Vehicles stayed off the roads following the Nepal bandh (general strike) called by seven parties in Kathmandu, Thursday, Jan 26 06. nepalnews.com/rh

Vehicles stayed off the roads following the Nepal bandh (general strike) called by seven parties in Kathmandu, Thursday, Jan 26 06. nepalnews.com/rh
Normal life has been disrupted in Kathmandu on Thursday due to the Nepal ‘bandh’ (general strike) called by the seven political parties against the government’s use of force in their peaceful protests.

While shops in interior parts of the city are open, shops in major thoroughfares remained closed. Most of the public and private vehicles kept off the road but two wheelers and mini-vans could be seen plying around the streets.

Educational institutions and other private institutions remain closed following the valley bandh called by the opposition alliance.

The alliance of seven political parties called for Nepal bandh claiming that police have taken into custody hundreds of their party leaders and workers from peaceful demonstrations. They have also alleged the government of using excessive force to thwart their peaceful mass meeting and rally.

The seven party alliance that are boycotting the municipal polls actively has announced Nepal Bandh on the day of filing candidature for the municipal polls.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said that the security forces are using ‘excessive force’ in demonstrations organized by the political parties.

A press statement issued by the NHRC on Wednesday said that it has collected evidences of security men not only using ‘excessive force’ but also arresting and brutally beating up innocent people and passersby not involved in the protests.

The NHRC also asked the government to issue immediate directions to the security forces not to resort to ‘excessive force’ or inflict injuries on pedestrians and passersby and recommended the government to provide medical treatment to the injured.

Likewise, the commission also urged all not to promote violent activities through peaceful movement.

Meanwhile, issuing separate statements, various organizations including Nepal Bar Association (NBA) condemned the recent detentions of political leaders and human rights defenders.

In separate statements issued on Wednesday, the NGO Federation, Human Rights Alliance and the NBA, said that the government violated all international conventions by detaining human rights defenders for no reason.

They also condemned the government for not providing basic facilities to detainees.

The rights bodies also expressed serious concern over the search and constant vigilance on the house of Dr Arjun Karki, president of the NGO Federation.

The rights bodies accused the government of trying to arrest Karki for no reason. The mobile and telephone lines of Karki have been disconnected, the statements said.

United Telecom Limited (UTL) has resumed its telephone services from Wednesday after a weeklong disruption.

The service was disrupted from January 19 at the direction of the government.

The government had closed telephone services, including Nepal Telecom’s post-paid and pre-paid mobile services, Mero mobile of the Spice Nepal Pvt (Ltd) and UTL on January 19.

Nepal Telecom and UTL resumed its post-paid mobile phone service on Monday evening.

The pre-paid mobile services of NT and Mero mobile are still disrupted.

UTL is a joint venture between India’s Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd and Nepal Ventures Private Ltd.

Shiv Shankar Mukherjee

Shiv Shankar Mukherjee (File Photo)
Indian ambassador to Nepal, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, has said India considers it a privilege to stand by the people of Nepal. We have been and shall always be there with Nepal and its people, he said.

In a message issued on the 57th Republic Day of India—and carried by major dailies in Kathmandu—on Thursday, Mukherjee said apart from the unique cultural, historical, ethnic, demographic, economic and other ties which we have with Nepal, our close and friendly relations with our Himalayan neighbour have been guided by the dictum: What is good for Nepal is good for India.

Saying that a republican democracy has taken strong, deep and immutable roots in the country, the Indian ambassador said while engaged in the pursuance of its socio-economic development, India has shouldered the responsibility of carrying its friends and partners in the developing world along. “This is because we believe, to paraphrase what Pandit (Jawaharlal) Nehru once famously said, peace, prosperity and progress are indivisible,” he added.

The message by Indian envoy did not refer to the constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, which India said it considered two pillars of stability in Nepal.

India is the largest investor and trade partner of Nepal. In the past ten years, Nepal’s exports to India have grown by 1,100 percent while its imports from India have grown 350 percent. At present, over two-third of Nepal’s total exports are to India while 63 percent of Nepal’s imports from India.

According to the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, over 1,00 projects worth about NRs 1,400 crore are under implementation or consideration in 61 out of 75 districts in Nepal at present. The prominent projects completed or under construction with the Indian assistance include the East-West highway optical fibre project, BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, a number of highways, feeder roads, bridges, airports, schools, irrigation and hydropower, sanitation and drinking water, among others.

More than 1.2 lakh Gurkha soldiers are serving in or have retired from the Indian Army and total pension disbursement to ex-Indian Gurkha soldiers stood at more than NRs 700 crore last year.

Nepali leaders have also felicitated India on the occasion of her 57th Republic Day. In his message to the Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam, His Majesty King Gyanendra said Nepali people and the government highly appreciate the assistance provided by the government and people of India. His Majesty expressed hope that friendly relations between the two countries and peoples would further strengthen in the days to come.

Indian ambassador Mukherjee hoisted the national flag of India amidst a ceremony at the sprawling Indian embassy premises in Kathmandu this morning. The reception hosted by the embassy on the occasion on Thursday has been postponed to Saturday afternoon due to the nationwide shutdown strike called by the seven party opposition alliance today.

You may have heard about SLC (School Leaving Certificate) topper being felicitated in a public function, but rarely does anybody who has only passed SLC examinations get honored this way.

Indra Sonaha (File Photo)

Indra Sonaha (File Photo)
Indra Sonaha, 19, of Daulatpur VDC in the far-western district of Bardiya, who passed SLC examinations this year, is one such person. He is the first person to pass the SLC examination from the Sonaha community, an ethnic group which, anthropologists say, is on the verge of extinction. For this achievement, Indra was felicitated at a programme organised in Tikapur recently.

“This honor has not only been given to me it also belongs to the entire Sonaha community. I am going to pursue my higher study and work for the uplift of my community,” he told local reporters after the felicitation programme.

As he made these remarks, some of the participants of the programme pledged additional assistance to him, according to a local daily.

Soft-spoken and gentle, Sonaha studied up to grade 7 in Karuna English Boarding School in Tikapur on the full scholarship provided by Welfare Association For Human Care, Tikapur, an NGO working for the upliftment of backward communities. He appeared in the SLC exam from Saptarishi Higher Secondary School.

Krishna Prakash Shah, treasurer of the welfare association, informed he is currently pursuing higher studies in Kathmandu on the scholarship provided by them.

Sonahas are ethnic people with their own language and culture but are classified as Tharus by the government. According to a study, there are around 1400 ethnic Sonahas who live primarily in far-western Nepal, specifically in Kailali, Kanchanpur and Bardiya districts and traditionally earn their livelihood through fishing and sifting sands in the river in search of gold.

Police have arrested dozens of activists affiliated to the seven party alliance as they were trying to enforce `Nepal bandh’ (the nationwide day-long shutdown strike) in the capital, Kathmandu, and Banepa, among others.

Despite arrest, opposition supporters are taking out rallies in various parts of the capital. There are reports of clashes between the activists and police. Police said the protesters have damaged over half a dozen vehicles that were plying on the roads.

Security has been tightened in view of possible violence, officials said.

Over three dozen activists including former MP and president of Nepali Congress Kavre district unit, Shiva Humagai, have been arrested in Banepa today while they were carrying out protests.

The protestors have been demanding the unconditional release of their detained leaders and restoration of democracy and civil liberties, among others.

They are also calling boycott of municipal polls slated on February 8.

Meanwhile, nominations for the post of Mayor and other office bearers have begun the municipalities around the country. Around half a dozen people have filed their nominations for various posts in Kathmandu.

By 1 p. m., only one person had filed his nomination for the post of chairman of ward no. 10 of Banepa municipality. Nobody has filed nomination in Bhaktapur so far.

Shops are totally closed in Bhaktapur and no vehicles are plying on the roads, a resident of Bhaktapur told us over phone.

By Rahul Thapa

Nepal was and remains in the news for the past few weeks. News channels and newspapers in Asia in general were abuzz with the coverage of incidents happening in Nepal. While the media in Nepal –both electronic as well as the print– covered last week’s happenings extensively, Indian media brigade too landed in Nepal in view of the seven-party alliance’s rally last Friday.

The partisan media in Nepal only reported on the government’s steps to foil the seven-party alliance’s bid to hold a rally in Kathmandu but chose not to report on the possibility of the Maoists trying to infiltrate into the capital to cause terror amongst the people.

The night time curfew was seen by the Nepalese media only as what they termed repression, believing that the residents of Kathmandu were safe. It is an irony that the media chose to forget the violent attacks at Thankot and Dadhikot police posts just two weeks ago, which terrorized people in and around Kathmandu. The question before the Nepalese media is, “Do they consider the opposition any less responsible and accountable to the people than the government?” and the other question the media should answer is, “How does the state confront utter defiance and confrontational politics by the opposition when it has been calling for dialogue and reconciliation?”

The media at large criticised the government’s steps; especially the imposition of curfew last Friday and the arrest of political leaders. It termed these steps as steps against democracy. Indian media was equally critical of the measures taken by the administration to foil the alliance’s rally.

The Indian media too was very critical of the present-day government in their reports. Nepali citizens were glued to their television sets and watching Indian news channel networks with interest for the reports emanating from Kathmandu.

Though canvassing and raising voices for democracy is not a wrong thing by neighbouring countries, it seems that the Indian media overreacted in some instances. Though I am not against raising a voice for meaningful and accountable democracy and it’s functioning, one can argue that the Indian media were not sensitive that their partisan and opiniated reports might have created a destabilizing effect on the already volatile situation in their northern neighborhood.

A prominent Hindi news channel aired an exclusive interview with the Maoists chief Prachanda. The report showed Prachanda giving a call for the ouster of the King as well as the government. The report also showed visuals of Maoists in military training. Now what happened? Within days, the Maoists reached and attacked the police post in Thankot at the outskirts of Kathmandu killing 11 policemen and terrorizing the neighborhood and its residents.

Now the question, which arises, is “What purpose did the news channel serve by showing such an exclusive interview of a militant outfit leader?” Indian media persons must not have forgotten the period of extreme militancy its citizens faced during the eighties.

Indian journalists must not have forgotten and be aware that “Saint” Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was the creation of the Indian media in the eighties. He was given undue publicity as a “Saint” first and later as a dedicated religious leader. That publicity made Bhindranwale such a powerful personality that he started dictating terms through sermons issued by him. He created terror in the Indian state of Punjab and later it was the same Indian media that started calling him a terrorist. By raising a demand for a separate state of “Khalistan”, Bindranwale was successful in raising an “armed force” to fight against the government and in the process became an unquestionable leader of “Khalistan”. Bhindranwale became too powerful as the Punjab government and the whole police turned helpless. With great difficulty and hard work of years put together on the part of the Indian Army and police force, Bhindranwale was cornered and killed inside the “Golden Temple” at Amritsar and his whole brigade was wiped out. However, till then hundreds of innocent people, including policemen and army personnel, were brutally killed by the man the Indian media made a hero in the 1980s.

Take another instance of LTTE Chief of Sri Lanka, Vellu Pillai Prabharakaran. Firstly, the LTTE was allowed to run its camps in the southern state of Tamil Nadu with the knowledge of the Indian government. The outfit cadres took arms training in Indian soil and became so powerful that they raised an armed struggle against the government of Sri Lanka. Later, the Government of India took the decision to send its forces to fight against the LTTE after declaring the LTTE as a terrorist outfit. The Indian government declared the LTTE Chief as a terrorist leader. And who paid what price under what circumstances? Rajiv Gandhi was killed by the LTTE cadre who was once trained in the Indian soil.

This shows that insurgency of terror and violence are is not going to solve any problem of any country whether it be the infant and fledging democracy of Nepal or the world’s largest democracy like India.

Despite holding talks with some militant outfits in Jammu and Kashmir and Indian states in the northeast, India is still fighting terrorism in those states. Different terrorist outfits are active in India under different names. Somewhere they are known as Marxist-Leninists and somewhere they are referred to as Naxalites. But the reality is that the Indian people are facing terror under different names whose sole aim is to terrorize the people and the state.

By airing Prachanda’s interview what sort of a service the Indian media may have done to the people of Nepal is under a serious question mark. Terrorists are terrorists. They are a menace. It would be better if media professional and media channels in India spoke to those whose families were killed in three powerful bomb blasts in Delhi right on the eve of Tihar festival in October last year.

Journalists in Nepal should ask their Indian counterparts what the bereaved families want of the people responsible for those bomb blasts. They will certainly not find a single person who could have any sympathy for those responsible for the blast irrespective of their cause and fight.

Media in India is considered the most important tool for fighting corruption and other menace in the society. Being the fourth estate of a successful and the largest democracy, media and media persons in India have served their country and people. However, by airing Prachanda’s interview, the question before us is: what is the value and significance for the Indian media to promote him?

During the recent Indian Congress convention held in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the State government took some security steps. The State authorities imposed prohibitory orders (under Section 144) and banned the assembly of more than five persons in Hyderabad as well as in the adjoining city of Secunderabad. Reports in the Indian Media mentioned that more than 15,000 security personnel were deployed to thwart any design of terrorist’s outfits.

While prohibitory orders imposed by the Kathmandu administration and the curfew restrictions last Friday by the government were termed by the Nepalis and Indian media as harsh steps against forces fighting for democracy, the prohibitory orders imposed in the twin towns in Southern Indian state were not termed as harsh or draconian. There was not a single word in the opposition of imposition of prohibitory orders on Indian television networks and newspaper reports.

It is the duty of the authorities and the governments to take appropriate steps to maintain peace and avoid any untoward incidents.

Nepal is a friendly neighbouring sovereign state. Terrorism in both Nepal and India has taken a huge toll of innocent lives. If Nepal is affected by the terrorism, it will have a direct impact on India resulting into cross-border terrorism. It will be confronted with the challenge to fight a bigger battle than the one in Sri Lanka to protect its social, cultural and political fabric from terrorism spill over. Instead of giving publicity to Maoist leaders who promote violence, we should speak out against any terror aimed against us. Irrespective of our nationality, we should work for uprooting such terrorist elements whether they are active in Nepal or India, whether they have their nests in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

A freelance writer, Thapa is based in New Delhi. Please send your comments to [email protected] or [email protected]

(Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to [email protected] and your comments/suggestions to [email protected])

Experts and entrepreneurs have pointed out the need of developing infrastructure to boost the ailing garment industry, which was on the verge of collapse following the termination of quota system to United States (US) from January 1, 2005.

Speaking at a programme in the capital on Tuesday, they said Nepalese garment industry should develop competitive strength to penetrate the global market.

Dr Champak Pokharel, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), said that garment export has come done following the quota phaseout by US. However, the garment sector, in terms of value addition, employment and export is very significant. Therefore, we need to have future strategies to move ahead by competing with existing free market mechanisms, said Dr Pokharel.

Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply Bharat Bahadur Thapa, urged the business sector and concerned experts to make a system so that the garment sector could be made strong.

Thapa opined that business people have tremendous opportunities in the regional and global perspectives, but they have to be competent and enhance their capacities.

Sri Ram Pandey, assistant resident representative of UNDP, commented that human resource development is important along with an enabling environment to boost the garment industry.

Kiran Saakha, president of Garment Association of Nepal (GAN) said that Nepali garment industry is in a fragile state following the quota phaseout.

“Of late, quota safeguards and restrictions imposed by the US and the EU on China have forced buyers to spread risk, creating new opportunities to countries like Nepal. But, we must put conducive procedural and policy measures to exploit it,” he said.

He urged the government to expedite development of Garment Processing Zone, intensify lobbying for duty free market access in the US and remove obstacles in trading to enable private entrepreneurs to tap new opportunities.

Ratnakar Adhikari, specialist at UNDP regional center suggested to the LDCs to focus on the enhancement of competitiveness at domestic front and advocacy for duty free market access and meaningful ‘aid for trade package’ to revive the industry.

According to statistics, the export of Nepalese readymade garment, the largest foreign currency earner of the country decreased by 40 percent following the termination of quota system.

Though the date of municipal election is coming nearer the government on Tuesday re-promulgated an ordinance vesting power to the Council of Ministers to extend the tenure of any local body if polls cannot be conducted.

Amending the Clause 239 of the Local Self Governance Act 1998, the government vested power to the Council of Ministers to extend the tenure of the local government up to three years if election could not be hold even after extension of the tenure of such a local body for a year.

According to the Act, Village Development Committees, District Development Committees and Municipalities are entitled as local bodies, according to reports.

The Sub clause 2 of the Clause 239 states that the government can extend the tenure of a local body up to three years by nominating representatives or by giving authorities to government officials to run the local bodies if election cannot be conducted due to the natural calamity, economic adversity, worse law and order situation and other factors.

Six months ago, the government had had promulgated the ordinance giving power to the Council of Ministers to extend the tenure up to one year.

President of Nepali Congress (Democratic) Sher Bahadur Deuba has called on all to boycott the upcoming municipal polls and take part in the peaceful movement of the seven political parties.

President of Nepali Congress (Democratic) Sher Bahadur Deuba

President of Nepali Congress (Democratic) Sher Bahadur Deuba (File photo)
Issuing a press statement from detention, Deuba said that the government is staging a drama of holding municipal polls, which the seven opposition political parties have announced to boycott.

Deuba has also termed the municipal polls as meaningless and said any polls without the participation of political parties will not get national and international recognition.

Accusing the government of pushing the nation towards more violence, Deuba has said the seven-party movement should be kept free from violence.

Deuba remains in custody after the controversial Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) slapped two years in prison and 90 million rupees to former premier Deuba on charge of corruption while awarding contract of the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP).