Another Tragedy

COMING as it does after the terrible Royal Palace tragedy on June 1 earlier this year, when Nepal lost Their late Majesties King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya and other members of the royal family, the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Prekshya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah in a helicopter crash Monday comes as another deep shock. Princess Prekshya, who was on board a Fishtail Air helicopter along with five others, was killed when the chopper crashed into Rara Lake in Mugu district as it took off from the vicinity of the lake for Nepalgunj. Two of the passengers, Her Royal Highness’s personal physician and personal attendant, have survived while three others including the pilot are still missing and are presumed dead. The search for the missing continued on Tuesday. Princess Prekshya, who was only 49, leaves behind three daughters, who lost their father in the June tragedy.

In the untimely death of Her Royal Highness Princess Prekshya, Nepalis have lost not only a member of the beloved royal family once again so soon after the horrendous, unimaginable incident of June 1, but also a person who had for long been active in social service, apart from serving in the Raj Sabha and Nepal Scouts. Princess Prekshya served with competence in two crucial areas of national life: family planning and children’s welfare. As head of the Family Planning Association of Nepal and also Nepal Children’s Organisation, her contributions to population control and health, and children’s welfare have been well noted. The helicopter crash in Rara Lake also brings to the fore the aviation mishaps that Nepal unfortunately seems to witness regularly. Thanks to the ‘open-skies’ policy in the airlines industry since the early Nineties, the domestic aviation industry has grown by leaps and bounds. And, unfortunately, the number of air crashes has also gone up. Accidents do happen, but it is plain that Nepal has gotten an unfair share of air crashes over the years as Nepalese skies see more and more aircraft plying different routes. Every time there is an air mishap, investigations are carried out to pinpoint the reasons for the accident. An investigation no doubt is being made into this latest crash too. The results of such investigations must be considered and a better mechanism to ensure air safety must come forth. From airworthiness of aircraft to pilots’ competence to the tendency of airline operators to cut corners (especially in times like the present when the industry is not doing too well)—all aspects of airlines industry must be examined closely. And all the possible measures should be put in place for flying safe.

Peace Must Prevail

THE third round of peace talks between the government and the Maoists, which as promised by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba held before the Tihar festival, is expected to give a fresh impetus to bringing normalcy in the country. There are high hopes that the protracted bloodshed resulting from the Maoist-Police confrontation will be put to an end once and for ever. Hopes have risen especially because the Maoist leadership has shelved one of its major demand i.e. the demand for a Republican state. This very demand had stood out as a major stumbling block in the way of first initiating and then making a success of the peace talks. Now that the demand has been abandoned, there is the likelihood that the government will have more breathing space to convince the Maoists to strike a reasonable negotiation regarding other demands. The government in the recent days has exercised an optimum level of self restraint and also taken a liberal stance by taking back the criminal charges filed against a large number of Maoist cadres. It is hoped that this flexible attitude of the government will be reciprocated by the Maoists in the line of coming to a point of negotiation. Going by the conduct of the Maoists, recent activities show that they have still not been true to their words and have violated the truce repeatedly. It must be reiterated here that the Maoists must not go out of the way to violate the truce. It would certainly be a victory for the entire country if the talks could culminate into peace in the real sense. Nepalese are widely known to be peace loving people. But the past five years have left a negative impact as the Maoist sponsored violence resulted in an unprecedented loss to the nation crippling the national economy and defaming the clean and peaceful image of Nepal. With the third round of talks already gathering steam, there are ample reasons to believe that it will break the ice for peace to prevail in the days ahead. Peace is predominantly the need of the hour for a small country like Nepal and it can be hoped this will be achieved by the presently ongoing talks.