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Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2083', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Presidential Weight-loss', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div> <p> President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s call to the political parties of Nepal to form an all-inclusive consensus government has not materialized even after the eighth deadline elapsed, as of penning down these lines. It was not surprising that an ever-elusive consensus in the present day Nepali politics was not arrested even this time around, though to humiliation of a presidential decree. But what is most engrossing question here is not why it did not materialize, but why did President Yadav at the first place choose to issue such calls to the parties to forge a consensus, the impossibility of which was absolutely foregone? Even if such a consensus evolved over time by any chance, the presidential dignity and credibility that had remained largely intact over these turbulent years of political transition will have been irreparably tarnished by then. During these two months, since his office began to issue seemingly never-ending series of deadlines to parties, but all in vain, his action has been seen as unwise by the people.<br /> <br /> Not only that, at one instance, President Yadav also gave a naïve public speech which was construed as throwing political weight behind Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, the rarest thing expected from him. ‘Creating a consensus for a new government around the incumbent one would add jewel to the crown,’ he was quoted by the media as saying in a public function in Pokhara during the first week of December. Though it later turned out that the President was quoted out of context (the message the President was trying to convey was something like “I would not mind if the consensus is formed for Dr. Bhattarai to continue as the Prime Minister and other parties joining that government), the damage was already done. The president could have avoided making any such statement altogether. The two acts by President Yadav-- calling to parties for consensus to form an electoral government and, at the same time implicitly favouring incumbent Prime Minister Bhattarai to head that new government -- are in apparent contrast. A very strong fraction of Kathmandu’s political high-circle attributes this Presidential blunder to the prowess of senior Indian National Congress Leader Dr Karan Singh, who called on Yadav in the first week of December in the pretext of inviting the latter in an academic function of Banaras Hindu University. In essence, this act of calling for consensus for new government on the one hand and supporting the incumbent prime minister on the other defeats the very purpose of presidential call for a new government.</p> <p> Then, the most crucial questions here are: what prompted him to do so? And, who ultimately has benefitted politically from this entire episode. As for the prompters, there are three theories on the float. First, the president in fact knew that no such consensus was tangible even in farthest horizon, yet wanted to call for it. Because, the failure of the political parties to act upon his call would pave the way for his ‘more assertive role’ in the present day Nepali politics. But that seems flatly implausible, as he has not done enough scratching whether he can actually assume the position of an executive president, even if he wished so. The second theory is that he was sincerely concerned about the prolonged constitutional vacuum and wanted to build a moral pressure on the political parties to work out a tenable solution to it. Even that was the case, he should have gauged on what would happen ultimately if his call did not yield any result. And, more importantly, there are no constitutional way outs available to push the present government out of power and form a new government. Without such constitutional backing, the president was naturally ill-equipped to adventure into such never-ending game of calling for consensus. His guts and practicalities, both, are not permitting him to randomly pick a figure of his like as the next prime minister. And, for the third, there is a section of political analysts who take his recent call as the success of a game plan by the UCPN (Maoist) and the Indian establishment which are making every possible effort to retain Dr Bhattarai as the prime minister as long as possible.<br /> <br /> This argument appears relatively convincing. The only impediment to PM Bhattarai and the Maoists to continue in power was none other than the president himself. President Yadav’s public image is way above that of Prime Minister Bhattarai and the person who can announce the removal of Bhattarai from his post is, of course, the president only. At least, they saw it that way. Since there is not any constitutional clarity on the further course to change the government, the Maoists feared that if president acted in this line, he might get a popular support. But, if the president’s image got obliqued by some machinations, his moral authority would dwindle sharply, as it did by his current faux pas. Hence, there were advices from largely unassuming quarters to thrust him into this vicious game of calling for a new CONSENSUS government. This has provided room for the UCPN-Maoist’s to consolidate its campaign against the President alleging him as harbouring dream of becoming the executive head of the country. When the credibility of the president substantially erodes further, it will only be easier for the UCPN-Maoist and Prime Minister Bhattarai to consolidate the grip on state powers.<br /> <br /> Not only vindicated by the circumstances but also in essence, the president’s this call for consensus was a premature and novice adventure to say the least. His implicit intention of calling for consensus government seems to hold the elections for a new constituent assembly (CA). But, he did not realise the fact that without a lot of ground work and a thorough review of the past failures, holding a new elections is impossible and likely to be futile like in the past even if they were held. The last CA was too big to deliver a constitution and the CA members both elected by people and handpicked by the party leadership across the board were apparently under qualified for the job of writing the law of the land. This was proved by their four-year tenure that ended without delivering a new constitution. Therefore, before thinking of another election, there must be a single national voice on the very size of the CA, the mechanisms of assigning constituencies and eligibility for candidacy to CA membership. Further, the constitutional bodies like the Election Commission have expressed their concern over the absence of required legal framework to conduct the polls of any objective.<br /> <br /> There is another question that must be answered by the top hats of the parties to be represented in the CA. In the last CA, members of the House were hardly given opportunity to debate and contribute in originating and finalising the proposed provisions of the new constitution. They were virtually herded in as per the wish and whim of their respective party leaders. Only a handful of top leaders participated in whatever deliberations that took place and the rest of the CA members just blindly followed them. If that were to be the case, why do we need an extensive new CA through very expensive elections? If everything is to be decided by ten or twelve people, then it is appropriate to form a commission of these very people with some technocrats in it to write the new constitution. Then a new legislature elected after promulgating this constitution may ratify it. The scope of amendment is and should always be there. The fact of the matter is that, whatever may be written in the new constitution, no matter whether it is written by a commission or a CA, that is going to spark controversy of this or that form, for reasons that people have now more sectarian and irrational expectations which are impossible to be addressed by any balanced, democratic and forward-looking document called constitution.<br /> <br /> These are some of the issues, the institution like Presidential Office of the country should have considered before jumping into ‘deadline business’. At present, there seems no viability of such a government that can accommodate every force of the country. Then, an all inclusive roundtable under the president’s sponsorship could be an alternative, which can help chart a future course of the nation.<br /> <br /> Even if the elections were to be held, it is now proper to hold them to select a form of the constitution itself, not the members of CA. This means, every contesting political party should first draft a full version of the constituent of their liking and go for the ratification by the people for the vote. This indeed will reduce a lot of complications. People will know at the first hand what is in different verson of the constitution presented by the parties. It will invite a meaningful debate and provide room for input. This will also help for faster face of political polarization between, the Left, Right and the Centre forces. More importantly, this will mainifest the intentions of eacdh party before people could vote for any of them and, above all, will give a good homework for political leaders to talk and act sense with acceptable degree of coherence in preparing a feasible draft. In view of sharp divisions along ethnic and communal lines, this proposition contributes to diffuse the tensions before the adoption of the constitution. Various facets potential federal set-up will get space to be debated in public. Then the ultimate promulgation would be lot easier than in any other deemed process.<br /> <br /> Instead of indulging into self-degrading course of action like issuing deadlines for the parties, the president should now focus on rescuing the country from the current mess. For this, he does not necessarily need to go beyond available constitutional jurisdiction. For instance, he can hold a comprehensive round-table in the form of consultative meet. There could be several other ways and means available. But, he will in a position to make a difference, if and only if, he maintained a dignity that suits to the first president of a new republic nation-state. His recent move was undoubtedly far below that mark.</p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-07', 'modified' => '2013-11-07', 'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal, current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events, ongoing political news of nepal', 'description' => 'President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s call to the political parties of Nepal to form an all-inclusive consensus government has not materialized even after the eighth deadline elapsed, as of penning down these lines. It was not surprising that an ever-elusive consensus in the present day Nepali politics was not arrested even this time around', 'sortorder' => '1928', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2082', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Double Drama, Fresh Conflict', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Although the countdown to November 19, the scheduled date for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reduces from months to days, uncertainty on the polls continue to hover. A drama of double acts, on-stage and off-stage, orchestrated simultaneously by forces striving to hold the polls and forces trying to foil it, respectively, takes upon the country.</div> <div> </div> <div> The on-stage drama looks normal - as though nothing is amiss and things are all set to sail smoothly until the polls and even beyond. The four-party pro-poll alliance of the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and Madhesi Front now swells to a six-party one after the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum of Upendra Yadav and the Federal Socialist Party led by Ashok Rai joined the group upon agreeing to participate in the polls. The leaders and working committees of these parties are flexing their muscles to select candidates for the first-past-the-post system for two hundred and forty constituencies. The elites in all these parties are busy drafting their respective manifestoes. Aspirants of party tickets for candidacy, from all parties alike, have gathered in Kathmandu to cajole their leaders. The party offices are crowded, traffic jams in the capital have increased not only due to an increased number of vehicles and people but also due to increased violation of traffic rules by those who are not used to following them in districts outside of Kathmandu.</div> <div> </div> <div> There are fringe parties like the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and RPP-Nepal that are not in the alliance but have opted to join the election bandwagon. The pro-royalist RPP-Nepal hopes to perform better if polls were to take place in view of the people’s growing disenchantment towards the major political parties. The ambitious ones who failed to woo the party they belong to pick them as candidates are defecting and joining other parties. Professionals and celebrities are taking membership of parties of their choice, hoping to be new leaders. </div> <div> </div> <div> The Election Commission says it has completed all preparations. The election offices in all two hundred and forty constituencies have been opened, logistics and personnel supplied and ballot papers are ready to be printed. Security agencies are recruiting additional forces. Everything on this side of the screen appears destined to have a happy ending.</div> <div> </div> <div> But the off-stage rehearsal of the other act determined to foil this election at any cost does not signal anything as good. An alliance of supposedly thirty-three parties, led by CPN-Maoist, Mohan Baidya group, has made all possible preparations to create impediments at every possible stage of this election and the scale of their preparation in no way looks dismal. </div> <div> </div> <div> They have printed thousands of red T-shirts with the slogan ‘Lets boycott the so- called CA polls’ printed across. The party has reorganized its youth wing and informal sources claim that they have been instructed to service their concealed old guns that were put to rest after the peace deal seven years ago. If anybody has cared to notice the walls across the country, they have been made colourful with boycott slogans. The leaders of the Baidya group have publicly declared that they will resort to kidnapping candidates from the day of nomination, which was rescheduled from September 25th to October 2nd. The processions organized by this group already look scary. Cadres carry flags and placards on iron rods, with obvious objectives. The back rows are armed with clubs, bamboo sticks, hammers and some even with catapults.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The No-option Trap</strong></span></div> <div> Violence seems imminent, and it might easily exacerbate to make it impossible to hold the polls for two main reasons. First, the Baidya group with its alliance partners has a nation-wide presence. Second, they are left in a no option trap as the logistics to bring the opposing alliance onboard the election process appears impossible, at least so to manage it for November 19th. </div> <div> </div> <div> The pro-poll alliance is, though, pretending to be engaged in dialogue with Baidya and his group. In essence, the very rationale of such a dialogue no longer holds. It is not only that the poll-opposing parties have not registered in the Election Commission - their rank and files have not enrolled in the voter list either. Thus they cannot file for candidacy even if dialogues bore any positive result. While addressing the demand of Rai’s party, the four-party alliance agreed to increase the total number of CA seats from 586 to 601, leaving no further option of placating Baidya and group through addition of CA seats.</div> <div> </div> <div> For all practical reasons, Baidya and his alliance are left to a no-option trap than opposing the proposed elections. It must be acknowledged that this group had shown unprecedented flexibility in the all-party meeting called by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav mid-September. The only major condition it had put forth to participate in the polls was that the Chairman of the Interim Election Government Khil Raj Regmi resign from the post of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal. This demand was indeed in compliance to the principle of the separation of power among the organs of the state under any acceptable form of democratic governance. It was surprising that the so-called democratic parties also failed to agree on this very reasonable demand by the opposition. It appeared as if the six-party alliance was determined not to bring Baidya into the election fold. Often reported clandestine machinations to throw Baidya at the bay, do appear to be holding some water.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Peculiar Movements</strong></span></div> <div> There are unnatural political movements that contribute to gradually worsen the situation. It is no longer a secret that Baidya’s participation in the polls would not affect anyone substantially but the UCPN (Maoist). Therefore, sidelining of Baidya is seen as the outcome of the successful hoodwinking of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal. Regmi’s stiffening of position on the resignation issue and wee hour meetings between the duo, even when Dahal was not the convener of the six-party alliance, are viewed as part of such machinations.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Forces at Play</strong></span></div> <div> There is a very strong intelligentsia in Kathmandu which believes that the dialogue with Baidya, which at one point of time appeared heading to a resolution, got suddenly aborted after Indian foreign secretary Sujatha Singh visited Nepal in the second week of September. Her insistence on holding the polls in the November ‘at any cost’ is in effect tantamount to leaving the poll-opposing groups out of the fray.</div> <div> </div> <div> Following Singh’s visit, Chinese information minister Cai Moinzhu came to Nepal in the third week of the same month, who unlike Singh reportedly chose to meet Baidya, which interestingly was not covered by the media.</div> <div> </div> <div> The public speeches of ambassadors like that of Germany and the United States have also created some political ripples as they ‘campaigned’ for the scheduled elections. Media reports claiming that international election observers have started to land in Nepal suggests that the outside world is more interested in elections here than the Nepali people themselves.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Degrading to a soft-state</strong></span></div> <div> President Yadav recently gave assent to an ordinance that enables the government to mobilize the Nepal Army for the scheduled polls. Yadav, in fact, is bowing down to sign everything that the six-party mechanism wants him to do, invoking the single constitutional provision of ‘removing the difficulties’. He, for example, first agreed to a 491-member CA, then to 586 and finally, again to 601. </div> <div> </div> <div> He is doing all these things without making sure that the elections would actually take place and his signing of these documents do facilitate the process of political reconciliation and peace building.</div> <div> </div> <div> These developments have created a situation that any constitutional, institutional and legal changes can be effected in Nepal at any point of time, at will. There is no stability factor and there is no defined position of the State. This is a very dangerous soft state syndrome. The editor of a prominent news magazine tweeted last week, ‘if anything can come as removing difficulties, why can’t one new constitution too come from the same window, putting all fuss to an end?’</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>New Round of Conflict</strong></span></div> <div> The country is all set to enter a fresh round of conflict, for now as a clash between pro and anti-poll forces, if the government chooses to crush the ones determined to oppose these polls. The fact is: the opposition forces are determined to stop this election and they are not a very fringe force that could be quelled with regular security operation.</div> <div> </div> <div> Even if these polls are held by using all possible instruments, the CA elected thus is unlikely to deliver a constitution that is acceptable even to those now opposing the polls. The conflict might even aggravate at this point. As such, the promulgation of a constitution would be next to impossible. The only way to peace again is to bring all political forces to the electoral process, which for now means, unquestionably, deferral of the election date to a new one acceptable to all - both to create political space for the dissenting parties and make it logistically possible for them to participate in the electoral process. </div> <div> </div> <div> <em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-06', 'modified' => '2013-11-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => 'Although the countdown to November 19, the scheduled date for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reduces from months to days, uncertainty on the polls continue to hover. A drama of double acts, on-stage and off-stage, orchestrated simultaneously by forces striving to hold the polls and forces trying to foil it, respectively, takes upon the country.', 'sortorder' => '1927', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1439', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Politics And State : Growing Distance', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <p> <strong style="font-size: 12px;">--By Achyut Wagle</strong></p> <p> Finally, the date for the elections to Constituent Assembly (CA) has been announced for November 4, 2013. This no doubt is a positive development in itself, but mere announcement of the date hardly ensures the actual possibility of the elections on the said date. Evidently, the possibility looks dwarf to the challenges. </p> <p> While announcing the date, the government has chosen to tread a ‘middle-path’ on the contentious issues that the four major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to evolve a common point of view. For instance, in the new ordinance, exclusion of the provision of threshold on number of votes needed to be recognised as a legitimate political party and retention of provision barring the people with proven criminal records from contesting the elections are the strategy of trade-offs that the government adopted. From a narrow view, they appear fairly reasonable.</p> <p> But the larger trade-off, so to say, between the factors that are likely to foil the election bids and the ambience that is needed to create, still remains completely untouched, let alone addressed. The challenges posed by the protests of Mohan Baidya of CPN-Maoist, Ashok Rai of National Socialist Party and Upendra Yadav of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, among others, are not of the kind that could be ignored easily. </p> <p> Just a formal call by the government, which neither has a political face nor has taken adequate and meaningful initiation to negotiate with these forces, is unlikely to bring them all to the election fold. There needs to more intensive political dialogues to sort out the differences. But the situation is such that the four parties cannot be the party to the bargaining as they are officially not in the government and official government doesn’t have the political acumen and intent to deal with them. This is first ominous sign that the distance between the state and the politics is widening. </p> <p> There is no doubt that without involving all these political forces in the process, the polls are impossible. Nobody has the answer what happens if the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections could not take place in November. Given the strength of the forces determined to impede these elections, there is no ground to be optimistic. And the worst, there is no realization of the precariousness of the situation among the so called major pro-poll political leaders and the government operatives.</p> <p> The most dangerous aspect of the differences among the parties standing for and against of the polls is that they are not all political. Much of the discontent stems out of personal hatred, evidences of betrayal and mountains of egos between the major leaders in the pro and anti election camps. The friend-turned-foes like Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Baidya, Upendra Yadav and Bijaya Gachchhadar and Ashok Rai and Jhalanath Khanal are not even ready to sit face-to-face and recognize as a political force in their respective strengths. Regardless of the fact how many seats these dissenting parties would get if they participated in elections, it is apparent that their strength is enough to disrupt the polls.</p> <p> As it is, the polls are absolutely unlikely to be held on the proposed date of November. And, this failure will have a fundamental difference than the previous failures on one account -- it will put the political forces further away from the state of affairs of the country. This indeed is an extremely dangerous direction Nepal is likely to head to. </p> <p> One may despise the politics to the hilt for all the miseries it has brought about in the current Nepal, but the fact again remains that the country cannot move ahead without political leadership. Of course, with unconditional commitment to a good, democracy-driven politics. But, given the recent developments, Nepal is gradually drifting away from the very possibility of political powers ruling the country anytime soon. This is one factor that the political powers of all shades, including the ones in ‘opposition’, must take into account.</p> <p> Sadly though, the possible gloomy days not seen by our own leaders are visualized as if on the movie screen by our powerful neighbours and the foreign powers. That is why New Delhi and Beijing are competing to invite our leaders of their convenience and choice to ‘take stock of the situation here’ and offer some ‘useful’ suggestions. Regardless of the leader of which party or ideology, the questions posed to them, by all -- the North, South and the West are the same. They surround the real possibilities of holding next CA polls in November, its chances of writing the new constitution and, in the longer run, the kind of federalism Nepal is likely to adopt. It is China who reminds our leaders about the dangers of Nepal embroiling into anarchy in the event of ad hoc execution of the federal structure. And, it is India that has apprehensions about the possibility of the elections taking place in November. The West has its own concerns of human rights agenda, defined more in terms of Nepal’s treatment to the Tibetan refugees than anything else. </p> <p> Why can’t our own leaders assess this acutely adverse possibility of political parties being sidelined altogether, if new elections didn’t take place? Whereas, the reality is as evident as the other side of the coin. It is perhaps because, the ‘political power blindness’ that emanates from gross insensitivity to the voices and needs of the people has engulfed our existing set of leaders.</p> <p> When the ex-king Gyanendra brought in Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirtinidhi Bista to run the country in 2005, every commoner foresaw that the King’s rule was coming to an end. But he was so power-blinded that which he himself couldn’t see it. When Maoist launched the armed insurgency, every sensible mind knew that it would only take Nepal backward, not forward. But Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai wouldn’t see that. Late G P Koirala also didn’t realise that very democracy was being put on perils by all his acts that were in detriment to democratic norms and values, that perhaps gave fuel to rapid rise to Maoist influence. At present, same sort of blindness is preventing the leaders of four parties to be flexible and accommodative to other smaller, opposing forces.</p> <p> It is universal trend throughout history that every dictatorial-minded politician was incapable of gauging the true gravity of the situation and acted as if the way he thought was an absolute truth, until it was too late to correct the course. It is the same psyche that governs the hearts and minds of our leaders. So, they didn’t realize that the cost of their petty differences in the last CA that Nepal was made to bear was so big. </p> <p> Economically it might need decades to fill the gap, and socially, we perhaps will never be able to regain the cohesion we enjoyed so far. They quarreled on the number of CA 491 versus 601 as if it were a choice out of 51 and 60. The recent disagreement in threshold of minimum votes required from next CA elections and abetting government to abandon it was true mockery to democracy. Still, the leaders of the four parties -UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, UML and Democratic Madhesi Front behave as if nothing has gone wrong even after they handed over the reins of the country to bureaucrats, appointed notoriously corrupt ex-bureaucrat as the chief of the constitutional anti-corruption watchdog, CIAA and failed to address the issues that are hanging as the Damocles’ Sword above the election agenda. </p> <p> The only way-out to restore the power of politics in running the country now solely depends on whether the polls on the stipulated date would take place or not. And, it is also clear that, it will not take place without making any sizeable force to agree to take part in the polls.</p> <p> Only if the the democratic process becomes functional, the politics, and by virtue of it politicians, will return to power. If not, the rein of power the politicians handed over to bureaucrats on the silver platter would never return to them for long time to come. If democracy wins, there is always chance for any party to ride to the power saddles in future, but if the whole politics is resolutely distanced from the affairs of state only possible outcome is prolonged dictatorship. Nothing else!</p> <p> <span style="font-size:11px;"><em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></span></p> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-19', 'modified' => '2013-07-19', 'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal, current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events, ongoing political news of nepal', 'description' => 'While announcing the date, the government has chosen to tread a ‘middle-path’ on the contentious issues that the four major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to evolve a common point of view.', 'sortorder' => '1301', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
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It was not surprising that an ever-elusive consensus in the present day Nepali politics was not arrested even this time around, though to humiliation of a presidential decree. But what is most engrossing question here is not why it did not materialize, but why did President Yadav at the first place choose to issue such calls to the parties to forge a consensus, the impossibility of which was absolutely foregone? Even if such a consensus evolved over time by any chance, the presidential dignity and credibility that had remained largely intact over these turbulent years of political transition will have been irreparably tarnished by then. During these two months, since his office began to issue seemingly never-ending series of deadlines to parties, but all in vain, his action has been seen as unwise by the people.<br /> <br /> Not only that, at one instance, President Yadav also gave a naïve public speech which was construed as throwing political weight behind Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, the rarest thing expected from him. ‘Creating a consensus for a new government around the incumbent one would add jewel to the crown,’ he was quoted by the media as saying in a public function in Pokhara during the first week of December. Though it later turned out that the President was quoted out of context (the message the President was trying to convey was something like “I would not mind if the consensus is formed for Dr. Bhattarai to continue as the Prime Minister and other parties joining that government), the damage was already done. The president could have avoided making any such statement altogether. The two acts by President Yadav-- calling to parties for consensus to form an electoral government and, at the same time implicitly favouring incumbent Prime Minister Bhattarai to head that new government -- are in apparent contrast. A very strong fraction of Kathmandu’s political high-circle attributes this Presidential blunder to the prowess of senior Indian National Congress Leader Dr Karan Singh, who called on Yadav in the first week of December in the pretext of inviting the latter in an academic function of Banaras Hindu University. In essence, this act of calling for consensus for new government on the one hand and supporting the incumbent prime minister on the other defeats the very purpose of presidential call for a new government.</p> <p> Then, the most crucial questions here are: what prompted him to do so? And, who ultimately has benefitted politically from this entire episode. As for the prompters, there are three theories on the float. First, the president in fact knew that no such consensus was tangible even in farthest horizon, yet wanted to call for it. Because, the failure of the political parties to act upon his call would pave the way for his ‘more assertive role’ in the present day Nepali politics. But that seems flatly implausible, as he has not done enough scratching whether he can actually assume the position of an executive president, even if he wished so. The second theory is that he was sincerely concerned about the prolonged constitutional vacuum and wanted to build a moral pressure on the political parties to work out a tenable solution to it. Even that was the case, he should have gauged on what would happen ultimately if his call did not yield any result. And, more importantly, there are no constitutional way outs available to push the present government out of power and form a new government. Without such constitutional backing, the president was naturally ill-equipped to adventure into such never-ending game of calling for consensus. His guts and practicalities, both, are not permitting him to randomly pick a figure of his like as the next prime minister. And, for the third, there is a section of political analysts who take his recent call as the success of a game plan by the UCPN (Maoist) and the Indian establishment which are making every possible effort to retain Dr Bhattarai as the prime minister as long as possible.<br /> <br /> This argument appears relatively convincing. The only impediment to PM Bhattarai and the Maoists to continue in power was none other than the president himself. President Yadav’s public image is way above that of Prime Minister Bhattarai and the person who can announce the removal of Bhattarai from his post is, of course, the president only. At least, they saw it that way. Since there is not any constitutional clarity on the further course to change the government, the Maoists feared that if president acted in this line, he might get a popular support. But, if the president’s image got obliqued by some machinations, his moral authority would dwindle sharply, as it did by his current faux pas. Hence, there were advices from largely unassuming quarters to thrust him into this vicious game of calling for a new CONSENSUS government. This has provided room for the UCPN-Maoist’s to consolidate its campaign against the President alleging him as harbouring dream of becoming the executive head of the country. When the credibility of the president substantially erodes further, it will only be easier for the UCPN-Maoist and Prime Minister Bhattarai to consolidate the grip on state powers.<br /> <br /> Not only vindicated by the circumstances but also in essence, the president’s this call for consensus was a premature and novice adventure to say the least. His implicit intention of calling for consensus government seems to hold the elections for a new constituent assembly (CA). But, he did not realise the fact that without a lot of ground work and a thorough review of the past failures, holding a new elections is impossible and likely to be futile like in the past even if they were held. The last CA was too big to deliver a constitution and the CA members both elected by people and handpicked by the party leadership across the board were apparently under qualified for the job of writing the law of the land. This was proved by their four-year tenure that ended without delivering a new constitution. Therefore, before thinking of another election, there must be a single national voice on the very size of the CA, the mechanisms of assigning constituencies and eligibility for candidacy to CA membership. Further, the constitutional bodies like the Election Commission have expressed their concern over the absence of required legal framework to conduct the polls of any objective.<br /> <br /> There is another question that must be answered by the top hats of the parties to be represented in the CA. In the last CA, members of the House were hardly given opportunity to debate and contribute in originating and finalising the proposed provisions of the new constitution. They were virtually herded in as per the wish and whim of their respective party leaders. Only a handful of top leaders participated in whatever deliberations that took place and the rest of the CA members just blindly followed them. If that were to be the case, why do we need an extensive new CA through very expensive elections? If everything is to be decided by ten or twelve people, then it is appropriate to form a commission of these very people with some technocrats in it to write the new constitution. Then a new legislature elected after promulgating this constitution may ratify it. The scope of amendment is and should always be there. The fact of the matter is that, whatever may be written in the new constitution, no matter whether it is written by a commission or a CA, that is going to spark controversy of this or that form, for reasons that people have now more sectarian and irrational expectations which are impossible to be addressed by any balanced, democratic and forward-looking document called constitution.<br /> <br /> These are some of the issues, the institution like Presidential Office of the country should have considered before jumping into ‘deadline business’. At present, there seems no viability of such a government that can accommodate every force of the country. Then, an all inclusive roundtable under the president’s sponsorship could be an alternative, which can help chart a future course of the nation.<br /> <br /> Even if the elections were to be held, it is now proper to hold them to select a form of the constitution itself, not the members of CA. This means, every contesting political party should first draft a full version of the constituent of their liking and go for the ratification by the people for the vote. This indeed will reduce a lot of complications. People will know at the first hand what is in different verson of the constitution presented by the parties. It will invite a meaningful debate and provide room for input. This will also help for faster face of political polarization between, the Left, Right and the Centre forces. More importantly, this will mainifest the intentions of eacdh party before people could vote for any of them and, above all, will give a good homework for political leaders to talk and act sense with acceptable degree of coherence in preparing a feasible draft. In view of sharp divisions along ethnic and communal lines, this proposition contributes to diffuse the tensions before the adoption of the constitution. Various facets potential federal set-up will get space to be debated in public. Then the ultimate promulgation would be lot easier than in any other deemed process.<br /> <br /> Instead of indulging into self-degrading course of action like issuing deadlines for the parties, the president should now focus on rescuing the country from the current mess. For this, he does not necessarily need to go beyond available constitutional jurisdiction. For instance, he can hold a comprehensive round-table in the form of consultative meet. There could be several other ways and means available. But, he will in a position to make a difference, if and only if, he maintained a dignity that suits to the first president of a new republic nation-state. His recent move was undoubtedly far below that mark.</p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-07', 'modified' => '2013-11-07', 'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal, current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events, ongoing political news of nepal', 'description' => 'President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s call to the political parties of Nepal to form an all-inclusive consensus government has not materialized even after the eighth deadline elapsed, as of penning down these lines. It was not surprising that an ever-elusive consensus in the present day Nepali politics was not arrested even this time around', 'sortorder' => '1928', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2082', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Double Drama, Fresh Conflict', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Although the countdown to November 19, the scheduled date for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reduces from months to days, uncertainty on the polls continue to hover. A drama of double acts, on-stage and off-stage, orchestrated simultaneously by forces striving to hold the polls and forces trying to foil it, respectively, takes upon the country.</div> <div> </div> <div> The on-stage drama looks normal - as though nothing is amiss and things are all set to sail smoothly until the polls and even beyond. The four-party pro-poll alliance of the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and Madhesi Front now swells to a six-party one after the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum of Upendra Yadav and the Federal Socialist Party led by Ashok Rai joined the group upon agreeing to participate in the polls. The leaders and working committees of these parties are flexing their muscles to select candidates for the first-past-the-post system for two hundred and forty constituencies. The elites in all these parties are busy drafting their respective manifestoes. Aspirants of party tickets for candidacy, from all parties alike, have gathered in Kathmandu to cajole their leaders. The party offices are crowded, traffic jams in the capital have increased not only due to an increased number of vehicles and people but also due to increased violation of traffic rules by those who are not used to following them in districts outside of Kathmandu.</div> <div> </div> <div> There are fringe parties like the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and RPP-Nepal that are not in the alliance but have opted to join the election bandwagon. The pro-royalist RPP-Nepal hopes to perform better if polls were to take place in view of the people’s growing disenchantment towards the major political parties. The ambitious ones who failed to woo the party they belong to pick them as candidates are defecting and joining other parties. Professionals and celebrities are taking membership of parties of their choice, hoping to be new leaders. </div> <div> </div> <div> The Election Commission says it has completed all preparations. The election offices in all two hundred and forty constituencies have been opened, logistics and personnel supplied and ballot papers are ready to be printed. Security agencies are recruiting additional forces. Everything on this side of the screen appears destined to have a happy ending.</div> <div> </div> <div> But the off-stage rehearsal of the other act determined to foil this election at any cost does not signal anything as good. An alliance of supposedly thirty-three parties, led by CPN-Maoist, Mohan Baidya group, has made all possible preparations to create impediments at every possible stage of this election and the scale of their preparation in no way looks dismal. </div> <div> </div> <div> They have printed thousands of red T-shirts with the slogan ‘Lets boycott the so- called CA polls’ printed across. The party has reorganized its youth wing and informal sources claim that they have been instructed to service their concealed old guns that were put to rest after the peace deal seven years ago. If anybody has cared to notice the walls across the country, they have been made colourful with boycott slogans. The leaders of the Baidya group have publicly declared that they will resort to kidnapping candidates from the day of nomination, which was rescheduled from September 25th to October 2nd. The processions organized by this group already look scary. Cadres carry flags and placards on iron rods, with obvious objectives. The back rows are armed with clubs, bamboo sticks, hammers and some even with catapults.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The No-option Trap</strong></span></div> <div> Violence seems imminent, and it might easily exacerbate to make it impossible to hold the polls for two main reasons. First, the Baidya group with its alliance partners has a nation-wide presence. Second, they are left in a no option trap as the logistics to bring the opposing alliance onboard the election process appears impossible, at least so to manage it for November 19th. </div> <div> </div> <div> The pro-poll alliance is, though, pretending to be engaged in dialogue with Baidya and his group. In essence, the very rationale of such a dialogue no longer holds. It is not only that the poll-opposing parties have not registered in the Election Commission - their rank and files have not enrolled in the voter list either. Thus they cannot file for candidacy even if dialogues bore any positive result. While addressing the demand of Rai’s party, the four-party alliance agreed to increase the total number of CA seats from 586 to 601, leaving no further option of placating Baidya and group through addition of CA seats.</div> <div> </div> <div> For all practical reasons, Baidya and his alliance are left to a no-option trap than opposing the proposed elections. It must be acknowledged that this group had shown unprecedented flexibility in the all-party meeting called by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav mid-September. The only major condition it had put forth to participate in the polls was that the Chairman of the Interim Election Government Khil Raj Regmi resign from the post of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal. This demand was indeed in compliance to the principle of the separation of power among the organs of the state under any acceptable form of democratic governance. It was surprising that the so-called democratic parties also failed to agree on this very reasonable demand by the opposition. It appeared as if the six-party alliance was determined not to bring Baidya into the election fold. Often reported clandestine machinations to throw Baidya at the bay, do appear to be holding some water.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Peculiar Movements</strong></span></div> <div> There are unnatural political movements that contribute to gradually worsen the situation. It is no longer a secret that Baidya’s participation in the polls would not affect anyone substantially but the UCPN (Maoist). Therefore, sidelining of Baidya is seen as the outcome of the successful hoodwinking of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal. Regmi’s stiffening of position on the resignation issue and wee hour meetings between the duo, even when Dahal was not the convener of the six-party alliance, are viewed as part of such machinations.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Forces at Play</strong></span></div> <div> There is a very strong intelligentsia in Kathmandu which believes that the dialogue with Baidya, which at one point of time appeared heading to a resolution, got suddenly aborted after Indian foreign secretary Sujatha Singh visited Nepal in the second week of September. Her insistence on holding the polls in the November ‘at any cost’ is in effect tantamount to leaving the poll-opposing groups out of the fray.</div> <div> </div> <div> Following Singh’s visit, Chinese information minister Cai Moinzhu came to Nepal in the third week of the same month, who unlike Singh reportedly chose to meet Baidya, which interestingly was not covered by the media.</div> <div> </div> <div> The public speeches of ambassadors like that of Germany and the United States have also created some political ripples as they ‘campaigned’ for the scheduled elections. Media reports claiming that international election observers have started to land in Nepal suggests that the outside world is more interested in elections here than the Nepali people themselves.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Degrading to a soft-state</strong></span></div> <div> President Yadav recently gave assent to an ordinance that enables the government to mobilize the Nepal Army for the scheduled polls. Yadav, in fact, is bowing down to sign everything that the six-party mechanism wants him to do, invoking the single constitutional provision of ‘removing the difficulties’. He, for example, first agreed to a 491-member CA, then to 586 and finally, again to 601. </div> <div> </div> <div> He is doing all these things without making sure that the elections would actually take place and his signing of these documents do facilitate the process of political reconciliation and peace building.</div> <div> </div> <div> These developments have created a situation that any constitutional, institutional and legal changes can be effected in Nepal at any point of time, at will. There is no stability factor and there is no defined position of the State. This is a very dangerous soft state syndrome. The editor of a prominent news magazine tweeted last week, ‘if anything can come as removing difficulties, why can’t one new constitution too come from the same window, putting all fuss to an end?’</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>New Round of Conflict</strong></span></div> <div> The country is all set to enter a fresh round of conflict, for now as a clash between pro and anti-poll forces, if the government chooses to crush the ones determined to oppose these polls. The fact is: the opposition forces are determined to stop this election and they are not a very fringe force that could be quelled with regular security operation.</div> <div> </div> <div> Even if these polls are held by using all possible instruments, the CA elected thus is unlikely to deliver a constitution that is acceptable even to those now opposing the polls. The conflict might even aggravate at this point. As such, the promulgation of a constitution would be next to impossible. The only way to peace again is to bring all political forces to the electoral process, which for now means, unquestionably, deferral of the election date to a new one acceptable to all - both to create political space for the dissenting parties and make it logistically possible for them to participate in the electoral process. </div> <div> </div> <div> <em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-06', 'modified' => '2013-11-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => 'Although the countdown to November 19, the scheduled date for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reduces from months to days, uncertainty on the polls continue to hover. A drama of double acts, on-stage and off-stage, orchestrated simultaneously by forces striving to hold the polls and forces trying to foil it, respectively, takes upon the country.', 'sortorder' => '1927', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1439', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Politics And State : Growing Distance', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <p> <strong style="font-size: 12px;">--By Achyut Wagle</strong></p> <p> Finally, the date for the elections to Constituent Assembly (CA) has been announced for November 4, 2013. This no doubt is a positive development in itself, but mere announcement of the date hardly ensures the actual possibility of the elections on the said date. Evidently, the possibility looks dwarf to the challenges. </p> <p> While announcing the date, the government has chosen to tread a ‘middle-path’ on the contentious issues that the four major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to evolve a common point of view. For instance, in the new ordinance, exclusion of the provision of threshold on number of votes needed to be recognised as a legitimate political party and retention of provision barring the people with proven criminal records from contesting the elections are the strategy of trade-offs that the government adopted. From a narrow view, they appear fairly reasonable.</p> <p> But the larger trade-off, so to say, between the factors that are likely to foil the election bids and the ambience that is needed to create, still remains completely untouched, let alone addressed. The challenges posed by the protests of Mohan Baidya of CPN-Maoist, Ashok Rai of National Socialist Party and Upendra Yadav of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, among others, are not of the kind that could be ignored easily. </p> <p> Just a formal call by the government, which neither has a political face nor has taken adequate and meaningful initiation to negotiate with these forces, is unlikely to bring them all to the election fold. There needs to more intensive political dialogues to sort out the differences. But the situation is such that the four parties cannot be the party to the bargaining as they are officially not in the government and official government doesn’t have the political acumen and intent to deal with them. This is first ominous sign that the distance between the state and the politics is widening. </p> <p> There is no doubt that without involving all these political forces in the process, the polls are impossible. Nobody has the answer what happens if the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections could not take place in November. Given the strength of the forces determined to impede these elections, there is no ground to be optimistic. And the worst, there is no realization of the precariousness of the situation among the so called major pro-poll political leaders and the government operatives.</p> <p> The most dangerous aspect of the differences among the parties standing for and against of the polls is that they are not all political. Much of the discontent stems out of personal hatred, evidences of betrayal and mountains of egos between the major leaders in the pro and anti election camps. The friend-turned-foes like Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Baidya, Upendra Yadav and Bijaya Gachchhadar and Ashok Rai and Jhalanath Khanal are not even ready to sit face-to-face and recognize as a political force in their respective strengths. Regardless of the fact how many seats these dissenting parties would get if they participated in elections, it is apparent that their strength is enough to disrupt the polls.</p> <p> As it is, the polls are absolutely unlikely to be held on the proposed date of November. And, this failure will have a fundamental difference than the previous failures on one account -- it will put the political forces further away from the state of affairs of the country. This indeed is an extremely dangerous direction Nepal is likely to head to. </p> <p> One may despise the politics to the hilt for all the miseries it has brought about in the current Nepal, but the fact again remains that the country cannot move ahead without political leadership. Of course, with unconditional commitment to a good, democracy-driven politics. But, given the recent developments, Nepal is gradually drifting away from the very possibility of political powers ruling the country anytime soon. This is one factor that the political powers of all shades, including the ones in ‘opposition’, must take into account.</p> <p> Sadly though, the possible gloomy days not seen by our own leaders are visualized as if on the movie screen by our powerful neighbours and the foreign powers. That is why New Delhi and Beijing are competing to invite our leaders of their convenience and choice to ‘take stock of the situation here’ and offer some ‘useful’ suggestions. Regardless of the leader of which party or ideology, the questions posed to them, by all -- the North, South and the West are the same. They surround the real possibilities of holding next CA polls in November, its chances of writing the new constitution and, in the longer run, the kind of federalism Nepal is likely to adopt. It is China who reminds our leaders about the dangers of Nepal embroiling into anarchy in the event of ad hoc execution of the federal structure. And, it is India that has apprehensions about the possibility of the elections taking place in November. The West has its own concerns of human rights agenda, defined more in terms of Nepal’s treatment to the Tibetan refugees than anything else. </p> <p> Why can’t our own leaders assess this acutely adverse possibility of political parties being sidelined altogether, if new elections didn’t take place? Whereas, the reality is as evident as the other side of the coin. It is perhaps because, the ‘political power blindness’ that emanates from gross insensitivity to the voices and needs of the people has engulfed our existing set of leaders.</p> <p> When the ex-king Gyanendra brought in Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirtinidhi Bista to run the country in 2005, every commoner foresaw that the King’s rule was coming to an end. But he was so power-blinded that which he himself couldn’t see it. When Maoist launched the armed insurgency, every sensible mind knew that it would only take Nepal backward, not forward. But Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai wouldn’t see that. Late G P Koirala also didn’t realise that very democracy was being put on perils by all his acts that were in detriment to democratic norms and values, that perhaps gave fuel to rapid rise to Maoist influence. At present, same sort of blindness is preventing the leaders of four parties to be flexible and accommodative to other smaller, opposing forces.</p> <p> It is universal trend throughout history that every dictatorial-minded politician was incapable of gauging the true gravity of the situation and acted as if the way he thought was an absolute truth, until it was too late to correct the course. It is the same psyche that governs the hearts and minds of our leaders. So, they didn’t realize that the cost of their petty differences in the last CA that Nepal was made to bear was so big. </p> <p> Economically it might need decades to fill the gap, and socially, we perhaps will never be able to regain the cohesion we enjoyed so far. They quarreled on the number of CA 491 versus 601 as if it were a choice out of 51 and 60. The recent disagreement in threshold of minimum votes required from next CA elections and abetting government to abandon it was true mockery to democracy. Still, the leaders of the four parties -UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, UML and Democratic Madhesi Front behave as if nothing has gone wrong even after they handed over the reins of the country to bureaucrats, appointed notoriously corrupt ex-bureaucrat as the chief of the constitutional anti-corruption watchdog, CIAA and failed to address the issues that are hanging as the Damocles’ Sword above the election agenda. </p> <p> The only way-out to restore the power of politics in running the country now solely depends on whether the polls on the stipulated date would take place or not. And, it is also clear that, it will not take place without making any sizeable force to agree to take part in the polls.</p> <p> Only if the the democratic process becomes functional, the politics, and by virtue of it politicians, will return to power. If not, the rein of power the politicians handed over to bureaucrats on the silver platter would never return to them for long time to come. If democracy wins, there is always chance for any party to ride to the power saddles in future, but if the whole politics is resolutely distanced from the affairs of state only possible outcome is prolonged dictatorship. Nothing else!</p> <p> <span style="font-size:11px;"><em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></span></p> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-19', 'modified' => '2013-07-19', 'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal, current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events, ongoing political news of nepal', 'description' => 'While announcing the date, the government has chosen to tread a ‘middle-path’ on the contentious issues that the four major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to evolve a common point of view.', 'sortorder' => '1301', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2083', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Presidential Weight-loss', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div> <p> President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s call to the political parties of Nepal to form an all-inclusive consensus government has not materialized even after the eighth deadline elapsed, as of penning down these lines. It was not surprising that an ever-elusive consensus in the present day Nepali politics was not arrested even this time around, though to humiliation of a presidential decree. But what is most engrossing question here is not why it did not materialize, but why did President Yadav at the first place choose to issue such calls to the parties to forge a consensus, the impossibility of which was absolutely foregone? Even if such a consensus evolved over time by any chance, the presidential dignity and credibility that had remained largely intact over these turbulent years of political transition will have been irreparably tarnished by then. During these two months, since his office began to issue seemingly never-ending series of deadlines to parties, but all in vain, his action has been seen as unwise by the people.<br /> <br /> Not only that, at one instance, President Yadav also gave a naïve public speech which was construed as throwing political weight behind Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, the rarest thing expected from him. ‘Creating a consensus for a new government around the incumbent one would add jewel to the crown,’ he was quoted by the media as saying in a public function in Pokhara during the first week of December. Though it later turned out that the President was quoted out of context (the message the President was trying to convey was something like “I would not mind if the consensus is formed for Dr. Bhattarai to continue as the Prime Minister and other parties joining that government), the damage was already done. The president could have avoided making any such statement altogether. The two acts by President Yadav-- calling to parties for consensus to form an electoral government and, at the same time implicitly favouring incumbent Prime Minister Bhattarai to head that new government -- are in apparent contrast. A very strong fraction of Kathmandu’s political high-circle attributes this Presidential blunder to the prowess of senior Indian National Congress Leader Dr Karan Singh, who called on Yadav in the first week of December in the pretext of inviting the latter in an academic function of Banaras Hindu University. In essence, this act of calling for consensus for new government on the one hand and supporting the incumbent prime minister on the other defeats the very purpose of presidential call for a new government.</p> <p> Then, the most crucial questions here are: what prompted him to do so? And, who ultimately has benefitted politically from this entire episode. As for the prompters, there are three theories on the float. First, the president in fact knew that no such consensus was tangible even in farthest horizon, yet wanted to call for it. Because, the failure of the political parties to act upon his call would pave the way for his ‘more assertive role’ in the present day Nepali politics. But that seems flatly implausible, as he has not done enough scratching whether he can actually assume the position of an executive president, even if he wished so. The second theory is that he was sincerely concerned about the prolonged constitutional vacuum and wanted to build a moral pressure on the political parties to work out a tenable solution to it. Even that was the case, he should have gauged on what would happen ultimately if his call did not yield any result. And, more importantly, there are no constitutional way outs available to push the present government out of power and form a new government. Without such constitutional backing, the president was naturally ill-equipped to adventure into such never-ending game of calling for consensus. His guts and practicalities, both, are not permitting him to randomly pick a figure of his like as the next prime minister. And, for the third, there is a section of political analysts who take his recent call as the success of a game plan by the UCPN (Maoist) and the Indian establishment which are making every possible effort to retain Dr Bhattarai as the prime minister as long as possible.<br /> <br /> This argument appears relatively convincing. The only impediment to PM Bhattarai and the Maoists to continue in power was none other than the president himself. President Yadav’s public image is way above that of Prime Minister Bhattarai and the person who can announce the removal of Bhattarai from his post is, of course, the president only. At least, they saw it that way. Since there is not any constitutional clarity on the further course to change the government, the Maoists feared that if president acted in this line, he might get a popular support. But, if the president’s image got obliqued by some machinations, his moral authority would dwindle sharply, as it did by his current faux pas. Hence, there were advices from largely unassuming quarters to thrust him into this vicious game of calling for a new CONSENSUS government. This has provided room for the UCPN-Maoist’s to consolidate its campaign against the President alleging him as harbouring dream of becoming the executive head of the country. When the credibility of the president substantially erodes further, it will only be easier for the UCPN-Maoist and Prime Minister Bhattarai to consolidate the grip on state powers.<br /> <br /> Not only vindicated by the circumstances but also in essence, the president’s this call for consensus was a premature and novice adventure to say the least. His implicit intention of calling for consensus government seems to hold the elections for a new constituent assembly (CA). But, he did not realise the fact that without a lot of ground work and a thorough review of the past failures, holding a new elections is impossible and likely to be futile like in the past even if they were held. The last CA was too big to deliver a constitution and the CA members both elected by people and handpicked by the party leadership across the board were apparently under qualified for the job of writing the law of the land. This was proved by their four-year tenure that ended without delivering a new constitution. Therefore, before thinking of another election, there must be a single national voice on the very size of the CA, the mechanisms of assigning constituencies and eligibility for candidacy to CA membership. Further, the constitutional bodies like the Election Commission have expressed their concern over the absence of required legal framework to conduct the polls of any objective.<br /> <br /> There is another question that must be answered by the top hats of the parties to be represented in the CA. In the last CA, members of the House were hardly given opportunity to debate and contribute in originating and finalising the proposed provisions of the new constitution. They were virtually herded in as per the wish and whim of their respective party leaders. Only a handful of top leaders participated in whatever deliberations that took place and the rest of the CA members just blindly followed them. If that were to be the case, why do we need an extensive new CA through very expensive elections? If everything is to be decided by ten or twelve people, then it is appropriate to form a commission of these very people with some technocrats in it to write the new constitution. Then a new legislature elected after promulgating this constitution may ratify it. The scope of amendment is and should always be there. The fact of the matter is that, whatever may be written in the new constitution, no matter whether it is written by a commission or a CA, that is going to spark controversy of this or that form, for reasons that people have now more sectarian and irrational expectations which are impossible to be addressed by any balanced, democratic and forward-looking document called constitution.<br /> <br /> These are some of the issues, the institution like Presidential Office of the country should have considered before jumping into ‘deadline business’. At present, there seems no viability of such a government that can accommodate every force of the country. Then, an all inclusive roundtable under the president’s sponsorship could be an alternative, which can help chart a future course of the nation.<br /> <br /> Even if the elections were to be held, it is now proper to hold them to select a form of the constitution itself, not the members of CA. This means, every contesting political party should first draft a full version of the constituent of their liking and go for the ratification by the people for the vote. This indeed will reduce a lot of complications. People will know at the first hand what is in different verson of the constitution presented by the parties. It will invite a meaningful debate and provide room for input. This will also help for faster face of political polarization between, the Left, Right and the Centre forces. More importantly, this will mainifest the intentions of eacdh party before people could vote for any of them and, above all, will give a good homework for political leaders to talk and act sense with acceptable degree of coherence in preparing a feasible draft. In view of sharp divisions along ethnic and communal lines, this proposition contributes to diffuse the tensions before the adoption of the constitution. Various facets potential federal set-up will get space to be debated in public. Then the ultimate promulgation would be lot easier than in any other deemed process.<br /> <br /> Instead of indulging into self-degrading course of action like issuing deadlines for the parties, the president should now focus on rescuing the country from the current mess. For this, he does not necessarily need to go beyond available constitutional jurisdiction. For instance, he can hold a comprehensive round-table in the form of consultative meet. There could be several other ways and means available. But, he will in a position to make a difference, if and only if, he maintained a dignity that suits to the first president of a new republic nation-state. His recent move was undoubtedly far below that mark.</p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-07', 'modified' => '2013-11-07', 'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal, current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events, ongoing political news of nepal', 'description' => 'President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s call to the political parties of Nepal to form an all-inclusive consensus government has not materialized even after the eighth deadline elapsed, as of penning down these lines. It was not surprising that an ever-elusive consensus in the present day Nepali politics was not arrested even this time around', 'sortorder' => '1928', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2082', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Double Drama, Fresh Conflict', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Although the countdown to November 19, the scheduled date for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reduces from months to days, uncertainty on the polls continue to hover. A drama of double acts, on-stage and off-stage, orchestrated simultaneously by forces striving to hold the polls and forces trying to foil it, respectively, takes upon the country.</div> <div> </div> <div> The on-stage drama looks normal - as though nothing is amiss and things are all set to sail smoothly until the polls and even beyond. The four-party pro-poll alliance of the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and Madhesi Front now swells to a six-party one after the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum of Upendra Yadav and the Federal Socialist Party led by Ashok Rai joined the group upon agreeing to participate in the polls. The leaders and working committees of these parties are flexing their muscles to select candidates for the first-past-the-post system for two hundred and forty constituencies. The elites in all these parties are busy drafting their respective manifestoes. Aspirants of party tickets for candidacy, from all parties alike, have gathered in Kathmandu to cajole their leaders. The party offices are crowded, traffic jams in the capital have increased not only due to an increased number of vehicles and people but also due to increased violation of traffic rules by those who are not used to following them in districts outside of Kathmandu.</div> <div> </div> <div> There are fringe parties like the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and RPP-Nepal that are not in the alliance but have opted to join the election bandwagon. The pro-royalist RPP-Nepal hopes to perform better if polls were to take place in view of the people’s growing disenchantment towards the major political parties. The ambitious ones who failed to woo the party they belong to pick them as candidates are defecting and joining other parties. Professionals and celebrities are taking membership of parties of their choice, hoping to be new leaders. </div> <div> </div> <div> The Election Commission says it has completed all preparations. The election offices in all two hundred and forty constituencies have been opened, logistics and personnel supplied and ballot papers are ready to be printed. Security agencies are recruiting additional forces. Everything on this side of the screen appears destined to have a happy ending.</div> <div> </div> <div> But the off-stage rehearsal of the other act determined to foil this election at any cost does not signal anything as good. An alliance of supposedly thirty-three parties, led by CPN-Maoist, Mohan Baidya group, has made all possible preparations to create impediments at every possible stage of this election and the scale of their preparation in no way looks dismal. </div> <div> </div> <div> They have printed thousands of red T-shirts with the slogan ‘Lets boycott the so- called CA polls’ printed across. The party has reorganized its youth wing and informal sources claim that they have been instructed to service their concealed old guns that were put to rest after the peace deal seven years ago. If anybody has cared to notice the walls across the country, they have been made colourful with boycott slogans. The leaders of the Baidya group have publicly declared that they will resort to kidnapping candidates from the day of nomination, which was rescheduled from September 25th to October 2nd. The processions organized by this group already look scary. Cadres carry flags and placards on iron rods, with obvious objectives. The back rows are armed with clubs, bamboo sticks, hammers and some even with catapults.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The No-option Trap</strong></span></div> <div> Violence seems imminent, and it might easily exacerbate to make it impossible to hold the polls for two main reasons. First, the Baidya group with its alliance partners has a nation-wide presence. Second, they are left in a no option trap as the logistics to bring the opposing alliance onboard the election process appears impossible, at least so to manage it for November 19th. </div> <div> </div> <div> The pro-poll alliance is, though, pretending to be engaged in dialogue with Baidya and his group. In essence, the very rationale of such a dialogue no longer holds. It is not only that the poll-opposing parties have not registered in the Election Commission - their rank and files have not enrolled in the voter list either. Thus they cannot file for candidacy even if dialogues bore any positive result. While addressing the demand of Rai’s party, the four-party alliance agreed to increase the total number of CA seats from 586 to 601, leaving no further option of placating Baidya and group through addition of CA seats.</div> <div> </div> <div> For all practical reasons, Baidya and his alliance are left to a no-option trap than opposing the proposed elections. It must be acknowledged that this group had shown unprecedented flexibility in the all-party meeting called by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav mid-September. The only major condition it had put forth to participate in the polls was that the Chairman of the Interim Election Government Khil Raj Regmi resign from the post of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal. This demand was indeed in compliance to the principle of the separation of power among the organs of the state under any acceptable form of democratic governance. It was surprising that the so-called democratic parties also failed to agree on this very reasonable demand by the opposition. It appeared as if the six-party alliance was determined not to bring Baidya into the election fold. Often reported clandestine machinations to throw Baidya at the bay, do appear to be holding some water.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Peculiar Movements</strong></span></div> <div> There are unnatural political movements that contribute to gradually worsen the situation. It is no longer a secret that Baidya’s participation in the polls would not affect anyone substantially but the UCPN (Maoist). Therefore, sidelining of Baidya is seen as the outcome of the successful hoodwinking of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal. Regmi’s stiffening of position on the resignation issue and wee hour meetings between the duo, even when Dahal was not the convener of the six-party alliance, are viewed as part of such machinations.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Forces at Play</strong></span></div> <div> There is a very strong intelligentsia in Kathmandu which believes that the dialogue with Baidya, which at one point of time appeared heading to a resolution, got suddenly aborted after Indian foreign secretary Sujatha Singh visited Nepal in the second week of September. Her insistence on holding the polls in the November ‘at any cost’ is in effect tantamount to leaving the poll-opposing groups out of the fray.</div> <div> </div> <div> Following Singh’s visit, Chinese information minister Cai Moinzhu came to Nepal in the third week of the same month, who unlike Singh reportedly chose to meet Baidya, which interestingly was not covered by the media.</div> <div> </div> <div> The public speeches of ambassadors like that of Germany and the United States have also created some political ripples as they ‘campaigned’ for the scheduled elections. Media reports claiming that international election observers have started to land in Nepal suggests that the outside world is more interested in elections here than the Nepali people themselves.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Degrading to a soft-state</strong></span></div> <div> President Yadav recently gave assent to an ordinance that enables the government to mobilize the Nepal Army for the scheduled polls. Yadav, in fact, is bowing down to sign everything that the six-party mechanism wants him to do, invoking the single constitutional provision of ‘removing the difficulties’. He, for example, first agreed to a 491-member CA, then to 586 and finally, again to 601. </div> <div> </div> <div> He is doing all these things without making sure that the elections would actually take place and his signing of these documents do facilitate the process of political reconciliation and peace building.</div> <div> </div> <div> These developments have created a situation that any constitutional, institutional and legal changes can be effected in Nepal at any point of time, at will. There is no stability factor and there is no defined position of the State. This is a very dangerous soft state syndrome. The editor of a prominent news magazine tweeted last week, ‘if anything can come as removing difficulties, why can’t one new constitution too come from the same window, putting all fuss to an end?’</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>New Round of Conflict</strong></span></div> <div> The country is all set to enter a fresh round of conflict, for now as a clash between pro and anti-poll forces, if the government chooses to crush the ones determined to oppose these polls. The fact is: the opposition forces are determined to stop this election and they are not a very fringe force that could be quelled with regular security operation.</div> <div> </div> <div> Even if these polls are held by using all possible instruments, the CA elected thus is unlikely to deliver a constitution that is acceptable even to those now opposing the polls. The conflict might even aggravate at this point. As such, the promulgation of a constitution would be next to impossible. The only way to peace again is to bring all political forces to the electoral process, which for now means, unquestionably, deferral of the election date to a new one acceptable to all - both to create political space for the dissenting parties and make it logistically possible for them to participate in the electoral process. </div> <div> </div> <div> <em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-06', 'modified' => '2013-11-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => 'Although the countdown to November 19, the scheduled date for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reduces from months to days, uncertainty on the polls continue to hover. A drama of double acts, on-stage and off-stage, orchestrated simultaneously by forces striving to hold the polls and forces trying to foil it, respectively, takes upon the country.', 'sortorder' => '1927', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1439', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Politics And State : Growing Distance', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <p> <strong style="font-size: 12px;">--By Achyut Wagle</strong></p> <p> Finally, the date for the elections to Constituent Assembly (CA) has been announced for November 4, 2013. This no doubt is a positive development in itself, but mere announcement of the date hardly ensures the actual possibility of the elections on the said date. Evidently, the possibility looks dwarf to the challenges. </p> <p> While announcing the date, the government has chosen to tread a ‘middle-path’ on the contentious issues that the four major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to evolve a common point of view. For instance, in the new ordinance, exclusion of the provision of threshold on number of votes needed to be recognised as a legitimate political party and retention of provision barring the people with proven criminal records from contesting the elections are the strategy of trade-offs that the government adopted. From a narrow view, they appear fairly reasonable.</p> <p> But the larger trade-off, so to say, between the factors that are likely to foil the election bids and the ambience that is needed to create, still remains completely untouched, let alone addressed. The challenges posed by the protests of Mohan Baidya of CPN-Maoist, Ashok Rai of National Socialist Party and Upendra Yadav of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, among others, are not of the kind that could be ignored easily. </p> <p> Just a formal call by the government, which neither has a political face nor has taken adequate and meaningful initiation to negotiate with these forces, is unlikely to bring them all to the election fold. There needs to more intensive political dialogues to sort out the differences. But the situation is such that the four parties cannot be the party to the bargaining as they are officially not in the government and official government doesn’t have the political acumen and intent to deal with them. This is first ominous sign that the distance between the state and the politics is widening. </p> <p> There is no doubt that without involving all these political forces in the process, the polls are impossible. Nobody has the answer what happens if the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections could not take place in November. Given the strength of the forces determined to impede these elections, there is no ground to be optimistic. And the worst, there is no realization of the precariousness of the situation among the so called major pro-poll political leaders and the government operatives.</p> <p> The most dangerous aspect of the differences among the parties standing for and against of the polls is that they are not all political. Much of the discontent stems out of personal hatred, evidences of betrayal and mountains of egos between the major leaders in the pro and anti election camps. The friend-turned-foes like Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Baidya, Upendra Yadav and Bijaya Gachchhadar and Ashok Rai and Jhalanath Khanal are not even ready to sit face-to-face and recognize as a political force in their respective strengths. Regardless of the fact how many seats these dissenting parties would get if they participated in elections, it is apparent that their strength is enough to disrupt the polls.</p> <p> As it is, the polls are absolutely unlikely to be held on the proposed date of November. And, this failure will have a fundamental difference than the previous failures on one account -- it will put the political forces further away from the state of affairs of the country. This indeed is an extremely dangerous direction Nepal is likely to head to. </p> <p> One may despise the politics to the hilt for all the miseries it has brought about in the current Nepal, but the fact again remains that the country cannot move ahead without political leadership. Of course, with unconditional commitment to a good, democracy-driven politics. But, given the recent developments, Nepal is gradually drifting away from the very possibility of political powers ruling the country anytime soon. This is one factor that the political powers of all shades, including the ones in ‘opposition’, must take into account.</p> <p> Sadly though, the possible gloomy days not seen by our own leaders are visualized as if on the movie screen by our powerful neighbours and the foreign powers. That is why New Delhi and Beijing are competing to invite our leaders of their convenience and choice to ‘take stock of the situation here’ and offer some ‘useful’ suggestions. Regardless of the leader of which party or ideology, the questions posed to them, by all -- the North, South and the West are the same. They surround the real possibilities of holding next CA polls in November, its chances of writing the new constitution and, in the longer run, the kind of federalism Nepal is likely to adopt. It is China who reminds our leaders about the dangers of Nepal embroiling into anarchy in the event of ad hoc execution of the federal structure. And, it is India that has apprehensions about the possibility of the elections taking place in November. The West has its own concerns of human rights agenda, defined more in terms of Nepal’s treatment to the Tibetan refugees than anything else. </p> <p> Why can’t our own leaders assess this acutely adverse possibility of political parties being sidelined altogether, if new elections didn’t take place? Whereas, the reality is as evident as the other side of the coin. It is perhaps because, the ‘political power blindness’ that emanates from gross insensitivity to the voices and needs of the people has engulfed our existing set of leaders.</p> <p> When the ex-king Gyanendra brought in Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirtinidhi Bista to run the country in 2005, every commoner foresaw that the King’s rule was coming to an end. But he was so power-blinded that which he himself couldn’t see it. When Maoist launched the armed insurgency, every sensible mind knew that it would only take Nepal backward, not forward. But Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai wouldn’t see that. Late G P Koirala also didn’t realise that very democracy was being put on perils by all his acts that were in detriment to democratic norms and values, that perhaps gave fuel to rapid rise to Maoist influence. At present, same sort of blindness is preventing the leaders of four parties to be flexible and accommodative to other smaller, opposing forces.</p> <p> It is universal trend throughout history that every dictatorial-minded politician was incapable of gauging the true gravity of the situation and acted as if the way he thought was an absolute truth, until it was too late to correct the course. It is the same psyche that governs the hearts and minds of our leaders. So, they didn’t realize that the cost of their petty differences in the last CA that Nepal was made to bear was so big. </p> <p> Economically it might need decades to fill the gap, and socially, we perhaps will never be able to regain the cohesion we enjoyed so far. They quarreled on the number of CA 491 versus 601 as if it were a choice out of 51 and 60. The recent disagreement in threshold of minimum votes required from next CA elections and abetting government to abandon it was true mockery to democracy. Still, the leaders of the four parties -UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, UML and Democratic Madhesi Front behave as if nothing has gone wrong even after they handed over the reins of the country to bureaucrats, appointed notoriously corrupt ex-bureaucrat as the chief of the constitutional anti-corruption watchdog, CIAA and failed to address the issues that are hanging as the Damocles’ Sword above the election agenda. </p> <p> The only way-out to restore the power of politics in running the country now solely depends on whether the polls on the stipulated date would take place or not. And, it is also clear that, it will not take place without making any sizeable force to agree to take part in the polls.</p> <p> Only if the the democratic process becomes functional, the politics, and by virtue of it politicians, will return to power. If not, the rein of power the politicians handed over to bureaucrats on the silver platter would never return to them for long time to come. If democracy wins, there is always chance for any party to ride to the power saddles in future, but if the whole politics is resolutely distanced from the affairs of state only possible outcome is prolonged dictatorship. Nothing else!</p> <p> <span style="font-size:11px;"><em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></span></p> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-19', 'modified' => '2013-07-19', 'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal, current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events, ongoing political news of nepal', 'description' => 'While announcing the date, the government has chosen to tread a ‘middle-path’ on the contentious issues that the four major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to evolve a common point of view.', 'sortorder' => '1301', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2083', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Presidential Weight-loss', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div> <p> President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s call to the political parties of Nepal to form an all-inclusive consensus government has not materialized even after the eighth deadline elapsed, as of penning down these lines. It was not surprising that an ever-elusive consensus in the present day Nepali politics was not arrested even this time around, though to humiliation of a presidential decree. But what is most engrossing question here is not why it did not materialize, but why did President Yadav at the first place choose to issue such calls to the parties to forge a consensus, the impossibility of which was absolutely foregone? Even if such a consensus evolved over time by any chance, the presidential dignity and credibility that had remained largely intact over these turbulent years of political transition will have been irreparably tarnished by then. During these two months, since his office began to issue seemingly never-ending series of deadlines to parties, but all in vain, his action has been seen as unwise by the people.<br /> <br /> Not only that, at one instance, President Yadav also gave a naïve public speech which was construed as throwing political weight behind Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, the rarest thing expected from him. ‘Creating a consensus for a new government around the incumbent one would add jewel to the crown,’ he was quoted by the media as saying in a public function in Pokhara during the first week of December. Though it later turned out that the President was quoted out of context (the message the President was trying to convey was something like “I would not mind if the consensus is formed for Dr. Bhattarai to continue as the Prime Minister and other parties joining that government), the damage was already done. The president could have avoided making any such statement altogether. The two acts by President Yadav-- calling to parties for consensus to form an electoral government and, at the same time implicitly favouring incumbent Prime Minister Bhattarai to head that new government -- are in apparent contrast. A very strong fraction of Kathmandu’s political high-circle attributes this Presidential blunder to the prowess of senior Indian National Congress Leader Dr Karan Singh, who called on Yadav in the first week of December in the pretext of inviting the latter in an academic function of Banaras Hindu University. In essence, this act of calling for consensus for new government on the one hand and supporting the incumbent prime minister on the other defeats the very purpose of presidential call for a new government.</p> <p> Then, the most crucial questions here are: what prompted him to do so? And, who ultimately has benefitted politically from this entire episode. As for the prompters, there are three theories on the float. First, the president in fact knew that no such consensus was tangible even in farthest horizon, yet wanted to call for it. Because, the failure of the political parties to act upon his call would pave the way for his ‘more assertive role’ in the present day Nepali politics. But that seems flatly implausible, as he has not done enough scratching whether he can actually assume the position of an executive president, even if he wished so. The second theory is that he was sincerely concerned about the prolonged constitutional vacuum and wanted to build a moral pressure on the political parties to work out a tenable solution to it. Even that was the case, he should have gauged on what would happen ultimately if his call did not yield any result. And, more importantly, there are no constitutional way outs available to push the present government out of power and form a new government. Without such constitutional backing, the president was naturally ill-equipped to adventure into such never-ending game of calling for consensus. His guts and practicalities, both, are not permitting him to randomly pick a figure of his like as the next prime minister. And, for the third, there is a section of political analysts who take his recent call as the success of a game plan by the UCPN (Maoist) and the Indian establishment which are making every possible effort to retain Dr Bhattarai as the prime minister as long as possible.<br /> <br /> This argument appears relatively convincing. The only impediment to PM Bhattarai and the Maoists to continue in power was none other than the president himself. President Yadav’s public image is way above that of Prime Minister Bhattarai and the person who can announce the removal of Bhattarai from his post is, of course, the president only. At least, they saw it that way. Since there is not any constitutional clarity on the further course to change the government, the Maoists feared that if president acted in this line, he might get a popular support. But, if the president’s image got obliqued by some machinations, his moral authority would dwindle sharply, as it did by his current faux pas. Hence, there were advices from largely unassuming quarters to thrust him into this vicious game of calling for a new CONSENSUS government. This has provided room for the UCPN-Maoist’s to consolidate its campaign against the President alleging him as harbouring dream of becoming the executive head of the country. When the credibility of the president substantially erodes further, it will only be easier for the UCPN-Maoist and Prime Minister Bhattarai to consolidate the grip on state powers.<br /> <br /> Not only vindicated by the circumstances but also in essence, the president’s this call for consensus was a premature and novice adventure to say the least. His implicit intention of calling for consensus government seems to hold the elections for a new constituent assembly (CA). But, he did not realise the fact that without a lot of ground work and a thorough review of the past failures, holding a new elections is impossible and likely to be futile like in the past even if they were held. The last CA was too big to deliver a constitution and the CA members both elected by people and handpicked by the party leadership across the board were apparently under qualified for the job of writing the law of the land. This was proved by their four-year tenure that ended without delivering a new constitution. Therefore, before thinking of another election, there must be a single national voice on the very size of the CA, the mechanisms of assigning constituencies and eligibility for candidacy to CA membership. Further, the constitutional bodies like the Election Commission have expressed their concern over the absence of required legal framework to conduct the polls of any objective.<br /> <br /> There is another question that must be answered by the top hats of the parties to be represented in the CA. In the last CA, members of the House were hardly given opportunity to debate and contribute in originating and finalising the proposed provisions of the new constitution. They were virtually herded in as per the wish and whim of their respective party leaders. Only a handful of top leaders participated in whatever deliberations that took place and the rest of the CA members just blindly followed them. If that were to be the case, why do we need an extensive new CA through very expensive elections? If everything is to be decided by ten or twelve people, then it is appropriate to form a commission of these very people with some technocrats in it to write the new constitution. Then a new legislature elected after promulgating this constitution may ratify it. The scope of amendment is and should always be there. The fact of the matter is that, whatever may be written in the new constitution, no matter whether it is written by a commission or a CA, that is going to spark controversy of this or that form, for reasons that people have now more sectarian and irrational expectations which are impossible to be addressed by any balanced, democratic and forward-looking document called constitution.<br /> <br /> These are some of the issues, the institution like Presidential Office of the country should have considered before jumping into ‘deadline business’. At present, there seems no viability of such a government that can accommodate every force of the country. Then, an all inclusive roundtable under the president’s sponsorship could be an alternative, which can help chart a future course of the nation.<br /> <br /> Even if the elections were to be held, it is now proper to hold them to select a form of the constitution itself, not the members of CA. This means, every contesting political party should first draft a full version of the constituent of their liking and go for the ratification by the people for the vote. This indeed will reduce a lot of complications. People will know at the first hand what is in different verson of the constitution presented by the parties. It will invite a meaningful debate and provide room for input. This will also help for faster face of political polarization between, the Left, Right and the Centre forces. More importantly, this will mainifest the intentions of eacdh party before people could vote for any of them and, above all, will give a good homework for political leaders to talk and act sense with acceptable degree of coherence in preparing a feasible draft. In view of sharp divisions along ethnic and communal lines, this proposition contributes to diffuse the tensions before the adoption of the constitution. Various facets potential federal set-up will get space to be debated in public. Then the ultimate promulgation would be lot easier than in any other deemed process.<br /> <br /> Instead of indulging into self-degrading course of action like issuing deadlines for the parties, the president should now focus on rescuing the country from the current mess. For this, he does not necessarily need to go beyond available constitutional jurisdiction. For instance, he can hold a comprehensive round-table in the form of consultative meet. There could be several other ways and means available. But, he will in a position to make a difference, if and only if, he maintained a dignity that suits to the first president of a new republic nation-state. His recent move was undoubtedly far below that mark.</p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-07', 'modified' => '2013-11-07', 'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal, current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events, ongoing political news of nepal', 'description' => 'President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s call to the political parties of Nepal to form an all-inclusive consensus government has not materialized even after the eighth deadline elapsed, as of penning down these lines. It was not surprising that an ever-elusive consensus in the present day Nepali politics was not arrested even this time around', 'sortorder' => '1928', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2082', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Double Drama, Fresh Conflict', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Although the countdown to November 19, the scheduled date for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reduces from months to days, uncertainty on the polls continue to hover. A drama of double acts, on-stage and off-stage, orchestrated simultaneously by forces striving to hold the polls and forces trying to foil it, respectively, takes upon the country.</div> <div> </div> <div> The on-stage drama looks normal - as though nothing is amiss and things are all set to sail smoothly until the polls and even beyond. The four-party pro-poll alliance of the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and Madhesi Front now swells to a six-party one after the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum of Upendra Yadav and the Federal Socialist Party led by Ashok Rai joined the group upon agreeing to participate in the polls. The leaders and working committees of these parties are flexing their muscles to select candidates for the first-past-the-post system for two hundred and forty constituencies. The elites in all these parties are busy drafting their respective manifestoes. Aspirants of party tickets for candidacy, from all parties alike, have gathered in Kathmandu to cajole their leaders. The party offices are crowded, traffic jams in the capital have increased not only due to an increased number of vehicles and people but also due to increased violation of traffic rules by those who are not used to following them in districts outside of Kathmandu.</div> <div> </div> <div> There are fringe parties like the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and RPP-Nepal that are not in the alliance but have opted to join the election bandwagon. The pro-royalist RPP-Nepal hopes to perform better if polls were to take place in view of the people’s growing disenchantment towards the major political parties. The ambitious ones who failed to woo the party they belong to pick them as candidates are defecting and joining other parties. Professionals and celebrities are taking membership of parties of their choice, hoping to be new leaders. </div> <div> </div> <div> The Election Commission says it has completed all preparations. The election offices in all two hundred and forty constituencies have been opened, logistics and personnel supplied and ballot papers are ready to be printed. Security agencies are recruiting additional forces. Everything on this side of the screen appears destined to have a happy ending.</div> <div> </div> <div> But the off-stage rehearsal of the other act determined to foil this election at any cost does not signal anything as good. An alliance of supposedly thirty-three parties, led by CPN-Maoist, Mohan Baidya group, has made all possible preparations to create impediments at every possible stage of this election and the scale of their preparation in no way looks dismal. </div> <div> </div> <div> They have printed thousands of red T-shirts with the slogan ‘Lets boycott the so- called CA polls’ printed across. The party has reorganized its youth wing and informal sources claim that they have been instructed to service their concealed old guns that were put to rest after the peace deal seven years ago. If anybody has cared to notice the walls across the country, they have been made colourful with boycott slogans. The leaders of the Baidya group have publicly declared that they will resort to kidnapping candidates from the day of nomination, which was rescheduled from September 25th to October 2nd. The processions organized by this group already look scary. Cadres carry flags and placards on iron rods, with obvious objectives. The back rows are armed with clubs, bamboo sticks, hammers and some even with catapults.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The No-option Trap</strong></span></div> <div> Violence seems imminent, and it might easily exacerbate to make it impossible to hold the polls for two main reasons. First, the Baidya group with its alliance partners has a nation-wide presence. Second, they are left in a no option trap as the logistics to bring the opposing alliance onboard the election process appears impossible, at least so to manage it for November 19th. </div> <div> </div> <div> The pro-poll alliance is, though, pretending to be engaged in dialogue with Baidya and his group. In essence, the very rationale of such a dialogue no longer holds. It is not only that the poll-opposing parties have not registered in the Election Commission - their rank and files have not enrolled in the voter list either. Thus they cannot file for candidacy even if dialogues bore any positive result. While addressing the demand of Rai’s party, the four-party alliance agreed to increase the total number of CA seats from 586 to 601, leaving no further option of placating Baidya and group through addition of CA seats.</div> <div> </div> <div> For all practical reasons, Baidya and his alliance are left to a no-option trap than opposing the proposed elections. It must be acknowledged that this group had shown unprecedented flexibility in the all-party meeting called by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav mid-September. The only major condition it had put forth to participate in the polls was that the Chairman of the Interim Election Government Khil Raj Regmi resign from the post of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal. This demand was indeed in compliance to the principle of the separation of power among the organs of the state under any acceptable form of democratic governance. It was surprising that the so-called democratic parties also failed to agree on this very reasonable demand by the opposition. It appeared as if the six-party alliance was determined not to bring Baidya into the election fold. Often reported clandestine machinations to throw Baidya at the bay, do appear to be holding some water.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Peculiar Movements</strong></span></div> <div> There are unnatural political movements that contribute to gradually worsen the situation. It is no longer a secret that Baidya’s participation in the polls would not affect anyone substantially but the UCPN (Maoist). Therefore, sidelining of Baidya is seen as the outcome of the successful hoodwinking of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal. Regmi’s stiffening of position on the resignation issue and wee hour meetings between the duo, even when Dahal was not the convener of the six-party alliance, are viewed as part of such machinations.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Forces at Play</strong></span></div> <div> There is a very strong intelligentsia in Kathmandu which believes that the dialogue with Baidya, which at one point of time appeared heading to a resolution, got suddenly aborted after Indian foreign secretary Sujatha Singh visited Nepal in the second week of September. Her insistence on holding the polls in the November ‘at any cost’ is in effect tantamount to leaving the poll-opposing groups out of the fray.</div> <div> </div> <div> Following Singh’s visit, Chinese information minister Cai Moinzhu came to Nepal in the third week of the same month, who unlike Singh reportedly chose to meet Baidya, which interestingly was not covered by the media.</div> <div> </div> <div> The public speeches of ambassadors like that of Germany and the United States have also created some political ripples as they ‘campaigned’ for the scheduled elections. Media reports claiming that international election observers have started to land in Nepal suggests that the outside world is more interested in elections here than the Nepali people themselves.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Degrading to a soft-state</strong></span></div> <div> President Yadav recently gave assent to an ordinance that enables the government to mobilize the Nepal Army for the scheduled polls. Yadav, in fact, is bowing down to sign everything that the six-party mechanism wants him to do, invoking the single constitutional provision of ‘removing the difficulties’. He, for example, first agreed to a 491-member CA, then to 586 and finally, again to 601. </div> <div> </div> <div> He is doing all these things without making sure that the elections would actually take place and his signing of these documents do facilitate the process of political reconciliation and peace building.</div> <div> </div> <div> These developments have created a situation that any constitutional, institutional and legal changes can be effected in Nepal at any point of time, at will. There is no stability factor and there is no defined position of the State. This is a very dangerous soft state syndrome. The editor of a prominent news magazine tweeted last week, ‘if anything can come as removing difficulties, why can’t one new constitution too come from the same window, putting all fuss to an end?’</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>New Round of Conflict</strong></span></div> <div> The country is all set to enter a fresh round of conflict, for now as a clash between pro and anti-poll forces, if the government chooses to crush the ones determined to oppose these polls. The fact is: the opposition forces are determined to stop this election and they are not a very fringe force that could be quelled with regular security operation.</div> <div> </div> <div> Even if these polls are held by using all possible instruments, the CA elected thus is unlikely to deliver a constitution that is acceptable even to those now opposing the polls. The conflict might even aggravate at this point. As such, the promulgation of a constitution would be next to impossible. The only way to peace again is to bring all political forces to the electoral process, which for now means, unquestionably, deferral of the election date to a new one acceptable to all - both to create political space for the dissenting parties and make it logistically possible for them to participate in the electoral process. </div> <div> </div> <div> <em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-06', 'modified' => '2013-11-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => 'Although the countdown to November 19, the scheduled date for the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reduces from months to days, uncertainty on the polls continue to hover. A drama of double acts, on-stage and off-stage, orchestrated simultaneously by forces striving to hold the polls and forces trying to foil it, respectively, takes upon the country.', 'sortorder' => '1927', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1439', 'article_category_id' => '167', 'title' => 'Politics And State : Growing Distance', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <p> <strong style="font-size: 12px;">--By Achyut Wagle</strong></p> <p> Finally, the date for the elections to Constituent Assembly (CA) has been announced for November 4, 2013. This no doubt is a positive development in itself, but mere announcement of the date hardly ensures the actual possibility of the elections on the said date. Evidently, the possibility looks dwarf to the challenges. </p> <p> While announcing the date, the government has chosen to tread a ‘middle-path’ on the contentious issues that the four major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to evolve a common point of view. For instance, in the new ordinance, exclusion of the provision of threshold on number of votes needed to be recognised as a legitimate political party and retention of provision barring the people with proven criminal records from contesting the elections are the strategy of trade-offs that the government adopted. From a narrow view, they appear fairly reasonable.</p> <p> But the larger trade-off, so to say, between the factors that are likely to foil the election bids and the ambience that is needed to create, still remains completely untouched, let alone addressed. The challenges posed by the protests of Mohan Baidya of CPN-Maoist, Ashok Rai of National Socialist Party and Upendra Yadav of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, among others, are not of the kind that could be ignored easily. </p> <p> Just a formal call by the government, which neither has a political face nor has taken adequate and meaningful initiation to negotiate with these forces, is unlikely to bring them all to the election fold. There needs to more intensive political dialogues to sort out the differences. But the situation is such that the four parties cannot be the party to the bargaining as they are officially not in the government and official government doesn’t have the political acumen and intent to deal with them. This is first ominous sign that the distance between the state and the politics is widening. </p> <p> There is no doubt that without involving all these political forces in the process, the polls are impossible. Nobody has the answer what happens if the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections could not take place in November. Given the strength of the forces determined to impede these elections, there is no ground to be optimistic. And the worst, there is no realization of the precariousness of the situation among the so called major pro-poll political leaders and the government operatives.</p> <p> The most dangerous aspect of the differences among the parties standing for and against of the polls is that they are not all political. Much of the discontent stems out of personal hatred, evidences of betrayal and mountains of egos between the major leaders in the pro and anti election camps. The friend-turned-foes like Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Baidya, Upendra Yadav and Bijaya Gachchhadar and Ashok Rai and Jhalanath Khanal are not even ready to sit face-to-face and recognize as a political force in their respective strengths. Regardless of the fact how many seats these dissenting parties would get if they participated in elections, it is apparent that their strength is enough to disrupt the polls.</p> <p> As it is, the polls are absolutely unlikely to be held on the proposed date of November. And, this failure will have a fundamental difference than the previous failures on one account -- it will put the political forces further away from the state of affairs of the country. This indeed is an extremely dangerous direction Nepal is likely to head to. </p> <p> One may despise the politics to the hilt for all the miseries it has brought about in the current Nepal, but the fact again remains that the country cannot move ahead without political leadership. Of course, with unconditional commitment to a good, democracy-driven politics. But, given the recent developments, Nepal is gradually drifting away from the very possibility of political powers ruling the country anytime soon. This is one factor that the political powers of all shades, including the ones in ‘opposition’, must take into account.</p> <p> Sadly though, the possible gloomy days not seen by our own leaders are visualized as if on the movie screen by our powerful neighbours and the foreign powers. That is why New Delhi and Beijing are competing to invite our leaders of their convenience and choice to ‘take stock of the situation here’ and offer some ‘useful’ suggestions. Regardless of the leader of which party or ideology, the questions posed to them, by all -- the North, South and the West are the same. They surround the real possibilities of holding next CA polls in November, its chances of writing the new constitution and, in the longer run, the kind of federalism Nepal is likely to adopt. It is China who reminds our leaders about the dangers of Nepal embroiling into anarchy in the event of ad hoc execution of the federal structure. And, it is India that has apprehensions about the possibility of the elections taking place in November. The West has its own concerns of human rights agenda, defined more in terms of Nepal’s treatment to the Tibetan refugees than anything else. </p> <p> Why can’t our own leaders assess this acutely adverse possibility of political parties being sidelined altogether, if new elections didn’t take place? Whereas, the reality is as evident as the other side of the coin. It is perhaps because, the ‘political power blindness’ that emanates from gross insensitivity to the voices and needs of the people has engulfed our existing set of leaders.</p> <p> When the ex-king Gyanendra brought in Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirtinidhi Bista to run the country in 2005, every commoner foresaw that the King’s rule was coming to an end. But he was so power-blinded that which he himself couldn’t see it. When Maoist launched the armed insurgency, every sensible mind knew that it would only take Nepal backward, not forward. But Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai wouldn’t see that. Late G P Koirala also didn’t realise that very democracy was being put on perils by all his acts that were in detriment to democratic norms and values, that perhaps gave fuel to rapid rise to Maoist influence. At present, same sort of blindness is preventing the leaders of four parties to be flexible and accommodative to other smaller, opposing forces.</p> <p> It is universal trend throughout history that every dictatorial-minded politician was incapable of gauging the true gravity of the situation and acted as if the way he thought was an absolute truth, until it was too late to correct the course. It is the same psyche that governs the hearts and minds of our leaders. So, they didn’t realize that the cost of their petty differences in the last CA that Nepal was made to bear was so big. </p> <p> Economically it might need decades to fill the gap, and socially, we perhaps will never be able to regain the cohesion we enjoyed so far. They quarreled on the number of CA 491 versus 601 as if it were a choice out of 51 and 60. The recent disagreement in threshold of minimum votes required from next CA elections and abetting government to abandon it was true mockery to democracy. Still, the leaders of the four parties -UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, UML and Democratic Madhesi Front behave as if nothing has gone wrong even after they handed over the reins of the country to bureaucrats, appointed notoriously corrupt ex-bureaucrat as the chief of the constitutional anti-corruption watchdog, CIAA and failed to address the issues that are hanging as the Damocles’ Sword above the election agenda. </p> <p> The only way-out to restore the power of politics in running the country now solely depends on whether the polls on the stipulated date would take place or not. And, it is also clear that, it will not take place without making any sizeable force to agree to take part in the polls.</p> <p> Only if the the democratic process becomes functional, the politics, and by virtue of it politicians, will return to power. If not, the rein of power the politicians handed over to bureaucrats on the silver platter would never return to them for long time to come. If democracy wins, there is always chance for any party to ride to the power saddles in future, but if the whole politics is resolutely distanced from the affairs of state only possible outcome is prolonged dictatorship. Nothing else!</p> <p> <span style="font-size:11px;"><em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></span></p> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-19', 'modified' => '2013-07-19', 'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal, current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events, ongoing political news of nepal', 'description' => 'While announcing the date, the government has chosen to tread a ‘middle-path’ on the contentious issues that the four major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to evolve a common point of view.', 'sortorder' => '1301', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
| Currency | Unit |
Buy | Sell |
| U.S. Dollar | 1 | 121.23 | 121.83 |
| European Euro | 1 | 131.65 | 132.31 |
| UK Pound Sterling | 1 | 142.47 | 143.18 |
| Swiss Franc | 1 | 124.29 | 124.90 |
| Australian Dollar | 1 | 71.69 | 72.05 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1 | 83.90 | 84.32 |
| Japanese Yen | 10 | 10.94 | 11.00 |
| Chinese Yuan | 1 | 17.17 | 17.26 |
| Saudi Arabian Riyal | 1 | 32.27 | 32.43 |
| UAE Dirham | 1 | 33.01 | 33.17 |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 1 | 27.36 | 27.50 |
| South Korean Won | 100 | 9.77 | 9.82 |
Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
| Fine Gold | 1 tola | 77000.00 |
| Tejabi Gold | 1 tola | 76700.00 |
| Silver | 1 tola | 720.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association
| Petrol | 1 Liter | 106.00 |
| Diesel | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| Kerosene | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| LP Gas | 1 Cylinder | 1375.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
