#457 26 June - 2 July 2009 16 pages Rs 30 Weekly Internet Poll # 457 Q. Cabinet expansion still stuck. Your comment: Total votes: 2,526 Weekly Internet Poll # 458. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Should the Maoists have been included in the new government? CLOUDS, BUT NO RAIN: The evening sun breaks through clouds in the mountains of central Nepal as a parched land waits for rain. Meteorologists say the monsoons arrived in eastern Nepal this week, but precipitation throughout Nepal has been 50 per cent below normal. KUNDA DIXIT public health surveillance system, the actual number of infections is thought to be much higher. Although Nepal was the first country in Asia to establish a harm reduction program with Sky high a needle exchange service for IDUs, it has failed because of limited coverage and a short he prevalence of infectious inject drugs, 29 per cent of also vulnerable to the incurable supply of syringes. diseases among whom share needles. An Hepatitis C, for which 94 per cent A survey conducted by T intravenous drug users is estimated 6,557 intravenous drug of drug users in Kathmandu have Central Bureau of Statistics in rocketing because the fear of users (IDU) are living with HIV or tested positive. 2007 reported there are 46,309 stigma and poor support services AIDS, which is about 10 per cent The market for heroin and hard drug users in Nepal with are discouraging users from of the total 70,000 people living opium is also on the rise in around 50 per cent of them aged seeking help. with HIV/AIDS, according to Nepal with most narcotics being 15 to 29. z Full story p10 Political instability, low UNAIDS. smuggled over the border. The literacy levels, poor awareness In Kathmandu, about 30 per Narcotic Drugs Control Law and a lack of voluntary cent of all people living with Enforcement Unit seized 105.6kg EDITORIAL counselling and testing services HIV/AIDS inject drugs. They are opium and 10kg heroin last year. Struggle and construction p2 mean infection figures are only In the first six months of this PLAIN SPEAKING Prashant Jha likely to increase. year it has already seized 225kg of Caste awaya p2 Among drug users in opium and six kg of heroin. Nepal, 61.4 per cent The prevalence of HIV among STATE OF THE STATE CK Lal IDUs in 2003 was 51 per cent. Lawlessness and disorder p3 Given the limitations of Nepal’s 2 EDITORIAL 26 JUNE - 2 JULY 2009 #457 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Editor: Kunda Dixit CEO: Ashutosh Tiwari Design: Kiran Maharjan DGM Sales and Marketing: Sambhu Guragain [email protected] Marketing Manager: Subhash Kumar Asst. Manager: Arjun Karki Circulation: Prakash Raut Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu 5250333/845 Fax: 5251013 [email protected] Printed at Jagadamba Press 5250017-19 www.nepalitimes.com Caste aways Impunity, patronage, politics and caste STRUGGLE AND CONSTRUCTION make an explosive mix They like to poke fun at Gandhi these days. His philosophy of ahimsa is deemed outdated even in India, which now has RAJBIRAJ – The campus chief Devi Dutt Sah. request. an arsenal of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. Gandhi preached against materialism and selfishness, but greed is good incident in this stagnant Tarai Here are the facts of the case: Once in the college, Sah was these days. town brings together all the there had been a two week stand- surrounded by 15-20 students, The economic inequality that this perpetuates has political elements that best describes the off between the administration some of them from the union and repercussions. India’s Maoist insurgency that now touches 13 of state of Nepal today: institutional and a part of the student union. others whom he did not 28 states is fed directly by the neglect, indifference and exclusion, degeneration, patronage, factional The newly elected union recognise. They locked him up especially of the adivasis and low castes in India’s poorest states. president Ram Chandra Yadav inside a room, and told him to The police’s counter-insurgency operations have actually helped PLAIN SPEAKING (belonging to a faction of the NC) resign immediately. When Sah Maoist recruitment. had put in a dozen demands, refused, he was stabbed and hit Prashant Jha A Naxalite reincarnation is now taking place in West ranging from an enquiry into with lathis. Sah claims he heard Bengal, that bastion of India’s moderate left where the CPI-M appointments of temporary union president Ram Chandra has ruled uninterrupted for 25 years. (See p 4). The new party politics, partisan teachers to allegations of Yadav say: “How dare you think a Congress-led government in New Delhi (now unencumbered by a communist partner) has responded by sending in the central bureaucracy and a pliable corruption. Teli (Sah’s caste) can become paramilitary CPRF. judiciary, impunity, violence. On the morning of 8 June, a campus chief in Saptari or In both India and Nepal, it is poverty, inequality, injustice The overwhelming role of student called up Sah and Siraha?” and discrimination that drives Maoism. And on both sides there is caste formed the undercurrent of reported that a clash had broken Sah finally gave in and wrote a temptation to meet violence with counter-violence. As long as the brutal assault on campus out at the campus. Sah called up a resignation note. All this while, the roots of conflict are not addressed, however, there the local SP, the police was right at the cannot be long-term peace and reconciliation. who promised campus gate: either misled into After the resignation of Nepal’s Maoist-led to send forces believing that the campus government in May (with a little bit of help from friends but said they administration and students down south) there is loose talk in military and rightwing would need were having talks, or waiting for circles in Kathmandu of “doing a Sri Lanka” on the ex- permission the elusive CDO orders that never guerrillas. What is forgotten is that Nepal’s terrain and geopolitics makes protracted guerrilla war unwinnable for from the CDO came, or unwilling to take action. both sides. Maoism here has degenerated into criminal to take action. After four hours, according to warlordism, and is probably headed towards violent self- Sah then Sah, a group of students and the destruction. What we have to prevent is it turning ethnic in headed to the SP of the APF camp rescued him. the process. college, but When Sah was appointed Gandhi said violence can never be ethical, that it is only after campus chief two years ago, he counterproductive to those who start it. Nepal is the living having spoken superseded more senior proof. The lesson for both India and Nepal is that without to the CDO colleagues in the campus. Key resolving the structural inequity in our societies, creating Ram Bilas Ray appointments in educational jobs and lifting living standards there will be a million Yadav, who institutions across the country other mutinies even if we solve this one. promised to were divided among parties who After the Chauri Chaura killing of 22 policemen in 1922 near Gorakhpur, Gandhi suspended his anti-British give the could choose their men. The civil disobedience campaign saying he had not been able required town grapevine has it that Sah to prevent the violence. He later put forward the concept orders. The was backed by one faction of the of “struggle and construction”: achieving societal CDO however Saptari NC. Since then, some in transformation not by destroying but by working against disputes this, the teaching faculty discrimination, injustice and inequality. stating there (predominantly Yadavs, backed The Maoists who want to destroy and return to Year was no way he by another faction of NC) had Zero are on the wrong side of history. Those who threaten could have ganged up to oust him. a return to bloodshed if they don’t get what they want given orders Certain decisions taken by the haven’t realised the ruin they brought to this country. because Sah chief, like the appointments of Those for whom the end justifies the means forget Gandhi had not put in teachers, gave them enough at their own peril. a formal ammunition to allege corruption. written The Maoists, keen to get a LLL ETTERS CIVILIAN PARTIES Gorkha and met Nepalis who had managed extorting money from businesses and worst introduction to Nepal that a visitor After a long time, I could read to bring economic and cultural change in contractors because they know no one is can have, and it also leaves a deep an editorial which reflects the reality of their local community. One example that going to stop them. How can you run a lasting impression on people who are Nepali politics (‘Civilian parties,’ #456). stood out was how the local public toilets country like this? I realise it is not possible leaving. The airport convinces them The ruling parties, whatever their were kept so clean in such a remote village to deploy the army against the YCL that they aren’t going to return to Nepal weaknesses may be, are civilian parties through cooperation and coordination. This because it would mean the start of another unless the airport is fixed first. We are and they try to respect the rule of law. is just one story, there must war. But why not equip and used to quaintly inefficient Third World There are some, led by the Maoists, who be so many all over Nepal. support the police in the airports and can handle the refuse to accept that violence is not Amit Thapa, email smaller localities and clean discomforts.