HELLO NEPAL

The Kathmandu Post Jan 29, 2016- EGOISTIC POLITICS It has been almost four months since the Nepali people have been suffering due to the Madhes unrest and unofficial Indian trade embargo. However, it was encouraging to read the news report that the PM is hopeful the blockade will end soon (‘PM hopeful of blockade ending in 2-3 days’, January 20, Page 1). But PM Oli has been repeatedly asserting, since he ascended to the highest political position three months ago, that the situation will stabilise. Yet, things have not changed even after three months and still he seems optimistic. It has become difficult for the public to digest such false promises. So far, he has become a laughingstock after he publicly announced ridiculous plans such as supplying cooking gas to every household through pipelines, ending loadshedding in one year and starting a metro electric rail, while the quake-victims are suffering without proper food, warm clothes and appropriate shelter during thi...

The Kathmandu Post Jan 22, 2016- Kudos to Nawayug Kudos to Nawayug Shrestha for striking a hat-trick to steer Nepal into the final of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup football game with a crushing 4-1 victory over Maldives played at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday (‘Shrestha sends Nepal into final’, January 20, Page 11). The national team achieved this win to move into the final of an international football tournament after 17 years. Nepal had lost to Bangladesh by 1-0 in the final of the 1999 South Asian Football game. Bishal Rai also deserves appreciation for scoring the first international goal—proving himself to be a good scorer and leading his team to the final.  This victory, the first since 1999, also comes as a welcome relief to the Nepali football that has lately been embroiled in match-fixing and corruption allegations. The four national players, who were charged with such allegations, have been suspended by FIFA for their entire life. It...

The Kathmandu Post 17 January 2016 FACTIONAL POLITICS None of the major political parties of Nepal are free from factional, self-centred and egoistic politics. Nepali Congress (NC), which is one of the largest and oldest democratic parties, has not even remained untouched from this bad practice (“Factional dispute in NC over party charter revision” 13 January, Page 3). Both Koirala and Deuba factions are busy in luring party cadres towards their camps at such a time when the party’s general convention is inching closure. Sources from the party claim that the party is considering increasing the number of office bearers like the CPN-UML. However, the factional politics within the party has been the problem for this process. There are strong suggestions coming from the local and districts level to increase the number of office bearers for making the party more inclusive as per Nepal ’s new constitution which acknowledges many ethnic groups and communities. In this...

Poor performance The Oli led government has completed its three months honeymoon period with unconvinced and unimpressed performance. It was not able to perform to the satisfaction of the common people. Their daily lives have been very difficult due to acute shortage of fuel and essential goods. The government completely failed to curb the rampant corruption and black marketing taking place right under its nose as reported in (“Government has failed, says Jhalanath Khanal”, THT, 12 January, Page 3). The market prices of daily essential foods have skyrocketed due to government’s ineffective control mechanism in place. It is even heard and read that the government employees and political cadres are found to be heavily involved in black marketing (“Govt leaders, agitating parties into smuggling” THT, 12 January, Page 3. Khanal has directly accused the Oli led government of failing to properly maintain law and order situation in the country. The government has not been ab...

The Kathmandu Post 8 January 2016 END POLITICAL CRISIS It seems that the political and constitutional crisis that has been prevailing in the country for the last four months may end soon considering new progress made in the formation of a task force representing Samyukta Loktantric Madhesi Morcha (SLMM) and major parties to forge common consensus on contentious issues of the new constitution (“Morcha forms panel to hold consultations” 6 January, Page 1). It is high time for both the agitating and major parties became serious and sorted out their political differences concerning provincial boundaries, electoral laws, citizenship laws and proportional and inclusiveness representation cited in the new constitution. SLMM is consistently insisting major parties to come forward with clear positions on their 11-point demands especially related to redrawing provincial boundaries. But, time has also come for SLMM to be sensible and flexible in their demands to unlock the...

The Kathmandu Post 1 January 2016 GRAB THE OPPORTUNITY The level of frustration of the general people has gone up very high, with the recent attack by the local people on the Everest Gas Depot at Kirtipur being a case in point. Considering this, it was relaxing to read the news report that the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha (SLMM) is considering to withdraw border protests (“SLMM mulls ending border obstructions” 30 December, Page 1). Time has definitely come for them to look for other alternatives to express their dissatisfactions against the constitution rather than continuing to blockade the trade points with India . The disgruntled parties have every right to stage protests in a peaceful manner to show their grievances. However, the protests in Madhes have been violent. Over 50 people have lost their lives during the agitation. Both the ruling and agitating parties are to be blamed for these human casualties. The political parties need to have serious ...

The Himalayan Times 31 December 2015 Writ against jumbo cabinet Kudos and many thanks to two advocates Roshan jha and Prabhu Chandra Jha for filing writ petition to the Supreme Court against the recent expansion of the Cabinet by PM KP Oli (“Show cause on Cabinet expansion” THT, 29 Dec. Page3). Both Jhas deserve huge appreciation for showing serious concerns and courage to challenge the unconstitutional move taken by the PM at such a time when the country is politically, socially and economically passing through a precarious situation. This step should be deplored by every sovereign citizen of Nepal . Many people had a high hope from him when he ascended to the highest helm of his political career considering his past political activities. However, he himself narrowed down his fame by firstly appointing six deputy prime ministers in his Cabinet simply to please his coalition partners. Now, the size of the Cabinet reached 40 (constitutionally it should be only 25 mi...