Girija, Deuba, And The Rest Of Them Clowns

1. Why did you write the 1990 constitution the way you did, with all its deficiencies? If they were out of deference to then power of the monarch, why did you not seek to amend the document in the following years? The Congress and the UML between them had the needed 2/3rd numbers. Why did you not get together and seek amendments? There was never any attempt at amendments.
2. Why did Girija Koirala dissolve the parliament the first time around? He had a mandate for five years. That started the era of instability. The democratic process is that you have to work things out through dialogue. You can not take a my way or highway attitude.
3. Why did the Congress never tackle corruption? Why did the Congress become the new Panchayat? Why did it harass workers of smaller parties like that of the Sadbhavana? Implicating them in false cases at local levels?
   
4. Why did the political parties not make inroads for democracy within the parties? There still is no attempt in that direction.
   
5. Why was Manmohan Adhikari not allowed to dissolve the parliament? Chandrashekhar in India was a minority Prime Minister, and he did that. Why did the judiciary intervene in this matter of the legislative? Why was the division of powers violated?
   
6. Why were the notorious Congress names seething with corruption never punished? Why was campaign finance not regulated?
7. Why is there Bahun hegemony all over the place? Will the Bahuns look into this?
   
8. Why was there no major work done on the citizenship issue for the Madhesis?
9. Why no recognition for Hindi? Even though all politicians who address rallies in the Terai use that language.
   
10. Why were not creative political solutions sought to tackle the Maoist issue?
11. Why were the moderate Maoists humiliated during the peace talks?
12. Why will Deuba not take responsibility for the Pajero culture and the jumbo cabinets? Why did Deuba dissolve all the local bodies for the simple reason that they were UML-majority?
    
13. Why was federalism not looked into?
14. Why did not all political parties rally around the idea of a Constituent Assembly when it was obvious that was the only way out? Are they still there yet?
    
15. What's up with Girija's insistent stand on reviving the parliament? Why has not there been debate and discussion on that topic? Why have other smaller parties followed him blindly on that one? Why will you not go back to the drawing board when you know that stand is not working? Is Girija the dictator of the democrats? Jo Girija kahta hai, wahi hota hai. Where is the dialogue?
    
16. Did all parties give in writing to the king that they think dissolving the parliament was the best option? If yes, why did they protest the dissolution in the aftermath? And why do they now want the term-expired parliament revived?
    
17. Do the political parties think an all-party government is the need of the hour now? If yes, why did they not shape such an all-party government after the parliament was dissolved, Deuba sacked, and the king made exactly that suggestion? I think all of you should be jailed for a few months for not taking upon the offer back then and putting the country through all the turmoil.
    
18. When they agitated against the Thapa government, why did the Congressias bring the house down by back-stabbing Madhav Nepal at the last moment? What was so wrong with the idea of Madhav Nepal as Prime Minister?
    
19. Why were parties like Congress (D) excluded from that agitation?
    
20. Where is the public dialogue now that could shape up a possible Common Minimum Program?
    

This criticims are not meant to say the king and the army are in the right, they are not. But it is time these politicos did some self-reflection.

In The News

• Nepal: Rights Must be Restored Reuters AlertNet, UK...... the lifting of the state of emergency occurred almost simultaneously with the publication of an order by the Kathmandu District Authority against public gatherings, meetings or any kind of protest programs in public spaces and roads. Since the lifting of the state of emergency, local officials have also reportedly been given the authority to intervene in any “political program” that involves more than two people...... the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Ordinance (TADO), with its draconian provision allowing up to one-year incommunicado detention, still remains in effect. ..... is the press free, will those continuing to be held arbitrarily be released, can human rights defenders work without harassment? ...... is the press free, will those continuing to be held arbitrarily be released, can human rights defenders work without harassment? ....National Human Rights Commission continues to be denied access to military barracks and is only permitted access to police stations with advance notice...... A key test for the king is whether he will now allow journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders to operate freely...... New U.S. military assistance could be delivered as soon as late May...... lifting of the state of emergency might be a tactical ploy by the King to convince India to resume military aid
• Nepal media rallies for freedom BBC News Reporters without Borders attacked the media's treatment in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka...... Police watched Tuesday's rally by journalists but did not intervene, despite a ban on demonstrations in several parts of Kathmandu..... Islamabad, police briefly detained more than 20 journalists who marched on the prime minister's office as part of protests demanding greater press freedom ...... Bangladesh was the country with the largest number of journalists physically attacked or threatened with death....... In Sri Lanka, violence by Tamil factions most threatened journalists' safety and freedom of expression..... Last week, a pro-Tamil Tiger journalist was abducted and killed in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.......Bangladesh was among the five most dangerous countries for journalists worldwide.
• Madam Deuba Speaks United We Blog ..... he is not interested in making money. He is not interested to know how the family is run, how we pay the bills, fees. He is not a family minded man at all.... He left house [in Dadheldhura, far west Nepal] when he was 15 years old. He spent most of his life outside the family structure, in party politics. He got married when he was nearly 50. (I was 32 when we got married in 1994.) His lacks orientation toward a family....... When I married him at that age, after a year or two I realized, you know, this man is not going to change himself for me. I tried to change him, once forcefully..... When I married him, I was earning more than 40 thousand per month...... I think my father-in-law gave me the best piece of advice when he called me within a week my marriage to his son: “Do not even think that your husband will do everything for you. Whatever you have to do, do it yourself. My son is like a jogi (fakir).” .... my parents told me that I could go back to them if I did not like him after marrying. With that assurance, I married him..... in politics, I learned, there is never a dull moment..... My husband is not interested in money making business. But now they are trying to frame him up in corruption charges. He is deeply sad. I am ready to face jail sentence for other any other reasons, he says, but not in corruption...... When I went to Dadheldhura for the first time, after marrying him, I found the place very much undeveloped. Very few girls went to school, no electricity, and no road. Now you can see a sea of change. Many girls going to school. That’s all because of democracy and my husband....... I know the Kathmandu elite very well. They are just talking nonsense as if people in village don’t know a bit. That’s very wrong...... Kathmandu is the richest place in Nepal. You know why communists win elections here. Because those rich folks never go to voting booth to cast their vote. So, they don’t care about democratic process. These are the ones who take bribe and make money........ the Kathamndu elite is never comfortable with anyone who comes here form outside Kathmandu and reaches at top position ...... They have Kathmandu-centric mentality. They think Kathmandu is the whole Nepal....... They are more interested going to Bangkok, New York, Hong Kong and identifying themselves with people of New York and London and think that people in remote parts in Nepal are uncivilized and uneducated...... However fluent English you speak, you won’t be a New Yorker ...... Poor command in English language is one setback for our political parties. Not many of the political leaders speak good English...... for many of them there is simply no time to entertain those foreigners because they don’t have enough money for their own family and children ...... I had warned him since the arrest of Prakash Man Singh about possible arrest of his father...... Last time when Maoists tried to assassin his father, he was staying in Mamaghar. I was in Kusma, Parbat for a project. He heard the news on TV and his father and mother were not there before him...... My husband used to say, we should view Maoist as untamed family member. ....... Army does not function as per the wishes of civilian government. Everyone knew about the [the King’s] ambition...... people never though the bluff would be called ...... He told the king, form a government with the leadership of any leader like Madhav Nepal or anyone else...... The crux of democracy is that if you aspire to go back to your constituency to face an election, you are forced to listen to people even if you are unwilling to do so.
• Madhav Nepal Press Conference United We Blog Some of us have been released but in reality, democracy is in jail...... We told the PM Deuba that he should take some bold and courageous step. “You come forward with a historical move,” we told him, “Don’t live like ‘parsiyeko boko’ (billy ready for sacrifice) uncertain about the possible death.” I don’t know what Deuba ji was thinking. The cards could be: going for new constitution or going for constituent assembly, or revival of house etc. We told him that lets not give king opportunity to go for move like Feb 1..... democrats should not be blamed for the demise of democracy and introduction of autocracy in the country .... [Nepal spend approximately 15 days studying different books.]
• Mobile Phones Start Ringing United We Blog My 80 year old great grand father who was on bed with a headache promptly wake up to survey the happiness that surrounded the room. My brother was in hilarious mood. Sister was smiling. Mom came from outside the house. That was quite a ceremony.
• Seminar: The Problem .... a decade in a vicious cycle of violence and counter-violence ..... different political parties hopelessly divided .... no progress in the negotiations with the Maoists ...... Gyanendra ... had never hidden his ambition for a more assertive monarchy ..... insufficient progress in improving development indicators ..... the exclusionary, and thus non-representative, character of the Nepali system, with a few hill-based, upper caste Hindu groups hegemonising positions and resources in all domains – legislative, executive, judicial – in the process marginalizing a vast majority of citizens ...... limited attempts at decentralization have failed to break the centrality of the Kathmandu valley in national affairs ...... (84%) strongly disapproved of the dismissal of popular government (October 2002) and felt that the situation of the country had worsened after that...... the role of Indian capital in Nepal’s economy and India’s continual insistence on a special status has added to a feeling that Nepal enjoys little autonomy in deciding its own affairs ..... many Nepalis depend on work in India and that a vast majority of its political class was socialized here...... Left-wing forces, including the Maoists, have often seen a ‘foreign-funded’ civil society sector as a Trojan horse, weakening the nationalist impulse and struggle...... they have consolidated their hold in the countryside, in particular amongst marginalized groups and communities and their call for local autonomy and self-determination is extremely popular ..... unless the Maoists and democratic political forces forge an understanding and collaborate to redesign state and society, Nepal may well slip into an endemic civil war, another example of a failed state .....
  
• Pak has no plans to supply arms to Nepal Hindustan Times, India ....as dealing with insurgency is an "internal affair" of the kingdom....... "Pakistan is also a sufferer of terrorism and we are in favour of international coalition against terrorism ... But regarding the Maoists problem facing Nepal, we don't interfere in internal affairs of other countries."
• 'Pak has no plans to supply arms to Nepal to fight Maoists' Zee News
  
• US calls for restoration of democracy in Nepal Sify, India .....welcomed the lifting of a state of emergency in Nepal but said the government must also release all political detainees and restore democracy.
• Clarity Amid Extremism by Manjushree Thapa ....claiming that he is taking absolute control in the interest of rescuing democracy from itself...... his actions are irredeemably fascist .... R.K. Mainali, a Naxalite-royalist..... state security forces (those who aren't busy suppressing democratic dissidents) are now being set loose on the countryside with no checks and balances, no accountability, and no fear of punishment for the atrocities and war crimes that they might commit ..... the village defence committee scheme ..had been introduced in 2002 upon the advice of a USAID consultant who had previously worked in Peru studying the Shining Path. Mimicking a scheme implemented in Guatemala in the 1970s and '80s – with deadly, disastrous results – the VDC amounts to arming local thugs, extremists and bandits, and granting them free reign...... the state has always fought a dirty war against the Maoists, and it is only going to get dirtier now....... state has been responsible for a full three-fourths of the killings ..... fake encounters (wherein unarmed suspected Maoists are killed, then reported to have been armed Maoists), unlawful detention (detention in army barracks or other government offices without due process), disappearances, rape, and extortion....... In some places in East Nepal, they have even dressed as Maoists (with red bandanas, or with hammer-and-sickle signs on their clothing) and greeted people with ‘red salute' signs, only to take them out and shoot them if they return in kind..... 50 per cent of the people killed by the security forces are civilians..... Atrocities and abuse are so widespread and systematic in the state security forces, they appear to form the core of the counter-insurgency: cast a wide net, and surely some Maoists will be caught...... by international law he has been, since February 2005, responsible for all the systematic atrocities and war crimes committed....... The international community is almost more powerful than the Nepalis in Nepal. .... the royal palace's budget increased by 600%. ..... a king we never chose, a king we do not like and do not want. ...... We seem frankly incapable of envisioning ourselves as a liberal democratic republic ..... The Maoist insurgency is the first nationwide mass movement; the countryside is striking back at Kathmandu for the first time. .... the monarchy must retreat to a strictly ceremonial position, or go ...... a new constitution via a constituent assembly that is to be elected by an all-party interim government ......
  
• Will The Monarchy Survive by BC Upreti It is not only the prevailing socioeconomic conditions or the weak party system which have been responsible for the political assertion of monarchy, but equally the political ambitions of the king..... After the departure of the UML government Nepal slipped into an era of unstable governments ...... Each of the coalition partners tried to place its own men in different organizations following a sort of a spoils system..... The outlook of political parties was confined to short term personal gains and were insufficiently concerned about long term and national issues. None seemed concerned about the process of institutionalization of democracy...... Koirala won 69 votes against Deuba's 43 ...... the Maoists did not agree to accept anything less than the formation of a constituent assembly, a republican state and a new constitution for Nepal, while the government was not prepared to accept any of these demands...... there was no agreement on basic issues with none of the parties prepared to compromise...... all the major political parties have been characterized by internal fragmentation, groupism, leadership clashes, weak social base, decline of ideology and intra-party disputes..... the NDP deciding, at the beginning of 2004, to expel Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa from the party..... February 2004 .... The days of the monarchy being seen but not heard are gone. .... the king moved in a systematic and calculated manner ..... historically the bureaucracy has displayed shifting loyalty.... the lingering fight with the Maoists has demoralized the force...... the royal army cannot fight with the Maoist insurgents on its own resources...... forging an understanding among various political parties and subsequently the Maoists joining the parties to launch a civil movement for the restoration of democracy......
  
• Neighbourly Concerns by SD Muni Since 2001, when it was first pushed into anti-Maoist operations, the RNA has not enhanced its reputation for efficiency and effectiveness. Even after the February coup, the RNA failed to break the Maoists blockade of Kathmandu. Despite the heavy security cover all it could manage was to let a fraction of the usual vehicular traffic move between the capital and rest of the country. Therefore, to blame the political parties for their inefficiency in dealing with the Maoists is not credible...... palace-centred machinations to divide and corrupt political parties and their leaders. .... His coup was really driven by his own political ambitions and the RNA's lure for unfettered authority without any accountability..... Under pressure to show results against the Maoists, the RNA has indulged in ruthless violence in the countryside, often killing innocent people and showing them as Maoists...... Pakistan too needs to be cautioned that its access to Nepal, even by air, is only through India..... A greater part of the royal regime's efforts are directed towards distancing the US from the Indian position. It is important to note that the US priority in Nepal is the fight against terrorism, over and above the restoration of democracy...... India's Nepal policy has in the past shown a notorious tendency to compromise with the king under domestic political pressures and external strategic concerns. New Delhi has to demonstrate in deeds that the phase is now passé...... India's favourite two pillar theory, of its Nepal policy being based on constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy, stands shattered in the wake of the February coup..... Nearly 80 per cent of Nepal's youth have ideologically shifted closer to the Maoists' position of a ‘multiparty republic' in Nepal...... The king is likely to play around with the groups of pliable political leaders and pseudo democrats to diffuse the international pressure...... In India's policy-making and security establishments, there is an exaggerated and irrational demonizing of and paranoia about the Nepali Maoists..... they politically represent the legitimate aspirations of Nepal's long neglected and suppressed rural poor. That is why they are willing to work with the political parties within a multiparty political structure if there is a complete and genuine transfer of power from the king to the people ..... engage the Maoists politically and facilitate the soft-landing of their movement into mainstream democratic politics.....
  
• The Word And The World by Anil Bhattarai Gandhi's village republic, mixed with ancient Hindu practices of elite male village council, found its expression in the partyless panchayat democracy with, of course, many permutations..... Nepal has over 100 officially recognized languages and none of them have directly translatable words for democracy. ...... Democracy does not mean the same thing for both the dalits and brahmins, for example; nor to men and women...... Prajatantra in common parlance also communicates a nuanced feeling of frustration and failure. ..... instances of transformative action made possible by the opening up of democratic space after the political change of 1990 ..... the ideals of a functioning system as well as frustration with its non-materialization...... The cacophony of voices that the post-1990 political changes gave rise to are seen as a threat to social order....... The general strikes, organized demands and demonstrations challenging the status quo to them appear undesirable and disorderly....... Civil society in the initial years was conceptualized as the very foundation of democracy, as a moral force for rectifying the authoritarian tendencies of the state and rapacity of the market..... inclusive institutions, procedural fairness and substantive involvement of the civil society ..... democracy is not something ‘finished', but is in-the-making, constantly transforming...... a wide gap between accepting democracy as a positive value and defending it in the face of threats. ...... democracy is preferred because it allows for the flowering of innate potential of individuals in society... the justifications are largely based on ideals imagined, not reality lived.... formal and alienating procedural rituals ..... For some groups the increasing assertion of historically marginalized people has become a cause of concern. ... dependence on foreign aid implies that state policies have increasingly to conform to the dictates of international agencies ...... while people do not accept autocratic rule by the king, no voices are raised against autocracy within political parties and other institutions of society ...... others who might oppose military rule are willing to accept rule by experts as necessary. They may be called the developmentalist democrats, who have internalized the notion of expert-led development...... campaigns for the elimination of untouchability in society – led mainly by dalit activists ..... For people who formed the Gorkha Parishad, democracy meant an overthrow of the autocratic Rana regime. They, however, failed to sufficiently think through alternative arrangements.......
  
• elves with certain political parties for protecting their self-interest.... The Working Of Democracy by Mukta Singh Lama ..... disguising the exclusion and further marginalization of indigenous peoples, dalits, women and other minorities ..... a one-party state was not considered undemocratic; rather it was presented as rejecting the ‘foreign ideology' of political parties and replacing it by substantive democracy through a guided mechanism...... the concept of democracy is even extended to justify anti-democratic tendencies, including corruption and abuse of authority for fulfilling self-interest and the use of violent means for oppression..... those who hold power to define and implement democracy programmes continue to be drawn from the same social backgrounds – namely Bahun, Chhetri, Thakuri and Newars...... Such imbalanced representation is directly reflected in state institutions as well as in the civil society sector. The exclusion of marginalized groups has become institutionalized across the various sectors as networks established by the dominant group expand and function in the country....... arrival of democracy in Nepal after 1990 enabled innovative mobilization of social groups for resisting the abuse of state power and demanding alternative forms of democracy...... formal democratic institutions have failed to effectively address the profound structural problems of inequality and injustice..... Thar-Ghar in which members of six elite families belonging to the Aryal, Pandey, Khanal, Pant, Thapa and Basnet clans supported the Saha kings as military generals, advisors and administrators...... the loss of land which was the base of subsistence livelihood of the indigenous peoples contributed to loss of their history, culture and identity ...... 1963 .... setting up of 75 districts ...... The essence of the partyless system was an absence of popular participation and centrality of the king, who skilfully managed to combine two sources of legitimacy – traditional Hindu kingly authority and the modern notion of representative democracy....... The number of government offices increased from 2,419 in 1960 to 9,430 in 1990 and the number of civil servants reached 100,638 in 1990 from 27,272 in 1960.....The Panchayat Constitution of Nepal 1963, had for the first time declared Nepal as a ‘Hindu Kingdom', pushing the agenda of ‘national integration' through the process of homogenisation and assimilation of cultural diversity...... policies for ‘ one language, one dress ' were officially promoted..... debate and action pertaining to ethnicity and culture other than ‘national' culture was discouraged as ‘communal' and ‘anti-national' and, therefore, met strong official opposition..... The power to define the reigning ideology of nationalism, democracy and development gained through access to politics, bureaucracy and education, including western education, during the panchayat era substantially augmented a section of the society which would eventually become even more powerful and prosperous during the democratic period....... 1991.... The first articulated ‘the people as the source of sovereign authority'; second, the king was designated as a ‘constitutional monarch'; third, Article 3 officially recognised the country as ‘multi-ethnic and multi-lingual' and last, it guaranteed freedom to political parties, associations and expression...... Article 4 privileges the Nepali language as the ‘language of the nation' and to be used as the official language. Similarly, contrary to the fundamental rights granted by the constitution, Article 112(3) prohibits formation of any political organization or party on the basis of religion, community, caste, tribe or religion...... The composition of the governing elites of Nepal in terms of caste, ethnicity, and gender between 1854 and 1999 remained more or less the same...... the dynastic element remained dominant at the higher level of all party structures..... members from Bahun and Chhetri caste groups, who constitute 28.5% of the total population of the country, continued to occupy about 60% of the positions as legislators, while janajatis or indigenous nationalities, though 37.2% of the total population accounted for less than 15% of the MPs in 1999...... dalits (12.2%) are virtually nonexistent in the legislature..... Municipalities in which 116 mayors and deputy mayors were elected in 1997, the Bahun Chhetri captured 42% of the positions..... 54.42% of the VDC chairpersons were from the Bahun/Chhetri community..... debate in parliament largely focused on removing the party in power or defending it. Only about one-fifth of the parliamentarians took an active part in debates...... The relationship between the cabinet and the bureaucracy can be characterized as a love-hate affair. Each new minister, equipped with discretionary power to control and manipulate the civil administration, clashes with the established bureaucracy. In the absence of appropriate plans and mechanisms to translate party policies into programmes, ministers often recruit hundreds of party workers as government ‘civil servants', modify budget allocations to fund pet projects and influence the decisions on tenders and contracts for personal benefit...... Nepalese bureaucracy basically chooses two methods. The first is to share the benefits of corruption with the incumbent minister and second, ally themselves with certain political parties for protecting their self-interest...... indigenous nationalities, dalits, women and other minorities in the Nepalese civil service have faced consistent erosion in the last few years...... strong elite resistance towards affirmative action ..... During the panchayat era, the expanded bureaucracy served as an effective mechanism to extend control over local communities, undermine their autonomy and dispossess them of natural and biological resources...... The bureaucracy in Nepal is an interesting example of the ‘elite capture' of state institutions. It successfully asserts its interests through influencing both policy decisions, thought to be the domain of the legislature, and policy outcomes by controlling the implementation mechanism. ...... The legal code of 1854, Muluki Ain , for example, classified the diverse population of Nepal, including non-Hindu indigenous nationalities, into a caste hierarchy and formalized punishment for failing to observe the caste principles...... In the process of state formation, the courts were perhaps the first institutions to assert state power in public life...... Like all other state institutions, the courts too are dominated by members of the minority population belonging to high caste groups, with 90% drawn from Bahun, Chhetri and Newar communities, while there is no representation from the dalits. Of the 242 judges in the 92 courts, only four are women. ...... major decisions revolve more around the personality of the chief justice than the court as an institution..... some questioning the provision of the ‘contempt of court' clause itself as a breach of the right to freedom of expression...... because of lengthy procedures, expense, corruption and inability to enforce decisions, the district courts have virtually become redundant..... A case filed in the lower level court, for example, can take up to 12 years for a decision, which too perhaps would never be implemented. ...... ever since the Maoists started to operate their own ‘people's court' in the villages, the number of cases filed in the government district court has dropped from approximately 1000 to 50 per annum ...... The Local Administration Act 1971 empowers the Chief District Officers (CDO) to command the police force in their districts...... Besides controlling street demonstrations in urban areas, especially the capital, the police together with the CDO play the role of a quasi-judicial body in large parts of the rural areas. Many cases, before being reported to the court, are settled by the police themselves. This work provides the police an opportunity to extract money from the local population in the form of bribes........ Police atrocities during the early stage of Maoist insurgency significantly contributed to fuelling the violent conflict. ....... the Bahun-Chhetri comprise 73% of the officers, Newars 12% and the janajatis, including the Tharu, have 13% ...... 66% were killed by the security forces. .. more than 40% of those killed remain unidentified, the caste and ethnic pattern of fatalities suggests that state victims are concentrated among indigenous janajatis while Maoist victims are concentrated among the higher caste Chhetris, Brahmins, and Thakurs....... Most political parties are organized around a particular ideology or personality....... Party fragmentation continued to be a characteristic of the political processes....... By the end of the 1999 general election, along with Nepali Congress and Nepal Communist Party (UML), nine others emerged as viable political parties....... the tendency to use state-owned mass media in favour of the ruling party....... the abuse of civil administration and security by the ruling party for winning votes....... the continual flouting by political parties of stipulated rules in the Election Code of Conduct prohibiting vote buying and limits on expenditure by candidates...... there exists a remarkable gap between the popular vote and the seats a party has in parliament. ..... The existing first-past-the-post election system is not only responsible for incompatibility between the popular vote and actual seats in the representative bodies, but also for systemic exclusion of historically marginalized ethnic groups and other minorities. ..... Politics in Nepal has largely been characterized by dynasty, a personality cult and kinship network...... social composition of political parties demonstrates the capture of power by certain caste groups ........ The high caste domination in the leadership of the CPN (Maoist), which is currently involved in violent insurgency with the aim of establishing a republic with ethnic autonomy, shows that even a radical left party is unable to ensure equitable representation. ..... Single caste domination is a paradox for parties which claim to represent the people as a whole or a class of proletariat and workers...... without changing the composition of the party leadership, democratization in a larger context is impossible....... a ‘democratic veil', which enables the dominant groups to keep the exclusion invisible....... different regimes employed political power to extract resources and surplus from the peasants to better the economic status of elite groups....... In the absence of measures for protection and inclusion, the disadvantaged groups only fell further behind in the free competition demanded by liberal policies...... those falling in the lower hierarchy of caste structure and ethnic groups also suffer from higher levels of poverty..... The absence of elected local bodies and incapacity of civil servants to move beyond the district headquarters and its periphery has resulted in heavy under-expenditure of the development budget during the last year, even as security expenditure increased to about 25% of total GDP....... caste hierarchy and subsequent economic exploitation and marginalization...... social movements in Nepal represent hope for a more vibrant and inclusive democracy......
  

To: His Majesty The King

Your Majesty.

I believe I have the best plan to take the country back on tracks. I urge you to unilaterally announce the formation of an interim government with the following composition and at the same time restore all fundamental rights and release all political prisoners.

Prime Minister: Girija Koirala
Deputy Prime Minister: Hridayesh Tripathy
Deputy Prime Minister: Madhav Nepal
Deputy Prime Minister: Pushpa Kamal Dahal
Ministers: Sher Deuba, Pashupati Rana, Prakash Lohani, Badri Mandal, Amik Sherchan, Baburam Bhattarai, Uttar Ram Tamata, Shailaja Acharya.

This will be a take it or leave it proposition for all the names listed and they will have two weeks to decide except for the two Maoist names who will have two months. So if Girija Koirala were to decline to participate, Your Majesty will promote one of the DPM candidates. I would recommend the name of Hridayesh Tripathy. I have worked with him. He is one of the sharpest minds I ever met, and he is fun to be with. Plus, the country never had a Madhesi Prime Minister, a Madhesi DPM yes, thanks to you, but never a PM. Or Your Majesty could even skip the Koirala option altogether, out of respect for the great leader’s age, and go straight for the Tripathy option.

I would not worry about the Maoists refusing to participate and disrupting the referendum even if there were no non-Maoist counterbalance. There is plenty of that within, plus I do not wish to make too much of the recent surfaced differences between its two top leaders. Those two have more in common than otherwise, and I believe together they will make the right choice given a respectful exit like this one.

The cabinet will have a four point agenda:

1. Provide extra personal security to the Maoist leaders.
2. Add a half dozen members to reflect the gender, regional, ethnic and caste diversity of the country.
3. Hold a referendum within six months to get this constitution accepted by the Nepali people.
4. Within six months of the constitution getting accepted, hold elections to the Pratinidhi and the Rajya Sabhas.
   

A lot of work has gone into the constitution. Its simplicity and brevity are testimony to that, not evidence against. I think the document is near complete. But I am open to suggestions from all parties concerned with one condition: I am the only one who may make changes to the document. It is a copyright issue.

If you accept this proposal, I promise to organize an online think tank on the national economy. Between this constitution that will make Nepal the world’s very first democracy and the think tank, the country will see double digit economic growth rates, year in year out, for 30 years. That is the future I see. If you care about the plight of the Nepali people, as I have every reason to believe you do, this should delight you.

There is also the bigger picture to look at. China and India are both going to come under immense pressure to imitate this constitution. That will see the dawn of The Asian Century. Forget the Hindus, become the king of all Asians: there are three times as many of those! I hope you will see this offer for what it is: the opportunity of a lifetime. I believe I have made you an offer you can not refuse, to borrow a line from one of your favorite movies, but I do not mean that in a sinister way.

And say hello to Prince Paras, his wonderful Indian wife, and their children on my behalf, if you will please. My greetings to the rest of your family as well.

With great respect, warm regards, and much affection.

Paramendra Bhagat

Proposed Constitution

Preamble

1. Nepal is a federal state, a total, transparent democracy, with the sovereignty resting firmly with the Nepali people.
2. An interim government will hold a referendum to get this constitution accepted by the people and, upon acceptance, organize elections to the national parliament which takes over upon convening. That new national government will organize the state elections, and the state governments will hold local elections to fully activate this constitution.
   

Article 1: The Legislative Branch

1. There is to be a lower house, the Pratinidhi Sabha, with 180 members, 60 per state, and a upper house, the Rajya Sabha, with 60 members, 20 per state, all of whom are to be directly elected through constituencies demarcated such that the largest has a population not more than 5% of the smallest, geographically in close approximation to a circle or a square, and protected from partisan gerrymandering by an autonomous Election Commission. The constituencies need not respect district boundaries. Three constituencies for the Pratinidhi Sabha will make one for the Rajya Sabha. The entire Sabha is dissolved en masse when its term nears expiration.
2. All matters of national importance are to be decided by the national parliament through a majority vote, unless otherwise stated. Parliamentary procedures are to be laid out or revised with a 60% vote margin.
3. The legislatures are to elect their Speakers and Deputy Speakers. The legislatures shall assemble at least once every four months, and as often as necessary. No parliamentarian may be arrested while the parliament might be in session except for felony charges. Their speech in parliament is protected from any and all oversight, legal and otherwise.
4. A simple majority of the parliament will pass the budget. All budget proposals must originate in the Pratinidhi Sabha. All bills must be posted online in three languages - Nepali, Hindi and English - for at least one week before they may be voted upon.
5. All regional and international treaties that Nepal might enter into will have to pass a 60% majority in the parliament.
6. Political parties may not engage in fund-raising activities. Instead each national party, described as those that garnered at least 5% of the votes in the previous nationwide elections, will get an annual sum that will be directly proportional to the number of votes it earned. That money is to be used for party-building and electioneering activities. Details of expenses are to be posted online in the three languages to the last paisa on at least an annual basis.
7. Every person on the state's payroll - elected officials, bureaucrats, justices, police, army personnel - is to submit a Family Property Statement, to be posted online and archived and updated annually. Upon exiting the public sector, they may discontinue the practice, but the archives will remain, and the updates will resume should the individuals re-enter public service.
8. Details of all expenses incurred by the state, to the last paisa, are to be posted online in the three languages. All contracts offered by the state to the private sector are to be bid for in a similar transparent manner from beginning to the end. All job applications and promotions in the public sector are to be similarly handled in a transparent manner.
9. All formal political deliberations at all levels of government are to be posted online in as real time as possible in the language that was used at the venue. Efforts are to be made to make the same available in Nepali, Hindi and English. All votes are to be similarly made public.
10. Every elected official at all levels of government is to get a decent monthly salary.
11. Anyone above the age of 16 is a legible voter. Members of the Pratinidhi Sabha will have to be at least 23 years of age, and that of the Rajya Sabha at least 25 years of age. The terms of members of the two bodies shall last four and six years respectively. All elected officials are to have been citizens.
12. Acts of impeachment require a vote of 65%. This constitution can be amended by the same vote margin.
13. In the case of a tie in the Pratinidhi or the Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister's designate gets to break it.
14. The parliamentarians may not increase their salaries in a way that might affect the members of the existing class. The same applies to the salaries of members of the cabinet.
    

Article 2: The Executive Branch

1. The legislative party leader of the majority party in the Pratinidhi Sabha becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister may elect members to the Cabinet that might or might not be members of the parliament.
2. When a majority might be lacking, the largest pre-poll alliance, or the largest single party, whichever might be larger, gets invited to form the government, and is given 30 days to prove majority.
3. The Prime Minister makes nominations to the Supreme Court and other constitutional bodies like the Election Commission (EC) and the Commission to Control Corruption (CCC) to be confirmed by a 60% vote in the parliament. The commissioners serve 6-year terms.
4. The army, to be called the Nepal Army, is not to be larger than 0.1% of the national population and is to be downsized accordingly within 5 years of this constitution getting promulgated. The Prime Minister is the Commander-In-Chief of the army.
5. The central bank is to be autonomous, and the governor, to serve a six-year term, is to be appointed by the Prime Minister.
6. All appointments made by the Prime Minster, except for his or her personal staff, will need a majority vote in the parliament for confirmation.
   

Article 3: The Judiciary Branch

1. The judiciary will reflect the composition of the government, from village/town to district, to state to the national level. Towns and cities with more than 30,000 people will be served with more than one court, the number to be decided through a formula by the state government. There will be a layer between the district and the state levels, the Appeals Court, 10 per state. The system is to be peopled like the civil service, on merit.
2. The Prime Minister makes nominations to the national Supreme Court. The Chief Minister makes nominations to the State Supreme Court. Both are subject to their respective parliaments for 60% of the vote. Justices to the Supreme Court are to serve to the age of 75 or upto their voluntary retirement.
3. The state and national Supreme Courts interpret the constitutionality of laws passed by the parliaments when thus challenged, but such interpretations may be overturned by the parliaments through a 65% vote.
4. The parliament, federal or state, may not diminish the salary of a sitting judge.
   

Article 4: The States

1. The current "zones" and "development regions" are to be abolished, but the "districts" are to be retained. The country is to be divided into three states, roughly of equal population, Eastern, Central, and Western, to be called Purbanchal, Madhyamanchal, and Paschimanchal, that are to include all three geographical regions, Terai, Pahad and Himal. Each state is to have a Pratinidhi Sabha, 120 members, and a Rajya Sabha, 40 members.
2. The districts will have their own governments, forming a third layer, named Zillapalika. It is for each state to design the formation and functioning of its component district and town/city governments. The village units are to be called Grampalika, the town units are to be called Nagarpalika, and the city units Mahanagarpalika, and will form the fourth layer of government. District, town/city and village elected officials are to be at least 21 years of age.
3. The federal government will directly transfer 10% of its annual budget to the 25 poorest districts measured by per capita income. This does not prevent further federal expenditures on those districts.
4. The income tax structure is to be as follows: 50% federal, 30% state, 10% district, and 10% village/town/city. The income tax is to be collected by the federal government, and funds transferred by the same to the other levels of government as per this formula.
5. The education system shall follow a tri-lingual policy up to Class 10, beyond which it is for each individual institution to decide on their own as to the language of instruction. The first language is to be the student's first language, the second language is to be Nepali. For those for whom Nepali might be their first language, the student may choose any language spoken in Nepal. The third language is to be English, the contemporary language of science and commerce. This policy applies to schools in both the private and the public sectors. The language of instruction for all other subjects to Class 10 will be a decision to be made by the individual school boards for the public schools and by the owners of the private schools.
   

Article 5: The Monarchy

1. The monarch is the guardian of the constitution and the one who formally invites formations of governments from the parliaments and formally inducts governments.
2. The first born, son or daughter, is heir to the throne.
3. The monarch's immediate family - defined as parent(s), wife, siblings and their children, children, and grandchildren, and others in direct lineage, and above the law - is to get annual allowances from the state at the 1991 levels. The amount may not be reduced by the parliament. The monarch may request the parliament increases to the allowance through the Prime Minister at any time. Such allowances are not to be taxed, although businesses owned by members of the said family will be subject to taxation and the law.
4. The monarch may decide to retire at an age of his or her choosing, or not.
5. It is a state goal to open up enough holdings of the royal family with consent from the monarch to tourists so as to offset the state expenditure on the monarchy through revenue from tourism.
6. The monarch will appoint a Prince/Princess for each state, to be called Prince/Princess of Purbanchal/Madhyamanchal/Paschimanchal from among the members of the royal family. The monarch may also choose to appoint members that might have married into the family. Such appointments may be rescinded by the monarch at any time. The title comes with extra allowances from the state and a state-funded residence in the state capital. The spouse of the appointed royal family member gets the accompanying title.
7. Members of the royal family may marry individuals of their choice, not necessarily from certain families, or from within the country.
8. The monarch will give the annual State Of The Kingdom address, the speech to be crafted by the Prime Minister summarizing the achievements in the public and the private sectors over the past year and outlining a vision for the future years.
9. The monarchy may be abolished with a 90% vote in the national parliament: this provision may not be amended.
   

Article 6: The Individual

1. The individual is the most important component of the state and is to be protected and celebrated. Every person has a birth right to freedom of speech, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of religion, a right to a speedy, public trial, and a right to privacy, a protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. No person may be tried and punished for the same crime twice. No person will be compelled to testify against themselves. No person will be deprived of life, liberty or propety without due process of law. Private property may not be taken for public use without due compensation. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended. No ex post facto law shall be passed. No warrants are to be issued, except upon probable cause, and should specifically describe the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. A person charged with a crime is to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his or her favor, and is to have the Assistance of Counsel for his or her defence.
2. Every person born in Nepal is a citizen of Nepal. But this does not prevent people not born in Nepal from seeking Nepali citizenship.
3. Every person is equal under the law. Any law that might conflict with that fundamental premise will become null and void as soon as this constitution takes effect.
4. No person shall be taxed more than 40% of their income by all levels of government put together. Those in the bottom 40% income brackets are not to pay any direct taxes.
5. No business may be taxed more than 25% of its income, and businesses in the bottom 25% income brackets will not pay any taxes. All business expenses are tax write-offs.
6. The sales tax may not exceed 10%.
7. Elections at all levels are to be organized on Saturdays.
8. No citizen of age may be barred from voting for whatever reason.
9. It is a stated goal of the state to make possible lifelong education for every person in the country through creative partnerships between the private and public sectors. The state shall also attempt to provide universal access to secondary education and primary health care free of cost to all.
10. The state shall attempt to provide universal access to micro-credit to all in the bottom 40% income brackets.
11. All persons that might enter into agreements, either in the private or the public sector, to access credit will have the option to declare bankruptcy as a last resort. Money owed by an individual, as opposed to by a business or a corporation, may not be passed on to the next generation. Indentured servitude is an illegal form of collecting money owed by an individual or family. Money owed may not be paid for through manual labor. Any person, group or organization, lending money on interest, the total of which is larger than Rs 20,000, to be indexed to inflation, is to register as a small business owner, and will be subject to taxation and regulation.
12. All educational institutions, public and private, must have at least 10% of its students on need-based full scholarships. Institutions may also opt to have 5% on such full scholarships, and 10% on need-based half scholarships, or 5% on full, 6% on half, and 6% on one-third scholarships. But at no time should the proportion of full scholarship dip below 5%.
13. Employees of the state in the education and health sectors will be paid salaries that are at least 10% larger than to those with similar qualifications serving in other fields.
14. An accurate, scientific census is to be conducted every 10 years, and scientific projections are to be made for the intervening years.
    

Article 7: Capitals

1. Within 10 years of this constitution getting promulgated, the national capital is to be shifted from Kathmandu to the Chitwan valley which will also serve as the capital of Madhyamanchal. Udaypur valley will serve as the capital of Purbanchal, and the Surkhet valley will serve as the capital for Paschimanchal.

http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com

Email From Arzu Rana Deuba

From:	"arz8u"
To:	"Paramendra Kumar Bhagat"
Subject:	Re: Your email about your husband is being widely publicized
Date:	Tue, 3 May 2005 16:06:14 -0700

Dear Paramendra,

Thanks for hosting my appeal on your site. Am sending you an attachment you might
(find) interesting.

Arzu



The Royal Take Over, Arrest of Mr. Deuba and the Facts about Melamchi

The government headed by King Gyanendra is not only embarking on unconstitutional path
through its February 1st takeover, it is showing utter disrespect for democracy and human
rights in Nepal. The government is systematically working to destroy independent civil
societies, political parties and human right groups by letting loose state mechanism through
intimidation, excessive use of force, torture, arrest, censorship, control on freedom of
movement and disruption of communications. As if it was not enough, it has created a
so-called royal commission on control of corruption, totally disregarding the constitution
provision. Breaking all the constitutional norms, the commission is provided with power of
investigation, policing as well as power of special court. Empowering any one body with all
these powers is against the laws of jurisprudence. Despite the fact that there exists a
constitutional body called Commission Investigation Abuse of Authority (CIAA) created by
parliament to look after cases of corruption. Immediately after creation of royal commission,
it has started targeting political leaders by initiating cases against them for corruption. The
cases and charges against them are totally flimsy and clearly meant to discredit political
parties and its leaders. The King is afraid of growing political opposition against his rule and
therefore, likes to distract and confuse people by charging political leaders and its activists in
corruption cases.

The case cases against former Prime Minister Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba and former Minister
Prakash Man Singh and way they were arrested clearly shows ill intention of the commission.
The Mr. Deuba was arrested in the middle of the night in abduction like fashion. The
telephone and electricity lines were cutoff and all the roads were blocked to create terror. It
shows it has no other objective but to intimidate those who choose to stand against the
unconstitutional royal government. The royal commission arrested them regarding
Melamchi drinking water project. The government propaganda machinery has been
blatantly trying to distort the facts. Asian Development Bank sources have made it very clear
that awarding of the contract of the access road to the project is made according to the
process followed by the bank and with concurrence from the bank.  Although, many private
media has come up with the real story, we find it necessary to present facts about
Melamchi project to dispel any confusion to our friends, concerned citizens.

The Melamchi drinking water project is larger and complex and is supported by a number of
donors. It was approved in 2000 and was originally scheduled to be completed by 2006.
However, implementation progress is well behind the original schedule, so Asian Development
bank (ADB) and other donors have repeatedly expressed concerns to the government about
the prolonged delays. The contract for the access roads is on the project's critical path, since
it is needed to provide access to the tunnel, and most of the other major works cannot
commence until the access roads are substantially complete. The contract was re-tendered
after the original contract was terminated in May 2004 due to gross under-performance of
the contractor (85% of the contract period had elapsed, but only 11 percent physical progress
achieved). ADB concurred with the recommendation of the Melamchi project office to
terminate the contract and re-tendered. In view of the long delays already incurred, ADB has
repeatedly stressed the need to urgently complete the procurement process for the new
contract and restart the work as early as possible. In particular, it was considered essential
to take maximum advantage in the 2004/005 dry seasons to complete the contract
according to the current schedule.

Bids for the new contract were received in October 2004 and approval for award of the
contract was undertaken according to ADB procedures. First the project office evaluated the
bids in detail and recommendations were forwarded to ADB's procurement committee for
further review and approval. ADB formally approved the recommendation of the Melamchi
project office to award the contract to the lowest responsive bidder on 23 December 2004 at
a price slightly below the cost estimate.

Formal notice to proceed was issued to the successful contractor in early January 2005.
However, it was subsequently brought to ADB's attention that signing of the contract was
still being delayed. In view of the critical implications of further prolonged delays in
implementing work under contract, ADB again expressed serious concerns to the government
about the future of the project.  Considering all these facts and satisfied that all the due
process and procedures followed, the contract was approved by the government and finally
awarded in late January 2005.

Throughout implementation of the project, ADB, as part of its routine review process has
monitored progress of the work. The semiannual joint review meetings between project staff
and the 6 donor agencies implementing the Melamchi project are a major element of the
monitoring process. The issues and constrains identified for action are expeditiously bought to
the attention of all relevant government officials including, as needed, the highest authority of
the government including prime minister by ADB.

These are the facts about Melamchi's contracting process. However, the government media
is spreading disinformation by saying that the Deuba government canceled the project and
that the new contract was given based on negotiations. The truth of the matter is that
Thapa's government in May 2004 canceled the previous contract, while the Deuba
government was formed only 2 June 2004. The new contract was awarded as per ADB
regulations through a global tender.

The ADB needs to not only 'leak' these facts but also to organize a press conference to clear
this before the global and Nepalese community. Not only to clear the names of the former PM
and minister but also for the sake of Nepal's democracy and to expose the plots against it.

Please send e-mails to hkuroda@adb.org and shrahman@adb.org. The former Mr. Haruhiko
Kuroda is President of ADB and the latter sultan Hafeez Rahman is the representative in
Nepal.

In The News

• Nepal: Cynicism Amid Competing Visions Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand....cynicism festering in Nepal’s political discourse ..... Was Indian diplomatic pressure in the aftermath of the king’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Jakarta so untenable that he had no choice? ..... the purported “failure of the China card” ...... vast right-wing conspiracy to hoodwink the international community and impose some form of “guided democracy” ..... The idea that the monarch’s move might be a genuine effort at bolstering national reconciliation never seems to have gotten off the ground...... after suffering a series of battlefield blows, the Maoists have struck against the royal regime ..... Prachanda, who has for the first time publicly acknowledged deep rifts with the party’s chief ideologue, Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai, has shed little of his ideological defiance...... Army generals are justifiably peeved at attempts to equate their derelictions with the depredations of those declaring war on the state ..... An impatient idealism against the injustices of the status quo has propelled the Maoist insurgency...... How longer can they continue using indiscriminate violence, often against the people they claim to be fighting for, without undermining their cause? ...... Undaunted by the crescendo of criticism his action has sparked, the king remains committed to playing an assertive role not only to extricate Nepal from its worst crisis but also as a pivot of modernization well into the future....... Gyanendra has said Nepal’s peace and stability depended on much more than constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy ..... It is no secret that political parties, through their abysmal performance over 12 years, have failed the country. Perpetual denunciation cannot provide the drawing board for a blueprint for national rejuvenation...... the anti-corruption campaign may be metamorphosing into a full-blown political witch-hunt ....... creating an inclusive state structure and ensuring distributive justice .....

Tibetans And Madhesis

I must have felt this for a long time now, but I only articulated it to myself a few days back, that Madhesis are like Tibetans in some ways, although I must admit the plight of the Tibetans is much more acute.

Nepal was not my country. America has not been mine. This will change in the future, but that has been the past.

To me the best part of the current turmoil in the country is if the Madhesis were to play their cards right, political equality could be achieved in one push this time around. That is the reason for my passionate involvement. That is my self-interest. If the Janajatis, and the disenfranchised, demoralized Bahuns also benefit in the process, then so be it.

Old social thought patterns need to be broken to make room for new ones. Curiously the Madhesi-Pahadi dynamic percolates all the way to Nepali social settings in the US. Many Madhesis put up with Pahadi chauvinism when there are no practical reasons to do so. Is it for social reasons? Is it just inertia? Is it mental slavery?

The worst part of prejudice and racism might not be the hate but the mirror image self-hate that complicates social relationships among the powerless, the oppressed. That adds to the urgency. It is almost as if you have to fight the prejudice and the racism if only to reclaim your family for you.

And so I am mighty proud of the work I have been doing with the proposed constitution. It means a lot to me. Revisions are in the works.

• Shortcut To A New Constitution, Shortcut To Peace
• There Might Still Be Room For Monarchy If The King Gets On Best Behavior

Talking of Tibetans, I was born a Hindu, but I have chosen to become a Buddhist. And that puts me in flock with the Tibetans.

I think Tibet as a separate country makes no sense at a time when both India and China are trying to become a single economic unit, a free trade area, the world's largest. But I do think democracy in China that guarantees religious freedom and human rights, and a federal structure that recognizes Tibet as a state with its own legislature is the way to go.

Let the Chinese be forewarned.

In The News

• Nepal frees communist leader Daily Times, Pakistan ..... hundreds of other activists were still under detention and new arrests were being made, despite the lifting of the emergency...... latest moves by the government came as fissures emerged within the powerful Maoist group..... Schools and colleges across Nepal closed Monday at the call of seven student unions after security forces opened fire and wounded three student leaders
• Opposition to King grows in Nepal Hindu..... extended the detention of 175 lower-level politicians and activists....include Ram Chandra Poudel, Narhari Acharya, Laxman Ghimire and Madhu Acharya of the Nepali Congress party, and Krishna Pahadi..... . he still tightly controls the government...... Unless the king gives up direct rule, restores powers back to the people and frees all political prisoners, there can be no dialogue between the political parties and the king...... state-owned monopoly Nepal Telecom Mobile restored only 34,000 of the 248,000 mobile phone numbers......
  
• Annan welcomes lifting of state of emergency in Nepal Xinhua.... Annan remained ready to assist in any manner that would lead tothe peaceful resolution of the conflict between the Nepalese government and leftist rebels
  
• Nepal frees communist leader, starts mobile service Stuff.co.nz....Maoist rebel chief Prachanda, who uses only one name, accused his deputy Baburam Bhattarai of defying party decisions....."The party hopes that he will overcome his weakness and follow the process of changing himself"
  
• Nepal politicians prepare common agenda NDTV.com, India......a revival of political activity as leaders of seven mainstream political parties met at the Nepali Congress office in Kathmandu to bring out a common minimum agenda..... the first draft ready ......Experts say he is playing for time. If the political system does not cobble together a credible fight for democracy, his coup will stand vindicated.
• Nepal parties say King 'hoodwinking' Hindustan Times, India....... demanded that the monarch surrender "every vestige of power and authority he has usurped unconstitutionally."....... the King's latest decisions, including lifting of emergency and release of a few political leaders, had "confused friends of democracy" in India and elsewhere...... ask our friends everywhere to see through the new ploy" of the Monarch."
• Nepal Turmoil Shows No Signs of Abating Guardian Unlimited, UK......Communist rebels appear to be escalating attacks. And the king's political opponents say they are mulling how to turn up the heat....... there is still no freedom and the king is still going after his opponents ..... His order Saturday to lift the state of emergency decree ended sweeping powers for security forces and reinstated some civil liberties but kept Gyanendra's direct rule intact...... move was a surprise to most Nepalese ..... Analysts say forcing the king to give up his powers would require huge public rallies, like those that forced the previous monarch to give up absolute power in 1990.....escalating violence by the rebels
• Shot in the arm Nepali Times
• Political parties, civil society demand end to press censorship Press Trust of India....... Policemen and army personnel have been deployed in a massive number througout the capital despite lifting of the emergency yesterday by the King, a step termed by politial leaders and civil society members as a "cosmetic measure" to "fool" international community....... political prisoners have not been released, the Royal Corruption Commission formed to, what he alleged, "eliminate" political opponents has not been abolished.
• Leaders demand full restoration of civil rights, press freedom Zee News....... "The announcement to lift state of emergency is a positive step but this is not enough," said acting general secretary of the Nepal Communist Party (UML) Jhalanath Khanal.

Streets Filling Up For The First Time

This is good news. The lethargy is vanishing.

I was real impressed with the discipline of the mob. They did not try to cross police lines. And they stayed away from restricted areas. That exhibits organization. Demonstrations need to be non-violent. Vandalism can not be allowed to be part of it. Organizers should take care.

The king's mention of his meeting with Manmohan Singh as a reason behind his lifting the emergency is a sign the guy is looking to save face. That should be facilitated. The idea should not be to run his nose into the ground.

But for now he has the upper hand. The ball is in his court. He needs to lift the thing for real.

Another alarming thing is the lack of dialogue among the political parties. The one word mantra of democracy might not be enough.

I also read Prachanda's response to Baburam's "letter bomb." It is in Nepali. The difference between the two is real. But they talk of a central office, and meeting in the "hall," and talking over "tea." I get the impression they are not in the forest somewhere. They are in some safehouse in some urban/semiurban setting. Prachanda seems to be splitting threads. Prachanda seems to feel the Maoists are about to get into power and so he should consolidate leadership under him. How farcical. The Maoists are nowhere close to getting into power.

The RNA publicized the "split" between the two immediately after it happened. How did they come to find out? Do they know the physical location of Prachanda? Is capturing him not a RNA goal?

In The News

• 10,000 take to streets in protest over Nepal's king Scotsman, UK ... the biggest demonstrations since King Gyanendra seized power .... marchers avoided the city centre where demonstrations are still banned...... "Our security forces have been successful in controlling the insurgency in just three months and people are feeling secure," said the information minister, Tanka Dhakal, on state radio....... several student activists - between three and five, according to differing reports - were shot and wounded by soldiers during a meeting in Mahendranagar ..... The king has double standards. He does one thing inside the country and there is another face he shows to foreigners...... many in Kathmandu approve of the greater order that the king’s rule has brought to the city
• Nepal parties deride lifting of emergency Hindu .... Some 15,000 trade union activists and labourers marched ..... Organised by five federations, including Nepal Trade Union Congress affiliated to the Nepali Congress and General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions, the march also drew activists from India, Japan, Belgium and Sweden...... Girija Prasad Koirala said the impact of emergency was not reduced even after its withdrawal. "So in fact, there is no change in the situation."
• Leaders demand full restoration of civil rights, press freedom Zee News .....
  
• Nepal-China bus flagged off Times of India, India .... scheduled to cover the 1,044 km distance in three days ..... mostly Nepalese businessmen and sightseers and some Chinese journalists. ....... With the completion of the China-Lhasa railway, the bus service will receive a further boost as Nepal's prospect as a transit route for trade between India and China will increase. ..... the agreement for direct bus services between key metros in India and Nepal has failed to move forward. Nepalese transport operators, fearing uneven competition from India, are said to have pressured the government into keeping the pact on ice.
• Nepal rebels admit leaders rift BBC News, UK ....Prachanda has said that he had serious differences with Baburam Bhattarai ..... in an e-mail statement ...... Bhattarai had been stripped of key positions he held in the party ...... a rift between him and Prachanda - apparently over Mr Bhattarai's wish to resume peace talks ...... Prachanda said in a statement that Mr Bhattarai was carrying out his responsibilities assigned by the party....... the personality clash between the two leaders had never been a secret, but this is the first time that their differences have been made public ......
  
• Four student leaders injured in Nepal shootout Hindu ..... suspected Maoists killed the district chief of a political monitoring committee established by King Gyanendra ..... Srivastab was heading one of the 69 district "monitoring committees" appointed by Gyanendra to observe political activities including those of the Maoists and report back to the King and the home ministry ...... Nara Bahadur Dhami, Central member of the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) affiliated to Nepal Communist Party-UML; Bachan Bahadur Singh, ANNFSU Kanchanpur district president and two other student leaders ......
  
• Nepal political party leaders to meet PM Zee News, India ...... Dubbing as a "mere eyewash" King Gyanendra's decision to lift emergency, Nepali political parties yesterday said the move was aimed at "misleading" the world and to receive military aid from India..... Shekhar Koirala of Nepali Congress, Rajendra Mahto of Sadbhavna Party, Pradeep Giri of Democratic Nepali Congress and Raja Bhattarai of United Nepal. ...... The parties plan to test the king by taking out rallies to assess whether emergency has been lifted in the real term. ...... "The king has the autocratic tendency and was getting dangerous by the day"
• India welcomes Nepal King's move, wants other measures also Press Trust of India
  
• VIEW: New Delhi must continue to engage the monarch Times of India, India ..... care must be taken not to overreact ..... constructive engagement .... His assurances to both external affairs minister Natwar Singh and prime minister Manmohan Singh at Bandung suggest that he knows he cannot go it alone. His conciliatory statements to the Indians must be seen as a sign that he is ready to make concessions ...... keeping channels open with the king. The monarch probably realises that he has a weak hand. The king's crackdown on political leaders is probably little more than an attempt to demonstrate who is in charge. But he isn't, not really.
• Protesters March Against Katmandu King Guardian Unlimited ..... protests were watched by people from homes and rooftops..... Although the constitution limits emergency rule to three months - a period expiring Sunday - the king had been widely expected to extend it.
• Update On Gagan Thapa's Situation United We Blog ..... at least 22 plainclothes policemen surrounded the building and arrested all three leaders. Who would have leaked their whereabouts to the police? “Perhaps someone from within Nepal Student Union?” a relative of one of the three told me....... They are in Shorakhutte Ward Police Station, not far from where they are arrested. That station is particularly famous for detaining thieves, pickpockets and other perpetrators. That’s not the place for political detainees...... Gagan has been kept in different room from other two, in the female ward of the station. ..... All three have been barred from seeing even their relatives. Gagan’s cousin went to the station with food. He wasn’t allowed to see uncle...... Photographers spotted him addressing a few corner meetings in New Baneshwor area recently. A man always seen in neat and tidy outfit, he has sported beard after Feb 1.
• Army Offensive In Rolpa United We Blog ..... “Army personnel in large numbers are present in almost all villages of Rolpa” ...... “All Maoists have fled Rolpa. The whole district is now under Army’s control.” ..... Journalists accompanied an army team in Thawang on Sunday and saw a deserted village..... Maoists fled the village “4 or 5 days before army arrived here.”
  
• Review Of Mahendra Lawoti's Book INSN ..... palace justified the coup by reading out articles from the 1990 constitution. It was the last nail in the coffin for a document that had failed the test of genuine democratic transformation despite 15 years in existence. Scrapping the 1990 constitution is one of the main recommendations of this laboriously researched book by Professor Mahendra Lawoti..... Lawoti refutes claims that the Maoists subsumed potential ethnic insurgencies. They accommodated them for the time being..... Madhesi dalits face double discrimination - first as Madhesi and second as untouchables. Exclusion of 85% of the population is occurring even in such supposedly progressive realms as education, media and human-rights circles....... The constitution invests excessive power in the hands of the executive (cabinet) and keeps parliament weak. Opposition parties have no say whatsoever in the polity. The judiciary, the election commission and the anti-corruption agency are dependent on the cabinet for budget and personnel. Local governments are toothless to address citizens’ needs, creating fertile ground for Maoist capture of rural areas....... Lawoti prefers “ethnic federalism” to regional federalism ...... In the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Spain, federalism mellowed militant tides...... Special entitlements are needed for sub-group advancement, especially dalits and women who would get left behind even after ethnic federalism were instituted..... affirmative-action and quota-reservation policies ..... extending more rights to more Nepalese will elevate the “strength, capability and legitimacy of the state” ..... an assertive and ambitious ruler exercising extra-constitutional power, hardly an uncommon occurrence in fledgling third world democracies ....... the remarkable degree of exclusion of the vast majority of Nepal’s population ..... the reluctance of various monarchs - from Tribuvan to Gyanendra - to open out spaces for participation. ..... the singular inability of the various political parties - of all ideological shades - to make both themselves and the polity more inclusive....... When a few upper caste hill groups exercise hegemony over all institutions - legislative, executive, judicial - as also control most civil society organisations, a drift towards violent, extra-parliamentarism is to be expected. ...... an assertive monarchy as the source of Nepal’s troubles ...... Lawoti does not even rule out the possibility of secession...... a unitary state, exclusionary institutions, and fragile parliamentary norms and practices ...... . like any large movement, divided in factions and tendencies, each advancing somewhat different political projects .....
  
• Nepal Lifts House Arrest for 2 Communists Guardian Unlimited, UK .... Police were removed from their houses early Monday morning. While under house arrest for three months, they were not allowed to meet with any one, and allowed to read only government-run newspapers and watch government television station.
• Communist leader freed in Nepal BBC News ...... Madhav Kumar Nepal
  
• COUNTERVIEW: India must take a tough stand now Times of India, India .... There's talk that former prime minister G P Koirala may be the next to return to prison. Whatever the king's motivation or compulsions, he has shown that he cannot be trusted....... If the king shows no sign of relenting, India should stop pleading and play a more proactive role in saving Nepal from the king's grip.
  

There Might Still Be Room For Monarchy If The King Gets On Best Behavior

There are three players, and I have heard them all. The king wants to retain the monarchy, the Maoists want a progressive constitution, and the political parties want democracy. If the king were to do a few things, I will modify the proposed constitution, and make room for the monarchy.

Basically the king has to organize a referendum. The people get to vote if or not they will adopt this constitution. That is all.

In return I promise to organize an online think tank. Between this constitution and the think tank, Nepal will have double digit economic growth rates, year in and year out, for 30 years. Both China and India will come under intense pressure to imitate this constitution. And that will see the dawn of The Asian Century.

On another note, this king got crowned at age 4, and then they took the crown away. At some level he never got over it. He has been playing catch-up ever since he got the crown. He promised a Constituent Assembly without meaning to, like Tribhuvan. Mahendra gave the country 30 years of Panchayat, this king gave three years and counting. Mahendra hired Bishta and Giri, Birendra hired Thapa and Chand, Gyanendra hired them all. This is Paramendra Bhagat, The Sigmund Freud talking. But now he has done it all. Now he can go to becoming a Constitutional Monarch. Time to imitate Birendra of the 1990s.

But first, he has to lift the emergency for real. All fundamental rights need to be restored immediately. He is not fooling anyone with his gimmick. He is only hurting himself.

My comment on his "meticulously planned royal coup:" I will bet you a hundred dollars the guy is a fan of the Godfather movies. There is this scene where Michael Corleone is being godfather to his sister's children, and at the same time his men are finishing off his rival dons. That is what he tried to imitate during his televised speech.

Article 5: The Monarchy

The monarch is the guardian of the constitution. The first born, son or daughter, is heir to the throne. The monarch's immediate family - defined as parent(s), wife, siblings and their children, children, and grandchildren, and above the law - is to get annual allowances from the state at 1991 levels. The amount may not be reduced by the parliament. The monarch may request the parliament increases to the allowance through the Prime Minister at any time. Such allowances are not to be taxed, although businesses owned by members of the said family will be subject to taxation and the law.

It is a state goal to open up enough holdings of the royal family with consent from the monarch to tourists so as to offset the state expenditure on the monarchy through revenue from tourism.
The monarch will appoint a Prince/Princess for each state, to be called Prince/Princess of Purbanchal/Madhyamanchal/Paschimanchal from among the members of the royal family. He may also choose to appoint members that might have married into the family. Such appointments may be rescinded by the monarch at any time. The title comes with allowances from the state.

Members of the royal family may marry individuals of their choice, not necessarily from certain families, or from within the country.

The monarch will give the annual State Of The Kingdom address, the speech to be crafted by the Prime Minister.

The monarchy may be abolished with a 90% vote in the national parliament.

In The News

• Nepal king retains sweeping powers NDTV.com, India ..... there are still no significant signs of change on the streets of the capital ...... Demonstrations, rallies and public meetings are still not allowed while media censorship and the ban on Indian news channels continues. So far, no political prisoners have been released...... A government decree on Saturday banned demonstrations in Kathmandu, where the Army still controls the streets...... civil liberties are yet to be restored. There is no access to mobile phone services...... Political parties remain defunct ...... In the same announcement in which he lifted the emergency, he also declared that he will be keeping all the major powers
• Nepal's shrewd, smooth operator BBC News .... his meticulously planned royal coup ..... his political and diplomatic manoeuvring, executed with total confidence, shrewdness and sharpness...... "they will say what they want and I will do what I want"...... the king did not want to be seen as worried by Delhi's reaction..... the lifting of the emergency will not affect press censorship, imposed through separate legislation introduced after the royal takeover....... those currently in detention will not be released if they were arrested under the Public Security Act....... no demonstrations, public meetings and picketing would be allowed in several places within the Kathmandu valley...... the all-powerful Royal Commission for Corruption Control is there to stay.....
  
• prince Paras had a hand in lifting Nepal emergency Hindustan Times Paras, now 30, was then believed to have hit and killed a popular singer with his car, alleged to have hit a policeman with the butt of a gun, and been involved in several drunken brawls, besides acquiring a reputation as a womaniser. ...... There was a time when most Nepalese saw him as a trigger-happy drinker...... . He is married to Himani Singh who belongs to a princely family in Rajasthan...... King also issued an order as per Article 127 of the Constitution to give continuation to the powerful Royal Commission for Corruption Control.....
• India welcomes lifting of Nepal emergency Deccan Herald, India ..... political processes should be restored, political prisoners should be released, emergency should be lifted and Indian channels should be allowed to be aired and processes should be started which culminate in multi-party elections. This is the first step .....
  
• India welcomes Nepal King's move Deccan Herald ..... Shekhar Koirala of Nepali Congress said one has to "wait and watch" as there was no word on ending restrictions like release of all political detenues, press censorship and resumption of mobile phone services. ......Rajender Mahato of Nepali Sadbhavna party termed the decision as "meaningless" and a "mere show" under international pressure.
  
• It is a welcome first step, says India Hindu the killing of 655 persons from February 1 to April 30.
  
• Lifting of emergency an eyewash: Nepali leaders Hindustan Times Rajendra Mahato of Nepal Sadbhavana Party smelt a "devious design" in what he termed a "ruse to hoodwink the international community." ...... "Lifting of emergency is not the same as the restoration of democracy," he maintained, while pointing to the hundreds of political leaders and human rights activists still languishing in jails...... appealed to the international community "to find the hard truth behind the surface." ..... "All political parties will now come together on the same platform to revive democratic institutions so as to create a new constitution under which people will be supreme," said Mahato.
  
• PM terms lifting of emergency in Nepal as 'positive' Hindu, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, today termed as a "positive step" the lifting of Emergency
• Protests banned in Nepal's capital Xinhua, China the notice of the restriction was made public according to the Local Administration Act
• King Bows To Pressure, Lifts Emergency Times Of India Reacting to mounting international pressure ...... and starved of military supplies ...... "The emergency invoked under Article 115 (11) of the Constitution has been lifted with immediate effect." ..... The current spell of emergency was in force until Sunday and could have been extended..... Since there is no functioning Parliament in Nepal at the moment, speculation was rife that the king would ..extend it through a royal proclamation after the passage of 90 days.... India .. once bitten by the King’s ambush tactics ...... Natwar Singh too prodded the king to take more steps towards democracy. ..... the king invoked Manmohan Singh in his announcement...... there has been no diminishing of the king’s own power.
• Beyond Lifting The State Of Emergency by Dinesh Prasain INSN .... the overall context of unconstitutional and unaccountable rule under a dictatorial monarchy persists ... could use such cosmetic changes to further entrench his authoritarian grip ...... over 3000 pro-democracy supporters were arrested in the first two-and-a-half months after the coup. As of end of April, over 800 of them were still in prison ..... possibly torturing and disappearing the student leaders ..... innocent civilians are caught ever more between a “rock and a hard place” ...... these three months the Royal Nepal Army killed 530 people while the Maoists killed 125. ..... “Majority of the persons killed during the emergency are innocent civilians who were deliberately executed both by the RNA and the Maoists” ...... (a) the king needs to unequivocally handover power to the parliament and / or the all-party government as demanded in consensus by the major parliamentary political parties, (b) the new government and /or parliament needs to make changes in the constitution to scrap royal prerogatives and to bring the army fully under the control of democratic civilian government, (c) the government needs to draw up and implement a strategy (agenda and roadmap) for bringing the rebels into the democratic mainstream through political negotiations, and (d) the negotiated political settlement needs to include a plan which will allow the sovereign people to peacefully renegotiate their aspirations for a more democratic, inclusive, just and accountable state by participating in a free and fair election to improve the 1990 constitution........ US has provided nearly $22 million in military aid to the RNA since 2002 ..... The insurgency spread to nearly all the 75 districts of Nepal after October 2002 when the king started dismantling the constitution ...... Gross and systematic human rights violations by the RNA have been documented by national and international human rights organizations, and conflict experts have pointed out that many victims and their families have flocked to the Maoists to seek revenge....... has disregarded international law ...... Military aid to the RNA should be stopped until it is fully under the control of a democratic civilian government and respects human rights and humanitarian laws. Apart from critical humanitarian aid, all other development aid to Nepal needs to be suspended until a democratic government is in place....... assumed direct power “to fight terrorism and to strengthen democracy”. Ironically, the king started terrorizing the people and dismantling the democratic process ....... While the right to peaceful assembly was announced suspended, the royalist vigilantes were allowed to take out rallies in Kathmandu with police escorts, but pro-democracy activists, including students, who organized spontaneous protest demonstrations were arrested, detained and tortured........ Lack of institutionalized accountability mechanisms logically led to increasing human rights violations by the state security forces, with de facto guarantee of impunity to the perpetrators; the RNA is accountable to the king, who feels unaccountable to anybody else....... Maoists gained much more military strength and Nepal became unstable in an unprecedented way after the army was mobilized in November 2001, and even more so after the king started ruling directly by dismantling the constitution from October 2002. After these developments, the Maoist influence spread to almost all the 75 districts of Nepal, compared to their influence in about two dozen districts before 2001....... Maoists have made every attempt to silence dissent within their areas of influence, conscripted children into their army, systematically intimidated, tortured and publicly executed their opponents, destroyed development infrastructure and forcefully and frequently closed highways, schools and markets...... ideological belief in the primacy of violence as a means of political change and near-total intolerance of dissent (also within their own party as indicated by the recent captivity of the dissenting number two leader Baburam Bhattarai by the armed guard of the Maoist supremo Prachanda) ...... The king’s tactics are no different than those of the Maoists. He has used the pretext of the Maoist threat to usurp complete power and wealth for himself and the coterie around him. The king talks peace but blocks every effort to settle the conflict through negotiations; a militarized state and society are much more beneficial to him than peace within a democratic framework........ both claim that they need absolute power and violence to suppress the violence of the other side ....... Emergency was lifted towards the end of April, but the overall climate of an illegitimate, unaccountable and dictatorial regime, which does not respect the concept of rule of law persists...... private media denied access to government advertisements and licenses to operate ...... Over 2000 journalists have been rendered jobless .... one of the most popular democratic figure in Nepal, Gagan Thapa ...... the police disrupted the funeral of a respected freedom fighter ...... king is institutionalizing his authoritarian regime through the appointment of ultra-right henchmen as regional and zonal commissioners (with the appointment of district commissioners believed to be on the pipeline) ...... repressive laws are being drafted, including a law to seriously curb the freedom of the press ...... one anti-terrorism ordinance, and a public security act ...... Opposition figures risk confiscation of their property ..... In 2003 and 2004, the Nepali state “disappeared” more people than any other country in the world. ....... The state can label anybody as being a terrorist or supporting terrorism, and then arrest, detain or even kill them with impunity....... immensely benefiting the warlords, both on the side of the Maoists and the royal-military establishment ..... Gyanendra “welcomed” the activities of the lynch mobs in Kapilbastu ...... The RNA has set up and armed para-military known as Village Defense Committees in the southern parts of Nepal since November 2003....... they instigated and led a mob of the villagers which went berserk, indiscriminately lynching, beating, and raping other villagers in 21 villages. This mob violence lasted for several days, and was backed-up and even actively encouraged by the security forces and the government ministers ...... The leader of the vigilante group, a gangster wanted for over a dozen murder cases in Nepal and India, is safe....... a 40 year old resident in Nawalparasi, Ram Kishore Chamar, was alleged by the Village Defense Committee as not supporting them. On March 26, 2005, Committee members chopped off his right hand, roasted it on fire, made him to eat it, and then shot him dead...... vigilante violence and counter-violence could soon be the order of the day across Nepal ...... a section of the international community played into the hands of the extreme right and extreme left: they were (some still are) among the most enthusiastic in blaming the democratic political parties for their inability to clear in ten years the mess created by centuries of the unjust social structures and processes, entrenched further by over two-centuries of a rent-seeking state controlled by the palace and a few families around it....... alternative to an imperfect democracy is more democracy, not authoritarianism ..... the king is compulsively anti-democratic ..... king benefits, politically and economically, from a protracted armed conflict .... powerful yet insensitive international bureaucrats ...... UN is going to send 50 human rights monitors to Nepal ...... collect evidence comprehensively so that it can ultimately be used by any war crimes tribunal that may be set up in the future ..... “revolutionary” Maoists or “reactionary” royalists ..... “pro-peace” by supporting the king or “pro-terrorism” by not supporting him ..... In the five elections, two local and three general, held since 1990, the five parliamentary political parties now launching a joint movement for democracy, have consistently secured over 85 percent of the votes....... combined support for the authoritarian system, as proposed by the Maoists and the king, was only 10 percent ..... more inclusive and internally democratic...... different social groups to democratically renegotiate their relations to each other and to the state by writing a new constitution ...... Launch an international campaign for the establishment of war crimes tribunals to prosecute those responsible for gross violation of human rights in Nepal - this may ultimately be the most effective way to deter king Gyanendra and the Maoist leader Prachanda