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#301 9 - 15 June 2006 16 pages Rs 30 FOOTBALL LIKE HOT CAKES: Porters carry tv sets at Indrachok on Thursday. With a month of World Cup games set to start in Germany on Friday, shops can't keep up with the demand. World Cup Special p8-11 GoodiesKUMAR SHRESTHA India gives Nepal NRs 16 billion in aid and debt write-offs KANAK MANI DIXIT in NEW DELHI rime Minister Girija Prasad billion debt to the IOC, a Rs 7.3 Koirala had three main billion development package plus P points on his agenda as he doubling of the amount set aside landed in New Delhi on Tuesday for local projects under the Indian evening: Embassy in Kathmandu. z Firm up a comfortable economic package to stabilise Editorial p2 government and kick-start Bhai Bhai reconstruction z Reassure Indian authorities of Artha Beed's Economic Sense the stability of the seven party Leveraging India p5 alliance government z Address evident Indian At a time when most Western nervousness about the Maoists donors are in a watch-and-wait The package that the Indian mode, India also offered a nearly side offered in talks with Finance Rs 2 billion outright grant in Minister Ram Sharan Mahat was cash. “We have never provided unparalleled: waiver of NRs 1.6 such budgetary support to any billion of pending payment for other country,” a senior South military hardware, rescheduling Block official told us. Nepal Oil Corporation’s Rs 5 Continued p4 Weekly Internet Poll # 301 Q... Should the House revive the local bodies? Total votes: 5,062 Weekly Internet Poll # 302. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q... Should parliament be dissolved as the Maoists want? 2 EDITORIAL 9 - 15 JUNE 2006 #301 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Marty Logan Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Vicepresident Corporate Affairs: Sneh Sayami Advertising: Sambhu Guragain [email protected] Subscription: [email protected] Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur [email protected], GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu Tel: 5543333-6, Fax: 5521013 www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5547018 A secular Hinduism If there is to be a monarchy it must be separated from religion o those agitating against the have been laughed out of court. designating people by religious BHAI BHAI declaration of Nepal as a Even Ashoka, no shrinking community and asked them what T secular state, prepare to be violet, only referred to himself as their faith ways. Magars, Tamangs Listening to the rabble rousing harangues in parliament this week left behind by logic and history. ‘blessed of the gods’. and others were no longer warning Prime Minister Koirala not to sellout to India we wondered where we had heard it all before. You may think you’re playing a Very few people in Nepal ‘automatic Hindus’. Of course, it was in 1991, 1995 and 2000 before Koirala went patriotic and faithful game but know that much of what has None of the Hindu reform to pay his respects at the Delhi Darbar each time he became you’re just cynical. Here’s why. passed for palace-sponsored movements of the past have found prime minister during previous tenures. (See picture.) Hinduism here was invented by root in Nepal, given the role of the To be sure, parliament has reason to be concerned. Koirala HERE AND THERE the Ranas or members of the same state authorities in determining has always been notorious for not consulting. Some leaders of Daniel Lak courtier class, cherry picked from the official stature of religion. the seven-party alliance actually found out from the media of his a heterodox array of traditions What would the Ranas have done, plan to cancel his check-up in Bangkok and go check out Delhi that can only be described in and confronted by Swami instead. And, after all, the man ok’d the Tanakpur barrage in 1991 To begin with, there’s no such of themselves as secular. Vivekananda or Gandhi? In India, even though it needed ratification by two-thirds of the house. thing as a Hindu kingdom. Even A secular religion? Surely not. Hindus survived Ashoka’s (Later the UML went ahead and ok’d Mahakali in similar fashion.) when such entities existed But it is so. Hinduism is a creed, Buddhism, centuries of Muslim Since India did behind-the-scenes spadework in the recent thousands of years ago, there was not a faith per se. The Mahant of overlordship and the British political transformation in Nepal, there is apprehension it will no agreement on whether they the Tulsi Ghat temple in Evangelical Chriistian mission to now demand a pound of flesh from a beholden Koirala. That’s were legitimate or not. Various Varanasi, a saint called Veer ‘civilise’ them. More than all right as parlour talk, but to actually believe it would be to tracts used to justify the absurd Bhadra Mishra, once told me surviving, Hinduism flourished. put too little faith in our leaders and our own sense of self-worth notion that a Shah king was an Hindus didn’t agree on any It still does. As India becomes as Nepalis. avatar of a god were misquoted or aspect of their faith save the prosperous and more modern, its Why are we so insecure especially after a dramatic regime deliberately misused. Respected sanctity of the family and the people are flocking to temples and change through non-violent people power? Are we so feckless Hindu scholars say the kings of responsibility of individuals for worshipping as never before. and fickle to fritter away our natural resources so easily? Why early Hindudom were entreated their own salvation. Hinduism may similarly do we have to always prove our nationalism by baiting India? to be just and wise, like gods, not “We have so many schools of become relevant and supportive of Let’s start defining ourselves by what we are rather than what to be gods themselves. thought,” he said, “some believe change in the new Nepal. First of we aren’t. In those days of wandering in millions of gods, some just a all, caste needs to openly debated The national economy needs immediate first aid, and here India’s five-year budgetary support plan will help. But for long- mendicants like Buddha, few, some in one God and others and discrimination ended. Some term sustainability and growth India and Nepal need to work Mahavira and others, a king who in no gods at all. We have atheist sort of affirmative action for dalits constructively on large-scale natural resource collaboration so claimed actual godhood would Hindus. Who’s to say whether and others is essential. The status we can benefit from India’s blistering growth. anyone is more correct than of women is a national shame in Perhaps it is the memory of Kosi and anyone else.” Then, true to the many parts of this country, Gandaki that fuels Nepali suspicions of notion of individual salvation, particularly rural Hindu women. Indian intent, so it means future projects Mahant-ji slipped into the Their religious beliefs, and those have to be more equitable. Ganges and took his holy bath. of their husbands, have kept them Parliament has been decisive in Tolerance is the only way to in bondage. No faith justifies restructuring the state, removing the approach life under such beliefs. slavery. Finally, the endless raison d’etre for the Maoists to keep to Nepali Hinduism calcified spectacles of Hindu ritual need to their violent path. No wonder the under state patronage. A be removed from state functions, comrades want it dissolved. And that is culturally sanctioned way of life including those involving the why the house shouldn’t be bogged down in India that adapted and served king, and put back in temples and playing political ping pong, for instance, peoples’ needs for millennia peoples’ homes where they over who was or wasn’t included in the became a tool of caste oppression belong. prime minister’s entourage. and exclusion in Nepal. So here’s to secularism. And It needs to be more concerned with Pretending to be a force for unity, to Hinduism, whether Shaivite, prodding the government to reach health the Hinduism encouraged by the Vaishnivite, Brahminical or any care to the poorest, get the school system Nepali elite was largely a way to other kind. Not to mention going again, ensure good governance and divide and rule the diverse Bonpo, Islam, Buddhism, implementation. We don’t need permanent masses. Chistianity, Animism, peace for that. It’s no accident that the Agnoticism, Atheism and others. The problem in Nepal has never been money, but spending it efficiently. Let’s get number of Hindus in the country Most of all, here’s to tolerance over our insecurities for once, and get to work. declined in relative terms in the that can only take root when the last census. That’s because the land itself is truly united in government stopped simply diversity. 19 JULY 2000, #1 Gross national happiness in Pokhara Equality in politics and equity in economics are two sides of the same coin POKHARA—Here we are in the place with universities and chosen not to live in the enough to declare the country secular and But social and political rights in the the highest annual rainfall in Nepal, and yet capital have organised the program. The untouchability-free is competent enough to absence of economic justice is often the the wet streets are slick and rainwashed. In room is full of enthusiastic participants. announce at least short-term measures to precursor to further upheaval.