I n d e p t h    A n a l y s i s
Anomalies hurt Monarchy

Kathmandu: Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa’s strategy is clear. His previous positions in and out of power should have made it clearer still. That his predictable standpoints were not foreseen points out to a glaring anomaly in our decision making process that has not surprisingly been put under scrutiny at this critical juncture of Nepali politics.

Prime Minister Thapa has said in clear words that his appointment is squarely the King’s responsibility. Last week, in bold words to the Nepali media Thapa says that only the "angel of death" (read YAM RAJ) can relieve him of his current post. The comparison with the use of the term Yam Raj to the person or institution that can dispense with him must be noted as an unfriendly threat since it is the King that will sack him.

In clear terms, if precedence of Thapa politics is any clue, Surya Bahadur Thapa will not resign. He has used these very words in explaining his position and in equally clear terms Thapa will exit by wreaking damage.

For those predicting his longevity, the scheduled SAARC Summit January 2004, becomes a landmark. As Chairperson of the SAARC, Thapa will logically be allowed to transfer the Chair at Islamabad also because he has toured the region in preparation of the event.

Those predicting his fall from power can’t but recall His Majesty King Gyanendra’s five point program last year charging the government formed under Article 127 with specific responsibilities for which the Thapa government has hardly succeeded.

Indeed, if his predecessor Lokendra Bahadur Chand resigned on grounds of his lack of success, Thapa should have done so at the very outset when his small unrepresentative cabinet could not woo participation from any other party. Lokendra’s cabinet had better representation despite the fact that the major mainstream parties outside the RPP and Sadbhavana refused to participate.

Thapa’s links with at least a section of the now agitating parties may no doubt have helped defuse the agitation itself. But the agitation hardly served to solve the Maoist problem and regardless of the subterranean linkages promising electoral participation, chances of peaceful elections taking place become remote.

Clearly thus, the appointment of Thapa to government has helped him, firstly, to organize for himself and secondly, to forge his linkages with the agitating parties for elections. All this at the expense of the King who has virtually been targeted by the agitators with no suitable response from a government appointed by the King. Those predicting his fall will have gazed this as adequate reason for his dismissal. None but the Thapa coterie have gained in the past months of his office. Of course, there is the non-transparent gains provided by Thapa to his "unseen" partners.

Continual discussions on the retention or dismissal of Thapa in the political media make the monarchy the unhealthy focus of current politics for which the Thapa government is squarely to be blamed. Until this dubious strategy is made to fail chances of real movement towards an effective solution will be made further remote. It was this crash partisanship in more overt terms over the years that helped accumulate the current problems in the very first place.

Indian annoyance over Madhav Nepal’s Lucknow secret trip

Kathmandu: Nepal’s traditional friend, India, better late than never admitted that the Nepali rebels do reside in India. However, in no way, explained India’s Ambassador to Nepal, His Excellency Shyam Saran that this should mean that India had been providing shelter to the Maoists in her territory.

Ambassador Shyan Saran’s candid explanation has come close on the heels of Madhav Nepal’s much publicized Lucknow trip to see Maoists leaders for which he was scathingly criticized by a section of the Nepali academia and the media as well.

In effect, the Indian embassy had made a sort of clarification wherein the diplomatic mission expressed its ignorance over Madhav Nepal’s Lucknow trip.

Now it is the Indian Ambassador himself who has politely appealed the Nepali leaders not to make such clandestine trip to India to meet the Maoists leaders.

" We do not approve of Indian territory being used for such clandestine meetings and we would urge that all concerned should refrain from such activities in future", said Ambassador Shyan Sharan talking to a select group of media people the other day.

Analysing Ambassador Saran’s quick explanation what comes to the fore is that Madhav Nepal, knowingly or unknowingly, did much damage to India’s declared neutral credentials by making a "secret" trip to Lucknow.

"India now wishes to repair the damage done by the UML leader", said one political scientist who is associated with the TU’s political science department.

To recall, Congress president Koirala is reported to have met the Maoists leaders while being in India to the extent that one time he dashed to Delhi straight from Hong Kong to see the Maoists leader. Yet another congress stalwart, Chakra Prasad Bastola reportedly meets very often the rebel leaders in India.

Madhav Nepal and a host of other communist leaders some two years ago met the top-hats of the insurgency in Siliguri, India. And this time Madhav Nepal went straight to Lucknow and met the members of the high command of the insurgency.

Ambassador Saran’s clarification has some political significance as well. The timing of the release of this explanation also apparently has some meaning.

His statement has come a couple of hours before the US Assistant Secretary of State, Ms. Christina Rocca, landed in Kathmandu for a four day visit to this Himalayan Kingdom.

However, Ambassador Saran is talking sense when he summarily disagrees to the general Nepali allegation that his country has provided shelter to the Nepali rebels. "Speculation about India’s intentions is based on a complete ignorance about ground realities", says Ambassador Saran.

That Indian intention is clear vis-à-vis the Maoists becomes clear when one reads the Ambassador’s clarification which says that "we have time and again said the Maoists insurgency represents as much a threat to India’s security as to Nepal’s and that we are committed to cooperating closely with Nepal in meeting this challenge".

Should this mean that India will now look upon the Nepali rebels in a different manner?

Ambassador Saran, however, implies that his establishment remains ignorant of the whereabouts of the Maoists leaders residing in India.

Summing up, what could now be concluded is that India did not pleasingly took Madhav Nepal’s secret visit to Lucknow. Secondly, India did admit, though hesitatingly, that Maoists rebels might have taken shelter in Indian territory. Thirdly, India has committed herself to cooperate Nepal in this regard. Fourthly, India if convinced by the Nepali authorities might extend her good-offices in mediating between the two warring rivals so that a permanent solution could be arrived at.

Analysts opine that annoying India at this juncture would do more damage than good to the prospects of talks in between the government and the Maoists. "Let’s seek Indian mediation and arrive at a solution to this overly stretched imbroglio", maintain analysts.

RPP not to split; disciplinary committee to submit petition to the monarch

-Narendra Choudhary, RPP

Kathmandu: The RPP is a mess at the moment.

Internal political rivalry has weakened the party from within and the squabbling appears will continue for long and will take its toll.

Clearly, two diametrically opposed theories prevail in the party.

The section led by the party chairman, Pashupati Rana has already demanded resignation from its party leader, Surya Bhadaur Thapa, on grounds that the leader has not been able to muster support for an all-party government as per the royal instructions.

Prime Minister Thapa says that he is not accountable to the party and that since he has been appointed straight by the monarch and thus he is only answerable to the King and the people.

His detractors in the party summarily reject Thapa’s new theory saying that King Gyanendra lifted Thapa’s ranks to the current post simply because he were a RPP leader.

Thapa dismisses this theory and has in clear terms hinted that no force on earth can unseat him from the current chair and that he can’t even imagine of tendering resignation.

Thapa’s blunt words have dismayed and frustrated the other camp which has been demanding his resignation unconditionally.

In the process, the party, say insiders, is experiencing a grave threat even to its existence as a party.

However, the lone Terai RPP’s elected leader and former Zonal Commissioner of the Bagmati zone, Mr. Narendra Kumar Choudhary, out-rightly rejects the notion that the RPP will see a vertical split on account of the present crisis.

Talking to this scribe Mr. Choudhary says: " The party will not split come what may. But then the prime minister should resign on the solid grounds that he has failed miserably in carrying out the instructions provided to him by the King at time of his appointment as the nation’s prime minister. He should comply to the demands of the majority of the party men in order to facilitate the formation of a sort of an all-party government which in essence is also the demand of the five agitating parties including the UML and the Congress".

Mr. Choudhary who is also a member of the disciplinary committee formed apparently to tame the Prime Minister says, Thapa’s reiterating that he is not a man picked up for the current post by the King from the party and hence he is not obliged to listen to the party’s dictates, is a mistaken thought nurtured by the Prime Minister.

Asked what if Thapa doesn’t resign, Choudhary says: " he has to resign or else the King would do the needful taking into consideration the RPP’s decision that is very much similar to the demands pushed by the five agitating parties".

Choudhary remains confident that Thapa will tender his resignation upon the completion of the SAARC events slated this January in Islamabad.

When asked how you think of the government’s plan to go in for elections at this troubled period, Choudhary opines that "since the situation is not favorable for obvious reasons and since the government has also not consulted the party in this regard, I think the whole affair pertaining to the elections is a political gimmick in order to ensure longer tenure in government".

Asked how the prime minister has responded to the party’s disciplinary committee, Choudhary says that the prime minister has assured the media men, instead the party, that he would respond to the queries of the said committee upon his return from Dhaka and Maldives. Thapa’s right hand man, minister Kamal Thapa, too has hinted that Prime Minister will reply the overtures of the RPP’s disciplinary committee.

This means that Thapa has demeaned the role of the party’s committee, which again means that Thapa cares little about the party directives.

When further pressed as to what if Thapa does not resign, Choudhary said that at best the party will submit a petition to the King reiterating that Thapa henceforth does not enjoy the party’s backing and support.

This would, adds Mr. Choudhary, apparently facilitate the King to go in search for yet another prime minister who could form an all-party government at the center which is today’s need.

Tenth phase of agitation begins; Koirala not to tame his cadres

Kathmandu: The agitation of the five party alliances against what they call "regression" has entered its tenth phase beginning Tuesday.

The first day of the tenth phase of the agitation saw massive demonstrations in central Kathmandu wherein the agitators demanded the King to yield to their demands or else threatened the monarch that they could go to any extent in order to press the King to yield.

The first day of the agitation that began Tuesday also coincided with the arrival of the US dignitary Ms. Christina Rocca, the Assistant Secretary of State in Kathmandu. Undeniably, the visiting US authority must have seen herself the crowd sponsored by the agitators against the King’s October 4 moves or been briefed by her colleagues at the embassy about the very raison d’être of the tenth phase of the agitation. She is scheduled to meet the leaders of the political parties now in agitation.

The tenth phase of the agitation has begun at a time when the agitators have been told in bold terms by the incumbent prime minister that he would not resign at any circumstances.

The agitators demand Thapa’s resignation so that an all-party government to be headed by one among the leaders now engaged in the agitation could be formed.

Prime Minister Thapa says he will not resign come what may.

Thapa’s blunt statement has further irritated the agitating parties who now see Thapa as a hurdle in their agenda for the formation of an all party government. The ultimate pressure is on the King. The parties hint that it should be the King who himself take the initiative and sack Thapa in the larger interest of the nation.

Thapa is already on a foreign tour.

Thapa’s no to resignation and King’s silence to their political overtures, the agitating parties appear now determined to go ahead with their demonstrations ad infinitum.

The commander of the five party alliance, President Koirala, has hinted that he will henceforth not tame his cadres even if they criticised the monarchy and favored republicanism.

Koirala’s new stance does hint that he is all prepared to face the consequences even if his cadres went against the institution of the monarchy. This means that to a greater extent Koirala’s line of thinking find some similarity in the demands of the Maoists who champion the cause for a republican state in Nepal. Should this mean that at some point of time Koirala could join the hands of the Maoists and vice versa in order to press the King?

Madhav Nepal has kept away from Koirala’s newly acquired line. He still believes in consensus and has in the process been initiating dialogues with the Maoists, the constitution abiding forces and the King. He has, however, failed yet to pay a courtesy call on King Gyanendra.

The Maoists’ have yet to spell their mind as to how they take Koirala’s new line of political thinking.

The King definitely is hard pressed. That national and international pressure on him is increasing becomes clear from the suggestions arriving here from various democratic countries for the restoration of the derailed democratic order and the constitution.

To recall, Germany, France, the EU and very recently Australia have suggested the Nepali establishment to go in for a sort of representative government in the country.

Add to this, Sher Bahadur Deuba Monday told that the nation’s present political stalemate would come down to half the moment the King accommodates himself in the limits of the 1990 constitution.

Deuba, however, appeals the King and the political parties to come together and sort out the problems confronting the nation of late.

The King must act fast, suggest independent political analysts here.

Effective Urban governance needs social and political integration

Kathmandu: The Municipal Association of Nepal, MuAN, and the German Foundation, the FES, organized a one-day training program on ""ender Sensitization in the Municipal Governance" here on December 13, 2003.

Altogether, 65 municipal authority from ten different districts attended the training course, it is learnt.

The chiefs from MuAN, National Association of Village Development Committee, NAVIN, and Association of District Development Committees of Nepal, ADDCN, joint Secretaries of the ministry of Local Development and Social Welfare Ministry participated in the meeting.

The meeting focused on the achievements in the field’s of women’s promotion, obstacles faced by duly elected women representatives, the need for essential reforms in legal fields and the challenged ahead.

The preconditions for gender-balanced urban governance formulated by the participants were: increasing the number of women in executive committees; strengthening of their participation through political, economic and administrative devolution of power, capacity building or elected and nominated women and development of an indicator oriented monitoring system. Unless women achieve parity "protective discrimination" should be continued seeking women’s increased representation in the local and the national governance.

Speaking from the chair, the president of ADDCN, Krishna Prasad Sapkota viewed that "there should be an equilibrium system between reservation for women and their competitiveness.

"Reservation does not guarantee political will, what is required now is political will among the women to participate in public life of the society", said Sapkota.

Som Lal Dubadi, Joint Secretary, MLD, highlighted the government’s efforts towards making gender sensitive development. Dhruba Khadka, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare sought the cooperation of the civil society in making the urban governance effective to suit to the demands of the day.

Dev Raj Dahal, the head of Nepal Office of the FES argued: " Urban governance is polycentric encompassing many competing and often overlapping centers of decision making in which MuAN shares one civic space along with a number of women’s organizations.

"Its effectiveness lies in applying the principles of subsidiary that is linking its local members to decision-making level and generating a system of check and balance between macro and micro institutions of governance", said Mr. Dahal.

The capacity of the MuAN, according to Dahal, becomes stronger if there is an equal social and political integration of male and female in urban governance and capturing the development synergy that is both just and sustainable.

Three papers in all were presented on the occasion. Ms. Chandra Kala Sonar dwelt on Concept of Gender; Hari Phuyal on Application of Gender on Municipal Governance:; A legal Perspective and the Ms. Puspa Ghimire made her presentation on Gender Sensitization on Urban Governance.

Korean traditional performance in Kathamdnu

Kathmandu: The Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Park Sang-hoon said December 12 last week that Korea’s traditional performing arts were its precious cultural heritage accumulated throughout the long history of the formation of Korea.

Ambassador Park made these observations while speaking at a Korean Cultural Program "Korean Traditional Performance-2003" organized by his own diplomatic mission in Kathmandu.

Dwelling on the event, the Ambassador opined that Korea’s traditional music and dance reflected his nation’s cultural identity as well as Korean people’s lives and passions. He hoped that the performance would go a long way in understanding each other’s culture and history better.

The Korean performers, mostly in their prime youth, stunned the spectators with their smart, measured , swift and ear-pleasing sound of the drums.

The dance, the fan dance called Buchaechum was very attractive. The orchestral music called Samul-nori apparently was judged by the audience as the best among the items presented at the Birendra auditorium. While Pan-gut mesmerized the spectators, the other item called Pansori too was equally interesting.

The Korean performers belonged to Chongdong Traditional Arts Troupe, Korea.

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