Report By Prem Khanal
KATHMANDU, July 10 – In yet another blow to the embattled monarchy, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat has removed the state allowance for the king and royal family in the budget he is slated to table in the interim parliament Thursday.
The budget will, however, arrange for the perks and allowances of over 700 royal palace staff and other essential expenses like maintenance and security. The government had this year allocated Rs 32.7 million as allowance for the king, queen, crown prince, crown princess and the queen mother.
Minister Mahat is proposing an annual budget of around Rs 170 billion and a 15 percent rise in government employees’ salaries, but there will be no major tax changes.
According to government sources, the upcoming budget will earmark over Rs 100 billion under the recurrent heading — mainly a regular expenditure — which is 13.6 percent higher than this year’s revised estimate. “Constituent Assembly poll and increase in government employees’ salary are the two major factors that swelled the recurrent expenditure,” said the official.
The budget is likely to allocate around Rs 4.5 billion for the CA poll (Rs 1.70 billion for the Election Commission and the remaining amount for the home ministry for arranging security), said the source. However, a major chunk of the CA poll budget will go for recruiting some 75,000 temporary police for a period of roughly three months. The Election Commission and the Home Ministry had demanded Rs seven billion for the poll.
In addition to adjustment into regular salary of a 10 percent dearness allowance for government employees announced last year, the budget will propose a 15 percent increment in their basic salary. “The adjustment plus increment in salary will add around Rs 4 billion to the state’s financial burden,” said the official.
Sector-wise, education will continue to be the largest absorber of budgetary resources. The government is planning to allocate some Rs 28 billion for the sector. Apart from financing increased salary for teachers, a major chunk of the education budget will go into recruiting 12,000 teachers this year, according to the source. The health sector is expected to get some Rs 11 billion next year.
The budget will also earmark some Rs 12 billion for the army, 11 billion for the police and over one billion for the Maoist combatants living in 24 cantonments.
The budget will allocate Rs 55 billion for capital expenditure for financing mainly development activities. The capital expenditure budget for next fiscal year will be almost 44 percent higher than the revised estimate this year.
Reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructure and road construction will be the major focus of the budget and will absorb half the allocation.
A major project is on the cards to initiate a 1,200 km mid-hills highway connecting Ilam in the east to Baitadi in the west and opening up an alternate road linking the capital and the terai, said the source. Reversing past anti-subsidy policy, the government is also launching a major support program for shallow tube-wells in the terai region.
“On the whole, the budget will be slightly populist and ambitious on some fronts, particularly in enhancing expenditures in the rural sector in the areas of infrastructure, despite weak absorptive capacity of the local bodies,” the source said.
On the revenue front, the budget has a total revenue target of Rs 103 billion, almost 20 percent higher than the revised estimate this year. Of the total, the government is expecting to generate Rs 3.67 billion from divesting its 15 percent share in Nepal Telecom.
Likewise, the budget will target mobilization of over Rs 21 billion in internal loans and attempt to mobilize around Rs 45 billion through foreign loans and grants.
( Source:The Kathmandu Post, July 11,2007)
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Comments
119 responses to “15pc pay hike for civil servants,King, royals to receive no allowance in Rs 170b budget”
EPA have saved the budget of the royal family amounting to Rs. 3 crore, but wasted the money by givning Rs. 3 billion to the maoist. Isn’t it the economise policy of the syndicate EPA ? If ever the peace and democracy will not exist in Nepal, then these thug leaders should be maximum penalised for misusing the hard earned money of the people and the country.
ohh…again a cut and paste from a published news article… *sigh* is this a new policy of UWB?
is Wagle getting too lazy to put his thoughts and views down? I have come back to this blog after so long to read Wagle & Co’s views…but was disappointed..
please do alert us when YOU have added some value…
The pay hike to the civil servants will in turn help hike the market price by many percents.
no use increasing the pay for the civil servants. only they will benefit. what about the poor people, who have to earn their daily wages? who will think of them?
but it is good that the budget to the royal is being cut. no money of the nepalese should go down the drain for no use.
we hope to see similar budget cut in other non productive areas as well.
Haha, one group of royals will miss the budget just to give another group of “royals”. What a pity for nepali people, they still are barred from getting any benifit from yet another annual budget which heavily depends on foreign aid. And be prepared for the objection by new “Royal” chief, as budget has no allocation for YCL, does Mr Mahat thinks the money they extort from the businessmen are enough for them and for their masters extravagant europe visits?
Rest assured, the Shah family will not miss the suspended pay. By looting Nepal for over 50 years, they have amassed enough fortune to keep them in royal comfort for seven generations. Loot from stolen statues, profits from drugs, human trafficking, flesh trade, gambling etc. remains safe in Swiss Banks. Returns from investments in Hongkong, Macau, UK, China, India and Africa will also keep coming. Gyane and Parase’s finacial position is pretty secure. Mr. Mahat did well by not worrying too much about that.
Nepal is bankcrupt- cutting Royals from Budget is just a cheap politics. Nepal does not have the any fundamentals that can sustain its economy so in the end Girja and Gang of 8 will be remembered as Mugabe of Nepal. The audacity of Mahat to give way our hard earned money to Maoist just on the basis of them saying 30 thousand strong maoist in cantonment is nothing but a YCL on him.
But the real fact is- Nepal will soon face economic meltdown which will wipe out Nepal from the map and make it another land of desperates and YCL. Just do not read too much on whats on the paper- it is meant to fool you.
DOA is right, the country is already bankrupt. They are using the fund of hard earned savings of civil servants to pay the dues of petroleum products amounting to Rs. 1.5 billions. In this situation, the EPA still paying Rs.3 billion to arm group for nothing in use to poor people. If maoist are really sincere with the poor people then they should not demand that much amount for their security, but they should make guts to use that fund for development activities for the upliftment of the very poor people. In terai the presence of EPA rule is going to be null and void which is going to expand in hilly region as well very soon for being failure in evey field of the aspiration of the people they are; peace and democracy. They neither provided the peace nor democracy in true terms but in addition they added the problems of ethnic war and division of the country with serious consequence to sovereignity of the country. They have destroyed the nation within 15 months of their rule which were built by our forfathers by giving their blood to the nation.
Thje King must have requested that no personal budget be allocated to him and family. He has not even taken the last year’s allocated budget due to him. This is just populist hogwash. Talk about the billions being paid to fake maoists that’s a burden we caanot afford – especially since it is done through lies and cheating.
How much has that bearded idiot ‘doctor’ set aside for petroleum subsidies?
Hiking the pay of civil servants isn’t a bad idea. A similar measure has worked wonders in Singapore. It should, ideally, help curb curruption and make civil servants more effective and willing to do their job.
This blog is a joke. Who’s paying this guy? Out of a 170 billion budget, the writer chooses to make the headline and the starting paragraph pertaining to the palace not getting anything. Is that all this writer can discuss with regards to the budget? Is there no grey matter in this fellow? Is this all what the budget is about ? I’m sure there will be some more out there who rejoice in this sort of cheap headlines BUT does this fellow not have the sense to ask how this government is going to spend all the surplus that has been accumulated and stashed away from last year’s budget due to (as the government claims) them not being able to spend it due to conflict – as if there was conflict everywhere all the time. How about in real development work and rebuilding infrastructure damaged by the insurgency.
How about the pay hike issue which is a waste, if the government wants to really make a difference they should increase the hike by 100% or more. A 15-20% hike will make no difference to the calibre, efficiency and corruption in the government service. Either go all the way or don’t do it at all unnecessarily burdening taxpayers. More importantly, instead of just hiking pay (not nearly enough), how about outlining the reasons for the pay hike – which should be mainly to do away with inefficiencies including corruption.
A sorry article from a sorry fellow I’m afraid.
Kirat: it’s going to take alot more than Mr. Mahat to stop this insane practice of subsidizing petrolum. It’s going to take major political will. As it is our leaders are ball-less. Who is going to touch this issue given the possibility of CA elections in November? I guess our PM will have to continue to beg the Indian ambassador to convince the IOC to take pity on us Badhurs and keep giving us oil.
1. Increasing pay for the civil servants will only fuel inflation further.
2. As the elections are approaching near, again there will be flow of hidden money to finance election campaign (this time from the politicians and perhaps from India as well) and it will add further to inflationary pressure.
3. As for subsidizing petroleum products are concerned, it will continue. The political parties will not like to take harsh decisions when elections are near. Increasing prices will only bring public ire to the boil. They will avoid making any such adverse decisions whether it is required or not.
4. Removing corruption is a nice slogan, especially in a developing countries like Nepal. It is virtually impossible task. It was there before, it is there at present and it will be there in future. Unless there is a radical transformation in mindset, it is highly unlikely. At least, there is no sign of such transformation coming forth soon.
5. As for the Budget, it is annual event wherein the Finance Minister makes about Rs. 5 lakhs for presenting Budget in the Parliament and live in television. As DOA has rightly ponted out, we are fast heading towards ‘economic meltdown’.
Nobody is talking about inflation and gdp growth. Inflation at the rate of 7-8% is alarming as this eats up the purchasing power, mostly of poor. With current growth rate of 2%, poverty alleviation is going to be a dream save for the gulf workers.
Hiking the salary of civil servants is a populist measure by a corrupt, illegitimate politicians to win over the support of civil servants.
SPA kills more than M does!
Nothin much, nothing more.
I hate to say this but these so called leaders seem to be concocting circumstances that will eventually lead to Zimbabwae like situation. Imagine inflation @ 1000% or more.
One more thing – its tiring I know but this sick govt’s economic/fiscal policies never seem to be proactive, only reactive. Their inability to come up with a sound NRN strategy is threatening much of remittance flow this country so badly depends upon. For instance look at Dharan – most of lahures have already left for UK since this ILE thing happened and its instantly killed this promising town’s economy. Pokhara is also much damaged and will get only worse.
What more, with Gordon Brown showing interest in resolving Gurkha problem, who knows all Gurkhas (even pre ’97 retirees) will also most probably leave if given a chance. And should Brown make pensions of these lot at par with British, imagine the amount of pounds that could have come Nepal’s way but didnt. Only due to our politicians myopic socio-economic planning. It kills to imagine doesnt it?
1. Inflation at 8%? Who says so? It is very conservative estimate. It has to be more than 10% now.
2. Unfortunately pay increase and price hike (or inflation) are interlinked; so is GDP growth rate. This because real GDP growth can only be calculated when we substract inflation from GDP. And inflation rate will be affected by salary hikes since such measure increases amount of money in the economy. With more money and less goods in the market, prices (inflation) will rise. It is kind of vicious cycle.
3. Remittances are likely to increase in coming years. More people are going to the Gulf countries with an average of about 500 people a day. At present, Lahure pound remittance is minimal (insignificant) in comparison to the remittances from the Gulf countries and Malaysia. Only couple of places will be affected by low pound remittances – Dharan, Pokhara, Butwal and, to some extent, Kathmandu. The real problem now is what to do with the accumulated foreign exchange reserves of the country than to worry about pound remittances.
The royal family had requested government to give their allowance to the maoist victims but due to the pressure of the EPA leaders they instead freezed it. This year I think the king himself request not to allocate their allowances in budget. It is true all these are just propoganda to divert the attention of the failed strategies of EPA.
As they usually do when economic meltdown begins, there will be riots and mayhem in all sector, worse than Maoist or YCl insurgency. Data can be manipulated but you can only fool people once or twice- they know the state of economy in Nepal. Having too much liquidity or even foreign reserve spells trouble and to earn a revenue where is the investment or sector to invest- except on motorcycle and house and these are non perfoming assests. With inflation already creeping up and funds being transferred or given away on political stance rather than on economic ground- we are headed for a fiasco that we will make us deprived refugees in our own land.
The way country is managed- its fiefdom or serfdom of gang of 8. They nor the foresight or basic understanding of governance. only thing they know is by helping hands of India they have sidelined Monarchy that stood for the people and that is their win nothing more.
Nepal needs Multiparty system and Constitutional Monarchy to thread in between Indian and China as well in economic and political aspects. It is the ground reality. Gang of 8 have foreclosed the very notion of an Independent nation by playing to the beat of foreign powers who have their interest above us. But gang of 8 are quite oblivious to this fact because they have already sold their soul to the highest bidder. Lets not be them.
Budget comes and goes by but we do not need populist budget. I still trust Dr Mahat more than others. Eventually, some of context of this budget seems directed to CA election. And another thing if King really want to provide his allowence to Maoist victim we have to appriciate his good intention. I am not fanatics anti- royals . I am conditional. If he does good I will say go for, it is good for nation.
But in this case I do not understand ‘Scoop’. He seems fundamentalist or fanatic repubicanist. We can go for that as a Athens not as a Spartans. He must understand this factor. Maoist, again halted varification causing that ‘Army Chief made the comment on our sovereignty ‘. If national army can not comment on our land than who are authorised to make comments on us, India, China, America or other countries ? I still believe P N Shah is our identified figure as a father of nation. I believe because of P N Shah we proudly say that we have never been colonized by other countries. But now some of big head and big mouth twisting our history and saying that PN Shah is feudal represent of our country. We must stop traiter activities and traiter before they start our budget from Swiss bank. So in this way Nepal Army can express what is right for our counrty .
You some people still think that India may invade us militarily. In fact these idiot Maoists even built trenches at one point to prepare of such an event.
A military invasion is not necessary at all. The way things are going in Nepal, India will grab us by the balls in no time. If the NOC defaults on its debts again the IOC will simply stop supplies. Then the PM will have to beg and possibly make some political concessions to the Indians.
Shaman – I agree to most of your views but when you say lahure remittance are minimal I think you are only referring to about 3500 gurkhas currently maintained by British Army. Lets not forget some 50,000 pensioners on top of that. Add to that some 40,000 troops again maintained by the Indian Army and their own hundreds of thousands of pensioners and I’m sure you’ll have something much more than minimal/insignificant in terms of gurkha remittance.
army is a state organ. in its true form it is totally for the people. we have seen them shed their own blood and protect us. they are there, not only for an foreign invasion, but for the security and prosperity of the kingdom.
now when no one is least bothered about the security situation in Nepal, army at least had the guts to come forward and speak out.
we have seen idiotic comments from PLA’s commanders over the year. they themselves have admitted that they are still training guerrilla forces even as they claim they want lasting peace and democracy in Nepal. as far as i know, it is nothing but double standard. they are preaching for peace and preparing for war.
so in this context this comment by the NA is nothing more than a warning for them and similar outfits. NA has been attacked from all sides to de-motivate them, de-stabilize them and finally to destroy them.
now it seems, besides the army, there is hardly anyone who is concerned about the chaotic situation in the kingdom.
so anyone who is claiming it is a political statement is just a tail wagging pet of the anti-nationalist forces. be it some political parties, terrorists, bureaucrat, diplomat or any civil society member.
this very asaksham tikey government is taking this country down the path of total distruction.. they are very self serving and FULL of lip service.. their pretence will be torn apart by the people in time.. they cannot continue to try and fool the people of Nepal like this…. this is hte most dishonest government we have ever had in 226+12+1 years..
Patriot,
You seem to have to misunderstood my statement. The story is like this.
Before 2000 (or before the total Maoist mayhem), the remittance was less than 2 percent of GDP. At that time, Nepalese hadn’t thought of going to the Gulf countries for employment. Thus, whatever remittance was received had to be from the British Army and the Indian Army.
In 2006, the remittance had reached about 15 percent of GDP. If you compare the figures, remittances tripled in a single year (in 2000 as compared to 1999). It has been showing tremendous growth since then and people are flocking to the Gulf countries. Thus, such growth cannot be contributed to the Gurkha remittances (counting both pensioners and those in active duty). In 2006, GDP grew almost 1.5 times the level of 2000 GDP.
Considering these factors, I had suggested that the Gurkha remittances being minimal in comparison to the remittances from the Gulf countries.
There is another side to this issue also. We do not know the total amount of remittances that Nepal receives from India. There is no official or unofficial estimate regarding this. And India employs very significant number of Nepalese. Perhaps we have not even considered the largest contributor to the Nepalese remittances.
army is a state organ.
–O yeah. Then how come it functioned as Mahendra’s mercenaries by arresting a sitting prime minister? Didn’t it do somthing similar to good-for-nothing Deuba too on the instructions of Gyancha?
in its true form it is totally for the people.
–Yes, it abducts, rapes and kills ordinary citizens for their welfare.
we have seen them shed their own blood and protect us.
–Go check the numbers. More policemen have died defending civilians than the army.
they are there, not only for an foreign invasion, but for the security and prosperity of the kingdom.
–Note the word ‘kingdom’. Now it’s limited to Narayanhiti. So the army is there for the security and prosperity of Narayanhiti?
asheem – by the nature of their purpose and duty, inst like army seldom come before public scrutiny, say as opposed to police. so their low key existence often give them the PR adavantage in comparison to other insts who all seem to be perpetual failures. so before you hail them, try to think in this context.
For all I know, the last time when the moment of truth came about for the army (and in the glare of public), they proved to be utterly useless and incompetent. Just coz they are silent and low key now, I know its tempting to hail them, esp given that people have lost faith in every other inst. But I wouldnt be so optimistic as you. The army have had their chance and they have been equally exposed as the rest.
Shaman – thanks for the figures, I didnt know wht they exactly looked like, but whatever, it reflects the sad state of our country. Also you’re right, I have no doubt Nepalese living in India remit the most due to sheer size of our ppl living and working here.
patriot,
if you are referring to the insurgency and military deployment, army first of all is short handed. when Americans were here in their assistance and assessment mission in Nepal, they had clearly stated that due to the geographic condition of the kingdom, the number of personal was far less then the number present then. according to the specialist then, number or personal required then was over 200,000 where as the then number was less then half of it. let me give you some trivia.
when army was first mobilized, the number of army personal was just over 45,000. in the span of 5-6 years it increased to 90,000. so you could say that half the current force was inexperienced raw soldiers. they in time and again did clear terrorist strong holds, but none of the democratic parties went there for public awareness. instead they were targeted by them and so called human right activist bias judging them and accusing them of gross human right violation. i confess in places there were violators (those who were tried in military court and convicted were punished) but the report half the time was totally or partially bias. this in time had a negative moral impact on the soldiers. if only the political parties had helped the armed forces, they would have been much better results. needless to say, in the peak of insurgency, only a handful of people’s representative went back to their elected area to see the ground reality and for public awareness on the agenda put forward by the then terrorist and what the government and international government had to say about it. this in military perspective is a major setback.
if you are referring to the jana-andolan 2, well as far as i know, those who broke the declared curfew, and those who tried breaking the security cordon (eg: the person who was killed in mahendrapul, pokhara) was shot. if you check global military operations, civilian casualties in military operations is far more than that of Nepal. In national constitution it is clearly written that, when you get a shoot to kill order from district admin office, the security agencies do have the right to follow it. despite the order, only 19 i guess was killed. in a group of tens of thousands protesters, only a peanut number of people died. don’t you think that if the then RNA had fired indiscriminately, the numbers of casualties would be far far more than the number that actually took place.
Nepal’s military, even though it was under staffed and under trained, did comparatively far better than other mobilized military who are far better trained and equipped than our army.
fighting a guerrilla first of all is not as easy as fighting a conventional war. even the mighty Americans and NATO forces havent achieved total victory in Afghanistan and Iraq. thus expecting a swift victory in Nepal’s context is nothing more than a naive idea.
well scope, defending myself on your comments is nothing more than the wasting my time.
asheem – while I agree your argument might hold some water and that fighting insurgency is indeed different, I surely dont subscribe to your choice of words in describing our army for you’ve put them on a ivory tower.
history is witness to army’s blind loyalty to royals even if that meant being anti-people. this inst didnt earn its rogue reputation just like that and lets face it, our army has always been a playground for royalists. it has never operated with a mind and a vision of its own but more like the private force of shah kings. all top officers were shahs/chettris/thakuris and king their supreme commander, they complemented each other and it suited them. army never charted its own vision that would be aligned to people’s democratic aspirations. instead it helped hijack democracy from people on several occasions.
In my earlier post I might have implied at army’s failure to curb Maoists or their handling of processions and your reply could have maybe killed it, but overall lets face it, your contention that army is/was a democratic inst for the people is at best unfounded.
Had the army stuck by the king like some of us here seem to think, I guess we would have seen lot more blood in the streets of kathmandu.
Patriot,
How come army anti-people and PLA for people. Girija was the one who had resigned for not using army against the maoist. Now he is the one who is planning to use against madhesi. Your blame in this sense shows null and void mind set-up. The army had not used directly in Janaandolan-2 although they were being informed maoist involvement was there and many rumour about maoist were going to attack Kathmandu when they were tagged as terrorist during that time. The tag was levied by not the king but these SPA’s parliament. Be fair my dear….don’t pampered too much to these spa leaders they are worsening our country which was never faced in our history…
I tend to like Asheem’s comment on Nepal Army except some suspicion how on earth they were unable to contain 30000 PLAs (the number itself is exaggerated,you know) with very basic military training ?? How they were bogged down by somewhat weiry and brainwashed teenagers without any sofisticated weaponery?? While I agree Army was not defeated but they certainly cannot claim the victory aswell. Was Nepali army incompetent , unskillful and not motivated enough?? Why they failed to win the battle with all the state machinery and treasury behind them??
And I certainly believe Nepali Army were more loyal to the king than to the people and we don’t need any argument for that. Having said that they would be much more close to people than the maoists army which still works,thinks and loyal to a party. Army did show restrain in the socalled Janaandolan and otherwise the number of martiars would go up dramatically.
If nepali army has some guts and feelings for the country and it’s people isn’t it time to take a giant step now?? Well, people will not accept the kingship for sure but they are not ready for the Maoist dictatorship aswell, they would rather be silent if Army takes the responsibility as Thailand did . Some hues and crys would come up but believe me there won’t be any resistance from people, and as far as maoists army goes it’s better to curb them rather than accepting once a foe to your ally. If they will be merged the institution of Nepal army would be destroyed. The sucpicion, the distrust and the inconvenience working with the enemy of one time may erupt in a huge scale infighting. So ,it’s better to take neccessary step and inoculate before the virus comes to contaminate your body!!
Can UWB focus on a very critical issue now of why the verification process of maoist cantonements has stopped. This is a severe violation of the accords signed by the maoists. We are concentrating too much on issues that are not even close to the critical nature of the cantonment verification process which is probably the most important issue related to the maoist’s seriousness in joining peaceful politics. I don’t hear any of these civil society clowns saying anything on this nor any politiciansm, nobody – no EU ambassadors who so “gallantly” expressed their unwillingness to attend the King’s birthday party on TV (who cares). Only fellow is the ambassador from seven seas away (Moriarty) who has made a statment on this issue. And where the hell is our oh so holier than thou media????
This is an OUTRAGE!
well patriot, no doubt army was always favouring and getting favours from the palace, unlike other state organs, army was not politicized.
let me tell you a story. remember in 2002/2003 GPK resigned and Deuba became the PM? do you know the story for that?
before telling you the story, let me tell you a couple of the then rules regarding military deployment. in 2002, ISDP (internal security and development program) was launched. it was a nepali version of IDAD (american version that they had used in afganisthan, which stood of internal defence and development). in this project, gorkha was taken as a model district.
what is ISDP?
it was a project where army coordinated the development and security plans of the selected district. CDO along side with RNA, APF, Civil police as well as other agencies discussed and developed the development programs which were overseen by the army. in this project, army was to supervise security to all the concerned offices and projects.
in the mean time, CPN-M attacked district hq of rukum, then a small about of army’s special forces was deployed without a clear as well as a written mandate. the then COAS prajwalla sjb rana, didn’t receive any written orders from the security council not the defense ministry. then i guess 60 or so police were captured and were taken away, which the then deployed army witnessed, but they had no choice but to wait for the order. (it was before the maoist attached dang).
later the then defense minister along with GPK went to the king to sack COAS rana and replace him with durga nath aryal. as what it is heard, the king threw the file in the air and said, ” i am not my brother, dont try to manipulate me”. he protected the chief because the chief was not to be blamed then as he was simply following the protocol.
so i am sure they would feel better to support the institution that supported them.
as police as well as the investigating bureau was totally politicized (sacking the IGP and replacing the IGP is just one of the examples), but army basically was untouched with politics. as you said the RNA was the Royal’s playground, trust me the police was much much worse. i personally always considered the army to be like the musketeers and the police as cardinal’s guards, but the irony was that in Nepal the cardinals changed more than the weather. thus making the police very very unprofessional.
well on your comment saying that all the top brass were chettris, thakuris, rana’s, well durga nath aryal(brahmin) was the second in command of the army, besides him, CB gurung was also the second in command. there are other major generals who were non chettries, thakuris, ranas too. i could list it to you but it is just tooooooo long.
about democracy, do you really believe that we ever had a democracy? we pretended to vote, pretended that we had our rights secured but the truth is that besides getting the freedom of expression( in form of strike which was basically muscles in rather than voluntary) we didn’t practice much of a democracy.
well this discussion can go for ages, the king sacking PM deuba for the first time, if it was legal or illegal. well as far as i know, army did nothing but obey the orders from the government, be it ranas, panchayat, democrats, or the king.
hope: as i have mentioned above, civil war is not like conventional war. it can not be contained in a matter or day or months. please read my comments and see why army wasn’t totally affective.
some 10 wars ago when dharampal barshing thapa was the COAS of the RNA, he had projected that it would take the RNA 5 years to finish the Maoist problem, and then the Maoist were confined only in 4 districts. rukum, rolpa jajarkot and pyuthan( i am not sure if it is pyuthan). but when the Maoist were mobilized some 5/6 years later the situation was completely different. it had spread all over Nepal.
about the weapons that you have commented, they did have modern weapons, including AK47(the best assault rifle according to the experts)
well if the army was fighting for the king, they wouldn’t have had operations all over the country, but would fortify Kathmandu where the royals lived. they were favored by the king and vice versa, but their fight was for Nepal and the Nepalese.
coup is not as easy as it sounds. it will take the army 24 hours to stabilize the post coup ground situation, but it is the aftermath that is the hardest problem. do you think the southern block who now has a puppet government will keep quite? can you survive without the basic necessity including fuel and food?
as in 1990 if there is a blockade, then not only our fragile economy but our total import and export will come to a halt. if India don’t permit us to use their airspace then we are totally fuc.ked.
so coup in Nepal is our last option.
look man maoist are brewing something deadly, the denial to verify the PLA is the proof. prople of nepal should be concerned about this. and not pay attention to all the distraction that is being created exploiting the common hatered and misunderstanding. if maoist are really serious about PEACE they would be paying more attention to connecting with the real situation and being a lot more serious. by far prachanda has proved to be worst than girija in politics. of course he is after all one time sore looser who went to the jungle just because he lost democratically. look at the maoist structure there is the party and then there is PRACHANDA who is above all. So do you seriously belive that this guy is going to compromise and share power. all this blood and chaos because maoist went unchecked before and now the same. If they had been delt with when they were a small group, by force or by dialect things would not have come to this. we are repeating the same mistakes all over. once again we are turning a blind eye towards the maoist pretending that they are trustable. WE REALLY HAVE A BRIGHT FUTURE.
Why this government is failed, look
http://www.tehelka.com/
NEPAL’S OTHER INSURGENCY
Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, who presented his annual budget of 169 billion rupees on Thursday ‘scrapping’ the allowances for King Gyanendra and his family, has said the palace will still get around Rs 45 million for the new Fiscal Year.
Addressing a news conference at the Finance Ministry on Friday, Dr Mahat said that budget had not been allocated under the usual ‘palace category’ because the King had lost the position of the head of the state at this period. The budget for the palace will be managed by the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.
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This is what is happening in Terai.. and fucking idiots are fixated with the King. Rest in Peace Shresthas .. your countrymen have badly let you and others people in Terai down ..
GP Koirala and Sitaula are Nero of modern days ..
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JTMM-Jwala kills two of a family in Saptari
Cadres of the Jwala Singh faction of Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM) have murdered two members of a family in Saptari district.
Bishnu Shrestha and his sister-in-law Basanti Shrestha, who were abducted by a group of JTMM cadres from their house at Siswabelhi-7 Thursday night, were found dead at Dhangadhi VDC, Saptari, Friday morning, reports said.
The bodies of the victims showed multiple bullet injuries. The reason behind the killing is yet to be known.
Jwala Singh, the chief of this armed outfit, in an interview with Naya Patrika daily on Thursday said his group would intensify ‘physical action’ against people from the hills residing in the Terai region.
Idiots, (SPAM) and Janta, if you’ve decided to keep the monarchy, now why be upset on the expenditure on the royals. I say, let’s get rid of this circus called Royals, once for all. These are competent buch with all resources amassed (financial/educational), they wouldn’t go hungry tomorrow, if Nepal were to be Republic. And they will still live a luxiours life compared to any Nepalis for that matter anyone co-habitating this world. So, why the pity? But, if your concern is on monarchy & Co. losing their status qou, what can I say, this is a cruel world, everyday, there are millions of greiving people over something or other, fate my friends, wheels turn, let this time around fortune of wheel run over HIS MAJESTY.
Well, I read comments above, extolling nepal army, and possibility/relevence for coup d’etat. Coup my a**, with such an archiac institution, they can’t even tie their own shoe-lace, faaking retards (the generals) with all those self-aggrandizing medals on their shoulders rewarding themselves. Nepal army is a family run business for exclusive club belonging to certain caste/creed. And you expect someone to shine through that pile of sh** to save your a**.
Good luck!! I am waiting for the shining prince too.
I don’t mind keeping the Royal family around just as a possibility of an alternative to SPAM. Frankly speaking I think Gyanendra should take over again. The way things are going in Nepal we are headed towards a major fiscal, political, economic crisis that will destroy Nepal. These pro-republicans here have utterly failed to show how Nepal will be any better in the absence of the monarchy. I contend it will be worse. If Gyanendra didn’t irk India Jana Andolan part II would never have occured.
If the king is also India’s bootlicker then there will be no difference between the SPAM and the king.
pundit ji,
These pro-republicans here have utterly failed to show how Nepal will be any better in the absence of the monarchy.
I, Harke, consider myself a pro-republican, so I take the onus of answering your question. I concede here, my lack of cronological history of Shah dynasty achievements, while the failures are rubbed on your face time and again. And, again, I’m not a political scientist, for that matter not even a student of that discipline, so I’m handicapped to pin-point, how would removing Monarchy out of the equation would make the convuluted situation any better.
But, despite my short commings, I can argue on ‘philosophical ground,’ which requires no science/expertise.
I’ve no problem, where the leadership comes from, as long as one with the vision/wisdom/sincerity, despite the ideological difference I might have with them. That be Gyanendra, Prachandra, Girja or some Timbuktu.
Now, the problem with Monarchy is this: No one can bequeath/inherit a NATION and it’s people. I am not object to be passed around for father to son. I’m a citizen, and I should be able to exercise my right to get involved in chosing my leader who in turn should reflect my needs.
If Gyanendra, sees himself fit for nation building, and thinks he has some ideas, he should come forward as a LEADER not as a KING with stake on his part too, and without impunity. And that goes for all the leaders.
If people have entrusted you with all their hopes than you do have responsibility, at the same time people do understand that leaders are no superman, and they don’t have magic wands to solve the problems with expediency that we wish otherwise. But, in case of repeated failures and stark inablities, one should have a sense and moral obligation to step down, and let someone else try it. O.K naive me, I know it doesn’t work that way.
With the Nepal monarchy, it’s been 200 centuries, how many more chances do they want? It’s always been leardership without vision, wisdom and SINCERITY. And you are still think Monarchy can save you.
I’ve no problem giving one more chance to Gyanendra, but not as the King, if you genuienly think you can do better than any other , come convince the public, get ELECTED YOURSELF as a LEADER.
So, you see, I am not aganist King GYane or Mane per say, I am against the instutuion, where as a citizen, I’m a mere possesion of the king’s.
so long. Mr. Pundit.
Delighted to see Bhudai Pundit after a long time.
Shekhar:
Anyone who comes to power in Nepal is going to India’s bootlicker. Do you know everytime we have a new PM his first order of business is to visit New Delhi literally on the 2nd or 3rd day. It’s a pathetic sight. What to do? The only way out is for us Nepalese to make our country more stable and prosperous. When we have self-confidence and our leaders are out there looking out for the best interest of the Nepalese people then we can give India the finger and tell them to go fcuk themslves and stop encroching on our territory. Right now the sitatuion is not in our favor. Recently Girija Babu had to BEG the Indian ambassador to resume oil supplies to the Nepal Oil Corporation. How humiliating is that for a country? For the prime minister to beg an ambassador. It’s shameful. There were many injustices during the panchayat era no doubt about it. But at least be had a heck of lot more pride and respect then we do now.
By the there are some clowns (namely Scope and some others) here who think that just removing will solve everything. Read this editorial by the Nepali Times:
http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/357/Editorial/13727
Asheem, as far as I know it was not civil war or am i ignorant of the word?? .Civil war must include people from all walks of life. It was just an insurgency started with one district and gradually gaining it’s ground.
Ok, supporting your argument, maoists did have some AK47s but I don’t believe Army was fighting with inferior weaponery than the maoists and number also far exceeded the then terrorists. When you have everything better than the opposition and you still not only unable to contain but also suffering heavy losses how would you expect people would have judged you? And as per your assumption even when maoists were only in four districts army presumes that it will take five years to quell them , questions must be raised against the capabilities of the pride of the nation(?). Do you mean to say Maoists were in far better grounds in terms of their skills and tactics that they would have overtaken them had they didnot come to negotiations in 2006?? If not why the army’s performances was so poorly orchestrated?? Shouldn’t army take some responsibility for the current debacle of the country as they were unable to “defend” the nation from the terrorists?? Had they have performed well and people had enough confidence on them wouldn’t maoists have been defated alltogether?? If they were short-handed(??), shouldn’t they ask for the fulfillment and when there was support for all over the world wouldn’t that be easy to get??
And what kind of shortage you are talking about?? have you been to Nepal recently or not, there are all kind of shortages already, people even donot ming queueing for hours for three litres of petrol, power outages are so common now that people are dissapointed if light doesnot go off at least once a day.
Anyway , Nepali people expected somuch from the army and I have no hesitation to say that they fail to deliver and history will mark them as one of the failures, in a country where there is plenty!!