#519 10 - 16 September 2010 20 pages Rs 30 WARP SPEED: Weaving pashminas at the Tara Oriental, Harisiddhi, Lalitpur KIRAN PANDAY South side story: Sanjaya Baru thinks Keeping it diplomats should bat for trade. Pranav Budhathoki is convinced we’ve all together got batter for brains. p14-15 f we’re hard pressed for success stories in Nepal it may be because we’re not looking in the right places. Yet far from the dirty politicking I of parliament it’s business as usual for some, and business is good. Our homegrown pashmina industry has weathered the storm of its uncontrolled early growth and is now maturing into a steady, innovative industry that employs thousands of Nepalis and earns billions for the economy. Pashmina is now a truly Nepali brand. Pashmina Special p8-10 4| 10 - 16 SEPTEMBER 2010 #519 PUBLISHER’S NOTE HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THIS HOLE? trying to strike a deal with the Maoists to correct his legacy, and make himself president. The political playing field has to be level for this to happen. Which means the first step is for the Maoists to give up their ideology of violence. There is some justification for the fear among the UML, NC and Madhesi parties that if Pushpa Kamal Dahal becomes PM now, he will never give it up. In fact, if the Maoists don’t give up violence and agree on a demobilisation timetable, there is no point having a new constitution even. The internal NC elections have thrown up a new crop of diverse local leaders, which is a heartening trend. The Congress is finally turning into what the Congress should have always been. A NC- KIRAN PANDAY UCPN(M) coalition could allow the NC to temper Maoist extremism, esperate times call for desperate measures, and it formation of a new government, the new constitution and and the Maoists could help pull the NC back to its may be opportune to think out of the box. then a general election a couple of years after that? What’s democratic socialist roots. The two parties would D The first priority should be to delink the to stop us from having local elections right away? complement each other, one with its democratic prolonged political impasse from the country’s stagnant Of course, those who have ignored their constituents credentials and the other with its egalitarian socio- development and economy. Service delivery and the and fear they won’t fare well will oppose this. Sher Bahadur economic agenda. economy are more directly relevant to the people’s welfare Deuba cancelled the last local elections in 1999 because However, if Deuba becomes party chief in the NC and everyday needs than the shameless buying and he felt the UML would sweep them, and did a big favour to Convention, such a coalition would not be possible, selling of lawmakers in parliament. the Maoists by creating a political void at the grassroots. because he is a polarising figure. Either way, the One area where development was beginning to take off Another audacious idea is for the Nepali Congress and eighth round on 26 September won’t be the last if we was at the VDC and DDC levels in the mid-1990s before the Maoists to team up to form a new government. It may be keep doing what we are doing now. the Maoists came along and wrecked everything with their just the kind of forward-looking alignment that this country terror. And the reason it was beginning to show results needs to leap out of the political quicksand it is mired in. was because we had hit upon the key to local This is by no means an original thought. Before he died, development: grassroots democracy. Girija Prasad Koirala was trying to engineer just such an So, here is a radical proposal. Why wait for the arrangement. We pooh-poohed it then because GP was ON THE WEB www.nepalitimes.com INCOMPETENT CAAN TYPICAL BEHAVIOUR IN OTHER WORDS drastically reconfigure the model so The history of tragic accidents in This is typical of the bajes running the Quoting from the Indian embassy press that future projects are built with 70 Nepalese civil aviation is a result of parties and exerting their influence on release that Lal mentions (‘Meddling in per cent loan and 30 per cent grant. unscrupulous businessmen and the ministries (‘Crackdown riles ISPs’, the media’, CK Lal, #518): This is a clear indication of India unscrupulous civil aviation officials Kunda Dixit, #518). Instead of “The baseless adverse publicity experiencing financing fatigue with colluding in their pursuit of money advancing initiatives to add fiber optic against the products of such joint regard to the 60:40 model. (“I don’t want any more Sarahs to die”, connections to India and spread high ventures will not only hit the Nepalese Conversely, India seems to be #518). Nepal’s mountainous terrain and speed networking throughout Nepal, so economy and exports but will also deter prepared to invest further if the model the monsoon should not be used as an that call centres and other VOIP-based new foreign direct investments into is turned on its head by drastically excuse anymore. There are enough industries can flourish and provide Nepal.” reducing the portion of grant from 60 safety margins in the Standard employment opportunities for Nepal’s It is quite obvious what the embassy per cent to 30 and increasing loans to Operating Procedures (SOPs) for millions of young people, they allow the is saying: “If you try to adversely affect 70 per cent from 40. However, this flights over our terrain during the new CBI to harass ISPs and VOIP call the business of our companies in Nepal, change will substantially increase monsoon to avoid accidents. Are these bypass centers so their cronies at NTC we will discourage Indian FDI.” It may Bhutan’s debt service burden and SOPs being observed? The Civil and elsewhere in the government can be wrong to try to defend the interests of pull down the gross national Aviation Authority of Nepal is utterly continue to benefit from the status quo. one country’s private enterprise in happiness index by a magnitude. incompetent when it comes to ensuring I’m sure they don’t have a clue about another, but it’s done anyways. After all, Moreover, no attempt was made in my that the private operators are following how much a modern economy depends national interests (business being one) article to imply that the Indian private proper maintenance practices. on cheap and easy flow of information. are sacrosanct in our international sector too has reached financing Rasta Kenji system. But to do so with a threatening fatigue, which will be evident if the press release may be bad policy article is read carefully. Expert comments aside, flying in Call bypass exists because the rate choice. Ratna Sansar Shrestha Nepal is not nearly as safe as it could charged by telecom operators in Nepal Battisputali be. Our regulations are so not in line for incoming international calls is with the larger international aviation absurdly high. Their total cost cannot POWERFUL CLARIFICATION scene, that forward thinking and be more than 2 US cents, but they Referring to the term ‘financing fatigue’ I creative entrepreneurs hoping to enter charge more than 10 cents for had used in my article ‘Power to India’ this business usually opt out in dismay. international calls. Generating profit is (#517), I had used the term in the Cases where ‘regulators’ turn a blind the primary motive of a company, but context of the level of ‘gross national eye to sub-standard performance what they are doing (and what NTA is happiness’ reached by Bhutan under Weekly Internet Poll # 519 happen so often, you’d have to be blind allowing them to do) is robbery. And the ‘inter-government model’ under Q. “Should I stay or should I go?” - UNMIN not to see them. The infighting between who suffers from all this? The Nepali which 60 per cent of the project cost is the regulators themselves, and pressure people, of course - thousands of availed to Bhutan by India as grant and Total votes: 2,361 money provided by conservative Nepalis who toil in the oppressive heat the remaining 40 per cent as a soft loan. operators to make things work their way of the Gulf and Malaysia. With high It wasn’t used to indicate financing happen all too frequently. What is prices, they cannot afford to call their fatigue with all types of financing needed is a complete overhaul of the families more often and talk configurations. After implementing system. Trying to supplement a longer. Also, their hard-earned money 1,416MW under this model, the Indian diseased and failing organisation and goes to telecom operators overseas ‘power ministry is getting the jitters’, as expecting to reap yields is not the way and in Nepal (and back overseas ToI reported last year. Therefore, the forward. through NCell and UTL). government of India is endeavouring to Jeev Rajen Gurung Weekly Internet Poll # 520. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. What worries you most about Maharagate? Publisher: Kunda Dixit | Editor: Rabi Thapa Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd | Chief Operating Officer: Sunim Tamang | Hattiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur | GPO Box 7251 Kathmandu [email protected] | www.nepalitimes.com | www.himalmedia.com | Tel: 01-5250333/845 Fax: +977-1-5251013 Design: Kiran Maharjan | Marketing: Sambhu Guragain, Subhash Kumar, Arjun Karki [email protected] | Subscription: Santosh Aryal [email protected] Printed at Jagadamba Press | 01-5250017-19 | www.jagadambapr.com 10 - 16 SEPTEMBER 2010 #519 OP-ED|5 giving the Maoists space, but by symbolic acceptance of ‘two isolating them entirely, that they armies’ since that was the basis of will be ‘weakened’ and forced to the Agreement on Monitoring the ‘reform’.