[ The following is a paper presented by Suman Pradhan at a symposium entitled “Nepal Briefing: A Social, Political, and Economic Update” held at the Northern California Center of the Asia Society in San Francisco on June 14, 2006. The program was part of the Asia Society’s ongoing Country Briefing Series and was organized in association with the Nepal Association of Northern California ]

I have been asked by the program organizers to give a brief historical overview of Nepal’s political turmoil. I thank the organizers for this opportunity, but I also want to stress that I am not an expert, merely an observer of events. And even so, I have not been able to observe recent events back home, ensconced as I have been at Stanford. So even before I begin, I apologize for any shortcomings in my presentation.

I’d like to begin with an anecdote. I recall a moment 11 years ago when I was a young reporter at The Kathmandu Post newspaper. I had written a news report on a mass rally organized by Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP). The NSP, as many of you know, represents the Madhesis of Nepal who have historically felt excluded from the mainstream. They inhabit the south and share the language and culture of our southern neighbour. My report dwelt with some of the grievances felt by the NSP, namely their demand for more representation in government and bureaucracy. The news was not published. My senior editors felt “it was too inflammatory, and that it risked upsetting the communal harmony of the country.” And this was at a time when Nepalis of all stripes were crying hoarse over the ill-treatment of Nepali-Bhutanese in Bhutan. We just failed to see how the two issues, different on the surface, were actually one and the same.

Fast forward now to the present. Almost all news organizations in Nepal today compete with one another to report the latest grievances, view-points, demands of the various political parties, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. No stories of this nature are killed by editors these days. Indeed, Nepal is witnessing a spirited debate on all these fronts. How the times have changed. And for this, you have to credit the Maoists. While there are many questions over the Maoists’ true intentions and their ultimate goal, while they have shown themselves to be brutal in numerous instances during the conflict, one cannot deny that they have given voice to the hitherto unspoken grievances felt by Nepal’s excluded communities. More than their weapons, it is this that has helped the Maoists become a potent political force today. It is sad that Nepal’s excluded communities had to ally with a violent group to bring their grievances to the fore. That need not have happened, if only our political parties and our leaders had addressed these issues from 1990. Read the rest of this entry »

Suman Pradhan

Congratulations to parliament which yesterday adopted a historic resolution. For the first time in our nation’s history, royalty and its support network – the army, state-sanctioned Hinduism, palace bureaucracy, etc - have been stripped of all powers. The enormity of this declaration is Herculean, and one can be forgiven for not comprehending it initially.

But now that the declaration has been done and over with, it’s time to re-focus on the immediate future. The first task of course is to implement the declaration diligently without fear or favour. But just as important is the crucial task concerning the impending peace process between the SPA government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists). The stated aim, as both sides have repeatedly declared, is to discuss the modalities of free and fair constituent assembly elections, and the eventual writing of a new constitution. This brings us back to yesterday’s historic resolution.

Reading the highlights of the resolution, and the reaction to it from various sectors, it almost appears that the resolution is here to stay. While we very much like what was declared, let us not forget that all those measures are only interim. The real permanent provisions will be written in the new constitution after the constituent assembly elections. Let us hope that all the measures declared yesterday, and even a few more that were not (a republican state, for instance), will be enshrined in the new constitution. Read the rest of this entry »

By Suman Pradhan

That loud sound you just heard is the collective groan over the nomination of Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala as the new consensus Prime Minister.

As the comments on this website, and many others, have shown, Mr Koirala’s fourth coming (or is it fifth, or even sixth??) as prime minister has not gone down well among the mass of common Nepali citizens both inside and outside Nepal.

On a personal level, I would be lying if I said I am completely enthused by this new development. I too sympathize with many of the voices that see Mr Koirala as a flawed historical relic rather than someone capable of leading Nepal to a better future, particularly at this crucial time. But this is not why I am writing this piece. Read the rest of this entry »

By Suman Pradhan

Now that parliament has been reinstated, how should the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) respond? More importantly, what can we, the people, expect in the days ahead?

We of course do not want a repeat of the “musical chair” game for the Prime Ministership. Whoever from among the SPA is chosen prime minister, he/she must be a consensus candidate. At this point, it is fair to say that perhaps M K Nepal of UML should be the consensus PM. That would not only be acceptable to all sides but would also right a historical wrong: it was Girija Babu’s refusal to support Nepal’s candidacy in 2004 that signaled their disunity and thus emboldened the king to seize power a few months later. Read the rest of this entry »

By Suman Pradhan

First things first: Congratulations countrymen for forcing the dictator to relinquish power.

Those of us outside of Nepal for various reasons salute your courage and dedication in wresting sovereignty back from the hands of the tyrant and putting it where it belongs: on the people.

Now that we’ve won, the question is what do we do next? Do we allow the SPA to accept the offer and recommend a prime minister along the lines of Article 35 of the constitution? What, for goodness’s sake, do we do with the monarchy, and specifically this king, who has done so much harm in so little a time? Read the rest of this entry »

By Suman Pradhan

As I look towards my homeland from 8000 miles away, daily reading the various internet newspapers and blogs, it is almost as if I too am on the streets of Kathmandu, marching against King Gyanendra’s horrendous government and hoping that democracy again prevails in Nepal. But of course, I am not in Kathmandu. I only wish I were, just as I was in 1990 marching against the despicable Panchayat.

But through the news coming over the internet, over the international media, and from occasional phone conversations with friends and colleagues back home, I get a feeling that things are coming to a head in Kathmandu. For the first time in years, even from 8000 miles away, I feel something different in the atmosphere. For the first time in years, there is a sense of public support for the anti-dictatorship movement waged by the political parties. More than at any time since October 2002, common citizens - who have so far remained like Leknath Paudyal’s parrot in a cage - are coming out on the streets, breaking free from their shackles. This is something to cheer about. For without a true people’s movement, the dictatorship cannot be defeated. Read the rest of this entry »

By Suman Pradhan

The signing of the nuclear cooperation agreement between India and the United States once again changes the dynamics of Asian security and geopolitics.

US President George Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inked the treaty early this week in Delhi, paving the way for cooperation in civil nuclear programmes between the two giants. It also opens the way for the US to sell civilian nuclear technology to India, benefiting its companies.

India, meanwhile, will have to allow international inspections of its ‘civilian’ nuclear facilities, but can keep its military ones under wraps, as it has been doing for over three decades. India is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and neither is Pakistan. Because both these countries refused to sign the NPT, they were refused official nuclear power status despite exploding several atomic devices in 1998. Read the rest of this entry »

By Suman Pradhan

What a difference a year makes. Little more than a year ago, US President George W Bush’s administration was cruising on the highway of positive public opinion. Fresh from an election victory, he was promising to spend his political capital on major domestic and foreign policy issues.

But a year later, his administration has become a magnet for criticism. While the 9-11 terrorist attack made him an imperial president with strong public support, the administration’s obvious policy failures since then - be it the Iraq war, wishful intelligence, deficits, tax cuts, Hurricane Katrina and wiretapping of Americans - has changed all that. The pendulum has swung in so opposite a direction today that many call Bush’s administration “the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.” Read the rest of this entry »