Nepal and Bhutan: Tales of two transitions

Indra Adhikari

Three days apart, one Himalayan kingdom practiced to move towards democracy, another Himalayan kingdom celebrated the anniversary of the king's power incise amidst an escalating security situation where the masses continue to demonstrate for a republic. The story is of Bhutan and Nepal. On April 21, Bhutan observed the first but mock election to prepare the people for democracy and the election process, which the country hopes to start next year. On April 24, Nepal observed the first anniversary of the Loktantra, where communist led demonstrations dominated the celebrations. In a mass meeting at the heart of the capital city Kathmandu, the minister of a party sympathetic to the King was heckled by the audience forcing him to end his statement with one sentence to say they would declare Nepal a republic from the first sitting of the constituent assembly.

While the minister was taking constituent assembly as the place through which Nepal would start its republican age, there are no signs ahead for holding the election to constituent assembly and leaders of the eight parties still linger around without being able to set the new date.
Both these kingdoms are in a transitional period (to mention here, government formed after the popular uprising last year in Nepal decided to rename the country as 'State of Nepal' and not as 'Kingdom of Nepal' as in the earlier constitution). The transition is for strengthening democracy in both the countries. The transition in Nepal was fueled by mass demonstrations last year while the transition of Bhutan was by fear of a similar outburst against the monarchy. The mass uprising in Nepal has its foundation on the decade long communist movement led by the Maoists. The democratic reforms in Bhutan were announced in the same year communist thinkers in Bhutan began to come together. By the time Bhutanese communists announced their party, Bhutan invigorated its path towards democratization.

In Nepal, the King is being fanned out. Demonstrations for a republic continue to rock the capital and most parts of the country. The country might have become a republic if leaders had not stopped their mass movement last year on April 24 where Nepali Congress led seven parties agreed for ceremonial kingship. Though the second largest party of the movement UML had decided to go for republic, it was compelled to accept the Congress led agreement with the palace without which the mass movement would have gone nowhere. In Bhutan, the king is becoming stronger and more powerful. The Bhutanese media, except the apfanews.com, highlight the popularity of the king expanding in the Bhutanese society. King himself tours through the country to teach people about democracy and use of adult franchise. In Nepal, travel by king is looked by suspicions. His attempt to receive salute from the Nepali Army personnel during a ritual offerings at the outskirts of the Kathmandu city, received unexpected denial from experts, leaders and the civics.

The republic agenda has become the center of debate now. UML and the Maoist top leaders have recently agreed to co-work on formation of republican front for one purpose: eradicating monarchy from Nepal. However, these two parties rarely see eye to eye in matters of co-work despite being both communists. Pointing fingers at each other for being extremists or royalists has become the major issue of tussle and this has adequately benefited the Nepali Congress and other socialists.
In his transitional period, tussle between these two large communist parties has been used by the Nepali Congress as the tool to afoot its plan for securing place for ceremonial monarchy in Nepal. However, as the most powerful PM Koirala, according to interim constitution, is getting more dictatorial refusing to attend programmes organised by communist groups and meeting of the eight parties of late, the Leftists are getting closer for a joint front in favour of republic. General perception is growing of him becoming dictatorial in taking important decision though the coalition government, which mostly takes decision as he wishes, fails to maintain law and order and address the demands raised by a number of ethnic and regional bodies.

In Bhutan, the co-work is getting better. Political parties, which are established by relatives and friends of the king, are getting established with announced intentions to support the king's roadmap for democracy. However, the credibility received from the people and the international community though India's recommendation, the democratic process in Bhutan would further strengthen the king's hold in national politics.
In Nepal there is opposition within the country and fighting for a share in politics while in Bhutan the opposition are already kicked out of the country. Seeking a share was anti-nationalism and against the national interest in Bhutan. This issue in Nepal means effort is made to achieve massive social transformation and strengthening of the democratic process.
The story of transition goes together. Lets see who will win the race!

Source: News Blaze, April 30, 2007

Maoists give May ultimatum to Nepal government

Nepal's former Maoist guerrillas, who joined the seven-party government this month, have now given a fresh ultimatum to their coalition partners, saying they would call an indefinite closure if the country was not declared a republic by May.Dr Baburam Bhattarai, one of the top leaders of the formerly outlawed party, said at a programme in the capital Saturday that if the interim parliament failed to abolish monarchy by the first week of the Nepali month of Jeth - May 21 - his party would start a new, unarmed movement on the streets, including continuous strikes.Accusing foreign governments, that he did not name, of trying to sabotage elections, Bhattarai said Maoists will also step up efforts to forge unity with other pro-republic and communist parties to wrest a victory in parliament.When the Maoists signed a peace pact with the government last year, both sides had agreed to hold an election to decide if Nepal should remain a monarchy or become a republic.

However, with the Election Commission having ruled out holding the exercise on June 20, as pledged by the government, the guerrillas have begun pressuring their coalition allies to turn Nepal into a republic through parliament.A new clause says Nepal's 238-year-old monarchy can be abolished if two-third of the MPs agree, feeling that King Gyanendra and his supporters are trying to sabotage the election.But the plan is being opposed by prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his Nepali Congress, the biggest party in the alliance, who want to leave the decision to the election.The seven-party, Maoist alliance, formed to oppose King Gyanendra's regime, has started fissuring after the fall of the monarch.While the rebels are accusing Koirala of trying to protect the king, the Nepali Congress says the guerrillas are violating the peace pact and still continuing extortion and intimidation.

The Nepali Congress says the rebels called a transport strike in Birgunj town near the Indian border Saturday to foil a mass meeting called by his party.Besides the infighting in the ruling alliance, the Terai plains in southern Nepal have been rocked by continued violence since January, resulting in the death of over 70 people so far.Various ethnic groups, some of whom are armed, are carrying out different protest programmes in the plains, demanding autonomous states for different communities.A part of the plains has been crippled by an indefinite closure called from Monday by an ethnic group, the Chure Bhawar Ekta Samaj.A Samaj activist - Mangal Bahadur Gumachhane - was killed in police firing Saturday as security forces tried to lift the blockade on a leading highway.In a separate incident, a former Maoist was killed by a rival faction in the plains.

Source: IANS, April 29, 2007

Maoists launch campaign for declaring Nepal a republic

Kathmandu, Apr 29 : The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) on Sunday launched a campaign to push for declaring Nepal a republic.The party said that it would take the message through the street, the Parliament and the government.The party formally announced the commencement of its campaign at a press meet in Dhankuta.The "third people's movement" has begun for a republic Nepal, said Gopal Kiranti, the CPN-M central member and Koshi Regional Bureau in-charge.The ruling coalition of eight-political parties had earlier decided that the Constituent Assembly in its first sitting would decide the fate of the monarchy.Since the Election Commission has expressed its inability to hold Constituent Assembly polls on the scheduled date of June 20, the parties have been undecided on new date for holding the elections.The Maoists and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) have been demanding the interim Parliament to declare Nepal a republic.Earlier, Maoist leader Ram Bahadur Thapa had said since the Parliament does not seem inclined to declare Nepal a Republic, they will be launching an agitation on the streets.

Source: Malaysia Sun, April 30, 2007

Cloud of doubt hangs over the new Nepal

SOMINI SENGUPTA

THE country’s socially marginalised minorities are taking an aggressive tone in seeking proper representation and politicians find these demands coming too soon after the restoration of democracy, writes SOMINI SENGUPTA.

A YEAR after the return of democratic rule to Nepal, the scene in parliament went something like this:No sooner had it officially opened for business on Monday afternoon, nearly six hours past schedule and with the benches barely filled to quorum, than some parliamentarians rushed the dais, raising fists and shouting slogans to protest a police crackdown in the southeast early this year.The speaker’s pleas for them to return to their seats were ignored. Within 10 minutes, unable to do any legislative work, parliament was adjourned. It was the third such useless session in less than two weeks.The scene represented much more than the routine fracas of democracy. It was a snapshot of the new, though not entirely unexpected, fissures that have cut through Nepal’s body politic, as it struggles to recover from more than a decade of Maoist insurgency and redefine the very ground rules of its nationhood.The divisions stem from old grievances over how Nepal’s many ethnic groups, castes and language minorities will be treated by the state, long dominated by members of the upper-caste elite from the hills. The parliamentarians who raised the ruckus represented the people of the southeastern plains, known here as Madhesis, who had staged an uprising that the police quashed.

The politicians, who now include the Maoists, who have joined the cabinet, have been caught off guard by the ferocity of the complaints."We are in an awkward position," said Ram Chandra Poudel, the beleaguered Minister for Peace and Reconstruction, on Monday, adding that he had not expected to face so many grievances from so many quarters, so soon after the restoration of democracy. "These demands may be genuine, but they should not come out so aggressively."As if on cue, the next day, a particularly aggressive show of frustration against the government occurred. When Poudel tried to speak at a rally to commemorate the anniversary of democratic rule in a public square in Kathmandu, he was hit by empty bottles and booed.Ambling through the public square were members of the Maoists’ latest subsidiary, a pack of young men and women known as the Young Communist League and led by former guerillas. They said they had been assigned to provide security. Among their duties these days is the demolition of illegal structures, traffic management, capturing people accused of being gangsters and acting against what they call "regressive forces". At times, that includes disrupting other political party meetings or thrashing political opponents.

The new uncertainties have come in a country transforming itself remarkably fast. A year ago, King Gyanendra, who had seized absolute control of the state, was forced by a swell of street protests to return the government to an elected parliament. The government signed a peace deal with the Maoists, ending a 11-year war. The Maoists then sequestered their fighters and put weapons into cantonments, monitored by the United Nations.An interim constitution was put in place. A coalition government took over, including even the Maoists. Over the last year, symbols of the old Nepal were scrapped: A new national anthem was drafted, "Royal" was dropped from the name of the Nepalese army and state-owned Nepal Airlines, and the government promised to tax the king’s property.A critical issue remains unresolved in the new Nepal, and it is the root of widespread public frustration: Whether and how Nepal will become a federal state with some degree of autonomy for its ethnic groups and regions.It is a question that has sparked a sometimes violent uprising over the last three months by the Madhesis, who say people from the hills have long discriminated against them. Demands for representation have come from other socially marginalised groups, too, like low-caste Dalits and indigenous people, called Janjatis.

Nepal seems to be in no immediate danger of sliding into prolonged ethnic conflict. But the questions that confront Nepal are nothing short of existential. "What is the new Nepal? What does it mean to be a Nepalese? That’s absolutely what’s being debated," said Manjushree Thapa, a writer.That debate has made the peace process miss a crucial deadline. June elections to choose a national assembly to rewrite the constitution have been indefinitely postponed. A new constitution will determine many vital issues, including whether Nepal will retain its monarchy.Abolishing the constitution is the Maoists’ principal demand, and they now want the government to declare Nepal a republic rather than wait for the voters’ verdict.The Maoists have vowed to resume what they call "the people’s movement", fearful that the palace may try to stage a comeback. Last week, two cabinet members suggested that elections could be organised by November, when there is a tiny window in Nepal’s difficult social and climatic calendar — after the rains and autumn festival season and before the harvest. The UN urged the government to act to hold elections quickly.

Representation was the fuel that fired the Madhesi revolt in the plains early this year. They were particularly aggrieved by the interim constitution, which, when promulgated in January, included no mention of regional or ethnic autonomy."They are not honest, they are not sincere, they talk about republic but they are not ready to share political rights with marginalised people," Jeetendra Dev said. He included the United Marxist-Leninist, his party, whose Madhesi wing he heads.Poudel noted that the government had since agreed to the demand for federalism, though it had yet to resolve the details."They’re the same as before," said Laxmi Dahal, 29, a trade union advocate who attended the commemoration on Tuesday of the return to democracy. Last year, she said, she marched in the pro-democracy demonstrations and was beaten by the police during one. On Tuesday, she said she had come to "warn" the political leaders to keep their word to those who had marched for freedom.In the crowd, Bijay Paudel, a graduate student, echoed Dahal’s misgivings. "Everyone wants a change, but the political parties which have been leading the nation are not listening to the voice of the people." — NYT

Source: NSTONLINE, April 30, 2007

INDIA: MAOISTS’ MOLE IN THE INDIAN CABINET

The Indian government is feeling the heat. The growing and the ever increasing penetration of the Maoists’ guerillas in the scheme of the Indian cabinet itself are ailing the Indian establishment of late. According to Indian media reports the Maoists moles have infiltrated the highest level of the Indian Government, gaining access to documents from top-level cabinet meetings in a major security breach. The Indian magazine Outlook says that the documents that the Maoists have collected for themselves are what have been termed as “the success of the Maoists”, in penetrating the in accessible Government secret matters.

According to reports the Maoists moles have infiltrated the highest level of the Indian Government, gaining access to documents from top-level cabinet meeting.
The guerillas, who are waging an armed insurrection across 16 of India's 28 states, obtained minutes of a meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that discussed tactics to deal with the insurgents. Those at the meeting, the Outlook magazine said, included the chief ministers of all states affected by the Maoist insurgency, along with senior intelligence and security officials. With intelligence and security officials expressing alarm at "a serious security lapse", the disclosures are galling for Dr Singh, adds Outlook magazine. The Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Man Mohan Singh has expressed concern about the challenge posed by the Maoist insurrection, describing it as the "biggest threat to the country's internal security".

The Naxalites it is believed are well-armed and disciplined, who operate in a scores of Indian states whose connections are well deep inside Nepal as well.The magazine quotes a senior intelligence officer as saying: "It's clear the Maoists have access to secret information and plans ... no wonder there hasn't been much success in our operations against them." With the Maoists in Nepal government the Indian naxals are sure to exploit the benefits their way.

Source: Telegraph Nepal, April 30, 2007