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Wooing cross border interests?
Kathmandu: As pressure mounts on government to perform, it will be safe to predict that the Maoists and the monopoly political organizations will intensify their belligerent pincer with a sympathetic national and international media highlighting their activities to pressure the King to buckle under. The Maoists are already throwing their juvenile insurgents at the security forces in their suicidal attempt to retain public presence. The opposition political parties frustrated by the lack of public participation in their street-agitation, attempt to rope in the professional organizations among which the willing media and the legal sector have already taken to the streets although their agitation appears to be running out of steam.
An acceleration of the Maoists violence seems thus predictable while their intensified effort government corporate sector and even the civil service. Government will give this attempt a hand with the imminent introduction of new public service regulations which, of course, vested political interests cultivated for over a decade in the now partisanised civil service are bound to oppose.
The idea is to disturb an expectant and virtually nonchalant population to the point of arousing their participation in the opposition activities. So much is predictable.
What is not, unfortunately, is the government response to such activities. The King's February 1 move has raised expectations in the population. The point is that this public expectation must be carried by the government through the proper mobilization of this support in order to enhance the delivery system of government. Unfortunately again, mixed messages that emanate from government facilitate the opposition to cash in upon disgruntlements. Of late, there is fear of more bungling. Such messages are unwelcome at this crucial juncture.
Strengthening the opposition's hand is the relentless media barrage from outside the country which has been well coordinated by the Indian reach. Indeed, now that the Republican voice whether democratic or communists are to be coordinated from down South, even the sudden Maoists attack on bordering Champaran district in India can't but are viewed with suspicion. Destabilization policies in India have not for the first time used the Refugee bogey or strategic threats of armed violence for cross-border infiltration, intervention and interference.
How else, one might ask can a Maoist leadership whose reach extends to South Block, Delhi, tempt Delhi's wrath at this juncture? More provocation of this sort is likely to emerge in the border areas with the Indian media highlighting, firstly, the flood of the displaced persons and, secondly, Nepal's search for alternative arm supplies denied it by India and, of course, the opposition party's orchestrated agitation.
The government must do more to sell the valid message that democracy can only be restored by winning, firstly, the peace and, thereafter, restoring parliament through elections after which constitutional changes can take place. It is here that national and international support is sought. The American Ambassador James Moriarty is right when he says "support not forthcoming now will result in the need for more massive humanitarian investment later". Yes! It will be the Nepalese who will be asked to suffer more in order to qualify for such international humanitarian sympathy.
The political race to Delhi continues
Kathmandu: Nepali politics continues to be in a limbo.
Chances of coming out of the prevailing chaos and political uncertainty in the near future appear remote because of the arrogance of the political parties currently housed in one conglomerate called seven party alliance against regression.
The rift in between King Gyanendra and the political parties have not lessened if not widened. This means both the parties who possess a dominant say in the country's politics appear less interested in sorting out their political differences.
Thanks India that she has been adding fuel to the fire to the already conflict ridden Nepali politics.
While all the concerned parties know of Indian habit but yet approach India for favor in order to maintain a favor on its side. It is here that the Indian machinations are on play day in day out and that too openly.
India is with the King. India is with the seven party alliances and remains openly committed for their agitation in Kathmandu. India is with the Maoists and is playing one section of the Maoists with the other in a manner as if the insurgency were its tool to be used against Nepal. India is concerned with the increasing threat of the Maoists in Nepal but yet maintains a cordial relation with the top-hats of the insurgency. India is everywhere in Nepal to the extent that Nepal now could be located in Delhi as most of the Nepali leaders could be found in New Delhi talking on behalf of Nepal and in turn the Indian leaders would be found more than interested in dictating Nepali leaders to do this and don't do that.
Poor Nepali leaders listen to those instructions and return home hoping that they now could conquer Nepal in an inkling of an eye.
Paranoid affair indeed.
That India is serious about Nepali uncertainty and that she was ready to extend all kind of assistance to bring back normalcy in India-troubled Kingdom has once again surfaced in Delhi.
Talking to Surya Bahadur Thapa who is currently in New Delhi for a medical check-up from preferred Indian medical practitioners like , Dr. M.M.Singh, and Sonia Gandhi among others, the Indian foreign secretary, Shyam Saran, hinted that his country was in his own words "ready to help Nepal in every possible way to end the conflict".
This message is not at all new for Nepal. To recall, Mr. Saran who was former India's Ambassador to Nepal, too used to say the same what he said this time to his "intimate" friend Thapa. In effect it was Mr. Saran who tried to shield his country to the hilt to the extent that even if he knew the hideouts of Maoists in Delhi, Siliguri and Lucknow, he used to avoid his country's tacit connections with the Nepali rebels with one structured answer, "tell us about their hideouts, we will nab them".
Thanks Madhav Nepal whose famous Lucknow trip some three years back that exposed Saran and his country to the extent that the world knew of this Indian connection. Madhav met Prachanda right in the Lucknow main town.
This embarrassment got another fillip when the Indian media itself leaked Indian government's connection with Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai which fortunately happened during Saran's steering the foreign affairs at the South Block recently.
It is this Saran who now sheds crocodile tears for Nepali problems. Had he been so sincere he could have done a lot while he was Viceroy in Kathmandu. He did not do that because he was supposed not to do as per India's calculated and what is called the "structured" policy. And this he did not do because he have had to extract so many political concessions both from the state and the rebels. From the state in the form of water at the lowest price and with the rebels India have had to delete the first four demands of the forty plus which were all pro-Nepal and embarrassing to India. That India have had excellent relations with the Nepali sons now rebels becomes clear from the fact that all those four very special Maoists demands that put India at the dock have become a matter of the distant past. Neither India is worried of those points nor the Maoists prefer to bring the matter to surface. It is this understanding presumably that the Indian connection has been established in between the two: "you help me and then I will help you".
This should be the strategy in between the two sides or if it were not why the Maoists have ignored those four demands that are pro-Nepal?
The Nepali Maoists, the sons of the same soil which gave birth to us all, must clarify as to where they stand today on those first four demands that speak of the abrogation of so many unequal treaties with India.
Saran's gesture through Thapa thus makes no sense unless he clarifies India's hidden agenda vis-à-vis Nepal. India must also spell out what she wants to extract from Nepali Maoists? The rebels perhaps understand this fact but why they are silent is puzzling indeed.
The message is clear: making Nepalese to fight with the Nepalese. If not then what?
Moriarty takes the lead; US govt. acts as per his subtle indication!
Kathmandu: By now it should have become clear to Katmandu's analysts that the United States of America remains constantly concerned over the deteriorating Nepali situation and appears determined to support Nepal come what may.
American position, analysts conclude, is not ambiguous like those of some neighboring and European countries. The US policy towards Nepal is clear and straight. That the United States of America would want to see Nepal through her own eyes but not through the eyes of some countries who have already become a laughing stock among the comity of nations for its playing double with the Nepali insurgency.
That the US has its own eyes and that she doesn't need others' eyes to see Nepal gets reflected from the fact that well within a short span of two months, she has sent two high level official functionaries to look into the Nepali matters for themselves.
To recall, Christina Rocca had made a short trip to Kathmandu some two months back and now it is Donald camp who by time this paper approaches in the readers' hands Wednesday will have already left the Nepali capital upon completion of his assessment on the Nepali situation to be reported to his government back in Washington.
Analysts at the Telegraph are clear about US perception .She would neither compromise with derailment of democracy in this Himalayan Kingdom nor would the US tolerate the growth and the increasing threats posed by the insurgency to this state.
What transpired in between the Nepali authorities and Donald camp is yet to come to the open, however, what is for sure is that the US by sending Assistant minister Cam,p has amply exhibited that Nepal could not be left to the mercy of "India" and that it was time that Nepal must be supported unconditionally as far as the increasing threats of the Maoists were concerned.
High placed sources say that the US is now convinced that Nepal needed tangible assistance to tame the Maoists or else it would be too late.
Indications to this effect emanated from Honolulu wherein the incumbent American Ambassador, James F. Moriarty, clearly said that Nepal should be supported now or never. In effect he said that "should we give $2 million security assistance this year or $500 million to refugee camps scattered throughout India in the not too distant future"
The implied message is that the US must passionately listen to the Nepali plight at the moment and act fast in order to block the country from being pushed to an abyss from where its easy come back would be next to impossible. This is certainly an assessment from a matured diplomat who is serving in Nepal and knows the varied implications on the Nepalese economy, social behavior and security aspects if the assistance were blocked in one pretext or the other.
In effect Moriarty is convincing his own audience and government to do the needful or it would be too late.
Not surprising then the US Ambassador should ventilate his inner feelings in Honolulu a few days ago and lo! The US government sends one of its high level authorities to talk to the Nepali officials. Mere coincidence? Not at all. This amply indicates that the US finally has got the Nepali point and that she would not be interested in acting as per the "coordinated voice" of the two in the axis, read Britain and dubious India", and that henceforth would do whatever it can on its own by assessing the real picture on ground in Nepal.
Moriarty takes the lead and his government acts as per the hidden message contained in Ambassador's Honolulu speech. Both deserve appreciation.
Clearly, the fresh US stance on Nepal is a "set back" to Indian designs for a variety of political reasons.
But then yet the US side still prefers a solution to the current constitutional crisis through reconciliation in between the King and the political parties. In saying so the US clearly wants a sort of understanding in between the two constitutional forces in order to isolate the insurgents forcing them to come to a peaceful settlement of the overly stretched dispute.
Interestingly enough that India is herself not safe now from the Maoists violence. The recent attack by the Indian Maoists in neighboring Bihar is a testimony to the fact that if one nurtured evil designs against others, the evil sooner or later will pounce upon the former.
This is what has happened in India recently. India blames Nepali Maoists too have joined their friends in the said attack. However, Nepali insurgents deny the charges.
It is time that all countries interested in the welfare of Nepal join hands with each other having no evil designs against this country wherein the Maoists too could find a slot for a safe landing.
Madhav Nepal goes berserk
Kathmandu: Much is being discussed as to what would happen to the political image of the political parties who appear to threaten the King with the bogey of the possible alliance with the Maoists for their ongoing agitation.
Yet another question arises in this connection as to whether the idea of having an alliance with the Maoists commands the appreciation of the cadres of the political parties engaged in the opposition alliance or is it simply a tool devised by the apex leaders on their own.
Two things are clear: if the leaders' themselves have found this scheme appropriate to pose a threat to the King to pressure the latter to yield then that speaks volumes of their undemocratic pattern prevailing all pervasive in the party. If the leaders' claim that they enjoy the appreciation of their rank and file then one wonders as to how the grassroots cadres could have taken such a decision of asking for the support of the ones who have been killing their friends in the villages and the districts.
The fact is that even the apex leaders of a few influential parties have already expressed their disagreement with their top-hats' decision to go in for support of the Maoists.
For example, K.P.Woli, an UML leader supposed to be a declared rival of Madhav Nepal, the other day opined that UML's going in for Maoists support in the agitation would mean greater destuction in the country which his party neither could afford nor was it desirable. He however, made it abundantly clear that unless the Maoists abandoned acts of violence, the UML will not and should not go in for such what he called "misadventure".
Men from the congress and the congress-democratic too preferred to steer the agitation on their own strength for they felt that it would be a suicidal step to invite "evan the terrible" to add to their agitation.
This implies that sensible and responsible politicos yet await Royal signal for a sort of reconciliation through which they still think that a way out to the current crisis could be achieved.
However, UML's Madhav Nepal is of a different view. He of late has begun blowing hot against the King without knowing that his own feet in the party scheme of things have begun shaking.
The third question that automatically arises in one's mind is that whether Madhav Nepal is expressing his deep anger towards the institution of the monarchy on his own or on some one's, groups, or even nation's prompting? He is a man long known for his presumed speaking the voice of alien friends who have apparently obliged him on some counts.
But then yet the language Madhav is speaking these days against the King is worth pondering over. He says not that democracy and monarchy can't go together in this country. What does it mean in essence? Is he speaking the voice of the Maoists who would want to replace the monarchy with a republican state in this Himalayan Kingdom? Unfortunately his fiery speech against the Nepali monarchy indicate that he is having a sort of pleasant and excellent relations with Nepali insurgents and by the same token he would want to signal the King to yield or face the consequences. The King perhaps is listening to his blunt remarks carefully.
Question also crops up as to how come the other wise a pragmatic Madhav Nepal should go berserk?
Is it that he now fully acknowledges the fact that his chair was shaking well within his own party with so many rivals for competition, he should now talk sense and nonsense in order to raise his sinking image in the party's rank and file? Blunt remarks and fiery speeches have become the hall marks of the UML, to say the least. To recall, Madan Bhandari, the UML leader whose death is yet a mystery, too used to challenge the then King Birendra by suggesting the King to come to the streets and fight elections. Later when he met King Birendra got instantly the point that THE king for long time to come will remain a force in the country's politics. Later he had soft corner for the late King.
Is it the same politics carried forward by his disciple Madhav to threaten the King? He is mistaken then.
Reconciliation with the King is what his friends Woli and many others were advocating for a solution to the current imbroglio, then why Madhav is playing his own tune and at whose tempting and influence? It is time that his own party members should take to task Madhav for his erratic utterances.
The fact is that even diehard advocators of republicanism would wish the continuation of the institution of the monarchy in Nepal for a variety of political and geo-political factors which, analysts presume, Madhav understands better if he is not cheating his own political conscience.
The UML leader, analysts say, must now understand the ground realities and speak a matured language that befits to his current political stature.
RCCC's charges vanishes in thin air
Kathmandu: Finally the first phase of the functioning of the Royal Commission for Corruption Control, RCCC, has ended in a fuss .
What was already expected in advance has come to true.
Many believed that the RCCC too would not stand the trial of the time and that its accusations and the manner it summoned Nepal's noted leaders for trials would finally vanish in Kathmandu's thin air.
So it happened.
The fanfare with which the RCCC tried to grill Sher Bahadur Deuba and his colleagues apparently gave the impression
Analysts at the Telegraph are clear about US perception .She would neither compromise with derailment of democracy in this Himalayan Kingdom nor would the US tolerate the growth and the increasing threats posed by the insurgency to this state.
What transpired in between the Nepali authorities and Donald camp is yet to come to the open, however,
ENBREF:
Moriarty backs a negotiated settlement
Kathmandu: The Ambassador of the United States to Nepal H.E. James F. Moriarty, currently home in a month-long vacation while speaking at a public program at the East-West Center in Honolulu on the current situation in Nepal said , “within the next 12 to 14 months, Nepal is clearly going to be going down one of two paths".
One is the path of, added Moriarty, reconciliation between the Palace and the parties to come up with a functioning game plan to get the country back to democracy and also to deal with the insurgency."
Adding further Moriarty said that, the Maoist victory would put in power a brutal regime that advocates collectivization of agriculture, re-education of class enemies and exporting revolution.
“We believe that the best way to address the insurgency is through a negotiated settlement that brings the majority of the Maoists back into the political mainstream”, Moriarty continued.
He said that a victory for Maoist insurgents in Nepal would be a humanitarian disaster of huge proportion for the Himalayan nation and a destabilizing force in India.
“India recognizes that the increasing instability in Nepal has become an increasing threat to the stability in India,” Moriarty remarked.
Refugees seek HM’s support
Kathmandu: Refugees at seven camps in Morang and Jhapa appealed the King to find a solution thro’ his national and international efforts to resolve the crisis.
It was reported that while observing the World Refugee Day, a request was formally made to the King to find a solution to the problem that remains unresolved even after 15 rounds of Nepal-Bhutan ministerial level talks.
Donald Camp arrives
Kathmandu: US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Donald Camp arrived Sunday for a three-day visit for “regular consultations.”
Camp has already met separately with vice-chairmen of the council of ministers Dr Tulsi Giri, and Kirtinidhi Bista. The US dignitary also met with Nepal's foreign minister.
Camp's arrival in Kathmandu does speak that the US continues to see Nepal on its own and not otherwise as wished by India and the United Kingdom, the servant and the master of the bygone colonial era
Deuba wins the first battle
Kathmandu: Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and six former ministers have been cleared on a supposed graft charge by the RCCC, Royal Commission for Corruption Control, a powerful anti-corruption panel formed after the February 1st move by the King.
Mr. Deuba and the others had been accused of misusing funds.
However, Mr Deuba still remains in detention on a second corruption charge related to a water project.
The three month long hullabaloo has thus come to a happy end that speaks of the future working style of the RCCC and the verdicts to be made! Yestai ho Nepal ma!
Maoists call off strike
Kathmandu: A Student wing of the outlawed CPN-Maoists has withdrawn an indefinite school strike called by them, a vernacular daily reports. Schools outside the valley were closed down from 7th of June.
Maoist reply not clear: Nepal
Kathmandu: Talking to reporters in Mahottari the CPN-UML Supremo Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal said that, the Maoist reply to the seven-party appeal is positive but yet not clear.
He told reporters that Prachanda’s acceptance of an interim government, constituent assembly and multiparty democracy are positive but the Maoists still have to be clear on so many counts and lots of confusion still remained which needed to be cleared as soon as possible.
Mr. Nepal did not reveal on which counts he wants clear-cut answers from Prachanda.
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