News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal The seventh extended central committee meeting of the Unified CPN-Maoist or the plenum is underway in Kathmandu, which is expected to come up with a new ideological and tactical tools to cope with the newer challenges that have cropped up in the contemporary Nepal and also in the international arena. The seventh plenum is being held first time after the party split. A section of the party headed by Mohan Vaidya broke the relationship with the mother party and announced a separate party called the CPN-Maoist. After the vertical split in the party, the UCPN-Maoist has faced a real political, ideological and organizational challenge. The Vaidya faction has accused the principal leadership of the UCPN-Maoist of being deviated from the fundamental philosophy of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism that the party championed as a guiding principle since it was created. Now the UCPN-M leadership has to prove the Vaidya group wrong and give continuity to its earlier image among the...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Nepal is currently passing through a political transition. All political transitions are difficult. But the present political transition in Nepal is unique and more difficult. Unlike all other transitions of the past, the present transition is not a mere change of regime but a systemic transition that has marked a transformation from a feudal monarchical system to republican set up and from unitary state to federal model. The present transition of began six years ago when a peace accord was signed between the Maoist insurgents, who had been waging a guerilla war against the feudal monarchy, and the government comprising seven parliamentary parties. This accord formally marked an end of the decade long armed insurgency that had claimed life of more than 13 thousand people. With the initiation of peace process, a new chapter of Nepal’s history began providing hopes for a better, peaceful and prosperous Nepal. Nepal has been in perpetual transition right from...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Nepal has seen a unique situation in its political arena after the demise of the Constituent Assembly and declaration of the fresh election. A new kind of debate has surfaced in our academic and political circle. The subject of debate is the constitutionality and legality of the government’s decision to dissolve the constituent assembly and declare the fresh election. Opinion is divided for and against the dissolution of the CA and declaration of election for a new constituent assembly. Those who are defending the decision of the government to go for a fresh election are of the view that the government was left with no viable alternative other than the election. However, the critics and opposition parties claim and argue that there were alternatives left but the government did not seek those options but declared election to prolong its life. Both sides have their own logics and counter logics, which are equally powerful. The dissolution of the constituent ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Nepal is increasingly facing a newer and graver political crisis owing largely to inaction and incompetence and their capitulation to foreign powers. The demise of the Constituent Assembly without delivering a new constitution, which is the most unfortunate development for the Nepali people, is not solely making of our own parties. Foreign hands were seen to have been visibly involved for this political disaster. The failure of the constituent assembly is political disaster because the long desire of the Nepalese people was once again belied. A section of Nepali intelligentsia has interpreted the demise of the constituent assembly as a positive event that, according to them, saved the country from being torn apart. But this conclusion, too, is devoid of objective analysis. In reality, failure of the constituent assembly to deliver a constitution was our historic blunder as we failed to utilize this opportunity for our larger national interest and transform N...