I n d e p t h    A n a l y s i s
Cashing in on the new mood!

Kathmandu: The aftermath of the King’s eastern regional tour and his public speech has as expected provoked considerations among the political parties which oppose his current measures. Among other things, thew largest such party, the Girija Congress, would seem willing to positively consider the democratic aspects of HM’s speech and as was expected Girija babu blew hot and cold in his Burwal gathering this Monday on the subject. Also, the triangular fight in the UML among Nepal, Woli and Bam Dev has taken up the Palace as an issue and it is unlikely that the Biratnagar event will be ignored outright at Janakpur UML bash early next month.

These reactions by themselves portray the significance of the King’s Biratnagar move and s its success. At the mass level, the signal clear. The political organizations can ion no way use the strength of their organizations can in no way use the strength of their organizations to ramrod opposition to the Royal move. They must moreover, prepare for the coming elections which the king has charged the government to facilitate in order to restore multi-party democracy.

Criticism of the Biratnagar gathering border on the mundane and the superfluous. Despite the skepticism the gathering was sizeable and spontaneous. This, despite the party’s concerning to sabotage the gathering itself. Moreover, for the first time in over a decade, the public mover outright ignored the call of a "Bundh". Significantly, the first major public gesture chose to ignore none other than the Maoists. Reversals these opposition strategies are clear and so, to the feeble jousts of skepticism.

At another plane, the King has personally chosen to appeal to his people to cooperate in his attempts to check the tide of national failures and he has chosen to assume the world publicly of his commitment to democracy and good governance. Its significance will not be lost on the opposition.

One escape has been for government. It is the government that must deliver the king’s to his people. It is not for nothing that the opposition find easy meat in hitting at government performance as a means to oppose the Royal move. His Majesty’s instructions to government, to his accompanying Prime Minister make the new mood more than obvious. The people are expectant. Who will cash in on the new mood is yet to be seen.

King’s Biratnagar speech; interpretations galore

Kathmandu: Nepal’s political analysts have interpreted King’s Biratnagar speech made last week in different ways. So have the political parties done.

However, our own analysis too is different from the others.

The King through his address has abundantly made it clear to the political parties that "whatever he did on October 4 and henceforth were totally in line with the constitution and that he will not budge an inch from his standpoints come what may".

To put it mildly, the King amply reflected his desire to remain in the center-stage of the country’s politics and that he would do so despite the hullabaloo being made by various political parties against the monarchy.

It also becomes amply clear from His Majesty’s Biratnagar speech that he would wish a sort of unity in and among all the potential political actors including the Maoists in order to restore peace and strengthen the system now in place.

His Majesty, however, has not spelt out as to who, the government or for that matter the King himself, will take up the lead in bringing all the political actors of the nation together.

But then yet the speech does hint that there is a hidden desire of the King to take up the lead should the political parties wish him to act in that regard. This latent desire of the constitutional monarch has come at a time when the Maoists insurgents too have been demanding a sort of round-table conference be held comprising of all the political parties including the Maoists representatives and indeed King’s nominee.

Should this mean that the Biratnagar speech has more to lure the Maoists rather than the disgruntled political parties, for example, the Congress, the UML and a host of other minor parties who have of late been ventilating their anger towards the King for his what they call the unconstitutional acts of October 4 and henceforth.

If this is so then what also comes to the fore is that the King too apparently has understood the fact that the government under Lokendra Bahadur Chand was no less than a sinking horse and so if Nepali politics were to take a positive turn then it should be the Monarch himself who must take the lead. Our own high-placed sources claim that the King has already used his channels in order to bring the Maoists to the table. Indications to this effect have already been made available to the public by some two HR activists who have admitted that undercurrent efforts were on in this regard.

Among other things, the King’s Biratnagar speech also makes it amply clear that he will not settle for less this time with the corrupts more so in the political sector. The King wishes to make rooting-out corruption as an agenda which concurrently means that he will impress the government of Chand to initiate penal actions against those political leaders who have amassed wealth during these "democratic" years.

If this is so then what is for sure is that president Koirala awaits interrogations by the CIAA and other competent law enforcement agencies which mainly deal with corruption. This should apply to other leaders who have been considered to be corrupts by the national population, civic society and by the media men.

All in all, the King’s speech clearly hints that: a) the King wishes to assert power; b) the King would use his own channels in bringing the Maoists to the talks; c) the King will not let the corrupts go scot-free; d) the King will not give much attention to the leaders’ utterances being made against him of late and above all, these things he would do by exhibiting his full and total commitment to the system.

It appears that the King would wish to see his position as half active, and half constitutional monarch.

How the things unfold in the impending days will shed more lights on the latent desires of the King.

Girija determined to put pressure on King

Kathmandu: The president of the splinter congress, Girija Prasad Koirala, appears determined to continue his tirade against the Nepali monarchy which he initiated right after the King assumed the executive powers of the State and formed a government under Lokendra Bahadur Chand on October 4 last year.

However, analysts remained puzzled over Koirala’s acquiring a rather mild posture against the monarchy when the latter made a fervent appeal to the political parties in Biratnagar to unite in the larger interest of the nation. But this was not to continue for long.

President Koirala took an abrupt turn in Butwal Monday wherein he said at a gathering that the NC led movement against the monarch would continue ad infinitum till the monarch corrected his measures that according to Koirala amounted to unconstitutional and undemocratic.

In the process of his speech in Butwal, Koirala alleged that the King on the one hand appeals the political parties to unite in order to sort out the national issues amicably, on the other the King appears busy in bringing about fissures in and among various political parties so that the parties finally disintegrated.

That Koirala’s anger has not subsided to the desired extent could be gauged by his implied hint which he made in Butwal gathering that the monarch had been leading the regressive forces of the country.

Analysing Koirala’s scathing criticisms against the monarchy, what could be easily guessed is that he and his splinter congress will continue to deride the King for an indefinite period.

But whether his flagrant utterances being made against the King will yield positive results or not will have to be watched.

Significantly, Koirala in the recent months has spoken all the bad words for the monarch but surprisingly enough nothing of the sort of a retaliation from the other camp has so far been noticed save the monarch’s speech in Biratnagar at one point hints that no political parties or for that matter leaders should nurture extra ambitions and lust for power which ultimately pushes the country to danger.

Here apparently the word "lust for power" has been used for Koirala, analysts interpret.

All said and done, it would be interesting to watch the impending Koirala moves that will all be aimed at forcing the King to yield. It would be equally interesting to watch how the King reacts to Koirala’s and his party’s political overtures. It would also be interesting to see as to on which grounds and conditions, the rest of the democratic forces including the UML join the Koirala’s crusade against the King.

It is in this light the RPP’s new role has got to be seen. To recall, while the parties like the congress and the UML have taken very lightly the King’s Biratnagar speech suggesting that nothing very special for them was in the said speech, then the RPPs newly elected chairman, Mr. Pashupati Rana, maintains that the King’s address was not only forward looking but also contained meaning loaded hints.

Madhav Nepal and Woli sharply differ

Kathmandu: The UML which is busy in finalizing its agenda to be submitted at its February convention in Janakpur is plagued by a new "disease".

Most of the high ranking UML leaders now have started suspecting the very credentials of their own comrade-in-arms.

The disease is related with the Palace. Top-hats of the UML who differ with each other either on ideological grounds or even on matters pertaining to the "status" of the other contender have begun mud-slinging onto the other.

To come to the point, there has been a marathon in dubbing the other nearest arch political rival as being close to the "Palace". In doing so, each wishes to declare the other as a man of the Palace and wield power of the high rank in the approaching convention.

Madhav Nepal and K.P.Sharma Woli are such two good names who have waged a crusade against each other. These two personalities are on record to have deep and never ending animosity with each other.

Only recently, Madhav Nepal accused Woli indirectly to have initiated hob-nobbing with a Palace that acted unconstitutionally beginning October 4 last year. To recall, Woli was granted a Royal audience at a time when the party General-Secretary Monsieur Madhav Nepal was on a foreign tour of Colombo supposedly at the invitation of Jana Vimukti Peramuna, JVP. This definitely infuriated the party boss to the extent that he lost no time in deriding at his nearest-dearest arch political foe—Woli.

Woli too retorted with equal force and this he did right at the ongoing party meeting that is finalising agenda to be pushed at the Janakpur convention.

Woli in essence said that the party and the boss, implied Madhav Nepal, exhibited its mild gesture for the King’s recent political moves. Woli questioned the very motives hidden in the political draft paper prepared by Madhav Nepal which remained silent on the King’s moves. In other words, Woli injected among his fellow-colleagues that it was Madhav Nepal, and not him, who were close to the Palace.

The problem is that both Woli and Madhav enjoy sizeable numerical strength in the UML’s standing and the central committee which does not allow both to out maneuver the other. The process though is on but it would take some more time to ascertain as to who commanded real power in the UML.

Observers believe that at the end of the game it would be Madhav who will have out-maneuvered his political foe—Woli. Insiders of the UML say that Madhav is far clever than Woli and also enjoys foreign support, comparatively speaking.

The other equally competent UML leader, Bam Dev Gautam too presumably preparing himself for the GS candidacy and has been demanding greater democracy in the functioning of the party'. According to this leader, UML is not that transparent in its functioning at it should have been. In saying so, he is hinting at the fact that Madhav Nepal has been steering the party in his whims.

All put together, what could be said is that the Janakpur convention of the UML will not be an easy cake-walk for Madhav Nepal.

Peace talks to resume this week….

Kathmandu: The Maoists insurgency is not in the news because they apparently have not issued any statements regarding the unfolding events specially after the King’s Biratnagar speech.

The insurgency is yet to forward their comments on the King’s freshly concluded Biratnagar trip and the speech that the monarch made there.

However, what is for sure is that the Maoists’s sponsored Bundh that coincided with the day the King was to be felicitated did little to hinder the felicitation program.

Moreover, the Maoists insurgency is supposed to have received a set-back when in the process of making the King’s sojourn in Biratnagar a safe and secured one, the security personnel apprehended a few hundreds of activists which sources in Biratnagar say belonged to the insurgency.

This if true then it must have come as a shock to the insurgency because if on the one hand they could not affect the felicitation program of the King by their declared Bundh, on the other they apparently lost some of their hardcore cadres. Reports say that one high ranking Maoists insurgency leader, some one called Rajbanshi, was apprehended much ahead of the King’s Biratnagar trip in Jhapa district. Civilians arriving from Jhapa say that had Mr. Rajbanshi been not apprehended, would have caused certainly some irritation to the security personnel.

Analysts in Kathmandu expect a sort of statement from the Maoists quarters wherein the insurgency would speak their mind over the King’s speech. To recall, the Biratnagar speech does hint that "dialogue" and only dialogue could address the pressing issues of the nation.

High placed sources say that the government and the Maoists were in constant touch with each other through "recognized" Human Rights activists.

Whether Mr. Malla K. Sundar and Sudip Pathak were offering their good-offices for the talks in between the government and the Maoists or not is yet uncertain. However, what should be taken for granted is that these two noted and well accepted "mediators" were the ones who in effect been in this job since long which gets reflected from their bold and authoritative divulgence that they both expected the "peace-talks" to begin by the end of this week itself.

Our own source reveals that the government sent a letter to the Maoists and invited the other camp for talks much ahead the King arrived Biratnagar. This sounds logical for in doing so the government apparently hinted the insurgency that it was sincere for the talks with them and that in sending the letter the government also could have expected that the other camp would not create problems for the King on that very special day which was declared a Koshi-Mechi Bundh.

The Maoists in effect kept their violent activities on that day at the lowest ever. Should this mean that the Maoists wish to hint that they were ready for the talks.

Add to this the Sudip Pathak and Malla K. Sundar revelation that should the things go smoothly, the peace talks might begin this week itself.

The likelihood of the resumption of peace-talks with the Maoists has come at a time when the United States has sent highly sophisticated weapons meant for the Nepali army and other security personnel. The fate of the consignment from Belgium is not known.

RFI everywhere every time

Kathmandu: A press release issued on 27th December, 2002 by the Embassy of France here in Kathmandu attest the presence of ‘Radio France International (RFI) broadcasting programs from 27th October 2002 to 29th March 2003 every where in the world.

RFI is mainly intended for the Franco-phones. The programs are broadcasted 24 hours a day and can be listened in the internet ( www.rfi.fr ) in real time.

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