali press. The telephone bells in almost all houses rang throughout the day.

I am not familiar with aeroplane dealings so I don't know exactly how many times one can travel around the globe in 16 hours. And I also don't know how far Baikuntha Manandhar can run in that long time. But I have come to know recently that the speed of our government's information technology runs at a speed that a page-full of information takes 16 minutes to travel from the Royal Palace to Singh Durbar which is just 300 metre away.

When the government media did it, they forgot all their speeches and press releases that advocated American style right to be informed. After all, our democracy is "only" a decade old and we all know that old habits die hard. No other but rightful persons can experience the pleasure of hiding the thing what millions of people want to know. Simple, our radio and the ministers thought that the people would not know about it until they were told in public. They just remove batteries from their wrist watch.

On that night, I was in deep sleep when my sister-in-law telephoned me from London and told me a story of a nightmare. Obviously, I could not believe it and remembered that we also have so-called rights to be informed and if anything like that is nearest to truth, our government would also do release it immediately, at least to conceal the flow or baseless rumours. But, in fact, I was in sleep and this incident helped me wake up.

The silent minority

By Kuldip Nayar

Our Muslim intelligentsia reminds me, at times, of the Nationalist Muslims before partition. They were so steadfast in their conviction to keep India united that they withstood the ridicule of the community. In the forefront were the bodies like Deoband Ulema and Ahrar-e-Islam, which are still run down in Pakistan.

Their argument against the subcontinent’s division was that as Muslims they were not prepared for a moment to give up their right to treat the whole of India as their domain and to share in the shaping of its political and economic life. To them, it seemed a sure sign of cowardice to give up what was their patrimony and content themselves with a mere fragment of it.

The Nationalist Muslims failed because they could not explain properly to their community the pernicious impact of partition on the Muslims outside Pakistan. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad predicted, "they (Muslims in India) awaken overnight and discover they have become alien
and foreigners. Backward industrially, educationally and economically, they will be left to the mercies of what would become an unadulterated Hindu Raj." Azad was helpless. The community did not listen to him.

The Muslim intelligentsia is probably feeling the same way. But it is making the same mistake of not penetrating the community. It must speak out and warn the community against the trend of organising itself into separate bodies of Muslims. Exclusive organisations for religious purposes are understandable but for political ends they will be suicidal. Parochial thinking will hurt the Muslims most because their number is small and strength limited. The Muslim intelligentsia and the Institute for Initiatives in Education did well in organising a meeting of Muslim scholars, writers, academicians and others some time ago.

The thesis, as spelled out in the invitation, is: Contemporary India continues to witness severe distortions of constitutional values, civility and social environment conducive to peaceful co-existence of social communities: intimidation of minority groups, saffronisation of education, burning of sacred books and periodic calls for Indianisation of social communities whose Indian credentials have been established for ages. Such distortions have challenged the capacity of social communities to exist in peace and amity and also slowed down the process of social reform in favour of equity, social justice and equality."

The organisers did not mince words when they said that the "time has come for the community and Muslim intelligentsia to address these issues before they are able to challenge the fabric of society and, in association with different cross-sections of India, work out a strategy of intervening in the current situation."

But the question that they have to answer is: What happened after similar conferences held earlier? There was no follow-up action. What the speakers at this meeting said about the plight of Muslims was largely true: lack of employment opportunities, lack of educational facilities and lack of justice. Practically every Muslim participant told the same tale of woe. They spelt out how they didn’t get their due. The solution they proposed of joining hands with non-Muslims and secular political parties sounded all right. They felt handicapped but not helpless.

It is welcome that their emphasis was on secularism, not on sectarianism. None of the Muslim speakers suggested a separate party for the community. None asked for reservations. None raised the sterile debate whether he was a Muslim first and Indian later. All favoured the participation of the community in secular activities, without bringing in religion. The message, which came loud and clear, was that religion should not be mixed with politics, a belated realisation by Pakistan Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf.

This meeting was in sharp contrast to an earlier seminar of some Muslim intellectuals I attended. They repeatedly demanded the formation of a separate Muslim political party to protect the interests of Muslims. One of the chairpersons, well versed in law, repeated the same arguments in his written speech as one had heard before partition. Once again religion and politics were presented as two sides of the same coin. Once again there was talk of separatism.

The thesis of most speakers at the earlier seminar was that Muslims should have a party of their own, which should fight for Muslims from a Muslim platform since nothing else had worked since independence. Probably true, but the way to correct it is wrong. Were the message of Muslims marshalling themselves as a community to spread, it would accelerate the process of polarisation and widen still further the gulf between Hindus and Muslims.

Since I was presiding over that seminar, I could not help intervening and saying that a communal approach would only help the pro-Hindutva forces to justify their parochial line. I admitted the difficulties the Muslims faced in the country, and that they had a point in agitating for the redress of their grievances. But my plea was that they should do so by joining hands with secular forces. I warned them that the philosophy of separatism would spell ruin and give the stamp of credibility to Hindu communalism. I must confess that the seminar left me cold.

I see no alternative to secularism except more secularism. Even if some Hindus go away from the path of secularism, the Muslim intelligentsia has to bring them back. Parochial thinking in a country which has a secular ethos is bad in approach and bad in content. It will be a counter-productive for Muslims. It may give rise to Hindu fascism. Muslims will come to grief if they adopt a communal approach -- as they did in Kanpur recently. Here the SIMI, a Muslim youth organisation, started the riots but paid heavily because the Hindu fundamentalists took over later and the police helped them.

One thing which I have painfully watched is that the Muslim intelligentsia does not generally speak out against fundamentalists among the Muslim community. Many Hindu liberals openly attack communalism of their community. Why not Muslims? It seems they are afraid of mullahs and maulvis. I find the same type of fear prevailing in Pakistan and Bangladesh as if the mullahs and the maulvis have the ear of the people. This is not true because they hardly get any seats in elections.

There is no doubt that Muslims, by and large, feel lost when they think of the future and wonder what is in store for their children. The only way to face the situation is to broaden the question and ask: What is the future of the children of any citizen? The answer then becomes simpler. It is not a question relating to only Muslims, but to all. This is so because the benefits of development are increasingly confined to the upper crust which is neither Hindu nor Muslim, it is just the upper crust.

Any reservation on the basis of religion will take us back to the days when there were separate electorates, making Hindus vote for a Hindu candidate and Muslims for a Muslim. The candidate’s party or proficiency did not count; the religion did. Religious zealots had a field day. India’s composite culture cannot afford that kind of atmosphere to return.

And I have not been able to understand the silence of the Muslim intelligentsia on the issues facing the country. It does not say anything when it comes to Kashmir or relations with Pakistan. Muslims are an integral part of the country. They are citizens of India. Their views are as important as those of others. By keeping quiet on the subjects tormenting the nation, they are not serving either the community or the country. India needs to know how the mind of the largest minority is ticking and how far the majority has succeeded in removing the mistrust and helplessness of Muslims.