News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal Politics is the game of possibilities. In politics, all possible strategies, approaches and games are sought to find an amicable solution to the problems facing a country or society. This is the beauty of democratic polity. Such an approach may not be possible in an authoritarian system in which the rulers impose their decision, and people have no choice other than to accept the decisions and diktats of the rulers quietly. It is only in a democratic system that people are provided with different choices and alternatives. This is why a democratic system is stable and sustainable. People have the right to revolt if the regime or state does not listen to their voice and does not take the initiative to address the people’s woes and concerns. A revolt is the last resort of the people. Prior to resorting to a revolt, dialogue is held to find an amicable solution out of the many possibilities to address the people’s concerns. A similar process is being pursued in Nepal at p...

Yuba Nath Lamshal While the entire Western world is badly bruised by history's worst economic crisis, China remains relatively less touched and hurt by global meltdown and it continues to grow vibrantly. China's miraculous and unhindered economic growth despite global recession is a subject of academic debate and research for economic scholars. With high rate of growth and economic prowess, Beijing's clout and influence is also growing up in the global scene. The world is, thus, looking to China for playing its meaningful and decisive role in rescuing global economic order. China is, thus, expected to assume an increased role in global leadership. This global expectation is mainly influenced and guided by China's growing soft power image. With its growing clout in the global arena, China has already felt its international obligation and is accordingly adjusting its foreign policy and international relations. To do this, China has not adopted hawkish and coercive polic...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Political parties have currently locked horns on governance model. The parties have made the governance model as their prestige issue, which is, in fact, no issue at all. The row is whether Nepal is to adopt presidential system, parliamentary type or a mixed model. The political parties know well that there is no fundamental difference in these models because all the three models are the sub-system within the multi-party capitalist political system. The parties are just using this issue as a tool to weaken the position of the rival party and have their strong say in the constitution making process. There are a clearly three types of views on the issue concerning the governance model. One is the parliamentary model which is being pursued vigorously by the Nepali Congress. The Maoists have proposed and pushed for a presidential system whereas the CPN-UML has come up with a compromising middle way approach of mixed model. There are various models of political sy...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao paid a whirlwind one-day visit to Nepal on January 14, which is a matter of pride for the people of Nepal. The Himalayan republic had long been eager to welcome the Premier of the second mightiest country in the world. Wen came to Nepal on virtually four-hour \'official\' visit at the invitation of his Nepali counterpart Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai. Earlier, a three-day visit had been planned but was postponed for reasons unknown. However, sources said the visit was deferred because Beijing was not fully confident of security arrangement as well as Nepal\'s diplomatic immaturity. The sudden postponement of Wen\'s visit had definitely upset Nepal\'s Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai who wanted to give a message both at home and abroad that he was had enjoyed the recognition of the world including Nepal\'s two immediate neighbors-China and India. Ever since he was elected as prime minister, Dr Bhattara...

Yuba Nath Lamsal The Nepali Congress observed recently the national reconciliation day reminiscing and paying rich tributes to its founding leader and ideologue BP Koirala. Much has been said and written about BP and his reconciliation policy. But little has been done to assess and evaluate BP’s works and contribution from independent and realistic approach. There are two extreme views on BP. A group of people and writers see BP as a super human being who does not make any mistake. This group of people finds no faults and weakness in BP. In their views, only eulogy can be seen which does not contain anything about BP’s weaknesses, mistakes and failures. This group consists of those who are either members of the Nepali Congress and its supporters and sympathizers. There is another group of people that always find only negativities in BP Koirala. Their views are based on sectarian concept and ideological bias. This type of group consists of leftists, communists, ultra-rightists, f...

Yuba Nath Lamsal The state of foreign policy of any country is better judged by its neighborhood policy. If relationship of a particular country with its neighbor is hostile, there is something wrong either in its overall foreign policy formulation or there is inherent weaknesses and failure in the conduct of diplomacy. So far as Nepal’s relationship with its neighbors is concerned, its foreign policy is always vacillating. Prior to the unification of Nepal, there was no foreign policy at all. The concept of foreign policy is a new phenomenon, although the basic tenets and features of dealing with external forces and countries had been devised differently by different countries, it was basically guided by military doctrine. So far as Nepal is concerned, its foreign policy concept emerged only after its unification almost 240 years ago. But the concept was still in fragile and infantile stage. Nepal’s founder Prithivi Narayan Shaha, in his ‘dibyopadesh’ or ‘ noble counsels’ had def...

Yuba Nath Lamsal The year 2011 has already departed from us and the year 2012 is here to greet us. With the dawn of the New Year, the air is filled with optimism that the bad old days will now be over and a new and more prosperous future lies before us. The year 2011 was marked by great crises, upheavals and promises for better future. Economic crisis induced upheavals swept across the world from California to Cairo, from Dallas to Durban, from Tokyo to Tunis and from Dublin and Damascus. The root of all the problems and upheavals are politics and economy. Beginning from the United States four years ago, the financial crisis afflicted the world especially Western countries. The ‘Occupy…’ rallies became almost daily phenomenon in the major cities in the world including Europe and America. The Euro crisis threatened the very existence of the European. The governments’ bail out schemes have worn out and failed to rescue and stimulate economies in America and Europe. With lesser resource...