May 31st, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
As Nepal’s deposed King Gyanendra begins house-hunting as a common citizen in view of the deadline to vacate his palace within a fortnight, The Independent discusses various issues related to Nepal’s monarchy as well as the institution of monarchy in the world. Why is Nepal ending its monarchy? So where do royals still have power?
Once they’re gone, do they ever return? What does a royal do when they’re sacked? Is the game up for the world’s monarchies? More here…
Meanwhile Nepal’s Naya Patrika said the 60-year-old deposed king Gyanendra did not want to leave the palace until early July when an astrological “dark” phase is due to end. More here…
May 29th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
Nepal has emerged as world’s youngest democratic republic after the Constitutional Assembly voted to abolish the 240-year-old monarchy. On Thursday morning, the flag of the Shah dynasty was taken down from the main palace in the capital city of Kathmandu. The palace will now be turned into a national museum, reports AFP.
The vote in the 601-member assembly saw just four lawmakers oppose the declaration transforming Nepal into a secular republic. Nepal, sandwiched between India and China, is slightly larger than the US state of New York (and half the size of Italy) and borders the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet, with which it shares the world’s highest peak, the Mount Everest.
The unprecedented vote followed a peace accord between Maoists and mainstream parties. “The Maoists, clear winners of last month’s elections, waged a decade of war to overthrow what they view as a backward, caste-ridden structure that kept most of Nepal’s 29 million people living in dire poverty.”
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the vote, saying Nepalese “have clearly spoken for peace and change.” The United States, which continues to list the former rebels as a foreign “terrorist” organisation, urged “forward political developments” in Nepal, US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington. “There’s been a political transition. There have been elections. The new government is in place and moving forward.”
Nepal, with Hindus accounting for nearly 90 per cent of the population, became a British protectorate in 1816 and won independence in 1923. The hereditary monarch, traditionally worshipped as a living god, set up a system of modern cabinet rule in 1951. Multi-party democracy and a constitutional monarchy came in 1990 after a popular uprising left hundreds of people dead.
Maoists launched an insurgency to overthrow the monarchy in 1996 after boycotting elections and denouncing corruption. The world’s last Hindu king, Gyanendra, came to the throne in June 2001, after a palace massacre in which the crown prince killed most of the royal family and himself. More here…
Maoist chief Prachanda, 53, on Wednesday became the most powerful person in Nepal, who is set to head its next government after fulfilling his ambition of transforming the country into a republic, reports The Times of India. And also here…
Photo of a Nepali woman celebrating outside the Convention Hall…Courtesy AP/Mustafa Quraishi
For years Democrats have SOUNDLY condemned any attempts by the White House or GOP to use bin Laden images to suggest that Democrats are soft on terrorism. But now a Democrat does just that — and there is silence from many Democrats.
So in 2008 if some Republicans use the same “Vote for us or die” suggestion and Democrats condemn them, people need to keep in mind that the use of these tactics — coming on the eve of a vote so the other campaign really can’t mount a quick response — has now been validated by many Democrats who applaud or look the other way when anything is used to help their side win.
Are the pro-Obama forces seriously trying to get their troops outraged over this latest ad from Hillary Clinton? Just because it contains a ten-second sequence of presidential crises (Depression, Pearl Harbor, gas crisis, Katrina, etc.) and flashes a half-second clip of Osama bin Laden as part of it? Spare me. Are Democratic political ads no longer even allowed to mention the fact that the next president is going to have to deal with the war on terror?
I politely disagree:
1. If you go back and look at the blog, progressive talk show, etc. outrage during the Bush administration there has been one constant. Democrats of all types soundly condemned any use of bin Laden footage or a suggestion that if you didn’t vote for the Republicans your life might be in danger. Now it appears in an ad for a Democrat — and it’s no longer something to condemn.
2. It isn’t only Obama forces that could react this way. The last time I belong to a political party, I registered as a Republican in California to vote for John McCain in the 2000 Republican presidential primary. A new book on Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes me and describes me as a typical California independent voter. If it’s wrong when one side does it, it’s wrong when the other side does it. Not all independent voters react this way (independent voters are not monolithic) — but this one does.
April 15th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
Nepal, home to Mt. Everest and situated between India and China (Tibet), is witnessing a different kind of “surge”. The armed rebels who fought a decade-long bloody war to end monarchy are now poised to come into power — not through the barrel of a gun but through the ballot box.
The seal over the conduct of free and fair election has been put by none other than former US president Jimmy Carter, co-founder of Carter Center who heads a 60-member international election observer mission to Nepal.
“The election also means Nepal’s 239-year-old monarchy will be abolished. Although the palace massacre of 2001 – which left nine of the royal family dead – and parliament’s dismissal by the new king in 2005 cost the monarchy public support, there are still those who would wish to keep a constitutional monarchy,” reports The Independent.
“The latest results from last week’s vote to select a new national assembly give the Maoists 101 out of the 178 seats counted so far. With the first scheduled task of the new assembly to draft a new constitution and abolish the country’s monarchy, it appears Prachanda will become the first president of a republican Nepal.”
Prachanda who? “When Pushpa Kamal Dahal was a schoolteacher in the mountains of Nepal he was nicknamed ‘Lotus Flower’ as a result of his soft and gentle manners. Not surprisingly, when he gave up teaching to lead a rebel army he adopted the more martial nom de guerre of Prachanda, or ‘the Fierce One’.
“Now, as the Maoist party he leads surges towards a landslide election victory, the 52-year-old is preparing to adopt yet another new title, that of president. He says it is a position he is ready for ‘if the masses want to give me the responsibility’.
“Indeed, where once he talked the rhetoric of Marx, Prachanda now talks of turning Nepal into ‘the Switzerland of Asia’. He says globalisation is unavoidable and he wants to encourage millions of tourists to his impoverished country.”
April 12th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
After Pakistan and Bhutan, it is now the turn of Nepal (sandwiched between India and China) to savour the sweet flavour of democracy. It is a powerful rebuff to a certain section of the politicians and “experts” in the world who believe that the “war on terror”, etc., can be fought by merely propping up (and bribing) dictators.
Sudeshna Sarkar of IANS reports: “A deep yearning for change, anger at corrupt politicians and the presence of a large number of youngsters and women among the voters began propelling the Communist Party of Nepal, once a terrorist organisation with a bounty on the heads of its leaders, into an astounding victory belying public anticipation.
“On the second day of counting Saturday, the former guerrillas, who had waged a ruthless 10-year war trying to abolish Nepal’s once-omnipotent line of kings, had captured 23 of the 36 seats whose results were declared so far and were leading in 65 of 120 constituencies where counting was in progress.
“Former American president Jimmy Carter, who was monitoring the election as head of a delegation from his Carter Center, put the seal of approval on the former rebels, saying Washington, that had still kept the Maoists on its list of terrorist organisations, should now start to ‘do business’ with them.
” ‘It serves no purpose for the US government to continue to boycott the Maoists after they laid down arms and began to participate (in the peace process) on an equal basis with the other parties,’ the Nobel laureate said.”
