News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal If the developments over the last six years since the peace process began are any indication, Nepal’s politics has touched the rock bottom from the standpoint of political ethic and culture. By all standards, we can arrive at a conclusion that the contemporary politics of Nepal can be best described as a perverted exercise under the façade of democracy and peace process. The country has continuously fallen into the trap of constitutional, political and ethical crises one after another—the possible syndromes of a failed state—which Nepal may not be able to avoid if these trends continue unabated for another couple of years. The peace process that began after the singing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2006 definitely heralded a new era in Nepal’s political history—not because it simply marked an end to a decade long violent conflict between the state and the insurgent Maoist guerillas and provided a dawn of hope for peaceful politics. It is beca...

Yuba Nath Lamsal T he 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement has kicked off in Tehran, capital of Iran in which the heads of state and government of the 120-member organization are scrambling to tell their own prescriptions for the problems facing the world at present. Now Iran has taken over the mantle of rotating presidency of the non-aligned movement or the NAM, the largest international organization only next to the United Nations. Egypt had assumed the presidency of the non-aligned movement since 2009 when the 15 th NAM Summit had been held. The 16th Summit of the non-aligned movement was successfully held in Teheran, Iran, which is being dubbed as a diplomatic victory of Iran. This is so because some powerful countries especially the United States and Israel had been vigorously trying to discourage the world leaders from attending the summit to be held in Tehran. The non-aligned countries simply ignored the call of boycotting the Teheran Summit of the non-aligned mov...

Yuba Nath Lamsal A senior Chinese official recently visited Nepal after wrapping up visit to Bhutan. In Thimpu, vice foreign minister Fu Ying discussed with Bhutanese leaders and officials the issue concerning establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bhutan and consequently open Chinese mission in Thimpu.   This was, therefore, an important trip by Chinese leader as China and Bhutan are now seriously and closely working out formally establishing diplomatic ties and cooperating on various fields of mutual interests. This trip marks paradigm shift in Bhutan’s foreign policy as, once they establish diplomatic relations with China and open missions, Bhutan will practically come out of the influence and domination of Indian in Thimpu’s foreign and defence policy. Also it would herald yet another turning point in the economic development of Bhutan as China would come up with significant and sizable chunk of foreign assistance. China, too, is definitely likely to ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal If we look at the behavior of the political parties and overtures of the leaders, we reach an easy conclusion that our leaders and parties have not yet come of the age. The political leaders often make immature and sometimes ambiguous statements that provide sufficient ground for the critics to arrive at the conclusion that people who are currently t the political helms of affairs in Nepal are just political upstarts but not leaders. It may take years for them to get maturity and, some of them, perhaps, may never attaint that level. Unless someone attains full maturity, he/she can by no means be called a leader, not to talk of the statesman. Mature leaders and statesmen have certain vision, ideological clarity and set goals that make him/her different from the rest of others in the flock of political movers and shakers. In the absence of mature leaders and visionary statesmen, country’s politics remain embroiled in confusion, uncertainty and chaos. The chaotic...