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Nepal News & Discussion - Husky - 01-24-2009
Christianism.
http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=8081&SKIN=W
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Now carrying Bhagvad Githa a crime in Nepal!</b>
23/01/2009 12:24:06Â HK
Kathmandu: Two Hindus in Nepal were fined and held captive for carrying Bhagavad Githa in the former Hindu Nation!
Ram Krishna Bhattarai and Barad Raj Koirala, members of a Hindu organisation in Birtamod on the India-Nepal border, were stopped on the road while returning from India's Benaras city, where they had gone to buy copies of the Gita and other books, Reports IANS
It is reported that members of an ethnic organisation of Limbu Community- which claims to predate Sanathana Dharma itself, is behind this action.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 01-24-2009
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE RIGHT VIEW (TOI)
Oh! Asin
6 Jan 2009 Tarun Vijay
I was about to title this column "Ghaznis in Kathmandu". The holiest shrine of the Hindus, the Shiva temple of Lord Pashupatinath in the former Hindu state of Nepal was stormed and desecrated. The chief priest was manhandled and forced to resign just because he happened to be of Indian origin.
In Nepal, there was a time when any sense of belonging to India brought glory and respect. Now, anyone with an Indian tag is insulted and humiliated. And look who is directing this hooliganism? Mr Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda, the darling of South Block who got a red-carpet welcome from the Hindus of the right, left and centre varieties. People in Delhi who know that he "butchered" 15,000 Nepalese Hindus in the last decade of his Maoist revolution were dying to have a handshake with him. We are like this only.
So the "butcher" got all the accolades, spoke sweet one-liners, like "our relations are Ayodhya-to-Janakpur-Dham-kind, cordial and civilizational", meaning Ram (Ayodhya)-Sita (Janakpur) bonds exist between India and Nepal. Wow!
And then he smiled in his Kathmandu office. Being the patron of the Pashupatinath Temple board by virtue of his post, he ordered that the chief priest must be of Nepali origin. His army of rogues, Young Communist league, stormed the temple, broke open its main gates, humiliated the chief priest, anointed the newly brought Mr Bishnu Dahal as chief priest, and hurrah! A revolution had just begun!
It's been three days since puja was conducted at the age-old temple, which has been synonymous with the identity of Nepal. Three gates out of four have been closed. I spoke to the ousted chief priest, Mahabaleshwar Bhatt. He seemed to be terrified in his home as if under house arrest. "No sir, " he said, "I have resigned on my own, I was not feeling physically fit to perform the onerous duties of chief priest. Everything will be right, I am sure, I trust in Shiva." And he hung up. Then I spoke to the Kanchi Shankaracharya. He was sad and anguished. He said that if a new priest had to be appointed, care should have been taken not to disrupt the puja and the new priest should have been well versed in performing the duties in the service of the lord.
Hindus of this Hindustan couldn't save the honour of our revered Shankaracharya. How can we expect them to save the honour of Pashupatinath in the neighbouring country?
The media and the channels sought to play down the episode. Just imagine, if the atheist Communists had stormed the Vatican or if Mecca was sought to be cleansed of "alien elements" by the anti-Saudi king elements, what would have been the reaction the world over?
This has happened in Nepal in spite of a Supreme Court stay against changing the priest. When the World Hindu Federation (Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh) people tried to hold a press conference in protest, it was attacked by the same Young Communist League elements. It was left to Rajnath Singh, BJP president, to speak to the president and the prime minister of Nepal conveying deep anguish of Hindus over the storming of the Pashupatinath Temple. But there are other Hindus too and they have a right to ask the PM and the super PM why they were silent. Would they have ignored an assault on a dilapidated mosque in Nepal? Or, to refresh everyone's memory, would they have remained silent if something of a similar nature had happened to non-Hindus in Denmark?
So I turned to Ghajini, the inexplicable name of a person whose last name is Dharmatma. The film is a beautiful remake of Memento. The hero, Sanjay, played by Aamir Khan, is deeply hurt and anguished because Ghajini Dharmatma, the bad, ugly villain, kills his beloved, Kalpana, played by a sparklingly charming Asin. And he takes revenge in a decisive manner, though he suffers from short-term memory loss, medically explained as '"anterograde amnesia". A handsome, wealthy, successful entrepreneur, who loves life and doesn't interfere in any other person's business, is turned into a highly disabled guy, for no fault of his. He becomes a loner and a dejected man who is left with nothing in this cruel world that would attract him. He is hurt. Hence he decides to take revenge on the person who killed his beloved.
Asin, I mean Kalpana in the movie, trusts everyone, tries to help every distressed person, and she dies, longing to be united with his love. Sanjay suffers brutalities, yet survives with a memory loss. He even forgets who his enemy is and starts following the enemy's instructions. But he is taken to the right path by a friend, takes revenge and wins public applause.
It has taught me a lesson. We, the Hindus, suffer pathetically from short-term memory loss. We forget that the leaders we trust take us nowhere. Yet we vote for them year after year. A Pashupatinath stormed makes small news. A Shankaracharya arrested and humiliated turns into secular celebration. Temples bombed are easily forgotten and patriots turned into refugees become an accepted norm of democratic compulsions. No revenge. We have been brutalized and humiliated for centuries. Yet we love our assailants. Short-term memory loss? Revenge? That's only for movies. Good guys like us must show large-heartedness and tolerance. Tolerance, even if Kalpana is killed.
In times like this, Asin's charm helps us to keep our cool and have some hope in future. The anguish has to be reserved for the polling day. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nepal News & Discussion - Husky - 01-25-2009
Not about Nepal, but just a remark on something Tarun keeps saying in the above.
<!--QuoteBegin-dhu+Jan 24 2009, 06:44 PM-->QUOTE(dhu @ Jan 24 2009, 06:44 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE RIGHT VIEW (TOI)
Oh! Asin
6 Jan 2009 Tarun Vijay
In times like this, Asin's charm helps us to keep our cool and have some hope in future. The anguish has to be reserved for the polling day. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->[right][snapback]93740[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->He keeps referring to the actress Asin several times, instead of the character Kalpana. "Oh Asin" (title), "sparklingly charming Asin", "Asin's charm". And confusing Kalpana's character with Asin's:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Asin, I mean Kalpana in the movie, trusts everyone, tries to help every distressed person, and she dies, longing to be united with his love.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Does it not bother Tarun that the christian actress is known to donate huge sums of money to missionary "charities"? Not very charming, I'd have thought.
Nepal News & Discussion - Bodhi - 01-25-2009
Trivia time. <b>No Google allowed.</b>
Q: Who wrote the following:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Vedic texts and rituals always have been transmitted orally, by learning them by heart, from teacher to pupil, in an unbroken line of tradition starting with the Rgveda time itself (as alluded to in the text). This has been done with such fidelity and accuracy that, for instance, a Vedic mantra heard in Nepal will have exactly the same wording and even the same intonation (with the musical accents long lost in everyday speech) in Kashmir or Gujarat or Kerala. No word or accent has been changed for a period of at least 3000 years. This is quite remarkable, especially when compared to the religious or literary traditions of other cultures. The Veda has got a better tradition than any classical text of Greco-Roman antiquity or, for that matter, the holy texts of the Christian or Jewish religion, which nearly date back as far as some Vedic texts. Actually, there is no text known anywhere in the world which has got that kind of faithful tradition as the Rgveda or other Vedic texts have got, being transmitted by word of mouth until recently. It would be extremely sad if by the neglect of this generation this unique tradition would die out in the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nepal News & Discussion - Husky - 01-25-2009
<!--QuoteBegin-Bodhi+Jan 25 2009, 10:50 AM-->QUOTE(Bodhi @ Jan 25 2009, 10:50 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Trivia time. <b>No Google allowed.</b>
Q: Who wrote the following:
[...]
[right][snapback]93803[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Is one allowed to be wrong? Don't laugh, okay?
Elst? Or was it Elst that said that Homer's epics were passed down to the Greeks in a similar manner... Aaaahhhh. I give up. Who was it? Don't make me Google for it.
<b>ADDED:</b> Since you made me wait too long for the answer (at least 2 minutes), I web searched. My guess was wrong. The answer was semi-unexpected. But in a way it makes sense that it would have said that. Ultimately though, I don't care what it said.
Nepal News & Discussion - Pandyan - 01-25-2009
Through Husky's disgusted reference as "it", I'm going to guess Max Mueller.
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 01-25-2009
Witzel.
Nepal News & Discussion - Bodhi - 01-25-2009
full marks! did you google?
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 01-25-2009
No, I remembered his tape recorder remark, and figured you must have edited out that portion. also the writing style is "kapti". Plus the poor fellow imagines himself to be Nepal's savior.
Nepal News & Discussion - Hauma Hamiddha - 01-25-2009
The simple thing is Witzel made a Malhotran U-turn as done by several western scholars. He at some point might have been supported by the Hare Krishnas as suggested by the positive references to them long ago. Until the the mid-90s he had not yet turned openly anti-Hindu, and only after that he went that way. The U-turns have been well-studied by Malhotra and others like V. Agrawal. In fact Witzel was inadvertently useful in exposing the U-turns of a number of other Western scholars about whom one was uncertain. Given the high frequency of U-turns among western scholars, we may consider that as even a default path. Though there might be difference in this regard vis-a-vis bauddha and sanAtana studying mlechCha-s
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 02-28-2009
Kathmandu, center of U.S. espionage in South Asia
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The new U.S. embassy in Kathmandu occupies the grounds of a former CIA safe house and operations center in the Nepali capital. The embassy, in the Maharajgunj district of Kathmandu, is a one-block long fortress-like structure and the subject of derision among the Nepali people. The embassy is built along Stalinesque architectural standards now common with new U.S. embassies around the world: stark, rectangular structures that convey the notion that the United States is an impenetrable fortress that is closed to the outside world.
A drive-by of the embassy did not afford the opportunity to take a photograph of the monolithic building because the embassy frontage is well protected by Nepali contract security personnel.
WMR has spoken to a number of informed Nepali and foreign sources who confirmed that espionage has been and is the number one priority of the American diplomatic mission in Nepalâs capital. The current U.S. ambassador is Nancy Powell, who one Nepali official described as âweird.â Powell has done nothing to convince the Bush administration to drop its designation of the Maoist Communist Party that now governs Nepal in a coalition with two other Communist parties, as a âterrorist organization.â
There is widespread belief among the intelligence community that the Bush administration may try to carry out another massacre like the one its helped to plan and carry out against the royal family in 2001. This time, former Maoist Peopleâs Liberation Army (PLA) of Nepal is being disarmed with a plan to integrate it with the Nepali Army and Police. In the meantime, the PLA have been directed to containment camps supervised by the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), which is now trying to slow the military integration process, as well as delaying the process of writing a new constitution for Nepal. The stalling action by the UN and UNMIN head Ian Martin, against the backdrop of the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal, may be a prelude for another coup in Nepal, one designed by the United States to destabilize a country that sits between China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). In the event of a coup, the disarmed PLA ranks would be sitting ducks for a massacre similar to the bloody anti-Communist purge in Indonesia in the 1960s, carried out by the Indonesian government with the support of the CIA.
The new U.S. embassy was built without Nepali contractor assistance. Instead, the State Department contracted to have construction personnel brought in from Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Egypt, driving up labor costs because the foreign workers were housed in some of Kathmanduâs most expensive hotels.
The embassy is built on the grounds of the Brahma Cottage, a center for the operations of the CIAâs and State Departmentâs joint Surveillance Device Unit. The CIA contracted with Nepali contractors to carry out surveillance of the palace of the then-Prince Gyenendra and Nepal Police Headquarters. Gyanendra became King after the June 1, 2001, regicidal coup dâetat against the royal family, which saw Gyanendra accede to the throne. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and its coalition partners later deposed Gyanendra and declared a new Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
The Brahma Cottage CIA center, which was next door to Gyanendraâs palace, was also used by the CIA to plan the regicide and coup dâetat with the assistance of former Nepali police officers and the cooperation of Indiaâs Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). The old U.S. embassy was across the street from Brahma Cottage.
In September 2002, this editor wrote, âIn the months leading up to the Nepali coup, the CIA established an office in the Maharajgunj District of Kathmandu, next door to the residence of Prince Gyanendra. Witnesses reoprtedly saw streams of Nepali police and military officials streaming into the offices. Other U.S. âcivilians,â said to be with private military contractor CIA fronts like MPRI, were also seen arriving at the offices. In the spring, a U.S. Special Operations Forces team arrived in Kathmandu on a secret exercise code-named Bailey Nightingale I. The cover for the exercise was said to be earthquake disaster training. But it now appears it had another disaster in mind. The military team was composed of U.S. psychological operations (PSYOPs) personnel adept at coming up with tales like the one about the Crown Prince murdering his family.â
Crown Prince Dipendra was reported to have shot his entire family in a pique of rage over a his choice of a bride. The BBC report of the incident exemplified the psyop used to spread the word about the Crown Prince killing his family: âThe King and Queen of Nepal have been shot dead after the heir to the throne went on the rampage with a gun before turning it on himself. Eleven people died in the incident which started when Crown Prince Dipendra allegedly had a dispute with his mother over his choice of bride. King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and Prince Niranjan were among the victims of the tragedy at the royal palace in Nepalâs capital, Kathmandu. The other victims included three of the Kingâs children, his two sisters and one more member of the family by marriage.â The report by the BBC, which increasingly acts as an echo chamber for British intelligence, was false.
However, a senior Nepali intelligence officer told WMR that Dipendra did not kill himself but was shot to death by a royal guard. There is reason to believe that Dipendra was the first person shot in the royal massacre.
The CIAâs involvement in Nepalâs covert operations is nothing new. From 1956 to 1962, the CIA ran a Tibetan exile Khampa guerrilla army that launched attacks within Tibet from bases in the small kingdom of Mustang, a principality in Nepal on the northern border with Tibet. After India lost its two wars with China in the early 1960s, the CIA reactivated its Tibetan guerrilla army to open a front against China, which was militarily supporting North Vietnam and the Vietcong, in Operation Shadow Circus.
In August 1974, the CIA ordered the liquidation of its last Tibetan guerrilla army leader Wangdu Gyatotsang and his men after Secretary of State Henry Kissinger began opening up to China and, in a Ribbentropian policy, began cutting loose U.S. allies in Southeast Asia and gave approval to Indiaâs swallowing up of the Kingdom of Sikkim. According to intelligence sources, the CIA received the approval of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India in using other Tibetan contractors to eliminate the last Tibetan guerrilla army. The CIA was more concerned about its secret operations in Mustang becoming public than in protecting its own guerrilla forces.
In 1987, the CIAâs station in Kathmandu oversaw the burglary of the German Democratic Republicâs embassy in Kathmandu. According to a Nepali intelligence official, among the items taken from the embassy were code books, encryption machines, and classified documents. The operation was carried out with the assistance of the First Secretary of the East German embassy and a Nepali police inspector. Both were spirited out of Nepal and given political asylum in the United States.
Documentarian Yoichi Shimatsu, in his film âPrayer Flags,â points out that the CIA continued to use Nepal as a base for its covert operations throughout the 1990s when it used the guise of installing seismographic and geological monitoring systems to place surveillance systems and sensors at high elevations in the Himalayas.
The new Maoist-led government of Nepal has told Mustangâs powerless and nominal king, Jigme Parwat Bista, that his small principality was being abolished, along with the other three small kingdoms of Salyan, Jajarkot, and Bajhang. However, Bista was not a supporter of the last king, Gyanendra, according to informed sources in Kathmandu. His kingdomâs past support for the CIAâs operations against China has resulted in âblowbackâ in his kingdom being abolished by Nepalâs Maoist government.
The CIAâs old Nepal proprietary airline, Fishtail Air, founded by a veteran of Camp Walker in Seoul, South Korea, still flies around Nepal.
Nepal also served as a terror nexus between individuals connected to the CIA in Kathmandu and the Dawood Ibrahim criminal syndicate that carried out the March 12, 1993 bombings of the Bombay Stock Exchange, Bombay hotels, cinemas, and shopping centers that killed over 300 people. The bombings were a reprisal for the destruction of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya by Hindu extremists. Over two thousands Muslims, including women and children, were massacred by rampaging Hindus after the mosqueâs destruction. Ibrahim is now believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
Currently, the U.S. embassy in Kathmandu continues to conduct covert operations against China, mostly through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Trace Foundation, a Tibetan support group run by Andrea Soros Colombel, and funded by her father, George Soros. The recent outbreak of violence in Tibet by pro-independence Tibetans was an attempt at fomenting yet another âcolored themedâ revolution by Soros, a one-time Hungarian Jewish Nazi and not the first Nazi to have an interest in the Himalayan region where swastika religious symbol is ubiquitous.
The Trace Foundation is working with one of the Buddhist Tantric sects that has the aim of revealing the Kalachakra prophecy, which predicts a final global war between the forces of good versus a future Islamic Mahdi. A Buddha-type figure is foreseen as returning as a new Messiah. This construct is similar to the neocon âClash of Civilizationsâ that sees a final showdown between the West and Islam. The Trace Foundation is trying to co-opt the old messianic Buddhist tradition to unify major world religions to install a global government, according to a specialist who has followed Sorosâ activities in Tibet and Nepal.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nepal News & Discussion - Husky - 03-15-2009
http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=8359&SKIN=B
<b>Muslims on warpath in Nepal</b>
13/03/2009 12:03:09 timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-4260739,prtpage-1.cms
Nepal News & Discussion - Capt M Kumar - 05-04-2009
Prachanda, Nepal's first Maoist prime minister, announced his resignation in a televised address to the nation. He blamed Nepal's political parties and foreign powers for hindering his government.
A nearly two-month battle between the Maoists and army chief Gen Rookmangud Katawal had come to a head Sunday with the ruling party announcing the dismissal of Katawal.
http://news.in.msn.com/international/artic...umentid=3005703
Nepal News & Discussion - HareKrishna - 05-04-2009
<!--QuoteBegin-dhu+Feb 28 2009, 08:54 PM-->QUOTE(dhu @ Feb 28 2009, 08:54 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Currently, the U.S. embassy in Kathmandu continues to conduct covert operations against China, mostly through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Trace Foundation, a Tibetan support group run by Andrea Soros Colombel, and funded by her father, George Soros. The recent outbreak of violence in Tibet by pro-independence Tibetans was an attempt at fomenting yet another âcolored themedâ revolution by Soros, a one-time Hungarian Jewish Nazi and not the first Nazi to have an interest in the Himalayan region where swastika religious symbol is ubiquitous.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yep,Gerge Soros and his NGO's surely cookup something out there.
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 05-04-2009
<b> Nepal PM quits in army chief row </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Prachanda makes his resignation announcement Prachanda has only served as PM since elections in 2008Â The Maoist Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has dramatically announced his resignation in a television address to the nation. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
He was going to lose trust vote.
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 05-06-2009
Video shows Dahal admitting real strength of PLA not more than 8,000 (Part 1)
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 05-06-2009
<b>Prachandaâs folly, not Nepalâs
</b>
Kanchan Gupta
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Left to himself, it is possible that Mr Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, the Maoist Prime Minister of Nepal who walked out of his office on Monday, would not have precipitated a political crisis by locking horns with the Army chief, Gen Rukmangad Katawal. If blame must be apportioned, most of it should be shared by Mr Dahalâs comrades in the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). For, it is the Maobadis outside the Government, nearly all of them impulsively intolerant of the democratic process, who pushed Mr Dahal into taking a position from where he could not retreat without being seen to have suffered a humiliating defeat.
The crisis that reached flashpoint on Monday has long been in making. The Maoists have never been comfortable with Nepalâs Army, their principal enemy during the bloody insurrection that ultimately led to the passage of Singha Durbar into the annals of history. The demise of the 240-year-old monarchy, founded in 1768 by Prithvi Narayan Shah who forged warring fiefdoms into a unified kingdom, was a logical, if undesirable, conclusion of relentless political strife and disruptive social discord.
King Gyanendraâs unceremonious eviction from Narayanhity Palace, which has been converted into a national museum and where relics now gather dust, should have marked a rupture with the past. But the Maobadis did not quite see it that way. Nor did their participation in the Constituent Assembly election, which, contrary to the expectations of the Maobadis, did not fetch them a parliamentary majority, and subsequently forming a Government with the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) rid them of their insecurities, primarily their fear of the Army seizing power sooner or later and reinstating the dethroned King.
To prevent such an eventuality, the Maobadis insisted that 19,000 demobbed members of their âPeopleâs Liberation Armyâ should be absorbed in the Nepal Army. That would be the first step towards converting the Army into a loyalist force, to be used for perpetuating Maoist rule and eventually converting Nepal into a Maoist state. But Gen Katawal refused to play ball with the Maobadis; whatever his personal predilection â he is believed to be close to King Gyanendra â even his detractors would concede that he is a professional soldier whose primary loyalty is to Nepal.
While accepting the supremacy of the civilian Government, he firmly rebuffed all attempts to undermine the Army and pack it with yesterdayâs guerrillas steeped in Maoist ideology and scornful of an established command and control structure. To browbeat Gen Katawal, Mr Dahal used his powers as Prime Minister to forcibly retire eight senior Generals perceived to be close to the Army chief. That order was rendered ineffective by Gen Katawal who sought judicial intervention.
Meanwhile, the Maobadis, increasingly restless, took to taunting Mr Dahal for not being able to promote his partyâs interests â serving Nepalâs interests was of no importance to them; they wanted him to act or quit. And so push came to shove with Mr Dahal trying to sack Gen Katawal; the Army chief refusing to accept marching orders; and, finally, President Ram Baran Yadav, a veteran politician in the traditional mould, stepping in and using his powers as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to rescind the Prime Ministerâs impetuous firman. By then, of course, the Government headed by Mr Dahal had lost its majority with the CPN (UML) pulling out of what was clearly an uneasy alliance between two parties with little in common apart from their hostility to the monarchy.
But if Mr Dahal, notwithstanding his maudlin declaration that he was resigning to âcreate a positive environment, to save democracy, nationalism and the peace processâ, thought that his dramatic exit would cause sufficient political disarray and popular outrage to force the President to let him have his way, he was utterly wrong. If he acted on advice, it was entirely misplaced; if he allowed his comrades to get the better of him, then he is likely to suffer loss of stature in the ranks. Neither is a happy prospect.
Instead of allowing the political crisis to deepen, Mr Yadav has acted swiftly and in a commendable manner. He has asked the other political parties to form a Government by Saturday, and they have responded with near unanimity. By Tuesday evening, 21 parties, which have collaborated in the past, had decided to form a ânationalâ Government under the leadership of the CPN (UML). Together, these parties, including the Nepali Congress, the Terai Madhes Democratic Party, the Sadbhavna Party and the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, have 280 MPs in the 601-member Constituent Assembly. Sensing an opportunity, most of the 53 MPs of the Madhesi Peopleâs Rights Forum are believed to have expressed their desire to join the Government â in true South Asian style, they are willing to split the parent organisation if it does not endorse participation in the new Government.
The Maobadis, presumably, did not factor in âhorse-tradingâ, the key to political stability in this part of the world when parliamentary majority eludes any single party or alliance. Presumably they also realise that there is no percentage in crying foul at this stage, not least because the anticipated street protests have not quite materialised. Whether that precludes political violence cannot be said with any certitude. That could follow once the implications of loss of power have sunk in. The CPN (UML), in a grand gesture, has said that Maoist cooperation is ânecessary for permanent peaceâ, but only the naïve will read a deep political message in this.
If the remarkably quick response of the political parties to the crisis precipitated by Mr Dahal is worthy of praise, so is the overwhelming rejection of the Maobadisâ attempt to rouse public passions by slyly suggesting that India caused the problem by âinterferingâ in Nepalâs internal affairs. Despite stories being planted to the effect that Indiaâs Ambassador tried to persuade Mr Dahal into abandoning his plan to sack Gen Katawal, there has been little or no demonstration of anti-India sentiments.
On the contrary, Kathmanduâs intellectuals have come forward to forthrightly reject all such suggestions of âinterferenceâ by India and pointed out that it was Mr Dahal who had recently âsummonedâ the Ambassadors of eight countries to seek their support for his move to sack the Army chief. But none of them was willing to endorse his action. According to noted civil society activist and Constituent Assembly member Nilamber Acharya, âPrachanda (Mr Dahal) himself met Indiaâs Ambassador Rakesh Sood half-a-dozen times in connection with the issue of Army chief and when he did not get a favourable response, he is talking about foreign intervention, which is ridiculous.â
Yet Mr Dahal and the Maobadis are not entirely friendless, at least in India. The people and politicians of Nepal may scoff at the suggestion of âforeign interventionâ, but Mr Sitaram Yechury has been prompt in warning India that it should steer clear of interfering in Nepalâs affairs. Itâs not easy to reconcile yourself to the fact that you no longer have access to the corridors of power â neither in New Delhi, nor in Kathmandu.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 05-07-2009
Ian Martin ( video here ) was also former secretary-general of Amnesty International, in addition to his UN mandated role in East Timor. He authored Self-Determination in East Timor: The United Nations, the Ballot, and International Intervention (International Peace Academy..) . He was also involved in Rwanda, Haiti, and Bosnia. they are not bothered even in changing operatives.
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 05-07-2009
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sir,
Nepal is on route to its dismantling at the hands of street lampoons thrown up in the name of democracy in the Indian style. Our bane is that we peddle 'democracy' on behalf of others which is no democracy. Traditional societies which have deep roots and social discipline, a strength which western societies do not have no use for this hog wash which west calls democracy a product of commercial capitalism machination. After all this multiparty concept was a gift of the English commercial class which flourished under this banner stretching its empire where it did not meet resistance. Multi party system is meant to split traditional societies vertically, fragment them and make them vulnerable to penetration, destroy their spiritual sinews and replace all tenets by greed and money. So Nepal is being led in this abyss of darkness. King Gyanendra is responsible too. But all forces of good must join to curb this eruption. Nepal must remain a monarchy, look for other roots of this. Nepal must remain a Hindu state as much as England is a Christian state! Then why are we shy?
I learn that PRACHANDA IS A CHRISTIAN under his superficial skin! Is this true?
S. Chauhan from New Delhi <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sir,
I did not notice "Letter to the editor column" in your very colorful weekly (April 12-18 issue) but here are a few jottings from a reader who noticed that some clarification may be fitting.
Regarding the report titled "Cultural Whirlwind" by Sandhya Jain on page 8 of your April 12-18 issue. The writer seems to want to put some blame on the eroding of Hindu culture and "civilization of the nation" on Catholics, a minority group among an estimated almost one million Christians of Nepal.
Well here are the facts:
The Christians and Maoists have nothing in common regarding God and culture -- so to group them together, even indirectly, is laughable.
Catholics have and are actually helping preserve Nepalese culture. They are trying to teach young and old in their many educational institutions to appreciate their roots. <b>Bestselling books by "once American" (but now Nepalese) Jesuit priests on historical Hindu </b>monarchy, and Newar and Buddhist culture/religions can be found on libraries of every serious researcher of Nepal. <b>Catholic nuns (most of them now wearing saffron saris) </b>and priests are serving thousands of Hindu and Buddhist children 1<b>2 high schools, 8 primary schools and 3 intermediate colleges.</b> Parents know that Catholic run schools DO NOT try to convert children but help them become better Hindus or Buddhist -- that is why there is an unparalled rush for children admissions from class one onwards. In addition Catholics in Nepal run 4 day care centers for the handicapped and 22 pre-school programs for poor children. Why would you work with the mentally handicapped or mentally ill if you wanted to produce clever converts? If you think of less than 150 Catholic nuns and less than 70 priests running this Nepal-wide service -- they deserve encouragement and not criticism. By the way over half a dozen Catholic institutions (schools mainly) were bombed during the people's war in the last few years -- and it is only by God's grace no nun or priest was killed.
The Catholic Christians in Nepal number only 7500 as of the year 2007. We know the exact number of Catholics in Nepal as it is not easy to "become" a Catholic -- it takes at least a year of careful study/preparation even if you want to be baptized. Over half of all marriages in our church take place between Catholics and Hindus/Buddhists and couples remain that way.
So we practice inter-religious harmony and unions.
The report on your weekly talks about the first Catholic bishop of Nepal to be ordained on 5 May in Kathmandu. This would have happened even if Nepal was still a Hindu country. <b>The person being ordained (bishop) is Amulyanath Sharma -- a Nepalese citizen who was the first ever Nepali to become a Jesuit priest in 1968 </b>after over a dozen years of difficult study and training. It is a matter of pride that <b>he became the principal of the famous St.Joseph's school at Northpoint, Darjeeling, and taught kings and princes for many years. </b>Just after the Nepalese government requested diplomatic ties with the Vatican, Sharma was made the first "Ecclesiastic Superior" of Nepal Catholic Church on 9 April 1984. Later on 8 November 1996, the Catholic Church of Nepal was elevated as an "Apostolic Prefecture" and Sharma became first "Apostolic Prefect". Even before King Gyanendra was forced to see through the recent political changes, the Vatican had already informed him and planned to elevate Sharma to the position of "bishop" of Nepal.
You may find it interesting to note that among many groups of Christians (non-Catholic) in Nepal, the first one who was "ordained" as the first "bishop" is Pastor Narayan Sharma (in 2006). <b>So the first "Protestant" Christian bishop of Nepal is Bishop Narayan Sharma of the Believers Church group -- he resides and runs his activities from Jawalakhel.</b>
When a writer lays the blame of the eroding of Nepalese culture on some service minded group of people who live their daily lives in belief in God (who leave their families to serve) and groups them together with politicians, it is a ridicule to the writer himself. Our Nepalese civilization based on tolerance and peace is only going to be eroded if we cease to think positively in an effort to bring various ethnic and religious groups together. So let us not write reports that pitch one group against the other, but rather research facts first before offering positive criticism for harmony.
Chirendra Satyal
Gairidhara<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nepal News & Discussion - dhu - 05-08-2009
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I remember a picture of Ian Martin and Baburam Bhattarai conversing over beer in Edihoven.
This image is forever etched in my mind and I understand exactly what the writer means when he is talking about the lack of independence.
Having fought the Maoists during our civil war, I will never forget the double standards that the work of Ian Martin created and I will never forget the men who were murdered behind a shield that OHCHR created.
Soliders are not born killers... it is the circumstances and frustrations that harnesses the killer instinct. The source of the frustrations has always been the double standards that agencies like the OHCHR and INGOs the King and the politicians of Nepal have used.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->