On 22 December, Pushpa Kamal Dahal launched a tirade against alleged Indian interference. The Maoists promptly started a movement for ‘national independence,’ even going so far as to plan marches at key points of the India-Nepal border.
But why the sudden outburst? A Nagarik report this morning may hold a clue. Dahal reportedly told his cadres that India has proposed Baburam Bhattarai as the PM of a new coalition government to end the current political impasse.
Dahal said, “I haven’t had an argument with Baburamji. But, India is playing games on who should lead the new coalition. India says that if he is made prime minister, all the problems will go away.”
Muddying the water is the Indian embassy’s long delayed clarification on Indian Army Chief of Staff General Deepak Kapoor’s remarks on bulk integration of the PLA. The embassy issued the following statement on Monday:
We have seen media reports attributing certain remarks to the Indian Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor on the issue of ‘PLA Integration’ in Nepal Army which are highly distorted and do not reflect Government of India’s position on the issue. It is therefore regrettable that certain political parties are deliberately exploiting these distortions to generate a controversy involving India. In keeping with our overall friendly bilateral relations, India and Nepal share close military and defence ties with long standing institutional linkages between the Armies of the two countries.
In other news, a parliamentary committee has ordered an immediate stop to the export of boulders, crushed stones and sand to India to protect the Chure hills. The Himalayan Times reports:
Lawmakers said over exploitation and export of the country’s natural resources had resulted in heavy landslides, flash floods, environmental degradation and massive deforestation in fragile Chure range.
They even warned that the fertile Tarai region would turn into desert if human encroachment in the range was not immediately stopped.
There’s been more activity about the 7th amendment, which seeks to allow the president and vice president to take their oaths in any Nepali mother tongue. The Maoists and Tarai-based parties, who had initially opposed the amendment, have put forth the reinstatement of ex-VP Paramananda Jha as a precondition for their support. The Kathmandu Post reports:
“The amendment bill proposed by the government is incomplete and we are in favor of activating the post of vice president,” said Maoist Vice Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha. “Since the bill is incomplete, we have agreed in principle to bring the joint resolution motion.”
But, as Tarai-based parties leap to the defense of their beloved Jha, a cold wave has claimed 18 lives in the Tarai, closed down schools and delayed flights. Who will speak for them?
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And, if you are posting at additional places, I would like to follow anything fresh you have to post. Would you list of the complete urls of all your social community pages like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?
welcome to next chapter … maoist party splitting.
Maoist party had already split when Gyanendra took over in 2005. Back then India patched them up. Now India is splitting them. It’s all about Indian interest. India makes and breaks all these political parties of Nepal.
What exactly does India want? The most popular phrase in Nepali politics perhaps is “the Indian interest” and undoubtledly I come across it everytime I read or hear any analyis of Nepali political affairs. But unfortunately, I have not been able to precisely understand what it means. And who are we referring to when we say India (any specific political force)?
Water. India wants water. And the corresponding hydroelectricity. It baffles me when I see reports that Nepal lacks resources when the nation is the water tower of South Asia. Mumbai alone is starving for water and power let alone the masses across our southern neighbour. Regardless of India’s progress, it will always be a country that is “climatically challenged” (other than its northern hill stations) and just the middle class firing up their air conditioners in the summer alone is enough to create an immense power surge! India has managed its lack of power to date by taking full advantage of its “protectorate” Bhutan (and is probably why they remained mum when Bhutan performed the largest ethnic cleansing by percentage of population, removing Bhutanese of Nepali ethnicity). Accessing Nepal’s water for consumption, agriculture, and power generation is high on India’s list. And the longer they can keep us unstable, the weaker we remain, unable to negotiate from a position of strength for these resources. Unfortunately, we don’t require India to make us weak and unstable – that’s one thing that we excel at ourselves.
Bhattarai should just leave rest of the maoist morons and start his own party. He has already wasted too much time trying to convince those with bird-brain inside that party.