In the last couple of days Nepal’s unique culture of worshipping Kumari, the living goddess, drew widespread national and international media coverage after the Supreme Court ordered the government to investigate into whether the practice of worshipping a virgin girl violates the rights of the young girls.

Do you agree with petitioner Pun Devi Maharjan, who has said, in the writ petition filed at the apex court that  the centuries-old tradition curtails girls’ rights to individual freedom including education, health, sports, entertainment and privacy?

She added such restrictions will have a physical and psychological effect on the girl.

The Nepalese tradition involves pre-pubescent girls from the Shakya caste of the Newari community undergoing rigorous tantric rituals to be designated as a Kumari, or a living Hindu virgin goddess, until puberty is reached.

The chosen girl is then whisked away for a new life in a temple — missing out on normal life and allowed only limited contact with family members. Read the rest of this entry »

As the debate over the issue of disarming the Maoist rebels heats up, Maoist atrocities against the civilian population across the country are once again on the rise. In fact, the Maoists never gave up their terror tactics even after Prachand and Baburam finally came out of the hiding. However, if one were to make an inference from the recent upsurge in atrocities committed by the Maoists, one would be inclined to conclude that Prachand has ordered his militia to hold the civilian population hostage in order to drive a hard bargain with the SPA. So, abduction, torture and brutal killings of defenceless Nepalis have become the order of the day for the Maoists. The Maoists are determined to show that they are in control and so bands of heavily armed rebels are seen “patrolling” the streets across the nation.

If the government appears to be in breach of the code of conduct, Maoist leaders from Mechi to Mahakali hold rallies to take the government to task and threaten to take up arms again, but when their own cadres commit heinous crimes against unarmed civilians, they keep quiet. Perhaps only the government is expected to honor the code of conduct to the letter and the Maoists have granted themselves sufficient leeway to do whatever it takes to turn the situation in their favour.

Killing unarmed civilians is in your code of conduct?

Seriously injured Mitthu Gyawali: The Maoists killed her husband Sushil Gyawali, who was an active member of Nepali Congress and injured her seriously. According to local residents, the Maoists despatched Sushil fearing he would expose their timber smuggling racket.
Photo: Janak Nepal via TKP

Torturing 12-year-old girl in accordance with the Geneva Convention?

Mamata Dawadi, 12, who managed to escape from Maoist captivity bursts into tears as she tells the story of her torture at the hands of the Maoists, Friday.
PHOTO: DAMODAR NEUPANE via TKP

Is this called arms management?

Armed Maoist militia “patrol” the East-West Highway at Chandranigahapur in Rautahat, Friday.
PHOTO : SHIVA PURI via TKP

The Maoists also took the CDO of Bara district along with some security personnel, engineers and media persons under control for about two and a half hours. According to journalists, the rebels misbehaved with them, snatching their cameras, money and diaries but returned them later on.

There is no doubt that the Nepal Army (NA), still loyal to the Palace, is full of “power thirsty” people and to rise above the rank of colonel you need to be connected to the Shahs and Ranas either by birth, or marriage or a proven track record of loyalty that goes back several generations.

The NA has, for the most part, been run like a family-owned business by a closely-knit inner circle of mostly Ranas and Shahas. The army has for generations provided the Shahs and Ranas of Nepal with an elevated social status and clout and associated benefits - monetory and othewise. If you belong to one of these ruling clans you can be assured of a job in the army even if your IQ is barely 50.

However, if you just happen to be an ordinary Nepali lad eager to see yourself in uniform, chances are you’ll not be let in unless you happen to know, personally or through a link, at least an officer not below the rank of colonel or somehow cough up a few hundred thousand rupees even for the lowly job of a private “recruit”. If you’re taken in, you’ll end up at the house of the officer who helped you get selected, doing his chores and running errands for him as his domestic helper. Read the rest of this entry »

Who gonna manage them comrade?

Just two days after US ambassador James F. Moriarty expressed doubts over Maoists that the present situation suits them and they can revive the October Revolution in the country, Maoist supremo Prachanda has proposed to put the Nepali Army and “People’s Liberation Army” under the same command after formation of an interim government.

“We are ready to put the armed forces of both sides under a single command when a government is formed as per the new interim statute and the Prime Minister of the day will be the supreme commander of the combined army,” Prachanda said.

That sounds great! But supreme comrade, who will be the PM of the day? You?  If yes then all Moriarty’s doubts will be true. And If not then how can we expect your brainwashed militia to accept the command from any other prime minister.

Will the Maoists forgive the forces for killing their friends and families?

Comrade, by now you should have realized the political axiom that it is easy to talk and put all blames on others but it is always difficult to do something. “’If talks fail, there will definitely be an October Revolution of its own kind in Nepal,” you told us and you also believe that bringing UN to manage arms and weapons is ‘useless’. So it seems to us, the ordinary people, that you are already surrounded by massive doubts. So where do expect to lead us with you yourself spinning around in doubts? Read the rest of this entry »

Ranjana Oli

How many of us ‘Hindus’ have read - and digested - the Bhagavat Geeta? How many of us really understand what Hinduism is all about? How many of us know why we are called ‘Hindus’? Which of our scriptures say so? Or, are we just Hindus because we were born Hindus?

There is a growing concern amongst upper class Hindus about the lower caste communities being allured by Christian missionaries and the oil money. But who invited this situation? The so-called upper-caste Hindus themselves. For centuries, the privileged class have exploited the low caste communities in the name of religion while they themselves deviated from the righteous path of ‘dharma’. In the Mahabharat, Acharya Drona, a learned sage (Brahmin, of course) with the mastery of all the divine weapons, was so poor he did not even possess a cow to feed milk to his young son. Imagine today’s Brahmins with such knowledge and powers dutifully following their dharma. When there has been a massive transformation in the social order for which a particular code of conduct or set of laws was designed, such code of conduct and laws are no longer applicable. Read the rest of this entry »

• Maoist national wide blockade (April 25)
• Maoists torch a passenger bus at Basmadi (April 26)
• Maoists abduct 11 RNA soldiers (April 29)
• Maoists continue abductions (May 8 )
• Stop extortions: Home Minister tells Maoists (May 11)
• Maoists threaten two FM stations (May 14)
• One killed, two seriously injured in bomb explosion (May 14)
• Maoists beat man to death (May 14)
• Maoists extort from Indian pilgrims (May 15)
• Prachanda not fully satisfied with proclamation (May 19)
• Maoist ‘extortion’ shuts down Birgunj industries (May 20)
• Maoists ask banks for money? (May 22)
• Maoists bomb NC worker’s house (May 23)

These were some of the news headlines covered by various media in Nepal, after the restoration of Parliament. These acts of Maoists clearly show that they are not serious about a peaceful solution to address the current problem.

Although the Maoists leader have already formed a talk team and some of its members have arrived in Kathmandu to speed up the talks process with the government, they have threatened that they will not seat for talks unless all the Maoist detainees are released. They have not ruled out going back to bloodshed despite new political changes in the country. This shows they are not much serious about the peaceful solutions.

Maoist must understand that during April revolution, people were on the streets not to support them; they were there to fight for peace and freedom. If anybody dares to snatch it away, that mass will not spare them.

Maoists must have realized that peaceful demonstrations won after loss of some two dozens lives within 3 weeks whereas they have been waging war for last 12 years that has claimed more than 15 thousands casualties and still they were nowhere near to achieve their goals.

Another fact is that even the government’s 200 thousand security personnel were unable to stop the mass, so Maoist must realise peoples’ power and don’t think to handle the situation so easily and don’t ever think to play any quick trick with people.

In my opinion this is a great chance for Maoists to clean their past images by improving their behavior and getting themselves in the main political stream, which will win peoples’ faith. But if they still misuse the situation they will not get any chance again. So, comrade, strictly circulate the message to your followers to stop beating people and extortion and abduction, we want to live in peace.

The King is dead!
Long live the king!

This is what the Brits used to say on the demise of their kings, in the years gone by. What would the ordinary Nepalese say with the Kingship and Kingdom established by Prithvi Narayan Shah in the Himalayan mountain region, going into oblivion?

By ordinary Nepalese I mean not the Kathmandu waalas or Pokhra waalas but the ordinary people from far off places in the east and west of nepal - the people who never mattered to those in power, who were mere baits, mere slave labour, people to be ruled and run over or people to be bartered for dollars and pounds as soldiers. 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 »

[We thought this comment from Divas Sharma deserved to be posted here ]

The American, Indian, and Europeans’ fear of the communist ghost is ridiculous. The outcry that Maoists would take over the government is evident of sheer ignorance of ground realities of Nepali soil. The Maoists have already won their political battle once their agenda of constituent assembly became the national agenda - and they have promised to handover their arms under the UN supervision. The make-up of Nepali society is such no other system of governance can function except the inclusive parliamentary democracy. The parties have to fight for a noble cause, rather than committing suicide. How can the civilized people of developed nations ask the parties to compromise with the king, who fired live bullets on the heads of the peaceful demonstrators even today? Persuade the king to surrender if you really care. Read the rest of this entry »

By Bhumika Ghimire

Ok this is not something original, if I had known the author I would have gladly quoted him or her, “there is no cure for stupidity”. You need proof, please look at events in Nepal.

The royal family has for long been using the national fund for its own pleasure, with no regard for the economic crises facing the nation or the fact that people in Dolpa and Rukum are starving. Whom am I kidding; even people in the capital are starving. Just look around the city, the street kids, the slum dwellers. Still our national conscious would never allow us to think even for once that we should have a form of government where the King is not above all or at least the King should accept that we the people are not his slaves or property he inherited. Read the rest of this entry »