Down with Autocracy: Protesters in Baneshor
5:45 pm Update
I am just back from the Baneshor area. People in unprecedented numbers have thronged in the streets. Army’s mini-tanks are plying in the street. People are walking in the streets defying curfew while the security personnel have turned into mere spectators. This is an utter failure of the state and a near-victory of people’s power. King is rumored to address at 7 pm. Every one is curious about what a beleaguered monarch has to say.
At 3:30 pm, around five thousand protesters defied curfew here in Tinkune. These protesters were a part of large mass of around fifty thousand in Baneshor. They arrived from Koteshor area and entered the main road bypassing a police beat in Tinkune. Few army men were stationed near Koteshor. We all Kantipur staffs either reached there or watched from windows, rooftops. It was a peaceful protest. But, leaders like Ram Kumari Jhakri were finding hard to convince the mass. After 10 minutes, another security enforcement arrived. But, as the mass was only chanting slogans, carrying banners and branches of trees, the forerunners were able to divert the mass towards alley leading them to Koteshor.
Here at UP Policlinic, people sprinkled water to the protesters. They looked jovial, were enthusiastic and very disciplined. The leaders were requesting them not to pelt stones. For a while, the area got tense, but it was soon over. Yesterdy’s massacre in Kalanki has given an impetus to fight for their rights. As I write this at 4:30, I can hear protesters wistling, yelling and cheering.
Protesters have lined up from Kalanki to Sanepa in Ring Road. This mass is estimated to be 2 lakhs. Similarly, according to co-blogger Saroj Raj Adhikari, people are stretched from Koteshor to Ekantakuna forming a huge human chain.
Police opened fire at protesters in Gwarko.
Half a dozen tanks are placed surrounding the Narayanhity Royal Palace. What does this mean? King is feeling insecure under his turf. He is trying to prevent the uprising from entering the palace.
Just a little away in Gongabu, the place of massive protest, now some 30 thousand protesters are peacefully marching towards Chabahil. Security force is heavily deployed but they have not yet disrupted. Big logs are placed in the Ring Road (from Gongabu to Kalanki). In Banasthali, where a police beat was demolished yesterday, peaceful protest is going on. In Kalanki, yesterday’s battle field, numerous foreign media have stationed; protesters have taken control of Kalanki. Two motorbikes were damaged by protesters today morning. Security forces are staying in Balkhu side of Ring Road. The protesters are demanding the dead bodies of martyrs whose bodies were taken away by the state.
CURFEW EXTENDED. KATHMANDU PAPERS SHRINK:
As 25- hour-curfew ended today morning at 3am, people heaved a sigh of relief. Today, curfew starts at 9 am and ends at 8 pm. In the streets of Kathmandu, few vehicles are plying. In our office here at Nepal Magazine, (Tinkune, Kathmandu) staffs started arriving from the morning. Meanwhile, today’s Kantipur is only 8 pages (regular it is 12), The Kathmandu Post 4 pages (regular it is 8 pages) that too black-and-white, reminiscent of pre-color era. This is ironical while the king wants to rule in medieval way ie Dark Age.
Even Gorkhapatra is reduced to 4 page from regular 12. But, Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post are only printed in black. The Kalanki massacre has received international coverage. Nepali media too highlighted the police barbarism.
According to co-blogger Tilak Pathak, protests have resumed in Kalanki; people are hurriedly walking towards their home.
United We Blog 
Comments
176 responses to “General Strike Day XVI”
Get up Stand up,
Stand up for your right
D0n’t give up the fight
most peple think great god will come from the sky , take away everything and make everybody be hi.
MightY god is a living man,
you can fool some people sometime but you can not fool all the people all the time
I know , but you don’t know how life is worth,
life is right so,
GET UP , STANT UP , COME ON STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHT.
no wonder king will agree with constitutional monarchy if there will be any speech as such predicted by many here.. but the question is would people agree or not. Why so many try to make us fool by saying king is going to make announcement and nothing is going to be changed..who cares king and india and possibly Girija have agreed with constitutional monarchy….by the way madhav nepal has alreday sadi that less than consitutional assmbly is not going to be accepted..more than that it all depends whether the nepali people will accept or not.
I appeal all to take the songs of G Shaha and put on fire. Who is publishing or producing them, find out n put on fire. We do not need his songs and poems forever. Do not keep any copy, destroy completely.
hey,
where is my posting? do you censor postings in UWB?
With this much sacrifice if we get back to costitutional
monarchy then it is too less. It will not serve the dream
of our Martyrs. That kind of democracy could have been achieved through the so called election by the king.
With people getting so conscious that is not difficult.
Now the minimum demand should be constituent assemly.
Maximum demolishion of Monarchy.
what we truely lack here is the vision of king mahendra and madan bhandari would have been the best person to diffuse this problem..if madan bhandari would have been alive we wuldnt have seen this day..he was a good leader
How long before the ‘King’ gives his speech?
hey pramod
Madan Bhandari is dead. He died in so called ACCIDENT. Do we all really think he died in accident. Lets see who benefited most after the death of Madan Bhandari.
Not only King every so called top leaders hand is soaked in BLOOD
Parliament being reinstated
The King will reinstate parliament through a declaration, Indian embassy disclosed.
PS: I am laughing because the seven party will fight for the primeminister ship. cool!
response 1,
First of all you say neutral people and repected (by whome)and none of them are neutral.
Daman Nath Dhungana – maybe, but I think he is too weak.
Madhav Nepal – Prime Minister – No way, can’t really trust him.
Ram Bahadur Thapa (Badal) – Griha and Rakshya -this is where I can say I rest my case, giving a Maoist commander the reigns of the security, either you are a maoist or mad.
Ram Sharan Mahat – Artha – big crook, but why not for the time being.
I think finding neutral people is very hard. But until elections are held, I agree with just 2 of your choices Dhungana and Mahat.
As for the others if you want maoists in also (if we are to go with your thoughts and play along and not mine);
PM: Baburam Bhattarai
Griha and Rakshya: Should be under the President until elections are held
Artha: your choice is ok for the time being but if you want a nutral I would go with an intellectual not affiliated to any of the parties or even an experienced banker.
But I think we are overshooting ourselves. This is like playing fantasy football.
feel free, supress me!, its mandatory in autocracy,
in the name of salvation, in the name of democracy,
torture torture, use your last supremacy,
and show your master, your brave impotency.
hemuji going to sing jana gana mana now
-For those brave martyr, who died in this blood bath
i’m a war child,
revolution floating in my sight,
so close but yet in flight,
into the dark but yet so bright,
patheticly begging to save its might,
so i’m here – behind the enemy line,
in an act of war, in an act of fight,
yes i’m a war child.
Even as a child, Gyanendra was convinced he was different. While he was at school in India, he was asked to present a flower to the Indian Prime Minister at the time, Jawaharlal Nehru. He refused, saying: “I am higher than he.”
source -http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article359124.ece
The king is delivering his speech probably later this evening or somewhere round the midnight. And some are people busy making their own
specultions about what will he address on -some are saying that he will reinstate the parliament, some say he will reappoint Deuba as a ‘sakshyam’ PM while some are even remarking that he will bid adieu to the fellow countrymen and fly away in his chopper. Well, rather than getting diverted our attention towards the king’s court we should more seriously and earnestly utilize time thinking and planning about how can we come into the conclusion as fast as possible. REPUBLIC is (minimum or maximum whatever u prefer to call) and will be the sole demand and we should not step an inch lower than this. We don’t wanna hear the term like constitutional monarch, ceremonial king , white-elephant et al. So we should ignore his call for dialog, his so-called speeches and summons rather progress forward towards the republican state asap. rather than staying in front of TV and getting bewitched by his speech, let’s forge ahead towards the palace and make that bloodhound howl a reckless and woeful cry.
King is going to speak this evening and KP Bhattarai is new pm of Interim goernment.
just heard!king is adressing the nation at 7.hope this will bring everything back to normal!!!!!!!!!!!!
Guys,
too early to plan for the Repulic nation….Just heard, king will be addressing the nation and will be appointing a PM under article 128 (not 127) and will be empowered only to hold election within 2063. Indian Ambassador is busy convincing leaders of SPA for the truce. If not, he has assured the king that Indian Army will support him and will be deployed if required.
Just received info. that the king will address the nation at 7:00 PM
Yeah king’s speech at 7 p.m. is official.
“Peoples Republic of Nepal” – sounds awesome.
It is too late to bring everything back to “normal”. What the hell was “normal”? The King has shown his true colors, and any concessions he makes now are only to save his ass…he has already shown by his blatant disregard for human rights and rule of law that he could give a flying f-k about the people of Nepal. I say, ignore him. DO NOT ALLOW THIS MAN TO PULL THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES YET AGAIN. Deuba, as you recall, was chosen as PM, then kicked out by the King, then chosen once again, then put in jail!! This “back and forth” has got to stop…also, time for some NEW YOUNG BLOOD. Why the same old PM’s rehashed again and again?
KP is new PM with full powers but let us see whether he accepts some Ministers from King’s side
like always has had happened in the Interim Govt.Actually they do their spying there, so we should not accept that.
The minimum acceptable has to be a return of sovereign power to the people. I would also like to hear an apology to the people of Nepal.
The main problem with us is that we are very devided among ourselves. One is ongressi, the other one is communist, some royalist and the other Maoist….Nobody isists that he is a Nepali first.
there is another negative about us, we cannot hear even positive criticism about our thought of mind. if i express negative feeling about SPA, i will be termed as royalist, if i speak bad about king i will be labelled as Maoist, if i support the kings moves i will be mandalle. I have been seeing this in this blog site also. Nobody is willing to accept others choice of thought and thus there is a great division among us.
Yes, the state now is very bad because of King G. But everybody has forgotten what Maoist did just two months ago. Out of 13000 killed by maoist in last 10 years, 8000 were cadres of SPA. do we remember that. One of the reporter was killed by tying him up on a tree and by slow death using blunt weapons.
Do we remember…Sujata going to Indian with 3.5 billion rupees just after Ashoj 18. Do we remember, girija flew to of his supporter MPs to thailand to destroy his own parties government. Do we remember, UML built its office worth 5 crores after 9 months in power being a party of poor peasants and farmer…..
Nobody is clean including king who spent 24 crores in African Safari four months ago….
This andolan will not bring anything to us…we are bhedas…as tol by Ganesh Man and will always support our akas representing our thought….
The need of the our is the fourth force totally not assciated with SPA, King or Maoist. But if any body supports this idea at this juncture, i am sure he will be termed as mandalle or Maoist or something else…but somebody sould rise and come to the rescue of people. They are longing for such forth force whom they can rest their trust on….till then God save Nepal
My, how pessimistic!
ya at 7 pm
king ko speech chha
okay “Nepal ko chhoro” i understand ur feelings but there’s another side of coin too. Do u forget DORAMBHA case or NAGARKOT case. At least maoist apologise if they make mistake. but nagarkot kanda happened within the absolute power of king. Did he apolosise. i dunt think so.
realized that around 99% of the topics here are written by bahuns. sux!! outta here
but i agree with “Nepal ko chhoro”, actually there is a shortage of good political leader in nepal who can understand peoples feeling.
CJ, that’s because our apathy allowed them to get away with it. No more. We the people must learn from our mistakes too.
viewtech racist bastar*d u out of here!!! You are KG’s chakar, and spy and here to spoil the spirit!
But maybe this ‘fourth force’ can be the people themselves. Obviously in these moments millions of people cannot articulate a fourth position, but during the process of a constituent assembly, after fresh elections to that assembly, all political actors (SPA and Maoists) will have to compromise, and this seems to leave a window for the influence of ordinary people. Most importantly, ordinary people are mobilising themselves now more than ever, and with this kind of attitude, then during a constituent assembly they can exert huge pressure on the parties and the Maoists and use the situation to create real democracy.
Again I think Bolivia is a good example of this; an organised, mobilised people and civil society makes sure that even its most favoured politicians know who they are meant to serve.
As long as the people themselves stand ready to hold their representatives to account, they themselves can be the ‘fourth force’ you speak of.
Probable Announcement:
1. Emergency Rule (51% Chance)
2. Return to the status quo per the provision of 1990 Constituion and Revival of Parliament (By this way he want to retain the power)- 30%
3. Announcing Constitutional Assembly or Referendum for CA ( 10%)
4. Announcement of dismissal of current cabinet (4%) and revival of Parliament
Any other Guesses??
CJ, Neither has Giirja apologized for announcing mid-term poll when his prty was mandated for 5 years, nor does MAKUNE when he joined shere’s govt. alst year. Tking responsibity after doing crime does not mean that everything is washed away. Apologizing does not solve the problem.
SPA had convinced Maoist to withdraw Maoist bandh after five days and look what they are oing right now…15 days of bandh….don’t they think from their head tht what will the people who are daily wagers do……how they will feed themselves and their children…….or were they afraid that if they call of the stir after four days as planed they will not get this kind of support next time when they call it……will they apologize for the death of starving people now…..so just do not expect anything from our leaders including the king…..
can anyone keep typing the KG crook’s speech? We who don’t have access to nepali radio/tv would like a live report!!
who are u “viewtech” some sacred extreme creature who has written his name in golden letters in his forehead from birth. what’s a big deal to be bahun or newar or kami or damai or whatever. u are who u are by your mind not by cast. damn.
Nepal ko chhorro, Do you have anything positive to say?
Nepal ko choro you are right.
After things get to normal out here in Nepal these SPA will be go to their previous character they will forget all the Martyars and their family and their well being.
Again then fight for “Kurshi”
agree with both kirat n nepal ko chhoro. so whats the prophecy then people, any idea what’s next.
Whether someone is a congressi, communist or Maoist is not the question right now, neither is it going to be in the future. It is the Throne that is the main obstacle in front of the nepalese people.
Why can’t we all just forget the barriers that divide us into small sections and unite to build a new Nepal of free of ATROCIOUS AFFAIRS.
For a moment Freedom is so near that we can see it, feel it; now all we have got to do is grasp it with our hands.
Long Live Peoples Republic of Nepal.
yes, Nepal will only do good if netas above 45 years will not be allowed to participate in the election or hold any post. crooks all fall in this age group….
I heard that 12 helicopters have landed in Narayanhiti with full tank fuel filled from airport. I am pretty sure King’s packing up. There is feud going on in Narayanhiti in regard to where to go …. India didn’t want to take the corrupt Royal. Perhaps Bhutan? A thought.
response 1,
don’t be a rumor monger….i live just beside the royal palace and haven’t seen a single helicopter landing since morning…stop bulshitting
Nkc that’s a thought!
King G is hard nut to crack, he is not leaving Nepal this easily
so aba kati ber pachhi KG will start barking?
Nepal ko chhoro seems to be hurt by KG’s Durdasha! Chhimeki ko natale ho NKC?
don’t expect much from the barking…..we have to stop day dreaming…..same old neta being named PM, taking oath from king G…and urging nepalese to follow restraint…..
Best wishes from Ireland. I hope I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t hold out much hope from that f**ckers speech. I really hope you all keep the pressure on until you get rid of this parasite and not accept trickery from him.
nope, hurt by being betrayed by every body first SPA, then King G and then alwys e maoist…sabaile Nepali ama ko chhati mai bajrpat garne…hamile k garne….