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the social order for which a particular code of conduct or set of laws was designed, such code of conduct and laws are no longer applicable.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 »

The Government of Nepal and the CPN (Maoist) have issued Friday a 25-point cease-fire Code of Conduct with the main objective of guaranteeing the basic rights of the Nepali people to be a part of the process of drafting the constitution by taking part in the elections to the Constituent Assembly without being influenced by any fear, threatening and violence.
In the Code of Conduct, the two sides have also expressed the commitment to respect the mandate of the historical people’s movement expressed in support of full democracy, progression and peace and fully abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Humanitarian laws and the 12-point agreement reached between the Seven Political Parties and the CPN (Maoist).
Commitment has also been expressed towards competitive multiparty system, civil independence, fundamental rights, human rights, press freedom and rule of law, and other democratic norms and values.
The 25-point cease-fire Code of Conduct agreed between the two sides under different headings is as follows:

Guarantee of fearless civilian life

1. To not to give any public statement that could agitate one another or carry out any such act.
2. Both the sides will not mobilize, display or use armed military such as to spread terror among the people.
3. Not carry out attacks or destructive acts against the army or security organ of one another, not to carry out acts such as setting up mines or ambush and not to make any new recruits in their respective army and not to carry out spying.
4. Both the sides would support one another in maintaining law and order.
5. Carrying out discussion and understanding as per need on the basis of mutual agreement on matters relating to the management of arms and ammunition and the army. Read the rest of this entry »

By Azad Swetaketu

It was my wonderful chat with Krishna Bahadur Mahara, head of the Maoists’ negotiating team, who is in the city for talks with the present seven-party government, in a secret place in Kathmandu. I don’t want to mention the location as comrade Mahara himself requested my colleagues and me to keep between us. During the 2-hour-long face-to-face with Mahara, who is also the CPN-Maoist’s spokesman, we discussed various national issues, of course political and possible government-Maoist peace talks.

Mahara said he, along with his senior party leaders, are here in Kathmandu after a long period of time, to have negotiations with the present government, which the Maoist leader hesitated to term as “old regime” as used to term the governments of the same parties and leaders in the past, to end the decade-old insurgency. “We don’t want to term this government as old regime. This is a new government with a new agenda and we are here to assist it.” 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 government, immediately after its expansion to 18-member Cabinet, was rocked after Chitra Lekha Yadav, newly appointed as Minister for Water Resources, declined the ministry.

Yadav’s refusal has been a fresh subject of discussion in the Nepali political arena. Is it a sacrifice or a cunning way of exposing herself after being bypassed for the Speaker’s job by the seven-party alliance last month? Soon after her name was announced from state-owned Radio Nepal at 3 p.m. Monday afternoon, she organized a brief press conference at her office at House of Representatives and said that she wouldn’t accept the post of the minister in the present Cabinet as the seven-party alliance didn’t trust her to assume the responsibilities of the Speaker of the House. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Bhumika Ghimire 

Girija Koirala declared in the Nepali parliament that we Nepalese are no longer subjects but citizens of a free nation. Just outside the parliament a group of people giddy with joy on hearing that the no longer need to accept the king as their god, supreme leader of the nation praised the “courage” of our leaders. Whole nation is celebrating this event, I guess, except me.

I am not the one secretly worshipping the king wearing a cover of a republican; I am not the self declared patriot killing my compatriots to achieve power. Still it is hard for me to be happy that finally I am free, my people are free. I don’t see the freedom, I don’t see the joy. The King has now been reduced to a real figure head, the parliament has all the powers, and we as citizens control the parliament. Now Nepali people will decide the fate of the nation. Is this for real? Read the rest of this entry »

In respect of the sacrifices and participation made by the Nepalese people in the peaceful joint people’s movement,

In due attention to the fact that the people had shown keen interest through the peaceful joint people’s movement that took place some time back, on establishing that people are the sole source of state power of the independent and sovereign Nepal, as the people are the sole source of state powers and sovereignty,

With determination to fulfilling the peoples’ mandate given by the Nepali people as per the roadmap of the seven political parties and the 12-point understanding between the seven political parties and the CPN-Maoist in the peaceful joint people’s movement to restore a inclusive state by restructuring the state by formulating new constitution and to restore sustainable peace through democracy, and constituent assembly, 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 Azad Swetaketu

The House of Representatives (HoR) on Thursday unanimously approved Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s proposal of House Proclamation 2063 B.S. curtailing the power of the king.

With the declaration, the king has been stripped of all the privileges he had been entertaining. 

No one voiced “nay” when Speaker Subash Nemwang asked the parliamentarians to voice their votes against the Proclamation.

Addressing the Thursday’s sitting of the House, PM Koirala warned of dire consequences if any attempt to interfere with this Proclamation. “This proclamation has reflected the desire of all Nepali people and each and every word of this proclamation is written with the blood of the martyrs, who sacrificed their lives,” said Koirala.

• His Majesty’s Government of Nepal changed to Nepal Government
• Nepal will now be a secular state
• National anthem will be changed
• Royal Nepalese Army changed to Nepal Army
• The post of Supreme-Commander-in-Chief (the king was) scrapped
• Nepal Army brought under House
• Chief of Army Staff to be appointed by Government
• Rajparishad, the royal privy council, scrapped
• House to formulate, amend, and annul the laws deciding the heir to the throne
• Parliament to decide Royal Palace expenditures and other facilities
• Private property and income of the king to be taxed as per the laws
• Questions can be raised in parliament and in a court of law against the king’s illegal actions
• The Royal Household Service scrapped, civil servants to replace Royal Household Service employees

I’m writing this letter to point at the inconvenience faced by pedestrians walking in front of the US embassy in Maharajgunj. Since a few years back, the embassy has imposed restrictions on pedestrians walking along the “few meters” of pavement in front of its visa section. This has become troublesome for school children who walk down on the busy road just to cross a few meters. Read the rest of this entry »

Protestors shout anti-monarchy and anti-Deuba slogans at Kalanki. Former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba became a target for the protestors following media reports that he favoured retaining the King as the Supreme Commander of the Royal Nepal Army.

Photo: Bikash Rauniyar/Kantipur

The protestors later torched four government vehicles over the Bagmati bridge, Thapathali on Tuesday.

Photo: Bikash Karki/Kantipur