I n d e p t h    A n a l y s i s
King set for more change?

Kathmandu: As the schism grows between the King and the public standpoints of the Nepali Congress and the UML, criticism of the monarchy is getting more shrill. His Majesty has chosen to undertake his trip to Biratnagar for a citizen’s felicitation at this time. Underscoring the significance of the timing, the King’s critics have gone harsher still. It is likely that His Majesty will make similar, picked appearances evidently ignoring the party concerns. For the public at large the hue and cry the politicians are making over His Majesty’s public appearances become more a matter of concern on the actual distance of our political parties from the general public psyche. The people after all reserve the right to felicitate their King.

It is this usurpation of the citizen’s sovereign rights by the political organizations that, indirectly, appears to be underscored in current Nepali politics. The country is in the midst of a civil war and a constitutional crisis which the politicians in the name of democracy are willing to ignore for petty political gains. It has been clear over the years that our political organizations have demonstrated their inability to cope with these problems and indeed have contributed extensively to the making of these problems and have so blatantly resisted any real attempts to bring the problems under control. Of late the stand points of the political parties have been mirrored in the partisan media. While the mass public sentiments have tuned skeptic on these activities.

The concern lies as much in the growing distance between the King and political parties as in the seeming inevitability of an approaching crunch. The king has nowhere top move but forward and any forward and any forward motion on part of the king is likely to result in further distancing the monarch from the political organizations that chose to oppose his move to untie the knot in which our political leaders have entangled the country.

Concern also lies over the seeming slow pace of a government dominated by the public at large from the Royal move. It is this that suggests that more changes imminent and that the source of change will be the king and not the parliamentary parties.

South Asian scholars advocate SAARC-China ties at the earliest

Kathmandu: A group of eminent South Asian scholars voiced their concern over the snail-pace of the SAARC process and wished that the latter also initiated its contacts with China so that all the seven countries housed in the SAARC benefit from its association with China and vice versa.

:There has got to be a structured mechanism to proceed in this direction", opined the scholars converged in Nepal’s capital Monday morning at the Hotel Radission.

The scholars expressed these remarks at a program organised by the China Study Center on the theme "SAARC and China".

At the inaugural session of the seminar, Dr. Mohan Prasad Lohani—the coordinator of the seminar, said that both South Asian countries and the People’s Republic of China can afford to ignore each other and suggested both to exploit each other’s vast markets.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, T.N.Bhat said that the cooperation between the SAARC member States and China will give the "much needed boost" to the issues of our common "concern".

The Chairman of the Center, Madan Regmi, opined that China has the capability and necessary potentialities for the establishment of a viable and beneficial linkage between SAARC and China.

"China at the same time has come forward on several occasions as one of the willing and interested countries to establish cooperative relations with SAARC", Regmi added.

From the Chair, Ambassador Y. K. Silwal proposed a linkage in between SAARC and China and said that "such a linkage, once it starts to work, will have a profound impact not only in boosting trade, investment and economic cooperation but also in creating a climate of confidence and strengthening good neighborly ties in the overall bilateral relations between not only India and China but among the various countries in South Asia".

Dr. Upendra Gautam, the Secretary General of the China Study Center hoped that "due association of SAARC with China would surely fill in the missing link" and added that a structured mechanism should be devised in order to establish a working and profitable association in between the two, the SAARC and China.

Presenting his paper, Mr. Abul Ahsen, the former SAARC Secretary General, said that since China enjoys relations of warmth and friendship with many South Asian countries and relations with others are also improving and hence naturally closer links with China through institutional framework will be beneficial to both the sides".

A Chinese research scholar M.A Jiali maintained that China hopes to develop good relations with the South Asian countries and SAARC.

"We would like to contribute to the development and progress in South Asia and suggested that we all should seriously study the question of how to improve the welfare of the people living in this land mass including China", added the Chinese scholar.

In the same vein, Mr. Jiali himself provided the answer to his own question by saying that the answer lay in the good relationship between the 1.3 billion Chinese and 1.3 billion South Asians.

Likewise a Sri Lankan professor Mr. Bertram Bastiampillai expressed his view that "more relevantly to the SAARC as a regional entity, China’s significance more so than that of the United States and Russia can’t be overlooked and with increasing expanding regionalism, nay even globalization, China is vital to South Asia".

Ambassador Niaz a. Naik from Pakistan pushed the idea of having a separate regional grouping with China, B’desh, Nepal and Pakistan which if materialised, added Ambassador Niaz Naik as "highly desirable and profitable".

The mood of the seminar participants appeared very positive and they all wished that the China cooperated with the SAARC and vice versa.

UML shelves the idea of a confrontation with the King!

Kathmandu: Nepali politics continues to remain stagnant.

Neither the constitutional monarch has yielded to the dictates of the major political parties nor the latter has changed its negative stance acquired against the former.

This in effect has made the politics stagnant. In the process the marginalised population who neither have exhibited their "love" for the King’s October 4 move nor have applauded the political parties aggressive posture taken against the King, remain under sheer confusion which apparently will continue for long for obvious reasons.

Caring little about the political parties’ hue and cry over the King’s proposed trip to Biratnagar, the King is all set to go there and accept the felicitations from the people of that area.

To recall, of late there has been a debate in the Kingdom on whether the King at time of crisis should have gone to Biratnagar to be felicitated by the citizens there or should have remained in the capital and worked for easing the current crisis in cooperation with the parliamentary parties?

Some even outrightly say that the King too wishes to hint the political parties that he too can collect huge crowds thereby hinting the other side that a sizeable chunk of the Nepali population were with him.

"The King is trying for initiating unhealthy competition with political parties", said an angry Bam Dev Gautam the other day in Kathmandu. Mr. Gautam was referring to the King’s trip to Biratnagar where the latter is being felicitated by the locales there.

According to Gautam, the King has so far done nothing that deserved felicitation and hence he should have avoided the proposed trip to Biratnagar.

To recall, Bam Dev is the one among the crowd of many in Nepal who is yet to receive a Royal audience. In effect Mr. Gautam expected a Royal audience immediately after the monarch received Koirala and Madhav Nepal only recently.

All said and done, it has been noticed that there has been a marked change in the country’s politics in the recent days.

The political parties who had threatened the King that they would soon begin a sort of joint movement against the October 4 Royal move until the King corrected his "unconstitutional and undemocratic" step appears to have given second thought to their former fiery declaration.

For example, the UML has shelved for the moment the idea of waging a movement against the King on grounds of its approaching General Convention which it maintains to be very important than proceeding with the joint struggle against the King.

This is a clear case of buying time say informed analysts.

In effect, the UML changed its stance of confronting the King the day Madhav Nepal met the King at the Palace a fortnight ago.

A fiery Mr. Nepal upon his return from the Palace instantly softened his stance and apparently told his boys not to rush to any conclusions. A scheme was devised apparently which came in the form of conducting the General Convention first.

A frustrated Girija Prasad Koirala meets the King and expressed his concerns. The King apparently convinces him of his strong commitments for the democratic system during the tete-e-tete and a beaming Koirala confides with his colleagues that the King would soon correct his what he calls mistakes.

The Monarch does not yield which makes Koirala angry which is very much understandable.

" During my several meetings with the monarch, I have found in him strong commitments for the system which makes me to believe his explanations but things do not change at all. This is where I get confused", is what Koirala says now.

The Congress-Girija has become bit idle these days apparently because the supreme top-hat is at the moment in Delhi.

Sources close to him say that Girija is in New Delhi to attend the marriage ceremony of one of his close relative. This could be trues but then the sudden disappearance of Koirala from Kathmandu and that too at a time when the country needed his support is considered to be mysterious.

Apart from the marriage ceremony, analysts believe that Koirala will have met with some top Indian leaders and appraise them all with the Nepal developments since October 4.

If Girija meets the Indian leaders then what is for sure is that he will speak their voices which Nepali analysts will easily recognize.

Some even say that Girija’s New Delhi trip this time will allow him to refresh his old contacts with Comrade Prachanda.

This is guessed because the two political leaders belonging to two diametrically opposed camps made tip-to-toe similar statements. Surprising though it may appear but the fact is that both at different intervals of time in the recent days ( it should have been well within a week or so) spoke of "bringing the nation’s armed forces under the control of the parliament".

What a strikingly similar statement.

In effect the similarity in their statements has been forcing Nepali intellectuals to establish a link in between the two diametrically opposed political paraphernalia.

However, the analysts have yet to substantiate their imaginary claims.

The rest of the smaller parties continue to be in confusion on whether to side with the King’s move or toe the lines acquired by Girija or Madhav Nepal. However, a fear is also haunting them all along and that being the chances of some extra-territorial forces prompting the political parties in destabilizing the nation which will allow them to fish in the Nepal’s troubled waters.

Killing two birds with one stone
RPP wishes a "more influential monarch"

Kathmandu: The newly elected chairman of the RPP, Mr. Pashupati Rana, is hitting the media headlines these days.

The reasons are clear because he wishes to give a new and dynamic shape to the party which he heads at the moment and also speaks that time permitting if every thing went smoothly then his party can easily replace the Nepali congress.

Talking to a broadsheet English daily Monday, Mr. Rana has his own logic. He maintains that since the congress has become fairly "unpopular" for obvious reasons and that the recent split in the party has further weakened the congress which in all probability would increase his party’s chances of replacing the congress at time of the elections.

In effect, this is a fact because it is the congress and congress alone which is excessively unpopular because most of the years after the restoration of this order this party remained in power and exhibited its disgusting lust for power and money and distorted the norms and the established values of democracy. With the split indeed the Congress is now stands like a sinking horse.

Likewise, Rana’s claim that if the Maoists wish to enter into the national mainstream, they will cut the votes of the UML only. This is also true given the nature and the dogmatic ideas these two political parties adhere to.

If Rana’s assertions were correct then the UML will apparently never wish that the Maoists come to the mainstream and fight elections. That could be a sort of Harakiri for the UML, opine analysts.

Look how the new RPP chairman supports his claim, (sic) "If the Maoists come to the mainstream, the vote they will cut will be those of the UML but our party’s competition is with the congress. The UML’s competition is with the Maoists. So in that scenario when the Maoists come into the mainstream and cut the UML vote and the congress is unpopular, I think there is room to replace the Nepali congress".

The confidence with which he forwards his presumptions deserves deep analysis. But what is the guarantee that politics will proceed Rana’s way?

In the same interview, Mr. Pashupati Rana, also makes it clear that the RPP henceforth will wish that the constitutional monarch played an "influential" role in the national politics. But he defends his case by saying that it doesn’t mean that he favors a role for the monarch outside the constitution. However, this also means that Mr. Rana will not disagree with the October 4 Royal move and might differ with the rest of the political parties who have been demanding the King to correct his previous "unconstitutional" moves.

Rana claims that his championing a more influential role for the King at the moment were not a new proposition but instead his party had already passed a resolution some months back that stated that "in times of crisis the king needs to pay a more influential role".

Now it remains to be seen how his party colleagues take Rana’s views in the impending days. However, what is for sure is that Rana will steer the party in a way he wishes.

Summing up Rana’s interview, what could be guessed is that Rana’s party would wish to see a further weakened congress and that it would also prompt, directly or indirectly, the Maoists to enter into the mainstream politics.

Is it a ploy to weaken the congress and the UML concurrently? In politics and in war every tactics adopted is fair perhaps.

Media seminar on Youth, Media and Democracy

Kathmandu: The Telegraph Weekly in cooperation with the German Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, is organizing a media seminar this Friday.

The topic of the seminar is "Youth, Media and Democracy".

Those who will be presenting their working papers are Dr. Krishna Bhattachan and Professor Dr. Ram Kumar Dahal. Both of these scholars are associated with the Tribhuban University. While Dr. Bhattachan is a highly respected and renowned Sociologist, Dr. Dahal is equally a competent authority in the discipline of Political Science.

The two sessions of the one-day seminar are being chaired respectively by Professor Habibullah and Mr. Shrish Rana.

Habibullah is currently the Head of the Political Science department at the TU. Mr. Rana is a widely recognized political analyst .

Ms. Constance Jones, the Public Relations Officer at the US Embassy and the Director at the USIA has kindly consented to be the chief guest during the inaugural session of the seminar.

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