Tag Archives: politics

Could This be Baburam’s Katwal Moment? Nepal Army Against Bulk Recruitment of Madhesis

Posted on December 22, 2011 by | 7 Comments

The Nepal Army is dissatisfied with Tuesday’s (20 Dec) Cabinet decision (see below) to recruit 3,000 youths from the Madhesi and other minority communities. It plans to register its reservations with the government after receiving a formal order from the Ministry of Defence. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai invited Chief of Army Staff General Chhatra Man Singh Gurung at his residence on Wednesday (yesterday) morning. The PM, however, did not clearly instruct the CoAS on the Cabinet decision, an Army source said. Gurung is meeting President Dr Ram Baran Yadav on Thursday (today) to discuss the decision.

“If the government’s decision contradicts with the Interim Constitution and the Army Act, the Army will officially request the government to revise it,” the source said. The Army argues that recruitment is purely a ‘voluntary process’ and it cannot restrict ‘the right to equality’ guaranteed by the Interim Constitution by opening vacancies for any particular group. Under the existing recruitment process, 55 percent of the seats are filled through free competition, while 45 percent are recruited under the reservation quotas.

“If the government wants to make the Army more inclusive, it should amend the Army Act and offer more seats in the reservation quota,” the source said.

Army chief meets the Prez Continue reading →

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Posted in Madhes-Terai, Security

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Constituent Assembly Term Extended Yet Again. This Time For Six Months.

Posted on November 29, 2011 by | 3 Comments

The Legislature-Parliament avatar of the Constituent Assembly today endorsed the bill seeking to extend the term of the CA by six more months. This is the fourth extension of the CA term. Like it was in August when the CA was extended for three months, this time too there was not much drama (inside the CA of haggling by the politicians and outside the CA hall of protesters shouting against the extension). But the atmosphere was entirely different back in May when  the CA was extended for three months amidst chaos.

Of the 508 lawmakers present at the House session, 505 voted in favour of the bill seeking amendment to the Interim Constitution that would pave way for extending the CA term, while three lawmakers voted against the bill. The government on Thursday tabled a bill on the 11th amendment to the Interim Constitution proposing a six-month extension beyond the November 30 deadline.

The CA, which was elected in April 2008 with a two-year term to write a constitution and take the peace process to a logical conclusion, has already been extended three times before this. None of the works have been finished till now. Continue reading →

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Bijay Gachhedar, the Corrupt Home Minister, Kicks out a Competent Home Secretary from the Ministry

Posted on September 17, 2011 by | 3 Comments
bijay_gachhedar_gudpak_in_the_mouth_of_corrupt_cartoon_by_rajesh_kc

Doesn't this man look like Bijay Kumar Gachhedar, the corrupt Home Minister? A cartoon by Rajesh KC

By Kiran Chapagain in Republica
Cartoon by Rajesh KC 

The bad news is that despite Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s own assurances that the government secretaries would not be transferred within the first month of his entering Baluwatar just to appease any individual or group, the cabinet meeting on Friday (yesterday) transferred Home Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal, describing it as an ‘exceptional step’ to address deepening misunderstanding between minister and secretary. A cabinet source told Republica newspaper that the cabinet took the decision upon a “special request” by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar. “Since the home minister has said repeatedly that he has not been on the same wavelength as Home Secretary Paudyal, I have been compelled to take the decision, though it goes against my own words. This decision should be taken as an exception,” a source quoted the prime minister as saying in the cabinet. Continue reading →

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American Diplomatic Cable: Girija Prasad Koirala and Prachanda Meet in Singapore

Posted on September 6, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Prachanda did not trust his son Prakash

2009-12-01 12:07

S E C R E T KATHMANDU 001094

SIPDIS
NOFORN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR IN NP SN CH
SUBJECT: NEPAL: PRACHANDA MEETS KOIRALA, INDIANS, CHINESE
IN SINGAPORE

REF: KATHMANDU 1090

Classified By: Charge d’Affaires, a.i., Randy W. Berry. Reasons 1.4 (b/
d).

¶1. (S/NF) During his November 16-18 trip to Singapore, Maoist
Chairman Pusha Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” met Nepali Congress
leader G.P. Koirala, Indian diplomats, and Chinese officials.
Maoist head of international affairs Krishna Bahadur Mahara
and Nepali businessman Dinesh Manandhar accompanied
Prachanda. Manandhar (strictly protect) told Emboff November
30 that the Singapore-based telecommunications company Smart
Telecom paid for airfare (business class), vehicle rental
(BMW), and hotels (Four Seasons) for the Maoist delegation.
Manandhar — who is personally close to Mahara but says he is
not a member of the Maoist party — is the local Nepali
partner of Smart Telecom, and handled logistics for the
delegation. He did not participate in the meetings. Continue reading →

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American Diplomatic Cable: Fear of Royal Coup when Nepal Was About to Limit King’s Power in 2006

Posted on September 6, 2011 by | Leave a comment

2006-05-18 11:49

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 001267

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/18/2016
TAGS: PGOV PTER MASS NP
SUBJECT: POWER PLAY TO WATER DOWN PROCLAMATION FAILS

REF: A. KATHMANDU 1262

¶B. NEW DELHI 3433

Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty, Reasons, 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
——-

¶1. (C) Just a few hours before the Prime Minister’s planned
May 18 3:00 pm proclamation to limit the King’s power and
place the army under civilian control, rumors swirled around
Kathmandu that the Army and the King were planning a
preemptive coup. The leaders of two of Nepal’s biggest
parties, Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D) and CPN-UML, told
us Indian Defense Minister Mukherjee had separately called
them May 17 to ask Parliament to go slowly in changing the
King’s role vis-a-vis the Army. Chief of Army Staff General
Thapa told the Ambassador that on the morning of May 18 he
had met with the Prime Minister and urged caution, saying he
was unsure of his troops’ reaction if the government appeared
to be acting vindictively toward the King. The Prime
Minister had rejected General Thapa’s request to postpone the
proclamation. At the end of the day, the PM withstood the
pressure and power play and issued the proclamation as
drafted – putting the King in a box and the army under the
new civilian government’s control (septel). End Summary. Continue reading →

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Posted in American Diplomatic Cable

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Nepal Army Senior Officers Corrupt: Indian Ambassador to American Officials

Posted on September 5, 2011 by | 1 Comment

In a meeting with American officials on 11 March, 2006 in Kathmandu the then Indian Ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shankar Mukherjee had asserted that corruption in the then Royal Nepal Army (now Nepal Army) was high and the senior commanders were “content to acquire arms on the black or gray market” because that was profitable arrangement for them than the government to government deal. “Senior officers were enriching themselves with funds set aside for procurement,” Mukherjee told the US officials. “They had told the Chinese to up their invoices for small arms by 30 percent.” The Indian ambassador said that the situation in the RNA was bad in view of poor leadership, poor training and low morale. Even foreign countries provided up to ten times more ammunition than provided previously, the army would not be able to defeat the insurgency.  Mukherjee claimed that the corruption factor explained why the RNA leadership had not been overly concerned about India, the UK and the US cutting off arms shipments.

[Then Army Chief Pyar Jung Thapa had acknowledged an acute shortage of ammunition during his meeting with the US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Donald Camp, in March 2006.]
- Phanindra Dahal

Here’s the full text of the US diplomatic cable: Continue reading →

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Maoist Infighting Update

Posted on September 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Standing Committee meet ends; Baidya demands Central Committee meet

SEP 03 – The UCPN (Maoist) Standing Committee meeting held at the party headquarters in Paris Dada, Kathmandu concluded on Saturday (today) after party Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya demanded the party Central Committee meeting. The meeting was said to iron out the internal differences surfaced after the party handed over the keys to the arms containers to the Special Committee. The hard-line faction of the Maoists led by Baidya has been protesting against the keys handover. Yesterday, the Baidya camp had even boycotted the SC meeting to express their discontent over the key handover issue. The Maoists have handed over the keys to the containers at all the seven cantonments to the Special Committee on Thursday and Friday. Continue reading →

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Posted in Eye on Maoist, Maoist Politics

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Constituent Assembly Gives itself Another Three Months

Posted on August 29, 2011 by | 1 Comment

For the record: The Legislature-parliament (which is the non-constituent making part of the Constituent Assembly that also works as parliament) today extended the term of the CA by another three months. This extension comes a day after Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai was elected the 35th Prime Minister of Nepal. But these two developments are unrelated. The proposal to extend the CA was tabled by the Jhalanath Khanal-led cabinet that was replaced today by Baburam’s two member cabinet. In fact, the newly elected Prime Minister, and his Maoist party, wanted the CA to be for six months. The current CA term was due till This is the third extension of the CA that was originally elected for two years in May 2008. It was extended for a year in 2010 and for another three months in May 28. The term was extended by amending the Interim Constitution by a two-thirds majority. 541 members of the CA were present for the voting. 537 voted for the amendment proposal, 4 against it.

Read about earlier extension which was more “entertaining!”: Constituent Assembly term extended for three months

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Everything You Wanted to Know about Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai (and his Mustang Car)

Posted on August 29, 2011 by | 14 Comments
Baburam Bhattarai in 1970

Baburam Bhattarai in 1970 when he topped the School Leaving Certificate exam.

The impression: Nepali people have rarely been so optimistic about the Prime Minister as they are with Baburam Bhattarai and it’s a rare sight when Nepalis across the political spectrum (especially those who are considered general population- students, youths, activists) express satisfaction, relief, even happiness, over the election of a person to the post of Prime Minister. It seems as if the whole country has put its faith and hope on Baburam Bhattarai. Going by the Facebook statues, tweets and tea-talks on the streets of Kathmandu, the election of Baburam Bhattarai yesterday as the 35th Prime Minister of Nepal seems to be the best thing to have happened in Nepal in a long long time. While putting enormous faith on his the nation seems to have forgotten that BRB is a Maoist who waged a 10-year-old bloody war that killed 15000 Nepalis.  BUT, and this is a big one, will he be able to live up to the sky-high expectation of Nepali people? Lets hope he does.

On a lighter note, Prime Minister BRB will be riding a locally assembled car called Mustang- nothing to do with Ford, I assume. (Mustang is a Himalayan district that borders China.) This car (see pic below) is cheap compared to what other Prime Ministers have used in the past. Continue reading →

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Posted in nepali-politics

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Baburam Bhattarai Elected the Prime Minister of Nepal

Posted on August 28, 2011 by | 11 Comments
Baburam Bhattarai and Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda"

Prime Minister-elect Baburam Bhattarai, right, and his party the UCPM Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" emerge out together after the former was declared the winner in the Prime Ministerial race in the Constituent Assembly today.

Baburam Bhattarai

Baburam Bhattarai

Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has been elected the new, 35th, Prime Minister of Nepal. The speaker of the Constituent Assembly, Subash Chandra Nembang, declared him the winner in an election that saw Ramchandra Poudel challenging Bhattarai. Dr. Bhattarai is the vice-chairman of the party and was the finance minister in the Maoist Chairman Prachanda-led government two years ago. He secured 340 votes vs Poudel’s 235 votes out of 594. Continue reading →

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