I n d e p t h    A n a l y s i s
King must act alone

Kathmandu: - It is time we the people take stock of our democracy and the achievements of the 1990 movement reflected in the current constitution.

For us in the media where these achievements are manifest the most our shortcomings have become detrimental to the democracy we are said to be serving. These past months of lopsided coverage of what is said to be another people’s movement have prevented from the people the actual constitutional issues involved in our deliberate partisan standpoints that have allowed the political parties to sideline these real issues. The issue is and has been the formation of a national government representative of the political parties and the political sector combined in the absence of a duly dissolved parliament, which was incapable of producing just such a national government in the presence of mounting political crisis.

In the presence of such coverage the primary political actors of the nation, namely the political parties, have been allowed by the media to purposely divert the national crisis in the name of democracy. The political parties agitating in the streets can’t hide the fact that they remain in disagreement when it comes to the formation of a national government but agree to conduct their agitation against the King in the name of a democracy, which in content digresses radically from the prevailing constitution which they say they must preserve in spirit.

The media in fact will now concentrate on the King acquiescing to the five party eighteen point demands the bulk of which constitute constitutional issues to be tackled by a parliament that has yet to be duly elected and in the absence of which the King is not constitutionally empowered even to contemplate.

Just as partisan media coverage has failed to inform the people of the major parties’ role in the appointments of the Chand and the Thapa governments under the use of Article 127, the media continues to ignore the repeated Supreme Court injunction that the dissolved house can’t be recalled. The 18 point demand ingrains this requirement of the King for the appointment of their Prime Minister to which they fail to agree.

PM Thapa’s sudden resignation was already in the making by time the King reinitiated a third round of dialogue with the political sector which includes the agitating parties. Expectedly perhaps our honorable fourth estate projects the agitator’s claim that the King bowed down to their pressures in the agitation and must now continue to kneel before their demand to consider their 18 point agenda. The fact is that the King is not allowed by the constitution to do so. This our honorable fourth estate deliberately ignores.

And so the media has served well to polarize the situation whereby the five agitating parties are allowed their mutually recriminative indulgence in sabotaging democracy and the constitution regardless of the mounting political crises while the King must now no longer ignore the mounting pressures on the constitution and the country at the expense of the popular expectations that is his sole strength.

Prachanda sees a ploy in Thapa’s sudden resignation

Kathmandu: Comrade Prachanda in a fresh statement says that the sudden removal of Thapa government was a tacit ploy to break the subtly growing working alliance in between the parliamentary parties and the revolutionaries.

According to Prachanda, the resignation of Thapa has come at a time when the working alliance in between the two forces were taking firm roots in favor of republican order in the country.

"This event is aimed at bringing about a rift in between the two", adds Comrade Prachanda.

What is interesting in Prachanda’s statement is his reiteration that says "unless the causes for the continuing civil war were not properly addressed, peace can’t be restored in the country". This is a fact that can’t be overlooked by any one, continues Prachanda.

In the same vein he indirectly warns the parliamentary parties who appear more than willing at the moment to strike a deal with the King to get back to power. "If some one dares to do so would be a suicidal move", comrade Prachanda maintains.

Nevertheless, analysts see meaning in Prachanda’s saying wherein he says that unless a political solution to the civil war is addressed, peace can’t be restored. A close analysis to this sentence does amply hint that Comrade Prachanda is in favor of talks and that if the political parties preferred to neglect their issue would tantamount to be an unacceptable affair.

Its corollary would be that should some one facilitated the now stalled talks, the insurgency would gladly accept to sit on the table provided such a meeting addresses their real issues that have thrown the insurgents to engage themselves in a civil war.

The fresh statement is a mix of both: a willingness to arrive at a political solution to their genuine issues and a warning served to those who wish to negate their issue in lieu of power in Singh Durbar.

Analysts consider that if the emerging set could not sort out the Maoists issues amicably, it would be no more than a Thapa government for the insurgents.

Implied also is that the Maoists would wish to see a strong and competent government in Singh Durbar which can take up their issues and work to address their genuine political concerns.

Interestingly, Prachanda’s statement also opines that if a solution to the current crisis were to be found from among the convergence of those who adhere to the old constitution would tentatively re-invite the state of emergency in the nation. This means clearly that to each and every solution to the country’s ailments their participation in the imbroglio was necessary.

Analysts give importance to Prachanda’s statement in the sense that at least it does hint that they are ready for talks.

New Political Equation in the Making

Kathmandu: Given the outright rejection to the palace invitation by the five major parties, the politics now seems to be knocking at the doors of S.B.Deuba and P.S.Rana.

A new equation comprising of Congress-D, RPP-Rana and NSP-M is in the making.

Will this equation be accepted by the agitating political parties? Can this set address country’s ailments including those of the Maoists? Should the nation still wait for the formation of such a government until Friday?

Who is the next P.M?

Broken Alliance

Kathmandu: The adhesive that had temporarily glued the five agitating political parties fighting against regression appears to be losing its power.

Girija Prasad Koirala’s excessive "lust" for power and Madhav Nepal’s "intense" temptation for power have come to the open exposing the two stalwarts that both will not settle for less come what may than occupying the Chair that is so carefully kept inside Singh Durbar complex.

The tragedy is that the Chair for the prime minister is one and we have two competent contenders for the chair they love most.

The resultant effect is that the two political, the contenders of the Chair, have begun recriminating each other. The intensity of the words being made against each other have yet to attain a sort of high pitch but hopefully if they continue to quarrel for the chair for a day or two, the scene could be an ugly one.

To begin with, much ahead of PM Thapa’s resignation, Mr. Koirala was all set to meet the King in private. However, societal pressure, more so from the agitating students of its own faction, Koirala had to devise new schemes. The schemes were lifting up of the violence prone zone and release of some Jan Morcha leaders. The government complied and an encouraged Koirala began ventilating his feelings that what is the harm in meeting the King in private and that too one-to-one. His colleagues smacked foul in Koirala’s growing penchant in seeing the King. In effect, they all concluded that Koirala could negotiate with the King the post if he were allowed to go his way. Thus Koirala had to compress his temptations to see the King for fear of getting exposed.

Now when Thapa resigned, as per the wishes of the UML, it was Koirala who rushed to Kathmandu from his hometown and hinted all and sundry that there was no harm in meeting the King in private provided one remained true to the agreed commitments subsisting in between the coalition partners.

A clever Madhav Nepal knew Koirala’s hidden intentions and made mandatory that not a single member of the coalition will see the King in private. The coalition under the intense pressure of Mr. Nepal and the rest of the smaller parties decided not to see the King on an individual basis but instead would comply if the Palace invited them en masse. In devising this mechanism, the coalition members suspected the very credentials of the Congress and its president.

It is this binding factor that has tied the hands of Koirala or else he would have long ago met the King.

Now when Koirala has been denied the meeting, he too has some cards under his sleeve. Koirala now dismisses the agreement arrived at between the five party some one year ago that Madhav Nepal was their consensus candidate.

In a changed mood Koirala made it known in no uncertain terms to Madhav Nepal the other day that he should now give second thought to the post of the Prime Minister and that the agreement was made "then" and that the "situation" then and "now" is an entirely "different" one.

Madhav Nepal has got the message and the message is no less than a bolt from the blue to him and his followers in the party.

To add insult to injury, on Saturday evening the Indian Ambassador Shyan Saran too approached Madhav Nepal and told him politely not to dream the prime ministerial post but should make a sacrifice in the larger interest of the nation. This was an event for Mr. Nepal as if some one pulled the carpet under his feet. Poor Nepal still considers that he is in the marathon for the prime ministerial post. However, high placed personalities see meaning in Ambassador Saran’s message to the UML leader. Sources say that Madhav’s elevation to the country’s executive post will mean having the REDS in Singh Durbar and in the Jungles as well. Ambassador Saran’s subtle hint to UML leader could also be interpreted as that as a country India would also not prefer the government of the Red in Nepal for varied reasons. The developed West perhaps will toe the Indian line for explainable reasons. If it is so then it means that the chances of Madhav Nepal coming to power appeared remote if not impossible.

But then the fact is that his own strong partners in the coalition have cheated Madhav Nepal.

Madhav Nepal’s eleven months long wait for this lucrative post appears going to the dogs. But will the King accept Koirala as his next "loyal" prime minister? Question also arises will Madhav tolerate Koirala’s set up given the manner he was humiliated?

Or a new face is being searched? Who knows what is in King’s mind. Keep on guessing.

Land belongs to MSS clarifies NLPA

Kathmandu: The Nepal Leprosy Prevention Association through a statement has made it known to all that the land that they have been at the moment utilizing in Maharajganj area is in effect the real and the legal property of the Marwari Seva Samiti and that the NLPA never has claimed nor will dare to claim it otherwise.

The NLPA has further assured the Marwari Seva Samiti that they have not exceeded the limits stipulated in the contract that was agreed upon by the two parties and that we have duly recognized the very generosity of the Mawrawri Samiti which facilitated the opening of the Leprosy association in the first place.

"We have been paying the land revenue as per the rules of the State and have time and again said even to the Court that the land belonged to the Marwari Seva Samiti", adds the press note issued recently by the Leprosy Association.

Korean Minster appreciates Nepali stance

Kathmandu: The visiting Deputy Foreign Minister of Republic of Korea, Cho Young-jai has said that his country valued the Nepal’s strong support to Korea’s efforts to achieve lasting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

Minister Jai made these observations while addressing a gathering Monday evening to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations in between the two countries. The minister further said that Nepal and Korea have ample potential for further expansion of cooperation particularly in areas of trade and investment.

According to the minister, the remarkable progress in our bilateral relations was the result of the joint efforts of "our governments" which has been reinforced by mutual understanding and cultural affinities between our two peoples.

According to ROK embassy, the two-way trade volume, for instance, skyrocketed from a figure of 689 thousand dollars in 1974 to 31 million dollars last year.

The Ambassador of Korea threw a reception Monday evening to mark the 30th anniversary of Nepal-Korea diplomatic ties.

The minister further added that "Around 4,000 Nepalese are working in Korea as an invaluable part of the Korean workforce contributing to the Korean economy, while about 10,000 Koreans including tourists, mountaineers and businessmen visit Nepal every year."

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