News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal It is almost certain that the Constituent Assembly will deliver a new constitution. Nepal will get the new constitution written by the elected representatives of the people within a few days. The Constituent Assembly has unanimously adopted a proposal expressing its commitment to promulgate the constitution on September 20. Although their past tract records gives us a little room to trust the political parties and their members in the Constituent Assembly that they would really live up to their promises. However, this time, they are serious and they appear more committed and serious to deliver what they have promised. It is true that the remarks and commitments of the political parties and their leaders have least matched with reality in the past. Many of their commitments concerning the constitution making have been breached. Right from the beginning, the commitments of the political parties and their representatives in the Constituent Assembly have never

Something must be wrong with Nepalese politics as this beautiful country is always mired in instability, uncertainty and chaos for more than a decade. It had been thought that the end of the Maoist insurgency would bring about lasting peace and stability in Nepal. But the situation after the Maoist insurgency was brought to an end has not significantly improved and the fluid situation and uncertainty continues to prevail even now when the Maoist insurgency has become history.   Politics, of course, is always in the driving seat anywhere in the world. It is the politics that sets tone of every sectors and aspect. Thus, politics needs to be cleansed so that its fallout will be positive in all other sectors. The situation we are facing today is because politics has gone haywire and politics has slipped into the hands of criminals and goons. Our politics is no longer in the control of politicians and political parties. Politics has been criminalized and crimes becoming politicized. T

Yuba Nath Lamsal When Chinese President Xi Jinping mooted the idea of establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Indonesian capital Jakarta on October 3, 2013, it instantly sent ripples worldwide. The proposition was greeted with both enthusiasm and perplexity. While it was baffling for some Western powers particularly the United States, the developing countries took it as a new opportunity. Washington’s skepticism is natural as AIIB seems to be a rival multilateral financial institution, which is apparently a rival to the US-led World Bank.   However, Chinese authorities insist that AIIB does not seek to compete but complement with the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions. With the signing in the Articles of Agreement by 50 out of 57 founding member nations on June 29, 2015, the AIIB has formally come into being.   The Articles of Agreement state that the AIIB aims to invest in areas of infrastructure construction in the developing

Yuba Nath Lamsal In August 2014, China’s State Council Information Office and Tibet’s provincial administration jointly convened a conference in Lhasa with the theme of “Development In Tibet: Opportunities and Alternatives”. More than 100 international guests from 30 different countries attended the event and acquired first hand information on the newer developments while sharing views on different aspects of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China. The event was first of its kind ever organized by Chinese authorities in Tibet’s capital Lhasa with the objective of providing international guests and participants ranging from analysts, members of academia, scientists and environmentalists to journalists an opportunity to see through their own eyes and acquire firsthand information as to what Tibet is today.   The participants were startled to see the level and scale of development and modernization of Tibet over the last six decades since Tibet was emancipated from feudal serf