Off The Record (Spotlight Weekly)

Color Of Envy

Nepali Congress supremo Girija Prasad Koirala is turning greener with envy with each passing day. Although he holds the record of having lived the longest in the commanding premises of Baluwatar since the restoration of democracy in 1990, it is his disciple Sher Bahadur Deuba who is getting international attention. Two years ago, Koirala reportedly admonished Nepalese embassy staffers in Washington for not being able to fix him an appointment at the White House during his visit to the United States as prime minister. It must have difficult indeed for the ex-premier to even contemplate his one-time prot holding talks with President George W. Bush at the Oval Office and Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street.

Losing Steam

The poor turnout at the all-party mass meeting at the Tundikhel Open Theater last week suggests how disenchanted the people have become with their political leaders. Those who stayed away clearly showed they had had enough of the leaders' ranting. Unfortunately, for Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala and UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, this meant they are fast losing steam. While Koirala, Nepal and other leaders are itching to oust the Sher Bahadur Deuba government, the premier has been gaining strength, nationally as well as internationally. There does not seem to be any popular outcry against Deuba's policies at the moment. Moreover, he has been receiving all the international support he could possibly get. Add to that the rapport the prime minister has built with the security establishment and you can easily see the picture of a reinvigorated Deuba. No wonder, he can confidently reject the idea of resuming peace talks with the Maoists before they laid down their arms.

Nepal : Bitter experience

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba never tires of accusing the Maoists of betraying him. One can, therefore, understand why he promptly rejected the Maoists' call for a truce, which the rebels later disowned. However, the Maoists' dilly-dallying seems to have alerted the entire political establishment. That is why no political leader wholeheartedly welcomed the letters sent by Prachanda. Instead, they threw the ball back into the Maoist court, saying the onus lay on the rebels to prove their sincerity. Prachanda must be quite concerned with the rapidly diminishing credibility of his organization among the political establishment and the public, which must have forced him to write those letters.

Dubious Stand

The Maoist attack on the Mahendra Sanskrit University in Dang last week exposed the dubious stand of the rebel group. A few months ago, a senior Maoist leader was quoted in an Indian newspaper, Amar Ujala, as saying his organization supported the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the chief Maoist negotiator in the failed talks with the government last year, also pledged the support of the Maoists to the construction campaign. Now guerrillas from his own organization have destroyed Nepal's only Sanskrit university. How could the rebels be so blatant in their opportunism?

Panic In Kollywood

Concerned by thinning audiences at theaters, the entire Nepalese film industry organized an exhibition to boost turnout. Ever since the imposition of the state of emergency, the Nepalese film sector has suffered. Sensing that the ship was about to sink, producers, directors, musicians and artistes have joined hands in appealing to the public to return to the theaters. The sight of the likes of Rajesh Hamal and Niruta Singh persuading the public instead of running around trees in some scenic locale perhaps indicates how bad things have become.