#99 21 - 27 June 2002 16 pages Rs 20 Sagarmatha National Park turns 25 page 15 8-9 as an indecisive prime minister who has been sitting on ten ambassado- rial appointments, hurriedly decided to dissolve parliament within two You ain’t seen nothing yet. hours on 22 May. “Don’t ask me who is pulling Deuba’s strings,” the place, we have a constitutional CWC member Narahari Acharya minister told us. The answer may lie crisis which King Gyanendra will tried to patch-up till the last in the joke that was being whispered have to unravel. moment on Tuesday. He told us: at the Birendra Convention Suddenly, Deuba is not as “Deuba shouldn’t have taken the Centre this week: Q: “What is the strong as he once seemed, and he legal path, it will make it more name of Deuba’s faction?” A: appears to have banked a bit too difficult for him once this is over.” “Royal Nepali Congress.” much on the support of the There too still too many “ifs”. One man hasn’t spoken up yet: international community. Of the What if the Election Commission patriarch KP Bhatarai. Can he still elected 18 Central Working freezes the disputed party symbol pull a rabbit out Committee (CWC) members, and flag? What if it reaches a of his hat? Deuba has been able to take only decision only after the deadline for six. He thought mediators Ram registering a new party has passed? BP Koirala is Chandra Poudel and Mahesh When will the Supreme Court Acharya were on his side, but got a finish hearing four different remembered, but rude shock when they defected. lawsuits, with 36 lawyers arguing Till this week, state media was and only four-hour session daily? wouldn’t have approved. still giving glowing accounts of What intrigues one ex- PICS:MIN BAJRACHARYA the prime minister’s party takeover. minister is how Deuba, known The party is not yet over for Deuba. BINOD○○○○○○○○○○ BHATTARAI○○○○○○ It may take months for the f you thought the split in the Supreme Court and the Election Nepali Congress would end Commission to decide on how the Iinstability and focus the minds 53-year-old party’s spoils should of politicians to restoring peace be divided. Till that happens, and governance, think again. everything else will be on hold. Expect even uglier scenes as First, the Election Commis- two Congresses grapple for the sion has to decide which is the party’s four-star flag, its powerful legitimate Nepali Congress: symbol (tree), and the party picking between Koirala’s legally name. What is surprising is that elected party body and Deuba’s the climax of this epic battle hurriedly cobbled together team. appears to be completely removed The EC will probably decide to from the country’s present crisis. reinstate the Girija Congress, There is a disconnect. This makes leaving Deuba with no party with the Deuba-Koirala feud even which to contest elections. The more surrealistic. The Maoists deadline to register a new party themselves are quiet, and don’t ends on 10 July. seem to see the point in over- How could things have got so throwing a government that is nasty? A brief recap: busy overthrowing itself. May 1999: Nepali Congress wins a majority in Parliament. KP EXCLUSIVE Bhattarai is prime minister and brings in sidekicks. Koirala immedi- Strings attached ately begins needling him. A five-member Nepali team that March 2000: Koirala engineers includes the prime minister’s wife, Bhattarai’s exit and installs himself Arzu Rana, is in London this week as prime minister. KP gets Deuba to ask donors for over $1 billion in to challenge Koirala. , and is development, rehabilitation and defeated. military aid. It is not a pledging January 2001: Deuba tries conference, but aid agencies want again, is defeated and is drubbed to hear that the government is by Koirala again at the Pokhara serious. Donors say they are Convention. convinced Nepal needs aid, and June 2001: royal massacre, a are willing to give the money, but new Maoist offensive. have doubts about governance. They are waiting for signs like the July 2001: Koirala resigns after trimming down of the 37-member failing to get Army to retaliate cabinet, launching a serious anti- against Maoists in Holleri. corruption drive and legal action August 2001: Deuba gets against top high-profile bank Maoists to agree to truce and talks. defaulters. These are tough November 2001: Maoists break demands on a partyless govern- truce, attack Army in Ghorahi. ment facing elections, but it 22 May 2002: Party brass orders really doesn’t have a choice. Deuba not to extend the emer- gency, who retaliates immediately by getting the king to dissolve Weekly Internet Poll # 39 parliament and call for elections. Q. Should King Gyanendra be more Party expels Deuba for three years. assertive to restore political stability? 16 June: Deuba convenes “party convention”, re-writes rules, expels Koirala as president and installs himself as head of rump Congress. And that’s where Nepal now stands with elections for 13 November, though few believe it Total votes: 1780 will be full, free and fair. The Weekly Internet Poll # 40. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Maoists have been strategising and Q. How do you rate Sher Bahadur Deuba’s have sent signals they don’t want performance in the current political crisis? elections. And if the polls can’t take 222 EDITORIAL 28 JUNE - 4 JULY 2002 NEPALI TIMES NATION 28 JUNE - 4 JULY 2002 NEPALI TIMES 333 Nepali Times is published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Editor: Anagha Neelakantan STATE OF THE STATE by CK LAL OPINION by RAM SHARAN MAHAT Design: Kiran Maharjan [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 Home among Muslims Printed at Jagadamba Press: 01-521393 Cheques and balances The communalism virus from across the border is poisoning the tarai. IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ There is no alternative to the rule of law. Only a functioning parliament can check n the current politically charged atmosphere, one reality is self-evident: SUGA (Mahottari District) — When the go anywhere near his kitchen. This comment then many Dhobis from our village have set potential abuse of authority during the emergency period. almost no one is playing by the rules. Internal party rules are being bent by destination is home, even a short journey is exposes the ugly intolerance beneath the up shops at Jaleshwar and Janakpur. On Ithis or that faction, underground Maoists operate as outlaws, even constitu- far too long. The day trip from Kathmandu surface of this seemingly tolerant society. If Saturdays, they sip bottled soft drinks at the tional provisions are being challenged. to Jaleshwar is indeed long in time and you are Muslim, don’t refuse the offer of an neighbourhood shop while the others toil at In this legal limbo of the state of emergency, there are actually very few space: it takes more than eight hours in a outrageously priced plate of meat at any the Dhobi Pokhari. rules. And those that exist pertain to what you can’t do, rather than what you run-down bus that rocks and rolls through Mugling eatery—you run the risk of being During my childhood, we never can. Most rights of individual citizens are on hold. This is when the truth nine of Nepal’s 75 districts. taunted that halal meat is tasteless. The fate thought that we were any different from our becomes subversive to those who have a lot to hide. Yet, it needn’t be. Monsoon Nepal rushes past the window: of the dalits is bad enough, but the lot of Jolaha or Dhobi neighbours, except the fact War strategists have long held that information—believable and credible in Naubise farmers dressed in colourful Nepali Muslims is even worse, as Dr that the better off among us wore more information—is a weapon to win the battle for public opinion. There is a whole clothes are planting paddy, in Bharatpur it Krishna Bhattachan rightly observed at a expensive clothes. Village festivals were subject they teach at war schools on information warfare. Propaganda, they is already harvest time for another variety of recent meeting. Even their existence is almost all common. I remember going tell you, is effective only when it doesn’t sound like propaganda. rice, in Dhanusha farmers in drab dhotis are increasingly being questioned. around the village with the Tazia procession The biggest asset of the government in this time of emergency is its near- busy irrigating their fields to transplant rice. It wasn’t always so. Nepal’s Muslim every year shouting “Ha Hussain” to mark monopoly on information. However, it is very easy to make this monopoly Our buses were ramshackle, but it is still a population is not very large, just under a the martyrdom of the grandson of the Holy futile—by a self-perpetuating perception that official information is not plausi- beautiful country out there. million, but up from 650,000 ten years ago. Prophet. Once I had to fake a Hindu name ble. It is not incredible, therefore, that news today lacks credibility. You’d have The first stop after the bus leaves There is controversy about the accuracy of for my Muslim friend to enable him get the thought that our info-mandarins would have learnt from the mistakes of the Kathmandu is usually Dharke.