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733 21 - 27 November 2014 20 Pages Rs 50 #733 21 - 27 November 2014 20 pages Rs 50 SAARC SUMMIT PRIDE AND SAARC is a grouping of countries PREJUDICE AT that numerically has the largest SAARC number of the world’s poor and Kathmandu can use its hungry people. No wonder the rest of the world is not very interested in the geopolitical positioning to Kathmandu summit. upgrade SAARC into a dynamic regional grouping. SAARC’S BY KANAK MANI DIXIT RAISON D’ÊTRE PAGE 3 EDITORIAL PAGE 2 JANAKPUR DATELINE BY DAVID SEDDON AND DAMAKANT JAYSHI PAGE 4-5 REIMAGINING SOUTH ASIA BY THE WAY BY ANURAG ACHARYA PAGE 6 BIKAS RAUNIAR BEFORE THE SLAUGHTER ilgrims from India and Nepal have started P arriving at the Gadhimai Festival (pic, above). There is expected to be a significant decline in the number of sacrifices this year because of the public outcry against the mass slaughter within Nepal and abroad. MAOIST CHRISTIANS How an Army spy became a Maoist and decided to spread the gospel among Nepal’s guerrillas. SUBHAS RAI PAGE 16-17 2 EDITORIAL 21 - 27 NOVEMBER 2014 #733 SAARC’S RAISON D’ÊTRE welve years ago, the SAARC Summit was finally held ‘military security’ to include ‘human security’. A nation is in Kathmandu after being postponed twice because If the South Asian Summit helps us to secure if it is free from hunger, disease, homelessness and Tof India-Pakistan tensions. The regional summit finally start thinking regionally and acting unemployment – not from perceived external enemies. has a history of being held hostage by the persisting cold You can be sure these matters will not be discussed at war between its two largest nuclear-armed members. The locally, it will be a start the Kathmandu Summit next week. There will be platitudes most newsworthy event in January 2002 in Kathmandu, in about poverty, of course, and lofty rhetoric as there has been fact, was the perfunctory handshake between Atal Bihari for the past three decades of SAARC’s existence. So, let’s Vajpayee and Gen Pervez Musharraf. not be too ambitious. A dozen years later, not much has changed. There has What will drive regional growth will still be bilateral been deadly shelling over the Line of Control in Kashmir, economic ties. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has and there was some worry that the Pakistanis would pull out made improvement of relations with neighbours a priority. at the last moment, or that Afghan leadership uncertainties That he took the trouble to invite leaders of South Asian would force a postponement. Barring late hitches, however, countries to New Delhi for his inauguration went beyond SAARC 2014 is on. symbolism, it indicated a shift in the paradigm of regional As international summits go, this will not make world relations. For too long, Indian foreign policy towards headlines like the recent APEC, ASEAN or G20 Summits the region has been driven by paranoia over encirclement, in Beijing, Naypyidaw and Brisbane. SAARC, after all, is and a siege mentality stemming from none of its neighbours a grouping of countries that numerically has the largest bordering each other but all of them sharing borders with number of the world’s poorest and hungriest people. The India. Modi is trying to turn geography to India’s advantage, sub-continent and the sub-Sahara are not much different in and make his country's vast market available to neighbours terms of average life-expectancy, rate of open defecation, in a refreshing, new push for co-prosperity and stability. child malnutrition, maternal and infant mortality. Despite SAARC can, therefore, focus on do-able things like progress in Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, the sheer loosening border controls, visa-free travel, promoting population size of India and Pakistan drags down the meaningful regional free trade, improving transportation regional average. There are still parts of the Indo-Gangetic and tele-connectivity, building a regional power grid, plains where more than half the children go to bed hungry sharing rivers, flood control and weather early warning every night. data. Few SAARC capitals are connected by air. If air Yet, these two countries are at each other's throats, influence how seriously it is taken by the international connections are bad, you should try rail, road or sea links. spending precious resources on arming themselves when community. Inequality, deprivation and exclusion have a Actually, you can’t. There aren’t any. Even Modi had to they should be allocating them for education and health direct bearing on internal security of our countires. Popular cancel his overland trip to Nepal. of their people. For the past decade, India has the dubious insurrections, communal riots, insurgencies are fuelled There is really no sense in blaming the SAARC Secretariat distinction of being the world’s largest annual importer of by disenchantment and disillusionment of the youth. in Kathmandu for not doing much. SAARC is the lowest conventional arms. Pakistan lavishes $6 billion a year on its Underdevelopment, therefore, is a national security issue for common denominator of our red-tape, lack of transparency, military. South Asia. Inequality and social injustice have implications and a debilitating cynicism about our own ability to The level of human development of South Asia, for stability and geo-strategic status of each of our countries. work together. If the Summit helps us to finally think its economic status, and the well-being of its citizens, Let’s redefine the term ‘security’. It now has to go beyond regionally and acting locally, it will be a start. YOUR SAY www.nepalitimes.com #GADHIMAI at Gadhimai and keep buying says Nepalis have moved on from food”, Roshan Karki, #731) . But GM THIS WEEK Gadhimai is based on a 260-year- animal fl esh in supermarkets. monarchy. That is not true. The seeds are very expensive and simply old ritual that an 18th century Julian new CA has not even discussed not affordable to Nepali farmers. imprisoned feudal lord dreamt monarchy. They have to depend on these seed of (“Overkill in Gadhimai”, Lucia de I am against the tradition as Reformed maker companies to buy the seeds Vries and Deepak Adhikari, #732). I learnt that only four per cent of in every season of farming. Time for it to end. animals are consumed and the rest A plea to Prime Minister Modi: Rjackson33 Mary rot and are buried. help Nepal stay united and become a S S Pokhrel Hindu Rastra. Save us from monsters I don’t believe there is any direct Tens of millions of turkeys will like Dahal and Bhattarai. Pashupati health risk to the consumer. The be slaughtered on Thanksgiving Day Gadhimai should be a day for will bless you, Mr Modi. Do the right underlying problem is money. in the US which coincidentally falls those that outsource death to the thing for Nepal. Companies pour in millions to create BIKASH KARKI (245 LIKES) on 27 November, the same day as supply chain to do some self-refl ection. Niru Nepali these ‘superman’ seeds. Where is Most liked on Facebook Gadhimai. Animals are killed and Non-veg the payback for them? Well, just kill Swayambhu Stupa with Gauri Shankar handled a lot more cruelly overseas, SAARC the reproductive ability of these GM in the backdrop on a clear autumn day on but these foreign activists who There are two types of killings: SAARC is a failure. (“From landlocked plants and farmers need to keep Wednesday. raise hell about the killings in Nepal humane and inhumane. The question to landlinked”, David Seddon, #732) buying seeds for the next season, don’t seem to make much fuss is how to make killings at Gadhimai Nothing good has come of it. Idealogy rather than using their own. Most shared on Facebook there. less inhumane. without implementation is only fi ction. N SAARC traffi c tips by Ass Johnny Walker Subhas Lamichhane Resham Lama Most popular on Twitter INVESTMENT Come fl y with me by Ted Atkins The US is slaughtering turkeys Europeans kill and eat more FEDERALISM Ashutosh Tiwari left out the most (77 retweets, 48 favourites) so there is nothing wrong with animals in a day than will be killed at The argument that federalism is important word, corruption in Most visited online page Gadhimai massacre? What kind Gadhimai, so what is the problem with more democratic and brings progress his Cross Cutting column ("Is Overkill in Gadhimai by Lucia de Vries and of perverted logic is this? Both are doing so here out in the open? is not necessarily true (“Frivolous Nepal really open for investment?", Deepak Adhikari (1,453 views) cruel and barbaric. Sagar Ruptse federalism”, Bihari Krishna Shrestha, #732. Do you have any idea how Most commented Avantika Regmi #732). And historically, the break up long it takes to get a business Overkill in Gadhimai by Lucia de Vries MODI’S SECOND COMING of unitary states into smaller federal license without paying a bribe? And and Deepak Adhikari (34 comments) I strongly agree that A balanced piece (‘The second states, either based on geography or what about security and khaobadis? the massacres in Western coming’, Editorial, #732). Basically, ethnicity, has led to bigger problems As a Nepali, I have zero trust in slaughterhouses are not any better, Nepalis are telling Modi that they for the people of those countries. the political leadership, why should a Weekly Internet Poll #733 and rather worse actually, than like the fact that he likes them, but Other than the huge administrative foreigner trust it? Q. Was it necessary to declare two days public holiday what happens during Gadhimai in please don’t drag us into your bigoted cost and increased tax burden for Mahesh for the SAARC summit? Nepal.
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