NT PEPC # 86.P65
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
#86 22 - 28 March 2002 16 pages Rs 20 SACRED VALLEY The 8-9 Ultimate Computer 10 EXCLUSIVE IN NEW DELHI HARI○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ROKA ○○○○○○○ Free editor e can choose our friends, but we can’t choose our neighbours. Nepal There are growing demands from and India are stuck with each other, domestic and international human rights W so we might as well learn to get along. groups for the release of detained This week, the Chanakyapuri roundabout journalists, including Shyam Shrestha, in New Delhi is festooned with Nepali double- editor of Mulyankan, who was taken in at triangles flapping alongside the Indian Kathmandu airport last Saturday. More Why Kolkata? than 70 journalists have been tricolour. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur What does Calcutta have besides the arrested since November, 28 Deuba’s visit to India offers another opportu- launched its armed insurrection from Indian Victoria Memorial? Lots of Marxists. remain in detention and have nity to mend fences, show statesmanship and soil. It is not surprising therefore that not been produced in take bilateral ties to a new level of accommo- Nepal’s Maoists have used the open border court. Amnesty dation and understanding. and India’s vast “strategic depth” for International said But the question on everyone’s mind is: training, arming and logistics. this week: “It is why Calcutta? The West Bengal capital is Nepal’s leadership now realises that it may clear there is a neither a cybercity nor a Sai Baba centre. not be able to guarantee the survival of grave law and New Delhi appears to be hesitant about the parliamentary democracy without some degree order threat to the country, however in central government taking the lead in any of Indian help, and Deuba may be hoping to such a climate human rights must be future mediation on the Maoist problem, convince his interlocutors in New Delhi and protected with extra vigilance and army and is passing the buck to the Marxists in Calcutta about this. and police action must keep to interna- West Bengal. There are episodes from recent history MONTAGE ANDREW NASH/PHOTO tional human rights standards.” After all, Calcutta has been the training that spooks Nepal’s leaders. In Punjab, in Sri (See also p5) and ideological base for Nepali Maoists. West Lanka and vis-à-vis the Bhutanese refugees, Bengal also has experience in dealing with and India has shown a propensity to build up New NIBL crushing the Naxalites, and the comrades in friction, get sparks flying, and then let the fires Nepal Rastra Bank has cleared the sale Writers’ Building may have a few pointers for rage. In Sri Lanka the fire got so fierce, it had of Nepal Indosuez Bank Limited to a Deuba. It was Siliguri where Maoist leaders to beat a hasty retreat. consortium of Nepali buyers. The new gave audiences to a procession of Nepali leftists Today, India has joined the United States’ company will have the same acronym, during the ceasefire in October, so it is not “war on terror”, and it cannot give the NIBL, but will stand for Nepal Investment inconceivable that a secret face-to-face meeting impression of ignoring this new brand of red new-found stature, gained from having Bank Limited. The clearance of the sale is on the cards over the weekend. terror in its own backyard in the Himalaya. bloodied the army in Mangalsen, to wrest Editorial p2 of Crédit Agricole stock came after rival Deuba’s India visit comes at a time of So, Sher Bahadur Deuba will be trying to political concessions. Deuba was deeply Open border, closed minds bidders played out their dispute in the unparalleled crisis in Nepal. There is an convince the Indian leadership that curbing insulted by the Maoists’ betrayal in November, media last week. This week the NRB emerging consensus among Nepal’s political Maoist activities on Indian soil is in its own but is under pressure to smoke the peace pipe How genuinely helpful India is in response th issued its 10 Directive on prudential parties, academics and even sections of the long-term interest. He will also try to assuage again. The military campaign is also racing to Deuba’s request for help will determine the banking and ownership, then sacked the public that if India is not a part of the the antsy Indians about the western military against time: it needs to register dramatic future of not only bilateral relations, but also board of Lumbini Bank. (See also p7) solution to the Maoist problem, then it is a hardware the Royal Nepal Army urgently victories before the monsoon sets in. the course of the Maoist insurgency. The open part of the problem. And if the two requires for its counter-insurgency operations. If the Indians do put forward a media- border between Nepal and India doesn’t just PACMAN neighbours aren’t careful, Nepal’s problem The Indian response to this may be a cool tion proposal, Deuba will have to think facilitate free movement of people and trade. It The parliament’s anti-corruption Public may soon become India’s too. “yes”, but New Delhi will draw the line at hard about the repercussions back home. may also make it easier for the sparks of Accounts Committee is back in action The precedent for Indian involvement in more intensive foreign military involvement in Greater Indian involvement in resolving the Nepal’s Maoist war to spill over into the after a reshuffle of its UML members. Nepal’s domestic politics was set way back training and supplying the Royal Nepal Army. crisis either through mediation or military tinder-dry farms of Bihar, Jharkhand and There seems to be no shortage of with the overthrow of the Rana regime and At the same time, India may use the opportu- means will increase Indian influence in Andhra Pradesh. irregularities for PAC to probe: bank King Tribhuvan’s triumphant return to Nepal nity to push forward its own mediation role, or Kathmandu. Which may be what New defaulters, inflated costs in road from Delhi in 1950. When King Mahendra even propose unilateral political or military Delhi has always wanted, but there will be a (Hari Roka is an independent leftist analyst projects, digging into forest ministry files dissolved parliament and banned political action to end the insurgency. backlash within Nepal and fuel further and a research fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru and looking at the satellite licensing row parties ten years later, the Nepali Congress The Maoists are in the mood to use their public mistrust of Indian intentions. University in New Delhi.) at Space Time Network. Weekly Internet Poll # 26 Q. Do you support the five-day strike called by the Maoists? The Maoist insurgency murderous has now been reduced to a body count. middle-ground But behind every death is the loss of a loved one, a loss to society, and a family tragedy. IN DANG SAGAR○○○○○○○ PANDIT○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ from his body, and there were signs of torture: long half-inch deep khukuri Ram Mani Gyawali would have been alive today if he wasn’t so concerned gashes all over his body. about the electrification of his home village of Kerunga in Argakhanchi. “The body was completely mutilated, he had been hit and slashed,” Ram Ram Mani had been threatened many times, knew he was on the Maoists’ Mani’s younger brother Laxman says. “He was killed because he loved his hit-list and had been living in Kathmandu for the past three months. But last village and wanted to improve it.” week he had to go to Butwal to take delivery of a transformer so he could Laxman, his wife Sita who was also beaten up, and Ram Mani’s family are fit it in Kerunga. The family, including his wife, four children and grandchil- in Kathmandu’s cremation site at Aryaghat this week for the 13-day mourning dren were settling down for the night when there was a knock on the period. Ram Mani was targeted because he was honest, plain- door. “Ram Dai,” someone called. speaking and a popular VDC chairman. Last year, the Maoists He was overpowered by Maoists with pistols and had asked for a Rs 200,000 “donation”. The brothers not only Total votes: 1473 khukuris. There was a quick “trial”. Others overpowered his refused to pay, but also held a press conference to say Weekly Internet Poll # 27. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com wife and son upstairs, and looted their belongings. Ram why they were not giving in to extortion. Q. Is it a good idea for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Go to p5 Deuba to visit India? Mani’s body was found later, his head was nearly severed Ram Mani Gyawali 2 EDITORIAL 22 - 28 MARCH 2002 NEPALI TIMES NATION 22 - 28 MARCH 2002 NEPALI TIMES 3 Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Editor: Anagha Neelakantan Design: Kiran Maharjan ANALYSIS by PUSKAR GAUTAM [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Advertising: Sunaina Shah [email protected] Subscription: Anil Karki [email protected] Sales: Sudan Bista [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 01-543333-7, Fax: 01-521013 Printed at Jagadamba Press: 01-521393 OPEN BORDER, CLOSED MINDS henever a new Nepali leader travels to India to pay blockade of our border, to Tanakpur and Laxmanpur, the Hrithik constructive. The nearest we got to such a state was probably ith barely ten days to go before his Deadend deadline This is the classic Maoist pincer: in a his mandatory homage to the Delhi Darbar, the main Roshan riots and the torturous talks to renew the trade treaty— during the premiership of IK Gujral when the doctrine that went threatened five-day “Nepal long-term people’s war, legitimate question at home is always: what is he selling off this by his name took shape.