News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- In ‘Kumarasambhava’ epic, great Sanskrit poet Kalidasha says ‘Himalayas is the centre of earth’. Nepal is an ancient Himalayan country in South Asia with a long history of its continued existence as an independent country, which stands as the crossroads of Chinese and South Asian civilisations. Nepal is a not only a country but a civilization - the Himalayan civilization or ‘Himabatkhanda’. Different archaeological evidences have pointed to the fact that Nepal as a Himalayas civilisation has existed right from 300 BC, which is more than 2300 years ago. But some scholars are of the view that the history of Nepal goes back to as early as 1500 BC during the Ramayana period. The history of Nepal’s international contacts and relations is long. Hindu mythology and scripts point. Legend has it that there used to exist a powerful kingdom in Nepal's southern plain called Janakpur or Mithila even earlier and its king was Janak, who was famous throughout South Asia for ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- It has been almost six months since KP Sharma Oli assumed premiership of Nepal third time, leading the Nepali Congress-CPN (UML) coalition government. Prior to the formation of the Oli-led coalition government, Nepali Congress and UML had reached a seven-point understanding, of which the amendment of the constitution was the principal agenda. The two parties have agreed to amend some provisions of the present constitution. However, they have not yet clearly spelt out what exactly they want in their amendment. It is, however, understood that their primary concern is the electoral system. Our electoral system is of hybrid nature - mixture of first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) and proportionate systems - , which is blamed for political instability and frequent change of governments. This, to some extent, may be true. In the mixed or proportionate electoral system, there is a high probability of a hung parliament in which a political party is less likely to win major...