#233 4 - 10 February 2005 12 pages Rs 30

ebruary First, 10AM. KingGyanendra’s 28-minute royalproclamation is broadcast to

the nation.The king read through a

teleprompter in a special studioinside the Narayanhiti RoyalPalace. The set included thenational flag, the royal standardand a backdrop of the royal seal,there were three ‘jump cuts’.

Maharajganj and Koteswor.Some welcomed King

Gyanendra’s move, hoping thismight help bring the ragingMaoist war to a finish. Flag-waving motorcycle rallies wentaround the capital on Thursdayin support of the royal move.There were also fears fordemocratic values, but the fewstudents who defied a ban onrallies on Tuesday were quicklydispersed.

The situation outsideKathmandu Valley is difficult togauge because of thecommunication blackout. A three-day Maoist banda fizzled out inthe capital.

Except China, internationalresponse was negative. India,Britain and the United States andthe United Nations conveyedconcern about the impact onparliamentary democracy. OnWednesday, King Gyanendraannounced a 10-member cabinetthat he is to chair. They includefour former office bearers from thePanchayat era. Three of theministers were powerfuladministrators during the pre-1990 partyless Panchayat system.

On Thursday the governmentannounced a ban for six monthson articles, interviews, news,notices and opinions against the‘letter and spirit’ of the royal

The monarch criticisedpolitical parties for misusingtheir parliamentary privilege,lambasted the Maoists for theircriminality and terrorism, sackedSher Bahadur Deuba (withoutnaming him) for having beenincapable (once again), andannounced he was taking over thechairmanship of a new council ofministers for a period of up tothree years.

Even before the broadcast hadfinished, telephone lines to andwithin Nepal and the mobilenetwork went dead. The airportwas closed and internationalflights diverted. The army’ssignals corps shut down satellitelinks at ISPs and radio stations.

The royal proclamation wasfollowed by an announcementfrom the home ministry declaringa state of emergency and thesuspension of the freedom ofspeech, assembly, the right toproperty, information and againstpreventive detention.

Before, during and after theaddress, political leaders, studentleaders and activists of politicalparties were rounded up. Manyof the seniormost were underhouse arrest. Deuba was kept inhis official residence atBaluwatar, Girija Prasad Koiralaand Madhab Kumar Nepalrespectively at their homes in

proclamation and providing‘direct and indirect support’ toterrorism and ‘destruction’.Those who went against thestricture would be subject toaction.

The newly appointedministers gave interviews to thestate-run media. Home MinisterDan Bahadur Shahi told RadioNepal the government wouldsoon urge the Maoists to come fortalks. “The rebels have alwayssaid they wanted to hold talkswith the king, now that the kingis chief executive, they shouldhave no problems coming fornegotiations,” he said.

On Thursday, daily paperscarried advertisements from somebusiness houses and individualswelcoming the royal move.

Blow-by-blowaccount of thedays afterFebruary FirstThe week that was

Notice in Gorkhapatra on 3February from His Majesty’sGovernment Ministry ofInformation and Communication

Invoking Sub Clause 1 ofClause 15 of His Majesty’s Printand Publication Act, 2048, andconsidering the nation andnational interest, His Majesty’sGovernment has banned for sixmonths any interview, article,news, notice, view or personalopinion that goes against theletter and spirit of the RoyalProclamation on 1 Feb 2005 andthat directly or indirectlysupports destruction andterrorism. In line with thearrangement in the Print andPublication Act 2048, action willbe taken against anyoneviolating this notice.

F

114 - 10 FEBRUARY 2005 #233

EVENING AFTER: A pedestrian reads Nepali language tabloids for saleon the sidewalk at Bagbajar on Tuesday evening soon after the royaladdress.

BYE-BYE: Ministers of the sacked Deuba government drive out of thegates of Baluwatar to their quarters after being dismissed on FebruaryFirst.

MIN BAJRACHARYA

MIN BAJRACHARYA

TUNED OFF: A soldiers on duty at Radio Sagarmatha at Bakhundole onWednesday.

USHA TITIKCHU

B

ROYAL SUPPORT: The Armed Police Force drive away street cattle atBhadrakali on Thursday to allow a rally organised by the DeshbhaktaSangh in support of the royal decision.

KIRAN PANDAY

arbara Adams came to Nepal43 years ago and is moreNepali than many of us. She

remembers a time when Nepalwas regarded as a peace-loving

White ribbons concrete ways to be a peaceactivist. She came up with theidea of the white ribbon campaignwhich aims to create awarenessamong the people and thegovernment about the immediateneed for peace. It also works as alobbying device.

During the World BuddhistSummit 2004, Barbara went toLumbini to distribute white ribbonsto participants and when KingGyanendra arrived, a sea of whiteribbons greeted him. It is not justa symbol of peace but also thecolour of mourning in Nepal. Itwas one of the reasons why shechose white as the colour for thecampaign: it promotes peace,remembers and respectseveryone who died during the pastnine years of violence.

Barbara’s initiative hasreceived many positiveresponses spanning from theCAN festival where people askedher if they could help byvolunteering to villages nearHetauda where the people weremore than willing to support andapplauded her efforts. A self-funded project, Barbaraencourages people to go out andwear white in memory of the

people who are dying everyday.

“It doesn’t have to bespecific, any white clothwill do to show your support

for peace and solidarity,”she says. She maintains that

it would help if people didn’t justwear it for a few days but wore itall the time. “It may not bringpeace, but it will certainly provethat they don’t want war.”

Aarti Basnyat

country and has watched as theconflict devoured the land sheloves. “Nepalis are wonderfulpeople who love people, I knowthat even the Maoists want peace.All Nepali citizens must dowhatever they can to bring peaceand that’s just what I’m doing,”she says.

As a naturalised Nepali ofAmerican origin and a newspapercolumnist for Jana Astha,

Barbara had many sleeplessnights tossing and

turning, thinkingabout more

KIRAN PANDAY

2 4 - 10 FEBRUARY 2005 #233EDITORIAL

LLLLL E T T E R SE T T E R SE T T E R SE T T E R SE T T E R S

T

Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda DixitDesk Editor: Abha Eli Phoboo, Aarti BasnyatDesign: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan ShilpakarAdvertising: Sunaina Shah advertising@himalmedia.comSubscription: Anil Karki, subscription@himalmedia.comSanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, LalitpurGPO Box 7251, Kathmandu, NepalTel: 01-5543333-6, Fax: 01-5521013Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 01-5547018editors@nepalitimes.com, www.nepalitimes.com

NEPALI TIMESNepali Times has achievedthe holy grail of brand loyalty,judging from my ownexperience as a reader andsubscriber since the firstissues. Aside from a fewpublished editorial letters, Ihave nothing whatsoever to dowith publication, yet with eachissue, through my continuedfamiliarity with the NepaliTimes contributors, I too feelas if I am a member of thepaper and do not fail to takeserious note of theadvertisers. Similarly, when Ihear a BBC report filed fromFlorida or Haiti or India byDaniel Lak, I immediatelythink, “Ah, Daniel, haamromanche!” Daniel Lak is assignificant a part of NepaliTimes as the editors’ andreaders’ contributions or eventhose overseas Nepali scholarcontributors, who may havespent less time in Nepal in thelast five to 10 years than Lak.Or how about the frequentpieces by Joseph Stiglitz, etc?The idea (in letter byMahendra Moktan in #232) thata regular Nepali Timescontributor must reside inNepal or be ethnic Nepali maybe racist or even chauvinistbut it certainly is absurd!Lozang Trinlae, Namche Bajar

Daniel Lak’s lamentation in‘Looking at Nepal from NewDelhi’ (#231) is tragicallyhilarious. His article is justanother example of howdisgraceful he can be when hewrites on Nepal issues. But itgives solace to note that India,which has been naked in itsposture, needs foreigners todefend its designs on Nepal.Well, this policy may fool manywhite sympathisers and lovers ofNepal but not those India-exploited Nepalis who have livedwith issues like the Bhutanirefugees in Jhapa, the MahakaliParadox, Koshi, Gandaki andKarnali, the Kalapani and theIndia-fed Maoists to take just afew examples. Nepalis who havebecome second-class citizens intheir own country due to Indianhegemonic and expansionistdesigns do not need Daniel Lakto tell them whether they shouldtake India as a friend or foe. Allhe needs is to stop looking atNepal from the Indian windowand remind himself that hisknowledge about India-Nepalrelations is too feeble. India isa political unit that hasassumed a monstrous characterNepal will always have toconfront in order to livepeacefully within its internationalborders.

Dibya B Gurung, New York

The letter titled ‘RNA’(#232) deserves seriousattention. As a reader andconcerned Nepali, I havereservations regarding yourdecision to publish a letterauthored by samudaya.org.Aside from the mention of SadipBahadur Shah’s name, the letterlacks any direct relation toShah’s piece. Althoughsamudaya.org raises severalrelevant issues, the treatment ofShah’s article as a platform tolaunch an attack on the RNA,severely weakens whatotherwise has the potential to bea powerful critique. The claimthat terms such as ‘democracy’and ‘liberalism’ are beingcheapened by the likes of Shahis a bold statement. First,samudaya.org should realisethat ubiquitous definitions do notexist for either democracy orliberalism. Both phenomena aremeasured in relative terms,using arbitrary scales. Case-in-point, samudaya’s definition ofthese terms appear a lot moreradically left-wing than what themajority of Nepali society isprepared to accept. And,regardless of whether or not Itruly subscribe to this claim, Iam able to propose it, usingsamudaya’s rigid logic—‘myway or the high way’. It is ratherpatronising that samudaya.org

should first cry foul play atShah’s supposedly dogmatictone, then impose its owndefinitions on the rest of us.These tactics are old,hypocritical. I am alsodisappointed that samudaya.org

wrote under a websitepseudonym. After all, I expect thatan individual by the name of Shahexists but can a face be attachedto samudaya? Why the need forsecrecy? Shah has published hisown opinions using his own name,

HARIYO BAN NEPAL KO DHANhe sudden epidemic of tree-felling along Kathmandu’s streets isdrastic, misguided and not consonant with the needs of thepopulation. In an increasingly congested valley, foliage provides

both utility and aesthetics. It gives us fresh air that allows us tobreathe freely. The role of trees is to introduce oxygen into theatmosphere and to ingest the carbon dioxide that human andmechanical activity spews into our enclosed airspace so prone toinversion. They provide shade to the pedestrian, a demographiccategory which today is highly neglected by our increasinglymotorised urban populace. Tree-lined boulevards and parks are themark of any civilised society and the colour of leaves and bark haveassociations in the human mind with the very evolution of thespecies. Take away the trees from our sight and senses and our veryexistence suffers.

Trees reach down to the grassroots and hold the soil together,they reach up to the sun and use their chlorophyll corpuscles toconvert that energy into food useful to itself and to other animals. Thesun and the trees, together with the supportive action of water, soiland air, make possible photosynthesis, the driving mechanism of lifeon earth. The action of cutting down trees that have lined our streetsseems to have been hasty.

True, Kathmandu’spoplars and eucalyptus areimports and that they donot have the strength ofindigenous varieties. Butthe fact is that they haveprovided cover and beautyfor a long time now. Theyhave become our own, likeso many other exoticspecies that dot thelandscape. It is said thatthese imports arevulnerable to strong windsdue to loose root structuresbut our analysis shows thatthe maligned arbours havenot been guilty ofdestruction to the extentthat they have to be doneaway with. All in all, thetrees should not have beenaxed. Because the damagehas been done, can we askthe concerned authority topromptly correct the moveand bring back greenery?

MIN BAJRACHARYA

ike most Nepalis, this is aperiod of immenseconfusion for me, following

King Gyanendra’s decision todismiss the government andassume sweeping powers onTuesday. With the country nowlargely cut off from the outsideworld, I am unable to call homeor read Nepali newspapers on theInternet.

It is easy to decry theoverthrow of an electedgovernment and express concernabout the suspension of civilliberties. I, like all Nepalis, willbe watching closely to see how

Give the king a chance

GUEST COLUMNRanjit Rauniyar

Desperate times call for desperate measuresKing Gyanendra wields thesweeping powers he has assumed.But I hope the rest of the world,before rushing to instantjudgments, will pause to considerhow far Nepal had gone down thepath towards becoming a failedstate, before the king resorted tosuch desperate measures.

At least 11,000 Nepalis havebeen killed since the Maoist rebelslaunched their reign of terror in1996, with more than 2,000 dyingsince last October alone. Hundredsmore have been kidnapped by therebels, for indoctrination as partof their ideological war. Othershave been caught in the crossfirebetween the Maoists and the RoyalNepali Army. The economy hasground to a halt. Highways,

needed to transport essentialgoods and medicines, havebecome combat zones. Tourism,formerly a vital source of revenue,has all but dried up. Notsurprisingly, businesses arereluctant to make any freshinvestments.

Like its predecessors (therehave been 14 governments in asmany years), the government thatKing Gyanendra dismissed hasonly added to the country’s woes.Schools continue to be closedwith alarming regularity, politicalhooliganism continues to bedressed up under the banner ofdemocratic protests in which thesafety and security of ordinarycitizens and businesseses areseriously compromised. Rarelydoes a day go by without readingabout a strike being called byeither the Maoists or the politicalparties. Businesses are placedunder duress to make donationsto both the Maoists and politicalparties. The promised generalelections were never held and anyhope of negotiating a truce withthe rebels evaporated after theyinsisted on dealing directly withthe king and refused to talk toprime minister Sher BahadurDeuba.

All this has left ordinaryNepalis yearning for a return tolaw and order, and a functioningeconomy. What we want, aboveall, is to be able to send ourchildren to school again andreadily purchase sugar, rice andoil in local shops. Whether we’reruled by a democracy or amonarchy is a secondaryconsideration. That’s why, at leastfor now, I’m prepared to give King

L

DEEPENDRA BAJRACHARYA

34 - 10 FEBRUARY 2005 #233NATION

STATE OF THE STATECK Lal

T

complete with photograph andtitle. Yet, in attempting toundermine Shah’s opinions,samudaya has chosen to hidebehind a website. Why?

Furthermore, a disclaimer onsamudaya.org site states that‘while samudaya.org advocatesfreedom of speech and multipleperspectives on an issue, itdoes not necessarily agree withor support all views expressedon this site’. It is ironic thatsamudaya.org should choose toviolate the very tenet of its ownwebsite: was the letter sent tothe Nepali Times endorsed byall who subscribe tosamudaya.org?

Till date, I considered theNepali Times a modelpublication. Not only had thequality of information publishedconsistently been of the higheststandard but contributors to theNepali Times could be identifiedeither by name, knownorganisational affiliation or both.In the midst of an emergingmedia industry (where thedistinction between tabloids andprofessional journalism is oftengrey), what promoted thepublication of this letter? Is thisan indication that the NepaliTimes will now publish letterssent in by any individual using awebsite instead of a name? Willletters from ‘www.cnn.com’ be

allowed next? This is clearly nota precedent a professionalpublication should establish.

Pradumna Bikram Thapa,JHU School of Advanced

International Studies

BEEDAs a graduate student ofeconomics, I would like tocomment on Artha Beed’sEconomic Sense column, ‘Sixblind men’ (#232). Although I donot fully agree with what youhave expressed in the article Ifeel that real economists (so-called) ought to focus on thisvery sensitive issue ofexchange rates. I have not seenany debate, neither in paper norin any electronic media andhave not heard of any researchbeing conducted on this issue.On the first day of class, ourprofessor said to us that it alldepends on circumstances todecide on adopting fixed orfloating system of exchange ratemanagement. He never didadvocate for any system untiland unless there is full and in-depth research on this matter.Not to forget this is the main lineAmerican economists’ view onperspective of exchange rate.The Nepali intelligentsia have todivert their attention on somevery key issues like exchangerates and stop commenting on

depreciation/appreciation ofNepali currency without concretefindings.Anjan Panday, Baylor University,

Texas, USA

FASCISTEven the warning by theUNHCHR Louise Arbour doesn’tseem to have changed thedastardly tactics of Maoist killingand maiming of innocent civilians,including children. I hope theghosts of their victims willcontinue to haunt them until theirvery last breath. Their stated goalof establishing communism isnothing but, to quote SusanSontag, ‘fascism with a humanface’. Rather than wait for aDarfur-like situation to develop,the international communityshould set up a war crimestribunal for Nepal without furtherdelay. They should then formallyindict those who have violatedhuman rights.

SK Shrestha, Kathmandu

Isn’t it ironic that the day afterLouise Arbour told the Maoists inno uncertain terms that one daytheir leaders could be dragged tothe international criminal court fortargeting children, 1,100 schoolchildren and teachers wereabducted from various parts of thecountry. The Maoists arethumbing their noses at the UN,

wo years after OctoberFourth, the RoyalAddress of February First

came as naturally as winterfollows autumn. Other thanthe most foolhardy UMLpoliticos nobody was reallytaken by surprise. In a goodpart of the speech the kingrenewed his commitment tomulti-party democracy.

For well over a week, theouster of Sher Bahadur Deubaand his cabinet had been aforegone conclusion—it was amatter of when rather than if

A brave new worldof the 21st century. Ironically,even as the address wasconcluding, the phone andcellphone lines went dead,ISPs were shut down, theairport was closed, seniorpoliticos were put underhouse arrest and securityforces posted at all mediaoutlets.

King Gyanendra suggests athree-year period to transformNepal into a democratic,peaceful and well-administered kingdompursuing free-market policiesof good governance,transparency and structural

reforms to achieve the goalof sustainabledevelopment. The keyword, often used, was“discipline’’. The kingalso assured his subjectsthe monarchy did notneed to seek populism toprove itself.

Meanwhile, in theoutside world, a globalneocon tsunami issweeping acrosscountries. In this newscheme of things,property rights arepresumed to precede

political rights. Severalpolitical experiments arebeing conducted in differentparts to ensure that free-market fundamentalistscome out on top.

It began in Pakistan in1999 after a coup wasstaged from an aeroplane.That test-case has sinceprogressed to a stage

Just as well we’re not going for elections anytime soonwhere the Chief Executive sayshe will keep his uniform on.Meanwhile, his banker-premierShaukat Aziz has been in Davosto push his economic ideology.In more anarchic societies likeAfghanistan and Iraq, stage-managed elections are theprocesses of choice to install

hand-picked favourites. Thepolls in Iraq and Afghanistanwere, as The Economist put it‘democracy at gunpoint.’ Withinternational monitors mostlystaying away for fear of personalsafety, it was impossible toassess the fairness of the poll oraccuracy of the turnoutestimates. But the US-led forceshave already got what theywanted: an opportunity toinstall their favourites insymbolic positions of power.

In slightly more settledsocieties, the modus operendiof neocons is to install orunseat rulers through acombination of pre-poll andpost-poll political engineering.The method has workedexceedingly well in SouthAmerica. Now it is beingimplemented with somesuccess in post-Sovietrepublics of Central Asiawhere a string of velvetrevolutions are being staged toseat or unseat democratic rulers.So, in that sense it’s probably ablessing in disguise that we’renot going for elections anytimesoon.

Gyanendra the benefit of the doubt.Desperate times call for

desperate measures and those whocriticise the king’s actions shouldremember how close Nepal hadcome to the edge of the precipice. Ireally wish to believe he has actedin this way not out of any desire toaccumulate power, but in order torescue his country. In doing so, hehas taken a grave risk, both withhis own reputation and that of themonarchy. The latter is areputation that has already beenweakened by the massacre of mostof the royal family by one of theirnumber in 2001, which led to KingGyanendra’s accession to thethrone.

Whether he has correctlycalculated the risks and rewards intaking such drastic action may taketime some time to become clear.What we have in Nepal today canbe likened to a circus run amok,where all the clowns are putting ontheir own acts without anyconcern for the show as a whole.Now the king has chosen to takeover as circus master, theresponsibility will rest on hisshoulders to bring the performancetogether in what may be the lastchance to save Nepal fromcomplete ruin.

Ultimately King Gyanendraknows the situation facing hiscountry and the monarchy betterthan anyone else and in thisdangerous game of politicalbrinkmanship between Nepal’smonarch, politicians and Maoistrebels, I have only one piece ofadvice. The king has taken onsweeping powers and in exercisingthem, he must always rememberthat every action he takes shouldput the interests of his peoplefirst.

Ranjit Rauniyar is an MBA student fromNepal at the Wharton School in the

United States. This piece appeared inthe 3 February issue of the Asian Wall

Street Journal.

understanding what Budathokimeant by ‘divided’ and wherehe saw division per se. Weare more united, firm andestablished together. Weassume that if Budathoki hadattended any of our programs,he would have certainly seenour solidarity, thoughbelonging to different ethniccommunities. He is alwayswelcome to observe ourevents as a Nepali brother.We hope that the NepaliTimes as a reputed paper willexamine facts beforepublishing articles like this inthe future.

Arjun Basnet, ReadingNepali Society,

Reading, UK

MAKING HEADLINES: A sampling of front pages of Hong Kong’sSouth China Morning Post, the Bangkok Nation, editorial from theAsian Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune and theAsahi Shimbun in Tokyo.

or how he and his governmentwould be shown the door. So hesuffered the ignominy of beingsacked all over again.

With his second dismissal,Deuba has the dubiousdistinction of being the onlyhead-of-government in the worldto have been sacked by a head-of-state twice in such quicksuccession.

In his address the kingrepeatedly referred to the realities

the very institution that they wantto mediate in the conflict.

Gyan Subba, email

UNDIVIDEDPranav Budathoki’s (‘Nepalis gounderground in Britain’, #230)allegation that The ReadingNepali Society, Reading, UK isdivided is entirely false. We haveassociations based on themultiplicity of ethnicity butReading Nepali Society has overthe years cherished being acommon association of allNepalis, including Bahuns,Chhetris and Newars, living herewith the aim of preservingNepali tradition and culture.We celebrate festivals andevents such as the Nepaliand English new years,dasain, tihar and tijtogether to promoteNepaliness rather thanwhat Budathoki referredto by saying ‘divided’.Last tihar, we sangbhailo and deusitogether, visitingeach other toexchange bestwishes. In Lhosar, allNepalis, even thosewho wouldn’tnormally celebrate itback home, areinvited. It isbeyond our

4 4 - 10 FEBRUARY 2005 #233NATION

he works for thegovernment’s women’sdevelopment division and

needs to travel frequently by busall over the country. She lives inKathmandu and tries not totravel on long distance buses.Reason: there are no bathrooms on

any of us have childhoodsfree from fear orintimidation. A childhood

where we go to school, play withfriends, meander in the fields andinnocently dream of our futures.Childhoods full of calm, confidenceand enthusiasm.

Yet, many of these qualities ofchildhood are being taken from thechildren of Nepal. Their childhoodis disappearing. This belovedcountry, known for itspeacefulness, seems to have lostits way. Nepal has gone into awilderness of war, fear andbetrayal.

Today, instead of eagerstudents finishing their highschool, youth are clothed in khakiand carrying guns. Instead ofstudying at homes in the evening,they are reciting lessons ofideology and dogma. Instead ofplaying with their friends by theirlocal schools, children are forcedto work as porters for armies of thenight. Instead of finally beingaccepted in school, lower casteyouth are told that war is theanswer to oppression and themeans to emancipation.

But, unfortunately, in our all-too-brief human incarnation, thereare no simple emancipations orrevolutions. There is always aprice to pay and someone, someindividual, has to pay it.

“Was all of this worth my pain?”The conflict is taking its toll on Nepali children

the highways.“Men can go and relieve

themselves anywhere,” says thecivil servant, “but it is difficultfor women.” At night it is mucheasier, most female passengersjust walk off the road and duckbehind a bush.

Kala Swarnakar lives in Dangand works for the Dalit Women’s

When nature calls

AMIKA RAJTHALA

Our highways need to be more women-friendly

NEPALI PANKeith D Leslie

Too often the price of war hasbeen paid by the children of Nepal.So, it remains for us to speak onbehalf of the children, to say whatwe see today in Nepal. It is for usto speak about the traumas andterrors of a situation that has notbrought the children of Nepal abetter future, but is sacrificing thatpotential in the animosities oftoday.

War is not a solution. War israrely glory or noble sacrifice.War is too often death, tragedyand the abject failure of adults tofind reasonable solutions to oftenunreasonable problems. A country,where one could walk tranquilly inthe hills, has become an armed

encampment, where homes areshut tight in the evenings andvillagers dread a stranger’s knockon their door at night. Incommunities throughout the nation,naïve and vulnerable children aretaken against their will to thejungle for political indoctrination ortaken furtively in the barracks toinform on a relative or friend.

There is hardly a day that goesby when we are not dulled ornumbed into almost disbelief by thestories of children caught in thecrossfire. Children whose parentsare murdered in front of them.Children who are dragged fromtheir own homes and shot orbeaten based on an unproven or

unquestioned accusation orallegation. Children whose teacheris taken away in the night by menin uniform and never returned.Children whose local school isturned into a militia recruitmentground or a brutal battlefield.Children who are seduced into theromance of war or the promise ofan complicated future.

Are we permitted to questionsuch promises? To ask whyinstead we can’t promise thechildren of Nepal a qualityeducation, a healthy life, a well-managed school? Can we notbegin to hold ourselvesaccountable for these moremundane promises? Promises

that government after governmenthas made to its own people, aswell as the internationalcommunity, yet rarely sustain.

You only know what you havelost when it’s gone. Does everyparty to this conflict understandwhat it has lost? Must we lose ourown sons and daughters tounderstand the pain of those whohave already lost their children tothis internal, internecine conflict?How many more dead must wecount to appreciate the value of asingle human life? Wasn’t onechild killed by this dreary conflictenough for us to realise our ownobligation as adults not to murderour own children? How manychildren must die brutally for us topause to reflect on what we havedone? When will the fires of suchyoung cremations burn somesense into our collective nationalconsciousness?

Time is not on our side. Timecarries its own momentum. Wehave already lost a decade, howmany more decades do we have togive? Who will be able to answerwhen one child comes back to askus what happened to theirchildhood? Who will be able tostand to respond? Because we allknow, some day, when this war isover, that child will want to know:“Was all of this worth my pain?”

Keith D Leslie is director of Save theChildren US. This is an excerpt of his

speech at the launch of the Watchlist onChildren and Armed Conflict Report last

week.

Association and finds itimpossible to go whenever andwherever the driver pull over. Themen all clamber off and head forthe nearest tree. These days,Swarnakar makes sure she drinksas little as possible whiletravelling. But that exposeswomen to dehydration. Sajanaworks for Step, an NGO and is

from Achham. She says driversignore women requesting peestops.

Dipak Khadka is a bus driveron the Kathmandu-Pokhara route,and acknowledges that longdistance bus drivers and operatorsshould pay special attention tothe comfort and security ofpassengers, especially women.But he argues that he stops thebus when the conductor tells himto do so and blames his assistant.

These days the ordeal of long-distance buses is compounded bythe highway gridlocks caused bysecurity checks, bandas, booby-trapped barriers and even pitchedgun battles along the highways.But there is a hidden advantage toall this, says Khadka, becausesecurity checks have male andfemale personnel and passengerscan use their facilities. Thesemakeshift latrines made by thesecurity forces with tents andfenced by grass and wood providesome relief to passengers.

But lawyer Basanti Shrestha,who is a frequent traveller to thedistricts from Kathmandu, saysshe has never used the army’stoilets and hasn’t seen othersuse them either because of thelack of privacy.

Swarnakar’s greatest fear isthat the bus drives off with allher belongings while she is tryingto find a private spot. She can’tvery well carry all her luggagewhen she takes a break.

Most women passengers saytheir number one priority is to

have clean and accessiblelavatories along the highways,and drivers should stop only atplaces where such facilities areavailable. The prevalent custom isfor drivers pull up at restaurantswhere they have a businessrelationship, and women areforced to use the rest rooms evenif they are filthy.

The regional manager of NepalWater for Health (NEWAH),Saraswati Khanal, has sufferedthe travails of bus travel in Nepaland is thankful that her NGO hasactually tried to do somethingabout it. Between 1991-1994,NEWAH built seven public toiletsfor bus passengers along highwaysin Damauli, Dhulikhel,Khairenitar, Abukhaireni,Dulegaunda, Saurahachok andPokhara-Baglung bus parks. Theyfunction well, and are managedby local people.

Now, WATERAID andNEWAH in cooperation withKathmandu Metropolitan City,have completed a study on publictoilet management in the citywhile its Biratnagar regionaloffice is conducting a study onpublic toilets.

When these studies willactually go into theimplementation phase isanyone’s guess. But till then,women passengers have no choicebut to drink as little as possibleand be more assertive in gettingthe bus to stop where they wantto and not where the driver wantsto. (Sancharika Lekhmala)

M

S

KIRAN PANDAY

54 - 10 FEBRUARY 2005 #233BUSINESS

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Everest tsunamiThe chairman and executive director of Everest Bank Limitedhanded over a cheque for Rs 1,00,001 to SS Mukherjee, the IndianAmbassador to Nepal as a token of assistance to the affectedTsunami victims in India. The employees and the management of thebank had voluntarily collected the amount.

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Tag, they’re itTag Heuer has announced superstars Uma Thurman, Brad Pitt andJuan Pablo Montoya as its new 2005 global ambassadors. Alongwith Maria Sharapova, Tiger Worrds and Kimi Raïkkönen, TAGHeuer’s new ambassadorial team represents a fusion of sports andglamour.

The ambassadors will be featured in the new 2005 “What areyou made of?” campaign, shot by top fashion photographer PatrickDemarchelier.

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Ultra modernYamaha has started a new ultra modern showroom in Biratnagar.Morang Autoworks, authorised distributor of Yamaha motorcycles inNepal, celebrated Yamaha Utsab in Biratnagar to mark the event. Ayear’s free petrol is also being provided to new customers of Libero,Curx and YBX. This scheme runs till 11 February.

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Dettol mediaDettol, an international power brand has recently launchedaggressive media activities in the Nepali electronic media. Dettolantiseptic liquid is a household name for effective protection againstdisinfections. Dettol is now also available as skincare soap withspecial moisturisers.

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Harpic commercialHarpic has started an informative television commercial in Nepalwith anchor Aman Verma. A dominant player in the organised toiletcleaner market, Harpic is available in three basic types: HarpicPower, Harpic Bleach and Harpic Fresh. They come in two sizes:500 ml and 200 ml.

t’s that time of year againwhen self-appointedvigilantes of the Nepali media

sphere don a more-Nepali-than-thou attitude and start bashingsupposed foreigners amidst us.Last year around this time, theNepal Media Society cartel ofnewspaper publishers ran anincendiary campaign against TheHimalayan Times, crying thatforeigners (read Indians) shouldnot be allowed to invest inNepal’s “sensitive” print-media.

Fanning the flames of aprobable riot a la the Hritik-Roshan-kanda of 2000, columninches were misused to reportpublic burning of THT’s copies.But because the agitators used theunsustainable avenue ofnationalistic hype to challengethe presence THT in the Nepalimarket, the campaign ended adamp squib.

This time, the target is thetwo-year-old Nepal One satelliteTV channel, run by the well-connected Indian journalistNalini Singh. It uplinks from acramped studio in an office blockjust outside Connaught Circus inNew Delhi. Uplinking fromoutside a receiving country andmarket is itself nothing new inthe age of satellite televison.

Nepal One has been focussingon innovative entertainment andinfotainment programmes at atime when Nepal-based channelshave been loathe to invest inprogramming. Its most recentjournalistic coup was to film andbroadcast footage of the skirmishin the Malekhu stretch of the

Prithbi Rajmarg. This scoopappears to have raised thechannel’s profile and made it anattractive advertising receptacle forthose looking to reach the Nepali-speaking audience in Nepal aswell as in the Southasianneighbourhood. The Delhi-basedchannel is obviously collecting agood section of its revenueoutside Nepal and being anIndian-owned channel seems tobe attractive for Indian advertisers.

For this reason, Nepal One isobviously a threat to a spectrum ofmedia companies in Nepal, fromtelevision to advertising.Unsurprisingly, the AdvertisersAssociation of Nepal (AAN) hasdecided to raise a ruckus.Unfortunately, the media greatswho spoke up in well-publicisedevents stressed nationalism intheir case against Nepal One. Whatthe agitated executives shouldhave done was to try to focusattention on any possibleillegality billings and payments,press registration or television‘uplinking’ rights. In which caseit would have been a simplematter for the station’s executivesto defend themselves or beexposed.

The Ministry of Informationand Communications issued astrange statement: “Nepal One issimilar to foreign TV channelssuch as Aaj Tak, NDTV, BBC andCNN and it should be dealt withaccordingly.” What is the point?Is Nepal One to be respected asmuch as those other newschannels? If not, what does theMinistry expect to gain by settingitself up as Nepal One’sclarification agency?

At best, the Ministry seems tohave succumbed to the demandsof the ‘nationalistic’ cabal seeking

to highlight for the public’s benefitthat Nepal One is ‘foreign’. If thereis a violation of Nepal’s laws, thenslap the channel with a lawsuit. Itis meaningless to point outChannel One’s non-Nepali status asif that should matter to viewersand advertisers who pay their ownmoney to either watch or ignore thechannel in ways they see fit andnot because they take cue from theMinistry.

Whenever a foreigner ‘threat’looms, those imbued withPanchayat-era patriorism rush intothe fray. What they need tounderstand is that in today’stechnology-rich and competitivelandscape, Nepal’s private mediaoutlets are simply no more thanmoneymaking or losing venturesand should be treated as such.They compete to collect ads, retaingood employees, be a step ahead ofcompetitors, integrate newtechnology and constantlyinnovate—all these whilenurturing a credible reputation byreporting the verifiable truth.Meanwhile, the Nepali televisionstations must start with investingin programming beyond musicvideos and talk programmes, usingthe inhouse talent and thetechnology they have aplenty.Being based in Kathmandu ratherthan New Delhi, it will not bedifficult for them to attract theloyalty of viewers based oncontent, rather than nationalism.

T’is the season

STRICTLYBUSINESS

Ashutosh Tiwari

Media bashing media has begun again in the name of nationalism

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INCENSE CYCLE: A top incense brand in India,Cycle incense has recently launched some of itsrange in Nepal. An initial soft launch amongKathmandu consumers had positive results. Cycleincense has more than 20 ranges of incense brandsavailable of which a few will be launched in Nepal.The most popular are Lia brand and Rhythm brand.

SILKY SHAMPOO: Dabur has launched AnmolSilky Black Shampoo, available in 200 ml forRs 88 and 500 ml for Rs 152. Six ml sachets havebeen introduced for Rs1. Enriched with almonds,amla and shikakai, popular Bollywood actressRani Mukherjee has endorsed the brand.

6 4 - 10 FEBRUARY 2005 #233NATION

eople from central Nepalhave always passed throughGorakhpur for the town has

long been a rural hub and railwayjunction. Today, as the internalconflict sends more and moreNepalis fleeing to India, thistraffic has grown. But few lingerin this city of eastern UttarPradesh especially after theIndian security forces havestarted looking out for Nepaliswith possible Maoistconnections.

Trains leave Gorakhpur nowfor just about anywhere in India,and Lucknow and Banaras are nolonger necessary transfer stops formany travellers. This newfoundconnectivity has accelerated aboom in industry and business,and nursing homes, too, havesprung up in great numbers tobalance the void of medicalfacilities in the surrounding ruralareas of eastern UP.

Nepalis who find themselvesin Gorakhpur flock to worshipthe newly installed white marbleimage of Gorakhnath in histemple (see box). Many arepilgrims of a different kind,arriving here from Arghakhanchi,Palpa, Gulmi and other districtsof central Nepal in search ofmedical care. Many stay atBhaktalal Hirachan’s NepaliLodge in the central thoroughfareof Golghar. Long a refuge forNepalis in Gorakhpur, Hirachan’ssimple lodge has dormitory-stylerooms, common bathrooms andserves Thakali-style, some of thebest Nepali food south of theborder.

Many Maoists, too, used to

come to Gorakhpur for treatmentbut with the Indian government’scrackdown, they now stay awayfrom the city proper. The securityalert has made Gorakhpur anunfriendly place for Nepalis andyoung Nepali men in particularare now vulnerable to searchesand interrogation. In the past fewyears, many innocent people whoarrived here fleeing Maoistrecruitment in their homevillages have been hassled orarrested.

Most street side restaurants inGorakhpur have Nepali staffswho have been working here for anumber of years but many newarrivals no longer feel safe in thecity. The search for security andwork now takes them deeper intothe vast north Indian heartlandand further away from home.

At Gorakhpur’s railwaystation, hundreds of Nepalis canbe seen at any given time, waitingon the platforms for trainsheaded in every which direction.

Outside, there are those who arereturning on holiday or furlough,piling their bags on to buses andjeeps headed for Sunauli andBhairawa. If not wearing Dhakatopis, men from Nepal’s hills atleast can be recognised by theirrecently adopted custom ofcarrying backpacks. One suchbackpacker who was waiting forthe train on Platform One on arecent morning was KumarBahadur Khadga, headed backafter a vacation in Gulmi to

Gorkhalis still flock to HIMALI DIXIT

in GORAKHPUR

This Indian frontier town has always hadclose links to Nepal but with time thoselinks take on new meanings

Bhubaneswar in Orissa, where hewas employed in the OrissaArmed Police. His unit has 1,500Gorkhalis, with Nepali authorityright up to the level of assistantcommander, he said. His fatherhad been in the same line beforehim and it was easy for him tofollow in his father’s footsteps asthe Nepali division recruits foritself through networks of familyand friends.

Many other Nepalis are not asforthcoming and hesitate to talk

P

MOSCOW—The recent triumph of theOrange Revolution in Ukraine has shownthat a season of colourful revolutionsrolling across Eastern Europe sweepingaside ‘old regimes’ and installing NewWorld Order government is far from over.Post cold war revolution is all about

choosinga colourthat ispleasant

to the eyes of the world’s sole superpower.In its eyes, a colourless version of

people’s revolution tried out in Yugoslaviaearlier was only partially successful. The‘tyrant’ Milosevic was replaced bynationalist Vojislav Kostunica, whoseideas of liberal democracy were somewhatdifferent than those preached by westernpowers. Now, no western country iswilling to help rebuild his countrydevastated in 1999 by NATO’s depleteduranium munitions and cluster-bombs.

Georgia became the second pilotproject. US-educated lawyer (and thushighly qualified for the top job) MikhailSaakashvili stormed the parliamentbuilding riding on the back of westernmedia and hundreds of Georgiansupporters holding roses in their hands.

The next great gameFrom Ukraine to Iraq, it seems elections are ok as long as our guys win

GUEST COLUMNJugal Bhurtel

They were protesting the results ofparliament elections, which had a fewdays earlier given a clear mandate to thesupporters of slightly pro-RussianPresident Edward Shevardnadze.

The Rose Storm not only wiped outthe poll results but also sentShevardnadze into political oblivion.Amidst accusations of widespread voterigging in new presidential election,Saakashvili became the president of thishighly volatile state. This time,understandably, the election had thestamp of approval of the Organisation forSecurity and Co-operation in Europe(OSCE), which claims to have anexclusive right of monitoring electionsin the former Soviet states. Westernmedia promptly christened it as ‘TheGreat Rose Revolution’. A Pepsi bottlingplant was promptly opened in thecapital, Tbilisi, while the US army wasinvited to teach its Caucasiancounterpart the art of defending itselfagainst Russia’s imperialistic designs.

It is tempting to extrapolate theseevents to the ‘orange’ campaign

spearheaded by Victor Yushchenko inUkraine. The election outcome was notfavourable as he lost to his Moscow-supported ‘sky blue’ opponent VictorYanukovich by a small margin. BruceGeorge, a British Labour MP and head ofthe OSCE election monitoring missioncried foul and bluntly called on thesupporters of Yushchenko to act.

Tens of thousands of orangesupporters filled the central MaidanNezalezhnosti in Kiev. A tent city wentup and government buildings wereblockaded. The election commission wasprevented from making the officialannouncement. It was obvious the‘spontaneous’ protest was, in fact,carefully planned and financed.Yushchenko had no intention of losingthe election. The Supreme Court wasforced to order an unprecedented andutterly unconstitutional third roundthat finally gave Yushchenko acomfortable victory. Colin Powellpublicly accepted assisting thedissidents in Kiev, now famouslyknown as ‘The Great Orange Revolution’.

Now, ‘authoritarian’ regimes inUzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are twoimmediate western targets in the postSoviet space. In fact, the innovativeKyrgyz opposition is contemplating alemon as its logo of future revolt.Probably we are going to witness theemergence of the Great Citrus Revolutionthat may soon overthrow President AskarAkaev and install yet another new-world-order government.

Protagonists of Nepal’s conflict canextract their own lessons from theseevents in the ex-Soviet states. After all,the same western governments gave aclean chit for elections in Kosovo, wheremore than 200,000 Serbs were stripped oftheir voting rights.

And in Afghanistan no one knowsexactly how many votes President Karzaireceived even from the territory notcontrolled by the Taliban. Nobody doubtsthe forthcoming Iraqi elections also willbe hailed as legal and democratic.

Jugal Bhurtel is an environmental researcherbased in Moscow jugal_bhurtel@yahoo.com

ALL PICS: HIMALI DIXIT

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Gorakhpurto strangers. No more do they sitdown and swap names ofhometowns, as many have fledunder conditions of extremehardship and threats. When theydo talk, their voices carry a patentlonging for peace and home.

Many Nepali pilgrims stillcome to Gorakhpur to visit theGorakhnath Temple. The shrine isthe city’s biggest owner ofbusiness and real estate, and hasemerged of late as an importantand active political force. The manin charge of the temple’s affairs,the 32-year old Yogi Adityanath,is also a Bharatiya Janta PartyMember of Parliament who hasadopted an ultra-conservativeHindutwa agenda. Despite decadesof effort on the part of theRashtriya Shiva Sena and others,Hindu nationalism had notseemed to have caught on inGorakhpur. Many attribute this toa legacy that goes back to theIndependence Movement and itssecular traditions. But now, withAdityanath’s increasing clout andthe ubiquitous presence of ‘HinduYuva Bahini’s promoting religiousnationalism, this town not farfrom our border could developinto a communal hotspot.

There has always been muchtravel and transportation of goodsbetween central Nepal and eastern

Uttar Pradesh. Economicinteraction, however, has notdeveloped beyond that traffic. AsGorakhpur evolves from a ruralbackwater town to a more vibranteconomic hub, it can be expected

Gorakhpur’s Kathmanduconnection

Gorakhpur and Kathmandu Valley are linked on theborderlines of history and myth. The ascetic Gorakhnath,apparently a real person, is supposed to have been a pupilof none other than our own Machindranath about 1,000 yearsago.

Master and pupil may have arrived in Kathmandu on oneof the waves of immigration that followed the destruction ofIndian Buddhist establishments by invaders. Gorakhnath isfabled to have wreaked havoc in Kathmandu Valley when,having charmed all nine of the chief naags into a well, herefused to budge as he satatop it in meditation.Immobilised, the naags werenot able to bring rains to thevalley and a massive droughtand famine ensued. After 12years, when Machindranathwas called in from Assam,Gorakhnath was finallyobliged to rise out of respectfor his guru. The naags thencrept away and it immediatelybegan to pour. Gorakhnath’sarrival in Kathmandu is stillcelebrated every spring aspart of the much older chariotfestival of Bungdyo.

It is this same Gorakhnathwho arrived in the town ofRamgram in the plains a yearafter Timur’s invasion of theGangetic basin. On the spotwhere Gorakhpur’sGorakhnath temple now stands, he is said to haveperformed other impressive yogic austerities.

Drought and all, worship of Gorakhnath reached a heightin Kathmandu in the 14th and 15th centuries. It then went intodecline, but revived again with the arrival of the Gorkhalis,who revered the yogi as the patron saint of Gorkha. Thetemple remains an important pilgrimage spot for NepaliHindus from central Nepal and beyond.

Sunrise over the chhoti line atGorakhpur station (overleaf).A memorial to shahid GautamGurung, across the street from theGorkha Recruitment Depot.(below) and Bhaktalal Hirachanoutside the Nepali Lodge inGolghar.

that economic relationships willevolve to benefit people bothsides of the border. For thepresent, however, the city remainsa transit point and a place forNepal’s pilgrims and ailing.

Ras

ta sa

dhus

8 INTERNATIONAL

vividly remember the slightlyludicrous, slightly risqué andsomewhat distressing predicament in

which western diplomats in Prague foundthemselves during the Cold War. Theyregularly needed to resolve the delicateissue of whether to invite to their embassycelebrations various Charter 77 signatories,

humanrightsactivists,critics

of the communist regime, displacedpoliticians or even banned writers,scholars and journalists—people withwhom the diplomats were generallyfriends.

Sometimes we dissidents were notinvited but received an apology andsometimes we were invited but did notaccept the invitation so as not tocomplicate the lives of our courageousdiplomat friends. Or we were invited tocome at an earlier hour in the hope that wewould leave before the officialrepresentatives arrived, which sometimesworked and sometimes didn’t. When itdidn’t, either the official representativesleft in protest at our presence or we lefthurriedly or we all pretended not to noticeeach other or—albeit on rare occasions—westarted to converse with each other, whichfrequently were the only moments ofdialogue between the regime and theopposition (not counting our courthouseencounters).

This all happened when the IronCurtain divided Europe—and the world—into opposing camps. Western diplomatshad their countries’ economic interests toconsider but unlike the Soviet side, they

Appeasement revisitedIt is hard to imagine a more shameful deal

Cuban government’s wishes. Theshortsightedness of socialist PrimeMinister José Zapatero of Spain hasprevailed.

Try to imagine what will happen: ateach European embassy, someone will beappointed to screen the list, name by name,and assess whether and to what extent thepersons in question behave freely or speakout freely in public, to what extent theycriticise the regime or even whether they areformer political prisoners. Lists will beshortened and deletions made and this willfrequently entail eliminating even goodpersonal friends of the diplomats in chargeof the screening, people whom they havegiven various forms of intellectual,political or material assistance. It will beeven worse if the EU countries try to masktheir screening activities by inviting onlydiplomats to embassy celebrations in Cuba.

I can hardly think of a better way for theEU to dishonour the noble ideals offreedom, equality and human rights thatthe Union espouses—indeed, principlesthat it reiterates in its constitutionalagreement. To protect Europeancorporations’ profits from their Havanahotels, the Union will cease inviting open-minded people to EU embassies and wewill deduce who they are from theexpression on the face of the dictator andhis associates. It is hard to imagine a moreshameful deal.

Cuba’s dissidents will, of course,happily do without western cocktail partiesand polite conversation at receptions. Thispersecution will admittedly aggravate theirdifficult struggle but they will naturallysurvive it. The question is whether the EUwill survive it.

Today, the EU is dancing to Fidel’stune. That means tomorrow it could bid forcontracts to build missile bases on the coastof the People’s Republic of China. Thefollowing day it could allow its decisionson Chechnya to be dictated by RussianPresident Vladimir Putin’s advisers. Then,for some unknown reason, it could make itsassistance to Africa conditional on fraternalties with the worst African dictators.

Where will it end? The release ofMilosevic? Denying a visa to Russianhuman rights activist Sergey Kovalyov? Anapology to Saddam Hussein? The openingof peace talks with al Qaeda?

It is suicidal for the EU to draw onEurope’s worst political traditions, thecommon denominator of which is the ideathat evil must be appeased and that the bestway to achieve peace is through indifferenceto the freedom of others. Just the oppositeis true: such policies expose an indifferenceto one’s own freedom and pave the way forwar. After all, Europe is uniting in order todefend its freedom and values, not tosacrifice them to the ideal of harmoniouscoexistence with dictators and thus riskgradual infiltration of its soul by the anti-democratic mindset.

I firmly believe that the new members ofthe EU will not forget their experience oftotalitarianism and non-violent oppositionto evil and that that experience will bereflected in how they behave in EU bodies.Indeed, this could be the best contributionthey can make to the common spiritual,moral and political foundations of a unitedEurope. Project Syndicate

Václav Havel is Former President ofthe Czech Republic.

“Corruption,” pronounces Asif Ali Zardari,“is a state of mind. A corrupt personwouldn’t have taken on the establishment,wouldn’t have sacrificed eight years of hislife in prison. I could have accepted a dealand got out.”

No, no, no, there’s been no deal withGen Musharraf, he repeats. But he isconfident that the government will have tocall early elections, and that BB (Benazir

Bhutto,hiswife,whomhe

refers to as his “leader”) will be back,“inshallah”.

We are at Bilawal House in Karachi afew days before his departure to Dubai.There is an air of expectancy about theplace, which is buzzing with men, outsidethe gates, in the courtyards, under ashamiana, in the living room next to thebook-lined study where we meet Pakistan’sformer First Gentleman.

Even when he was in prison he had aneasy time of it, air-conditioned rooms, allkinds of visitors, nudge, nudge, wink,wink... And yet, it couldn’t have been thateasy. There were rough moments, includingsolitary confinement, denial bail, and worse.

He comes into the room briskly. We’reexpecting an informal meeting, but theseating arrangement—he sits behind thelarge wooden desk facing the four of us—implies an interview. During the ensuingdiscussion one thing becomes clear:Zardari isn’t going to complain about hisprison stint or political and personaladversities. Instead, he repeats whatappears to be his mantra: positive thinking.

“There is an unrepresentative,undemocratic government, and the Westwill eventually have to stand with thedemocratic forces. Musharraf can’t step outof the umbrella of democracy,” he says.

“The PPP is not in a rush to get intogovernance, and we believe that a martialthought process is not the answer...realstrength comes from the people, and wehave to educate them against the prevalentdefeatist attitude.”

His only regret is not being able to seehis children grow up. The eldest, Bilawal,was just eight when Zardari was imprisonedby the Nawaz Sharif government in 1997.But this is not a complaint. “I did it for thesake of democracy, for the people, for allour children.”

Corruption comes up. He dismisses it:“They haven’t proved one case against me.They created this image of me, as anAchilles heel of the PPP.”

And then, some unexpected philosophy:“History will redeem me. What am I? I amjust a bleep in the universal picture. So Imight as well try and shine.”

There were times when no one wouldcome to see him, but he never lost faith.“Nawaz Sharif left.

My graph went up. I wasn’t entirelyisolated. I’ve spent these eight yearsthinking, dreaming about how we canchange Pakistan’s destiny for the better.”

The answer, he believes, is utilisingwhat is considered Pakistan’s weakness,its burgeoning population, and convertingthis into strength.

The unbearable lightness of being AsifAfter eight years of imprisonment Asif Ali Zardari flew to Dubai last week toreunite with his wife Benazir Bhutto who lives there in self-imposed exile.

I

LETTER FROMPAKISTAN

Beena Sarwar

“We must invest in manpower, a billiondollars in our people instead of planes.The emancipation of women is the futureof Pakistan. The trouble is that we trainour sons but not our girls.” His sonBilawal and daughter Bakhtawar are bothkarate black belts.

What about Benazir, will they let herreturn? “They? Who are they to stop her?”Asif Zardari asks “She has chosen to stayaway because the world has gone mad.She is working nine hours a day, tochange world opinion about us, aboutPakistan.”

He disagrees that she is arrogant andunapproachable. “A person with anarrogant mindset wouldn’t work so hard.Look, people here are hypersensitive. Shehas a thousand things on her mind.”

So if there were fresh elections and asimilar situation developed, would hisparty accept power with similarcompromises? Zardari refuses to say.

“She’s the leader. Her wisdom is morethan mine. Whatever decision she makeswill be correct and we will abide by it.” Butspeaking for himself, what he would like tobe if in power again, is environmentminister.

“That’s my passion.” His mindersfinally prevail upon him to leave for hisnext appointment, and as he exits theroom, he gives us a wide grin. You wonderwho will have the last laugh.

Beena Sarwar is contributing editor,The News, Pakistan

took seriously the idea of ‘dissidents ortrade’. I cannot recall any occasion at thattime when the west or any of itsorganisations (NATO, the EuropeanCommunity, etc) issued some publicappeal, recommendation or edict statingthat some specific group of independently-minded people—however defined—werenot to be invited to diplomatic parties,celebrations or receptions.

But today this is happening. One of thestrongest and most powerful democraticinstitutions in the world—the EuropeanUnion—has no qualms in making a publicpromise to the Cuban dictatorship that itwill re-institute diplomatic Apartheid. TheEU’s embassies in Havana will now crafttheir guest lists in accordance with the

COMMENTVaclav Havel

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Charumati in NepalMain editorial inKantipur, 2 February

Sanskrit scholar Satya MohanJoshi has proved that age does notmatter when it comes to work aslong as one has the willpower todo something. Joshi, 85,successfully produced the balletof Charumati, daughter of Ashoka.He even managed to turn the storyof Ashoka and his daughter’s visitto Nepal and her eventual marriageto a Nepali youth into a ballet.Joshi worked intensely for 18months without remuneration,believing that his main purposewas to start something novel inNepal. This ballet will definitelymake a significant contribution toNepali Sanskrit culture. It willalso give an interesting account ofthis particular history of Ashoka’svisit to Nepal. He had come herewith his daughter in search ofpeace after feeling exhausted fromwinning a big war. He was not anordinary pilgrim but a devotedfollower of the Buddha. Duringhis pilgrimage, he built manyreligious monuments. The maintheme of the ballet is the romancebetween Charumati and Debpal, ayoung Chettri. Their romanceforged a new relationship betweenIndia and Nepal. It is reallyamazing to see how this balletabout ancient history has beenable to mesmerise modern youth.Although the story is old, theballet has managed to includemodern elements to move withthe times. Ballet is quite unusualfor Nepalis. Stories of Kumari,Munamadan and others wereusually presented throughmusical dramas. This ballet willdefinitely delight Nepalis. Thereare now plans to take this ballet toIndia as well. The Indians willnot only get to know about Nepal-India relations of about 2,300years back. They will also learnNepal’s Sanskrit traditions. At atime when art and culture are soinfluenced by the west, thisinitiative by Joshi and theLalitpur municipality will makesignificant contribution towardspromoting Nepali identity.

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People’s reactionsRajdhani, 2 February

The people say that Nepal’spolitics will be in trouble if,having relieved the Deubagovernment of power, peace is notrestored. Eighty-seven years oldTika Das of Ramechhap says that ifthe king is able to hold talks withthe Maoists and bring peace to thecountry, then he has taken theright step. “Right now we can’t sayfor sure that he has done the rightthing. It is good only if peace isrestored,” says Tika Das. DhrubaPun, 27, from Kabhre runs a clothshop in Chabel. But he is notconvinced that this move willbring peace. “We can hope but itsimpossible to say that the king’ssole effort will result in peace.”Shanker Khaptadi also of Chabelbelieves that the step taken by theking was necessary to extricate thecountry from conflict. “It couldnot have gone on, somebody hadto make this step,” he says addingthat the move is fraught withdanger.

FROM THE NEPALI PRESS SELECTED MATERIAL TRANSLATED EVERY WEEK FROM THE NEPALI PRESS

Just the king taking over willnot solve the problem, says taxidriver Kedar Dhakal of Kabhre,Deupur. A solution, he says is tobring the Maoists to mainstreampolitics. Shobha Neupane, ahousewife in Baneshwor, saysbecause the politicians were doingwhatever they wanted, it wasnecessary for the king to takecontrol of the country. “After allthe corruption that the politicianswere up to, it was inevitable. But Ican’t say whether or not it willbring positive changes,” she says.

Lekhnath Bhandari, 30, ofTerathum says that the king’saction was the best possiblealternative. It has ended the debatebetween the political parties, hesays, “Now the country has achance for peace”.

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No more murdersGorkhapatra, 3 February

In a country where there used to benews of murders and violenceevery day, these incidents havecome to a stop after KingGyanendra’s royal addressyesterday. There have been nountoward incidents anywhere in

the country. Security has also beentightened since yesterday toprevent violence. There have beenno violent incidents even inMaoist-affected areas like Rolpa,Doti, Jajarkot and Dang. Reportsfrom various parts of the countrysay that the situation is normal.Kathmandu Valley is also secure.No more tyre-burning, no morestreet obstructions and noirresponsible actions.

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Who is to blame?Rajdhani, 2 February

Multiparty democracy has alwaysbeen regarded as a successfulmedium for rule all over theworld. Nepal has remainedmonarchical for the last 250 years.The unity between the king andthe political parties has been thestrength of the rule of the nation.Unless this is understood,instability will continue. Theroyal declaration called for unityand it seems necessary formultiparty advocates to makemaximum use of this. Some of thepositive steps taken in Nepalfailed in performance due to lackof skill. The king’s move was not

unexpected. Even before FebruaryFirst, the political situation ofthe country was clear. Deubarejoining the government after heproved himself an incapableprime minister was an openinvitation for disastrousconsequences. It was during hisgovernment that the Pajeroculture and horse-trading ofparliamentarians began. LikeGirija said, Deuba was responsiblefor handing over democracy to thepalace. It was Deuba whodissolved the House ofRepresentatives. Even afterbreaking up Nepali Congress, he

leeched on to the regime. Such isthe block in our restoreddemocracy’s chapter. Whenever anew step is taken, new problemswill be born. It will have negativeimpact if the establishment failsto carry out its responsibilitiessatisfactorily. Fear has grippedthe people ever since the Maoistslaunched their armed rebellion.The important lesson we havelearnt is we have done virtuallynothing, just posed as merespectators all the time. Instead oflooking for people to blame,maybe we should blameourselves?

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10 4 - 10 FEBRUARY 2005 #233CITY

FESTIVAL AND EXHIBITIONSThe Solitude of Colour Paintings byBinod Pradhan at Siddhartha ArtGallery, Baber Mahal Revisited.Until 18 February. 4411122,4218048Big Ben Toons Exhibition ofcartoons by Bigyan and Ben at theVia-Via Café and Gallery, Thamel.Exhibition of Japanese Kites andTops at Nepal Art Council, 8-17 February, 9.30 to 4.30 PM.4413174

EVENTSCurrent Regional and International Scenario A talk program at theEmbassy of Pakistan on 5 February, 11.30 AM. 437013, 437024Kathmandu Chorale Rehearsals, 7.10 PM at The British School,Jhamsikhel. 5534737Sanibaar Mela Every Saturday at the Dharara Bakery Café,12AM-5PM.3rd Annual Wave Web Winner 2004 Website designing contest.Entry deadline 15 February. www.wavemag.com.np.The God Dance of Kathmandu Valley every Tuesday at HotelVajra. 4271545

MUSICGood Time Blues Band at Rum Doodle every Friday, 5PM to7PM. 4701208, 4701107, rum_doodle@gohimalaya.comClassical vocals and instrumental music, 7PM onwards, everyFriday at Hotel Vajra. 4271545Jatra Saturday nights with Looza, 6.30 PM onwards. 4256622Jukebox experience with Pooja Gurung and The Cloud Walkersevery Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at Rox Bar. 4491234Happening live jazz in town at Upstairs Jazz Bar, Lajimpat.Every Wednesday and Saturday, 7.45 PM onwards.

FOODExecutive Lunch Every Saturday and Sunday, 11AM to 2PM, allthrough February at Moksh, Pulchok, Jhamsikhel. 5528703Barbecue Dinner Every Friday at the Summit Hotel. 5521810Seasons Special Luncheon at the Shambala Garden Café, HotelShangri-La for Rs 450. 4412999New delicacies Introducing pastas and snacks at RoadhouseCafé, Jawalakhel. 5521755Sizzling Weekend Treat with live music, dance, barbeque andkaraoke at Garden Terrace, Soaltee Crowne Plaza. 4273999Genuine Thai cuisine at Royal Lotus, Bakhundole. 5521231Delicious barbecue dinner Fridays at Summit Hotel. 5521810Farm House Café Unlimited nature with delicious meals at ParkVillage Hotel. 4375280Café Bahal Newari and continental cuisine under the giantCinnamon tree at Kathmandu Guest House, Thamel. 4700632Barbecue-Ban Bhoj at Godavari Village Resort. 5560675Vegetarian Creations at Stupa View Restaurant. 4480262Splash Spring BBQ Wednesday and Friday evenings, 6PMonwards. Radisson Hotel, Kathmandu.The Beer Garden at Vaijayantha, Godavari Village Resort.5560675Dwarika’s Thali Lunch at the Heritage courtyard. 4479488The Tharu Kitchen at Jungle Base Camp.Junglebasecamp@yahoo.com

GETAWAYSTiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge Pure relaxation to escape theKathmandu chill. 4361500Shivapuri Heights Cottage Great views, birdwatching and tranquilatmosphere at the edge of Shivapuri National Park.steve@escape2nepal.comChiso Chiso Hawama One night two days package for Rs 1,700at Club Himalaya. 4411706Jungle Base Camp Lodge, Bardia, special package and prices.junglebasecamp@yahoo.comMalaysia Dream Holidays Packages starting from Rs 45,500 perperson. 2012345, malaysiaholidays_marco@polo.com.npGetaway package Night’s stay at Godavari Village Resort,includes dinner and breakfast. 5560675AAA Organic Farm and Guesthouse Rs 950 with three meals.6631734Temple Tiger One night package $250. 4263480Machan Wildlife Jungle Resort special packages available.4225001Weekend Special at Park Village Resort, Budanilkantha.4375280Jomsom Mountain Resort Two nights-three days at Rs 5,999 forNepalis, $199 for expats including airfare and food. 4496110,salesjom@mail.com.np

What for?

Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists ( NEFEJ),4261991, nefej@mos.com.np

walkathon

To raise funds for Radio Sagarmatha building

Want to walk with Bhairab Risal?

on Feb 27, 2005

KATHMANDU VALLEY

by MAUSAM BEEDNEPALI WEATHER

Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue

19-1 17-0 18-1 18-1 19-1

It was an especially wide westerlyfront that traveled across northernIndia and Nepal this week, bringingrain, snow overcast skies to the regionas seen in this satellite picture takenon Tuesday morning. Parts of northernand central India got more than doubletheir monthly average of rain. Thislow pressure region has now movedaway rapidly to the east, and we haveclear horizons to the west as far asthe eye can see. Kathmandu can lookforward to misty mornings andincreasingly warmer afternoons intonext week. The minimum temperaturewill also start climbing, as the winterchill wanes gradually.

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4 - 10 FEBRUARY 2005 #233

CDO Regd No. 194/056/57 Lalitpur, Central Region Postal Regd. No. 04/058/59

UNDER MY HATKunda Dixit

T wo items of news last week from the worldof rats was proof that lower mammals havean acute sixth sense that warns them of

impending disaster. Rats are in fact known tohave abandoned the Titanic even though ithadn’t even struck an iceberg yet. Our rodentfriends seem to have a built-in early warningsystem.

In the first incident, reported nationwide bythe mediabefore itwasforbiddento tell lies, a

mouse reportedly got inside the trousers of acook in a Darbar Marg café that shall remainnameless. The cook panicked and crashed intothe bar, breaking several bottles of Kingfisherwhich gashed him and he had to be rushed tothe hospital (don’t you dare laugh).

The second occurrence took place the nextday at a famous New Road eatery when a hungrycustomer about to wolf down a vegetariansamosa discovered that it contained a baby rat(Latin name: Rats Us). As reported by the localmedia, other patrons then raised slogans againstthe restaurant management, demanding theirmoney back. Thank heavens we’re not a litigiousnation, otherwise people would be suing thepants off the rats.

All this just by way of preamble as thecountry resumes its long march towardsattaining Asian ISO 9002 standards by 2050 byunleashing four-directional development and goback to the village. Even as I write those words, Iam swept by a heady feeling of nostalgia anddéjà vu. The good days are back again, let’s rock.

And now, the international headlines to

Don’t you dare laughthose of you who missed watching importantevents unfold around the world. It’s a pity youdidn’t get to watch BBC and CNN this weekbecause you missed a lot of earth-shatteringevents around the world. There is nothing like24-hour television news to keep us abreast ofwhat is happening globally. So, this is what youall missed:

1. Pope John Paul catches a cold but is gettingbetter as we hear live from our correspondentoutside his hospital in Rome.2. Breaking news that jury selection in theMichael Jackson trial is finally complete even asthe genderless, raceless and ageless king of popsays he’s not a bad man, just a weird one.3. Mugabe calls for elections in March: the West issceptical4. Iraq elections over: the West says it was aroaring success5. Thailand elections next week: voting just aformality, says Thaksin6. Captains of industry met in Davos and some ofthem slipped on ice in the sidewalk outside theirhotel7. Lords of poverty junket in Puerto Alegre windsup amidst fanfare and belly-dancing8. Hillary Clinton faints, recovers and givesanother speech9. Tony Blair is kissed by party supporter at rallywho is surprised he doesn’t have a stiff upperlip. “They are rather soft,” Tony’s kisser toldreporters.10. SAARC summit postponed again, leaders tomeet ‘at latest’ by 2025 by which time, membernations will have hopefully run out of excusesnot to attend.

We have more international news in just amoment after the break. Don’t go away.