Life in various Terai districts including Siraha and Sapatri has been badly affected for the second day on Tuesday due to the indefinite shutdown strike called by the Federation of Backward Communities Nepal.

Vehicular movement in the East-West Highway traversing through these districts has been affected as the organisation’s activists staged their protests by placing road blocks and burning tyres.

The organisation, which claims to be fighting for the rights of oppressed and backward castes and communities of Terai, has vowed to continue with the strike until their demands are not met.

The nine-point demand the organisation has put before the government for fulfillment includes enlisting their castes and their neglected languages in the statute to give it due recognition, reservation in various state mechanisms in proportion to their population, inclusion of their languages in primary level curriculum and low interest rates in agriculture loans, among others.

The federation has identified people belonging to 33 different castes including Kusahawa, Musalman, Halwai, Tamat, Kurmi, Kahar, Kewat, Kanu, Teli, Nuniya, Hajam, Sonar, Lodh, Rajbhar as “backward castes” in the Terai. The representatives of all these castes are affiliated with the organization. nepalnews.com Nov 11 08

The 2nd installment of “Kathmandu International Theatre Festival 2008” is going to start in the capital from Tuesday.

Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam (4th from right), ambassadors and other dignitaries attend the inaugural ceremony of ‘Kathmandu International Theatre Festival 2008’ at Gurukul in Kathmandu on Tuesday, Nov 11 08. nepalnews.com/NPA

Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam (4th from right), ambassadors and…
Aarohan Gurukul, a theatre group that has done exemplary work to revive the theater scene in Kathmandu, is the main organizer of this play fest to be held from 11-27 November 2008.

According to the organisers, the festival will showcase theatre groups from eight countries — Denmark, Norway, England, America, Thailand, Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

The theatre groups will perform plays from their respective countries for the mostly Nepalese audience.

The festival starts with the play “Dreams of Peach Blossoms” written by Abhi Subedi and directed by Sunil Pokharel at 5 pm at Rimal Theater, Gurukul. nepalnews.com ag Nov 11 08

Himal South Asian is organising the first-ever meeting of editorial cartoonists from across the region, in a two-day conference in Kathmandu on 14-15 November 2008.

Thirty six cartoonists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will come together to discuss political cartooning and its relevance to the media as well as to society at large, the organizers said in a press release.

Cartoonists will get the rare opportunity to meet their counterparts, share their experiences and discuss the various challenges they face in their profession.

The cartoons of the winner and runner-up of Himal Southasian’s Cartoon Competition ‘Dramatic Divide: The distance between the powerful and the powerless’ will also be on show.

In her public lecture, Manjula Padmanabhan, cartoonist, playwright and writer will examine the ways in which laughter can break down barriers.

Corresponding with the conference, two week-long cartoon exhibitions will be displayed in Yala Maya Kendra, Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur, with free access to members of the public.

The inauguration of Retrospective of drawings by eminent cartoonist Abu Abraham will be accompanied by a speech by Mark Bryant, director of the London Press Club, former secretary of the British Cartoonists’ Association titled ‘Abu in London’. Also, a never-before offering for Kathmandu-ites will be a choice exposition of cartoons by five successful Nepali cartoonists – Durga Baral (‘Vatsayan’), Abin Shrestha, Basu Kshitij, Rabin Sayami and Rajesh K C. nepalnews.com Nov 11 08

The whereabouts and condition of Nirmal Pant and Puskar Dangol, who were reportedly abducted by the Maoist affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) from Malekhu area in Dhading, is still unknown, reports said Tuesday.

Reports quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Pant, 23, and Dangol, 22 were beaten up and forcibly taken away from Malekhu area on October 20 when the two were heading to their homes in the capital from Gorkha district. The two were accused of taking parts in attacks against YCL cadres in the district.

Family members of the two captives on Monday demanded YCL cadres make public their status and release them at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the CPN-UML formed Rolpa committee of Youth Force following a two-day long meeting of district cadres on Monday. Rolpa was the Maoist bastion during the insurgency period.

Vice-secretary of the party in the district, Hari Prasad Gharti Magar, said that the party had formed a 15-member committee which would soon be expanded. nepalnews.com Nov 11 08

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has once again fired a salvo at what he calls ‘formal parliamentary democracy.’

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal
Addressing the inaugural session of Conference on Democracy, Development and Peace in Asia, Monday, he said, “The ongoing formal parliamentary democracy and market-led neoliberal economic policies in the disguise of globalisation further marginalises the poor and helpless.”

Referring to the global financial meltdown he said that its chain effects were having ‘tremendous negative effect on the countries of the south.’

He also accused the capitalist system for various ills facing the world including food and energy crisis, global warming and climate change.

Interestingly, soon after he became the Prime Minister leading the radical communist party, PM Dahal had said that Nepal cannot ignore the ‘wave of globalisation and liberalisation.’

At the same programme, Monday, another communist leader, Madhav Kumar Nepal, former general secretary of the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), too, took potshots at liberalism and capitalism.

“The neoliberal economic regime cannot be a solution to sustainable development and durable peace. Very interestingly, now the developed countries are in a competition to embrace various aspects of socialism to save the global capitalism from collapse,” he said.

The global financial crisis seems to have prompted the Nepali communist leaders to speak out against the capitalist system.

Addressing the same programme, Prof Samir Amin, a noted political economist, said the global crisis pointed at ‘systemic failure of capitalism.’ nepalnews.com sd Nov 11 08

Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav
Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav has said that ambassadors and officials at diplomatic missions in the country must inform the Foreign Ministry before they meet with prime minister or political leaders.
Referring to the practice of meeting between diplomats and leaders without notifying the Ministry, the Minister said that from now onwards there must be a presence of a representative from the Ministry when such meetings take place.

He said so talking to reporters in Bhairahawa on Monday.

Soon after he became Foreign Minister, Yadav had been pointing at the need to regulate the meeting between leaders and diplomats.

In the past, often times Foreign Ministry officials used to complain that they were in the dark about various meetings diplomats were having with country’s leaders. nepalnews.com sd Nov 11 08

Nepali Congress has dubbed the clarification given by Defense Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa in the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Sunday that he never met Kali Bahadur Kham, a Maoist military commander who has been charged with murder of a Kathmandu-based businessman Ram Hari Shrestha as “a pack of lies”.

Speaking in the CA meeting held in the capacity of legislative assembly, senior NC leader and lawmaker Dr Ram Sharan Mahat claimed that even though the Maoist defense minister has said he understands the “responsibility and dignity” of his ministerial position, “he has spoken a lie in the parliament” and hence tried to “mislead the parliament”.

Reminding news reports that said that journalists, who were eyewitnesses to his meeting with Kham in Chitwan on Oct 22, have expressed surprise at the defense minister’s claim, dubbing it “totally false”, Dr Mahat said that what the independent media wrote “can’t be false”.

The former finance minister demanded protection of the legislative assembly’s special right to information from the government and sought clarification from home minister Bam Dev Gautam on why the Maoist military commander charged with murder was roaming around free.

Dr Mahat was not the only NC leader who came down heavily on the government’s lackadaisical approach to the case. NC lawmaker Gagan Thapa, a youth leader who is considered to be rapidly emerging in his party ranks, claimed that the Maoist commander charged with murder of Ram Hari Shrestha is still inside the UN monitored Shaktikhor temporary cantonment in Chitwan and challenged home minister Gautam to take immediate action if he has “the guts to do it”.

Similarly, Terai Madhesh Loktantric Party lawmaker Hridayesh Tripathi also got pretty worked up at the legislative assembly session, accusing defense minister Thapa and information minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara of “tainting the nation’s pride” by going on a secret trip to Chinese border town of Khasa after the Tihar festivals. He also sought government’s clarification on this matter.

In another topic, at a time when the law and order situation in the Terai plains and eastern hills of Nepal is increasingly becoming a matter of headache for the government with armed outfits operating there, the leader of Madhes based party said that the Maoists together with the government should return the weapons they seized during the insurgency period to the rightful owners or remove taxes in the purchase of new weapons. nepalnews.com ag Nov 10 08

The committee formed to draft the Constituent Assembly (CA) regulations presented the same at the CA, Monday.

The chief of the committee Narayan Man Bijukchhe submitted the draft to CA chairperson Subas Nemwang.

The draft had been finalised earlier after big parties decided to let the regulation remain silent on the contentious issue of whip.

The CA members will discuss the regulation on Tuesday before it is passed.

Once the regulation is passed, it will open the door for constitution writing process.

Even after eight months had passed since CA election, the process of writing new constitution could not take off – a fact which caused many to criticise the CA. nepalnews.com Nov 10 08

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Nepal) has provided $350,000 to reduce the incidence and impact of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Dailekh, Kailali and Surkhet districts of mid-western Nepal.

“USAID assistance will help increase awareness of gender-based violence and ensure that those affected, including widows, receive critical psychosocial counseling, medical treatment, education and skills training and job placement services to reduce further risk,” said Beth S. Paige, Mission Director of USAID Nepal.

“This project will also employ a proven strategy of engaging men and male religious leaders in reducing GBV. Advocacy undertaken by men in support of women’s interest is one of the most effective means of fostering attitudinal change across communities,” Paige said.

According to a press release issued by the US Embassy, GBV is an acute human rights challenge in many conflict affected areas of Nepal.

“The 11-year conflict severely exacerbated the unequal power relationships between men and women, increasing women’s vulnerability to numerous forms of exploitation including rape, domestic violence, verbal and psychological abuse, and physical and sexual torture. Damage to traditional social and economic networks, loss of male heads of household, forced displacement, and reduced access to health and educational facilities dramatically diminished women’s abilities to safeguard their wellbeing and that of their families,” the release states.

This 12-month long program is being implemented through The Asia Foundation and its local NGO partners.

“The US Government will provide more than $67 million in foreign assistance to the people of Nepal this year.” nepalnews.com sd Nov 10 08

Normal life was crippled in parts of Terai by a bandh (shutdown strike) called by Other Backward Class (OBC) Federation on Monday, protesting the state’s ‘indifference’ towards their demands that include recognition of OBCs as ethnic groups.

The bandh had severe effect in Siraha and Saptari districts where transport services, schools and marketplaces remained fully closed. Many sections of the east-west highway remained empty due to protest rallies organised by the OBC people.

The federation, which represents 31 backward castes/communities such as Kuswaha, Kalwar, Hajam and Musalman, has demanded the government include OBCs in the list of indigenous groups and ethnic nationalities in the constitution and give them equal rights.

The Federation has also warned of indefinite Terai bandh if the government failed to respond to its demands. nepalnews.com Nov 10 08