News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal Panicked by China's economic prowess followed by its international clout, India is becoming more worried as South Asian countries are slowly turning to Beijing for strategic and economic cooperation. With the objective of keeping South Asia away from China's sphere of influence, India has been applying dirty tactics that include pressure, threat and even meddling in other's internal affairs. This is India's uncalled for behavior and response which is described as hegemonic and expansionist policy in South Asia.Pained from India's hawkish and hegemonic attitude that calls for squeezing and exploiting the weaker and less powerful countries in the neighbourhood, it is natural for smaller South Asian countries to look to Beijing for some concessions in various fronts and cooperation for their development. Beijing, too, is generous enough when it comes to the relationship with and assistance to its smaller neighbours in South Asia mainly Nepal, Banglades...

Yuba Nath Lamsal The inter-party and intra-party wrangling have hit hard our national politics. One can understand inter-party conflict because of parties' different ideological base, political orientation and economic goals. But the worrisome part is the intra-party wrangling and rivalry which have taken ugly turn recently. Personality cult among the leaders of the same party and factional fighting within parties have fettered and impaired the political and peace process that is underway for the last five years. No political party-big or small, is free from the intra-party bickering. The bigger the party, the stiffer is the rivalry. Given the open and intense rivalry in the parties, it seems that parties have lost their real quality but degenerated into loose alliances of different interest groups. Political parties are formed, run and guided by certain ideology, principle, political commitment and goals. Thus, inter-party differences are natural. But differences on ideology and p...

Kathmandu, June 18: The use of small arms and other portable lethal weapons and casualties after-effects has been reported to be alarmingly high in eastern Tarai districts bordering India. In the last 17 months, the use of small arms and light weapons resulted in 685 incidents in the country. Of the 969 casualties, 250 people lost their lives, according to Informal Service Sector (Insec), a local organisation that has been recording incidents related to the use of small arms and lethal weapons, reports Kantipur online. The use of small arms and other lethal weapons is found to be rampant in Tarai, which shares open border with the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, from where these weapons are traded across the border, say experts. Tarai alone accounts for more than 50 percent of incidents triggered by the use of portable and small arms. Kathmandu’s case is no satisfactory. Among the development regions, Eastern Development Region accounted for the most number of cases (332) rel...

Kathmandu, June 18: Newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Yang Houlan, arrives at Kathmandu today (Saturday) to assume his new diplomatic responsibilities in the Himalayan republic. Ambassador Yang is to present his credentials to President Ram Baran Yadav on June 20. A career diplomat, Yang, has already served in various countries including Korea and Afghanistan. He is a expert in regional security who is well verse with the affairs of Korean peninsula. Yang is the senior-most Chinese official to be posted in Nepal.

Kathmandu, June 18: Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's scheduled Nepal visit was abruptly cancelled at the last minute citing the volatile political situation in Nepal. A source close to the Foreign Ministry said that Mukherjee, who was to arrive at Kathmandu on Saturday for a two-day visit for mutual consultation with the Nepalese officials on peace process, army integration and Nepal-India cooperation, cancelled the trip at the last minute on advice from Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.. Appointments with Nepali dignitaries including President Dr Ram Baran Yadav and Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal had already been arranged for the meeting. The Indian Embassy said that the visit will be rescheduled soon at a mutually convenient date.

Kathmandu, June 17: Nepal kicked off census taking on Friday with collecting detailed information of President, Vice President and Prime Minister. Nepal conducts census in every ten year. Last census was conducted in 2001, on the basis of which Nepal's population is 26 million. Now Nepal's total population is expected to exceed 30 million and the preliminary results of the census are to be released in three months and the final results with detailed analysis in a year. The current census expects to cover every aspect of individual and the family, including, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, income, migration, education, job status etc.

Jomsom (Mustang), June 17: Dubbed as inaccessible for outsiders until a couple of decades ago, Upper Mustang has now turned into a beehive of visitors from other parts of the Nepal as well as abroad. Upper Mustang is an attraction for researchers, cultural explorers and nature beholders because it possesses captivating snow clad mountains, ancient cave culture and unspoiled Buddhist tradition. Lomangthan, as popularly known for Upper Mustang, is now abuzz with tourists from across the globe to see how pure nature and Buddhist culture collaborate. Until 1992, Upper Mustang was a prohibited area for foreigners. Since this place was opened for tourists, visitors are increasing interested to trek to this land of mystery. According to Local people, the number of visitors is increasing every year. But this is more this year as at least two dozen people visit the Upper Mustang daily, said HRam Gurung, a hotelier in Lomangthan. Upper Mustang lies in northwest of Nepal bordering with China. Thi...

Yuba Nath Lamsal The foreign policy issues and conduct of diplomacy are both simple andintricate. It is simple because the foreign policy is the extension of thedomestic policy and if the domestic policy is clear, it would also be easierto set foreign policy goals and conduct diplomacy accordingly. It becomesproblematic only when the domestic polices get complicated that make foreignpolicy goal blur. Since the foreign policy is guided by the nationalinterests, the internal policies often dictate the foreign policy agendawhich make the job of interlocutors of foreign policy of a particularcountry easier.The conduct of foreign policy is intricate in the sense that the conduct offoreign policy and diplomacy is something like sailing through murky andtricky water of international power politics, in which two plus two is notalways four. The conduct of the foreign policy may be simple for big powersbecause they have set agenda and tools in the conduct of diplomacy. Theyapply multiple strateg...

Yuba Nath Lamsal When it comes to assessing Nepal as a country, different actors have defined Nepal’s situation differently. In the eyes of the international community, Nepal is a least developed country with an agrarian economy that is slowly sliding into the status of a failed state. The assessment of the international community is based on Nepal’s inability to appropriately tackle the internal crisis on its own. The assessment of the political parties on Nepal’s status is not uniform. Most of the parties do not have a clear-cut definition but are of the view that Nepal is a country whose development is conditioned by its landlocked position. They have different programmes for rescuing Nepal from the state of underdevelopment and backwardness. Unclear assessment The parties are unclear in their assessment of the nature and character of the political forces of Nepal. In the eyes of the monarchists, all the political parties carry an alien ideology and agenda. The monarchists claim to ...

Book Review Yuba Nath Lamsal The book under review is the outcome of a research work conducted on various facets of Terai region of Nepal. The author of the book is Hari Bansa Jha, a scholar who has already produced several books on various themes and topics. As a professor of economics, his focus is mainly on economic side of the problems and issues. Jha's write ups mostly analyze the problem and situation from economic perspectives. This book, too, highlight various issues of Terai from economic point of view. 'The Economy of Terai Region of Nepal: Prospects For Its Sustainable Development' is Jha's new book that has provided insight of the economic opportunities and challenges of Nepal's Terai region. This is a research based book in which many aspects of Terai's economic potentials and problems have been dealt with minutely. Divided into seven different chapters, each part touches upon different dynamics of Terai's economic prospects and constrains in ha...

By Yuba Nath Lamsal Zheng Xianglin, Chinese Ambassador of Nepal, is a career diplomat, who has worked for many years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and Chinese missions in many countries. Born in Liaoning Province in June 1954, he joined Foreign Service of China in 1997 as a staff member at the Chinese Embassy in Japan. Prior to his appointment as the Ambassador to Nepal, he served as the Deputy Director General of the Department of Foreign Affairs Management at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. Ambassador Zheng believes that Nepal-China relations are excellent and free from problems. In an interview to The Rising Nepal, Ambassador Zheng said that China and Nepal always show mutual support and cooperation on issues of mutual concern. Excerpts:Q: How are the preparations for the Olympic Games going on?A: The Beijing Olympic Games will begin at 8 o'clock on the evening of August 8, 2008. All preparation works related to the Olympics have been nearly completed. ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Security is fundamental to development and people's livelihood. In the absence of security, people cannot freely and openly participate in the political and development process of any country. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the state to guarantee security to its citizens so that there would be spontaneous participation of the people in political and developmental processes.Security has two aspects. One is freedom from fear and the other is freedom from want. The first is called hard security and the other one is soft security or human security. By security, most people generally tend to mean hard security or the security of the state. The hard security relates to the mechanism and tools to ensure security of the state and defense of country's border. There are also two components in hard security-security from external threat and internal security. The external security or security from the external threat is often called defense strategy of the state,...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Over 1.3 billion Chinese people commemorated March 28 as the day of Tibet’s emancipation from feudal serfdom. The essence of marking the day was to remind how the Tibetan people lived 50 years ago under the Dalai Lama’s serfdom and also to showcase how their life has changed in the 50 years after the Dalai Lama was forced to flee. On March 28, 1959, Beijing announced the dissolution of the local government of Tibet and replaced it with a preparatory committee for establishing the Tibet Autonomous Region. This marked the beginning of a new era in Tibet. Since then, phenomenal changes have taken place in this province of China in the Himalaya. Serfdom Chinese authorities describe the Dalai Lama’s rule in Tibet as a period of serfdom where people were treated not as citizens but as personal property. This was worse than the slavery that existed in the United States of America before Abraham Lincoln declared an end to slavery and the slave trade. Under serfdom, all propert...

Yuba Nath Lamsal It is said that foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy, which implies that domestic politics sets foreign policy agenda. But this may not always be applicable in all situations and context. The foreign policy is the agenda and guidelines set by a country to deal with external powers and forces. The internal politics may change and even systemic change takes place internally, the overall foreign policy priorities and objectives remain unchanged because foreign policy of any country is always guided and strictly based on national interests. The national interest of the country does not change with the change in internal political dynamics. The internal political dynamics and external circumstances definitely have impact on the scope and approach in the conduct of foreign policy of nations. However, it does not and should make any significant difference in the overall characteristics, dynamics and objectives of foreign policy of any country. The defense of nati...

Yuba Nath Lamsal The concept of security is often vague. It was defined as a mechanism to defend the boundary of a country from external threats. However, with the march of time, the concept of security has changed drastically, and its scope widened. Now the concept of security touches upon multiple facets of the state and its people. During the Cold War period, the focus of security was laid more on the security of the state. Thus, security cooperation among the states was guided purely by political motive aimed at strengthening the friendly regimes from the military standpoint. This was so because of the erstwhile international situation when the world was divided into two military camps, with each bloc trying to bring as many countries into their respective camps. Dictators of different kinds and colours took advantage of this international power politics and ruled with an iron fist, often denying the people their basic rights and freedom. Citing external threats, the regimes spent ...