News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal It was indeed a matter of pleasure for patriotic Nepali people when Prachanda and Jhalanath Khanal made a last hour deal to foil Indian design in the prime ministerial election. Maoist chairman Prachanda not only withdrew his candidacy from the race but his party—UCPN-Maoist— also backed Khanal to form a Maoist-UML coalition government. This move served as a surprise shock to New Delhi and their agents in Nepal simply because they failed in their attempt to install Nepali Congress-led pro-Indian government in Nepal. Still they have not given up their conspiracy and are now active to fail this new coalition. Not even a week has passed since the new prime minister was sworn in, Nepali Congress has already demanded the dissolution of this government ostensibly in the behest of external forces. The CPN-UML, too, is in internal imbroglio that is between the patriotic and pro-Indian elements within the party. At the behest of New Delhi, some of the UML leaders are working ou...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Last week, Democracy Day was observed in Nepal in commemoration of the day that marked the end of a century of Rana oligarchic rule and establishment of multi-party monarchical democracy in Nepal in the face of the popular uprising in 1951. Since then, the day is observed every year to pay rich tributes to those who made valuable sacrifices for the political change. As long as the monarchy was around, there was valid ground to mark this day as it restored the power of the king in Nepal. Now questions are being raised about the significance and relevance of marking this day especially now that Nepal has entered the republican era. Conspiracy It was the day that shifted power from the Rana family to the Shah dynasty. The political change that was brought about in 1951 did not transfer power to the people. When the popular uprising was building up, a serious conspiracy was hatched both in Kathmandu and New Delhi to abort the movement, and a power-sharing formula was devis...

Yuba Nath Lamsal With globalisation and the revolution in the information and communication sector, the world has become so small that any event - big or small - that takes place in any part of the world has an impact on every corner of the planet. The recent Arab uprising has sent a message across the world, however, differently to different people. The revolution in Tunisia and Egypt, and the changes it has brought about have been music to people wanting change and reform. At the same time, the Arab uprising has sent shock waves to dictators, compradors and repressive rulers in the world. The revolt in the Arab world has already deposed two of history’s worst dictators. Some others, too, may be counting their last days. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt have fled the country in the face of the unprecedented protests by the people, thereby, paving the way for change and political reforms. But the revolutionaries have not taken rest as they sense conspiracie...

Yuba Nath Lamsal A new kind of polarization is taking shape in Nepali political landscape. The new polarization would be quite different from what some political pundits have predicted. Instead it would a polarization between the patriotic forces against the traitors, compradors and agents of foreign expansionists and interventionist elements. Nepal's political circle had been abuzz about the possibility of polarization between the democratic and communist forces. Some had even claimed that it was necessary. Different people have different logics on this issue. The rightist elements have been pushing for the so-called democratic alliance incorporating the entire rightist, conservative, reactionary and regressive forces. The staunch advocate of this alliance has been Surya Bahadur Thapa who leads a rather tiny group with a couple of seats in the 601-member Constituent Assembly. His views and logic for the creation of such an alliance is to fight and counter the growing leftist and ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Nepal has witnessed some new twists and turns in the political spectrum that have resulted in the formation of the Jhalanath Khanal-led government with the backing of the UCPN-Maoist. This is a positive signal that has heralded a new chapter in Nepal’s political history. The new development that saw Khanal’s victory in the prime ministerial race has demonstrated that the Nepali people are capable of determining their destiny and do not seek external meddling and interference in Nepal’s internal affairs and politics. External powers were openly and blatantly interfering in Nepal’s internal politics and were active in imposing conditions and terms on the Nepali political parties in the formation of the new government. There could have been genuine concerns from some friendly countries that want peace, stability and prosperity in Nepal. These countries are genuine friends of Nepal and want to make meaningful contribution to the development of Nepal. Foreign Interference B...

Yuba Nath Lamsal In a talk programme last week, Pakistan's ambassador to Nepal Syed Abrar Hussain highlighted more elaborately the role played by his country (Pakistan) for regional peace and stability in South Asia. Ambassador Hussain mainly focused on Kashmir issue and India-Pakistan conflict, which has direct bearing on peace and security of South Asia. His focus was on the initiative taken by Pakistan in resolving outstanding issues with India and establishing peace in entire South Asia. Peace is the most desired commodity not only in South Asia but in the world as a whole. However, genuine peace has still been a far-fetched idea and the world is suffering from various types of conflicts— inter-state and intra-state conflicts. South Asia is not an exception. Despite efforts made from various quarters to develop South Asia as a peaceful and prosperous region, peace is still elusive in this region. This is mainly because of the policies and approaches of a particular dominant cou...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Like it or not, the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China are destined to work together in the present global context. Economically, they are so interlinked that they cannot do anything else other than cooperate with one another, despite having diverse and different approaches on global affairs. Global powers Both the countries are global powers today. The United States is a super power already, and China is a super power in waiting. The fate of humanity, therefore, hinges on how these two global giants behave and act. This fact was best reflected in the overtures of the Chinese and American leaders during the recent visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to the United States. During the sojourn, the Chinese president spoke highly of the need for strengthening multi-sectoral cooperation between the United States and China, ranging from the economy and technology to strategic matters. This, according to President Hu, is necessary not only for the ben...

Yuba Nath Lamsal It began in Tunisia and the mayhem is slowly spreading to other countries of the Middle East. Already Egypt and Yemen are feeling the heat. Iraq is not yet settled even after the withdrawal of US combat troops and Saudi Arabia is likely to implode any time because public grumbling and grievances against the despotic regime are at the boiling level. Iran has undergoing fear psychosis as the United States-led western world is set to strike at Teheran with suspicion that Iran was proliferating nuclear bomb. As the heat of the public protests is building up in the Middle East and North Africa, the world is watching the events in the Arab world more closely as its fallout would have serious and dangerous repercussion in the rest of the world if the problems are not addressed in time and people's voices not heard. · In a way or the other, upheaval is rising in the Arab world and spreading beyond national border. The dictatorial rulers of the Middle East are feeli...

Yuba Nath Lamsal After a stiff debate and controversy, the political mission of the United Nations in Nepal or the UNMIN has finally packed up and departed. The UNMIN closed up its mission in Nepal not on its own volition but forced to do so simply because the Nepal government asked the UN body to pack up. The abortion of Nepal mission of the United Nations has raised a number of questions which neither the United Nations nor the Nepal government have been able to answer to the satisfaction of the Nepalese people and observers abroad. On its way out, the UN mission felt a big humiliation on the part of the Government of Nepal, as the Prime Minister of Nepal even refused to be a guest of honour during its flag downing ceremony held last Friday (January 14). Since the UNMIN worked in Nepal to facilitate the peace process, the Prime Minister should have shown minimum diplomatic courtesy by being present in the flag downing ceremony, which demonstrates diplomatic poverty of the present car...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Political parties make up the key players in a democracy. In essence, political parties are the life blood of multi-party democracy. However, the parties themselves become a problem when they forget their role and responsibility and get bogged down in partisan interests. In the present context of Nepal, the political parties have become the problem. They are the ones that have blocked the entire political and peace process and created the protracted deadlock and crisis in the country. Behind the problem lies factionalism in the parties. No political party in Nepal has so far been able to get rid of it. Factional politics rules the roost in all the political parties at present. The bigger the party, the more factions and groups they have. But the smaller parties, too, are not free from this factional syndrome. The way factions exist and operate within the parties, our political parties can be best described as a coalition of different factions and interest groups. Facti...