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For Natwar no difference

"F.M.SIngh:For WATER and POWER"

Kathmandu: At time of writing the refusal of the five party agitators to acknowledge the King’s call for a Prime Ministerial candidate by Monday evening leaves things at where they stood. But there are changes.

The Girija Congress walked out the five party meeting insisting that they not responded to the Palace while the UML till late Monday was unable to convince the remaining three to respond meaning that the UML was willing to respond.

By Tuesday, the Deuba party, which did not respond to the King’s call insisting on its natural claim for Prime Minister is said to have met the King.

In this sense since both Deuba and Madhav Kumar Nepal were not in the list of respondents, their candidacy would seems remote which the possibility of their party’s representation in a new government seems brighter.

The key question of the new occupants of Singh Durbar’s key chair will perhaps now have to be limited to the list narrowed down formally at the Palace gates by Monday evening if the exercise is to have a meaning.

One aspirant Tara Nath Ranabhat denied his claim in disagreement with a party-Salim Miya Ansari’s that put up his name for the spot.

Even K.N Bista is said to have been unaware of sectors that petitioned him as a candidate.

Outside of the attempt to make the Royal exercise a joke by crowding the Palace gate with non-entity applicants, there are serious parties from the RPP, the NSP the Samata Party and even Rajeshwor Devkota’s coalition who have representation in Parliament.

This leaves the ball again at the Palace gate. We will have, until election takes place a government responsible to the King that will be opposed by the Nepali Congress. As of the rest one must wait and see just as at time of writing one must await the person that will occupy Prime Minister’s chair.

Yet another development of significance to these current developments is the visit here of the new Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh whose visit outside his country as Indian Foreign Minister has been significantly enough, determined for Nepal even prior to the announcement of a new government. For the Indians at least, it seems, this is not to make a difference.

Koirala spoils UML prospects; FPA unity in crisis

Kathmandu: The jealousy factor came as a major stumbling block which restricted the five party alliance against "regression" to push a common name for the post of the prime minister as demanded by the King within a time frame that expired Monday evening.

The United Marxist and Leninist party, the UML and her leaders apparently exhibited their flexibility to the King’s call for sending one good name for the post of the prime minister but could not bag success due to the haughtiness of the Congress president, Girija Prasad Koirala, and of the double standards shown by the smaller parties in the coalition which summarily went against the UML contention.

The UML contention had been that the ongoing fight with the King on constitutional and matters related with sovereignty could be stretched even after the formation of an all-party government under the leadership of the one who is nominated by the FPA. However, things did not go the UML way.

The fact is that when Koirala knew that the UML candidate, Madhav Nepal who was a consensus candidate of the FPA for the post of the prime minister some one year ago had begun political maneuvering for the post, he seduced the smaller parties in the coalition to raise the matters that unless the King yielded to their terms and demands, the forwarding of one common name for the prime minister ship simply becomes redundant.

Koirala and his team in the FPA alliance now maintain that if one common name would have been sent to the perusal of the King for his consideration would have meant that the FPA’s agitation against the King was simply meant for a post of the prime minister and nothing more than that.

On the other hand, the UML took the King’s call as an opportunity to enter into the system of governance, which could later have allowed them all to push the King to the wall on constitutional matters.

Koirala who now talks of constitutional matters is simply saying so because he did not fit into the scheme of King’s things and that he knew in advance that the King was not that happy with him on varied political counts and apparently consoled himself that he will in no way be obliged by the King for the coveted post he loves most.

But this is not all.

Koirala presumably internally concluded that if he is denied the post, he would bring heaven down earth to damage the prospects of Madhav Nepal from becoming the nation’s next prime minister. He apparently has succeeded in his game plan, analysts say.

That Madhav Nepal and his party men were bit flexible towards the King’s call becomes clear from th statement the UML released upon the grand "failure" of the FPA Summit meeting at the UML headquarters held Monday afternoon. It was Koirala’s obstruction which scrapped the chances of the UML’s Madhav Nepal from becoming the prime minister, said one UMLite on condition of anonymity to this scribe.

Now that neither Koirala nor Madhav Nepal nor even Sher Bahadur Deuba have "applied" for the vacant post of the country’s prime minister ship as per the call of the King, their chances of grabbing that very coveted post appears remote if not impossible.

Nevertheless, Deuba’s sudden dash to the Palace Monday late evening for a tête-à-tête with the King does hint that Deuba is not yet a lost case though he has failed to apply for the post.

The significant part of the whole story is that Deuba is reported to have told the King that if he is denied the post, let Madhav Nepal be its genuine contender. However, what was King’s reaction to Deuba’s modest recommendation is yet a mystery. But then yet Deuba’s sudden meet with the King does indicate that the King still is trying his best to find a clean personality who could satisfy his demands and conduct the elections as per his declaration.

The filing of the "application" at the palace stands expired. With no towering personality in sight among those who have already applied for the post, it is yet a matter of guess-work only as to who is the lucky one to be blessed with the post of the prime minister ship of the country?

Sources close to the UML say that with Koirala’s explicit hatred for the UML which he exhibited Monday at FPA meet at Balkhu, chances remain now that the FPA unity might develop a fissure to the utter chagrin of the one who brought this fissure that is president Koirala.

Other sources close to the UML say that the party is thinking on the lines to join in a government that is to be formed yet if the government thus formed talks with the King straight for the restoration of the people’s rights and sovereignty.

Indian leaders give little attention to UML and NC envoy’s plea

Kathmandu: Though none of the top members housed in the five party alliance against regression did exhibit their temptation for bouncing back to power after Surya Bahadur Thapa tendered his resignation, however, the fact is that each of them were considering Thapa’s resignation as an opportunity for them provided the rest supported their private move.

Madhav’s temptation was blocked by Koirala’s lust for power. Koirala’s chances were made bleak by his own vitriolic attacks on the King and his encouragement provided to the students to go in for republicanism. The fact is that, and many believe it to be so, that the King could not have taken Koirala’s scathing criticisms against him in good taste. To add insult to injury, Madhav Nepal too added fuel to the fire when he met the King in private and is supposed to have told the King that if Koirala were elevated to the ranks of the prime minister could prove disastrous for the Nepali monarchy itself. Madhav Nepal is supposed to have informed the King that it was Koirala who encouraged his party students to chant slogans against the monarchy and that in this affair neither the UML nor its students had any hand.

If this is true then the King must have taken note of Madhav’s polite suggestion. In this manner, Mr. Nepal blocked Koirala’s chances of becoming the prime minister.

The fact is that both Koirala and Mr. Nepal played villain with proper finesse against each other and the result is that the FPA, for good or for bad, could not succeed in sending one clean name to the Palace for its perusal.

Now that none of the FPA members have filed their nomination either as a consensus or individual candidate, the King has now a level playing field. He can now say that he did his best to invite members from the FPA conglomerate and act as per their wishes but the since the latter did not heed to his call hence he was now free to chose a Mr. Clean from among those who have petitioned for their candidacy.

All said and done, one more factor that is being ignored deliberately or otherwise is the reported trip of one UML leader and one Congress stalwart to Nepal’s Mecca, read New Delhi, to get blessings from the new Indian establishment.

The fact is that when the UML knew that the congress man, Chakra Prasad Bastola, was already in Delhi and that he was sent to Delhi by the party to seek blessings from the congress’ Sonia Gandhi, the party came into action.

The UML party decided to send its political emissary again to Delhi to counter the congress moves. Jhal Nath Khanal was named as its man who would hold talks with its Indian counterpart under the leadership of Mr. Har Kishan Singh Surjeet and seek blessings in order to bag the coveted seat of the prime minister.

What transpired in between Bastola and Indian congress leaders and similarly how the Indian communists took Nepal’s UML views is yet a mystery. However, what has been made clear is that both the NC and the UML have apparently fallen flat for the prospects of their party’s getting elevated to the post of the prime minister has already become bleak. Should this mean that the new Indian establishment comprising of the congress and the communists told the Nepali friends that they could not be of any support to their cause at least at this juncture.

That the Indian establishment is interested more on holding straight dialogues with the King becomes amply clear from the fact that even if Nepal is government less but yet the Indian foreign minister is arriving Kathmandu this Friday.

It is not that India does not know of the current Nepal situation but then yet her desire to send its Foreign Minister to this country is both a matter of honor for Nepal and a signal to the five party alliance that for India her interests were supreme under any circumstances.

Now that Indian foreign minister is coming Kathmandu this Friday, let’s hope that Nepal has a government whose new foreign minister welcomes his Indian counterpart at the TIA. This does indicate that we will have a government by Thursday evening.

How Natwar Singh takes the Nepal situation upon his arrival in Nepal will have meaning.

Political actors giving priority to Power than Peace

Kathmandu: The Nepal Foundation for Advanced Studies, NEFAS, organized a two-day national seminar, May 30-31, on " Critical barriers to the negotiation of Armed conflict in Nepal", in Lalitpur.

Nepal’s noted scholars and academicians participated in the two day event.

Welcoming the attending participants, the executive director of the NRFAS, Professor Anand Prasad Shrestha, said that the past democratic years have not only proved to be a costly exercise but are to a great extent held responsible for fueling, if not by default giving birth to the insurgency itself.

Professor Shrestha also stressed the need to tackle the core and the peripheral issues fueling the conflict with skill and foresight and not zoom straight into sensitive issues embodied in the former without so much as coming to some understanding on peripheral issues.

The FES Nepal representative, Dev Raj Dahal, on the occasion opined that Nepali politicians have not mustered enough "political will," to    transform conflict and competition into a cooperative game. "There is a lack of national perspective in conflict perception and that the perspectives forwarded by various forces of society in resolving the conflict also suffer from rationality deficit as their orientations are partisan in nature-- either inclined to garner benefit to individual leaders or particular party, or a group of parties or even a regime", Dahal added.

He noted that the stubborn resistance of diverse political actors against each other subsumes the notion that political actors are giving priority to power over peace.

Noted journalist, M.R. Josse, presenting his working paper said that though the Maoists have periodically demonstrated their ability to mount sizeable attacks on State security forces and other targets, they have not been able to hold to their "gains" for long. According to Josse the Maoists have immensely benefited from the great divide that is in between the Palace and the parliamentary parties.

"The prognosis for a negotiated settlement of the insurgency is not very encouraging despite the deafening calls from some quarters for another cease-fire and follow up talks.

Similarly, senior economist Dr. Gun Nidhi Sharma presenting his paper maintained that "conflicts in Nepal with its historical, gender, political and social and cultural dimensions are imposing high economic costs to the society and that these costs were explicit and implicit in that while some of them are direct and quantifiable whereas many others are indirect and unobservable and which can be gathered only through impressions".

The next day of the seminar saw the presentation of papers from Dr. B.R.Upreti and Mr. Shrawan Sharma.

Dr. Upreti said in his paper that since the Maoists do not trust the government and hence they demand the UN mediation at the talks. "If the UN is there at the talks, adds Dr. Upreti, the insurgency also could enjoy legitimacy and thus recognition as a potential political force.

Mr. Sharma concentrated mostly on how the talks should proceed and the role of the facilitators.

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