Tulsi Giri Is Beyond Redemption

This guy Giri is beyond redemption. First democracy was in his way, and now the constitution is in his way. He says it is a choice between the monarchy and democracy, so say the Maoists. The Maoists and I say the 1990 constitution is the problem, so says Giri. Just when I was looking for some common ground.

This guy is such a hardliner that he actually has to leave the country whenever the country "deviates" away from an absolute monarchy framework. Giri is the poster child of everything that is wrong with the country, this king, and his father and ancestors.

Giri is the ultimate Rasputin.

This guy needs to pay for all those years BP Koirala spent behind bars.

The Truth And Reconciliation Commission should deal with him first before anyone else.

That the king should gravitate towards this weirdo tells one a lot about the character of the king.

Response To The Panchayati Ghost Tulsi Giri (March 18)

"I am not for democracy."

"It is a choice between monarchy and democracy."

"The government need not follow the present Constitution [Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990], as the political parties who formed it have already removed the term 'constitutional monarchy' and accepted a republic and Loktantra."

"The Constitution has always been an obstacle towards resolving the crisis."

"We failed to take action against Kantipur due to a provision in the Constitution which bars us from annulling the registration of the newspaper."

"We can only sentence the editor and publisher to a two-year jail term but even then they could be released on bail."

In The News

• Journalist Rathore arrested NepalNews
• Ceasefire monitoring committee constituted A meeting of eminent personalities, rights activists and professionals in Kathmandu on Monday has constituted a 22-member 'Ceasefire Civil Monitoring Committee' under the chairmanship of president of Nepal Bar Association Shambhu Thapa. Members of the committee include former Justices at the Supreme Court Laxman Aryal and Krishna Jung Rayamajhi, former minister Nilamber Acharya, former Speaker Daman Nath Dhungana, president of Federation of Nepalese Journalist Bishnu Nisthuri, president of Nepal University Teachers Association prof. Bhupati Dhakal 'Kamal,' president of Nepal Medical Association Dr. Sudha Sharma, chairman of INSEC Subodh Pyakurel, president of Human Rights Organisation of Nepal Charan Prasai, prof. Birendra Mishra, Dr. Om Gurung, Sindhu Nath Pyakurel, Padma Lal Biswokarma, Harihar Birahi, Taranath Dahal and Shiva Gaule.
• Over 100 professionals arrested from protest rally
• Leaders, rights workers urge govt to reciprocate Maoist truce Dr Ram Sharan Mahat “The government must announce ceasefire immediately considering it as an opportunity to move towards peace.” "We are not talking about alliance; the Maoists are.” chairman of Janamorcha Nepal, Amik Serchan, said the king has no right to restore the parliament. He said, "It shall be decided by the supreme court." .... Serchan said that the seven parties' alliance is independently carrying out informal talks with the CPN Maoists. The Roadmap preparation for the talk is in the last phase...... those who can't tolerate the demonstrations in the streets couldn’t fulfill their responsibility in the peace talks. Dr Narayan Khadka of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) urged the CPN (Maoist) to extend their ceasefire..... The supporters are paving the king towards the road of the hell .....
  
• A dozen journos flee Dailekh, Kantipur journo placed under ‘house arrest’
• NC (D) flays government for ignoring ceasefire call
• NRNs have mixed response towards the new ordinance
• King likely to visit India Kantipur ...... the King has been seeking an opportunity to visit India, to discuss bilateral matters, including resumption of arms supply to Nepal ..... is awaiting a green signal from India
• Maoists abduct 12 schoolteachers in Ramechhap
  
• Demonstration And Mass Meeting In Delhi INSN
  
• UML Democracy Bulletin 26
  
• Jailing of Nepal ex-PM questioned BBC News, UK
• India devises policy to tackle Maoists Reuters AlertNet, UK ..... through better police coordination and reducing poverty in affected areas ..... combine force with a soft approach .... Indian Maoist insurgents, who number around 9,300, say they are fighting for the rights of the rural poor and against feudal land owners and corrupt local officials who siphon off development aid...... Thousands of people have died in nearly four decades of Maoist violence including hundreds of policemen.
• Melamchi Connection UWB ..... RCCC has leveled four charges in the case (1) tender call being made prior to the approval of cost estimates of the construction contract (2) acceptance of non-responsive (unqualified bidder) (3) keeping ADB under deception by not submitting the report of the Evaluation Committee that assessed the responsiveness of the bidders and (4) issuing the Letter of Acceptance to the contractor even before waiting for the report of the National Vigilance Center investigating on the irregularities in Melamchi Drinking Water Project....... Mr. Harish Chandra Shah, expected to be the brain behind RCCC is the husband of Ms Pratima Shah and Ms Shah is the relative of Mr. Mohan Bahadur Shahi who is the husband of King Gyanendra’s sister. Ms. Pratima Shah is also the local agent of Hanil Koneco who got the earlier contract to construct access road and was terminated in May 2004 for non-performance by the government of Mr. Surya Bahadur Thapa. Mr. Harish Chandra was also a member of the investigation team of National Vigilance Center who was later kicked out a day ahead the report was to be submitted. Hanil Koneco is to be penalized for all additional cost incurred during the second contract work awarded to CCECC/Sharma/Lama Joint Venture by the Deuba Government. What is the relation of Ms Arzu Deuba with these Shahs and Shahis? How can Mr. Harish Chandra be an independent advisor to RCCC? Is not the personal stakes of the people involved are clear? ........ One of the partners of the joint venture company to whom Deuba awarded contract, Mr. Jit Tshering Lama, is the central committee member of Nepali Congress- Democratic...... Why no charges on Norplan? Did RCCC lost courage to charge Norplan? Is this the reason why Norwegians Embassy showed displeasure by curtail aid to Nepal? ...... Henceforth if RCCC verdict is to be set as legal judicial precedence in Nepal, no Prime Minister can issue “verbal order” to get work done. And all government secretaries cannot just describe/prescribe options in the tippani – s/he had to give decision to elicit “yes” or “no” response from the final decision maker. ...... If you are bored with this material, try reading RCCC verdict in one go.
• Official Melamchi Verdict
• Tear Gas: Bounce Back To Police UWB Today’s pro-democracy rally, started from Dilli Bazar, in the beginning seemed lavish and I thought that would wipe out police barricade and enter the restricted areas of Putalisadak and Baghbazar and Ratna Park. ..... Demonstrators took advantage of their ‘strategic location’, height of Dilli Bazar Chowk to hurl stones at police situated in the low point of the road. ...... protesters, dispersed by the tear gas, entered inside the houses of Bada Guruju, king’s chief priest. Army personnel stationed there for security flushed them out of the compound by point gun at the protestors. Then angry protestors burnt abandoned telephone cable on the main road...... The army in the priest’s house must have informed about that to their headquarters. And from there to the Armed Police Forces. A team of APF men led by SSP Madhav Thapa instantly arrived and inquired about the situation to the army security personnel...... The rumor was that the army fired at the protestors. That was not correct..... the public of Dilli Bazar throwing water over the tear gas and defusing that instantly. May be they did that for themselves and not necessarily for the benefit of the protestors...... Police fired 10 tear gas shells in one minute. In total, police fired at least 30 tear gas shells (I counted) in the protest program that lasted for one and a half-hour from 3:30 PM. Many of the shells were misfired; they went out of target. One went over a 5-storey house. And many of them were picked up by the protestors and fired back to the police themselves. That was interesting to see. Policemen who fired the shells were apparently loosing the control over little gun....... “Don’t target the protestors,” one jawan was yelling at the man in charge of the shells. “Fire that above the protestors, on the 90 degree angle.” That wasn’t an official order though. He was just venting out his friendly opinion.
• Corrupt Crime From Cabinet UWB “Three Ministers’ Plan to Import Fertilizer Illegally Blocked” is the two-line 8-column-long front-page headline of today’s Kantipur daily. And a front-page story on today’s Kathmandu Post daily has this headline: “Fertilizer mafia’s smuggling plan jolted/Three cabinet ministers involved.” Those three ministers from the royal cabinet are Badri Prasad Mandal (Agriculture Minister), Dan Bahadur Shahi (Home Minister) and Madhukar Shumsher Rana (Finance Minister)........ Three ministers involved in an organized crime against the state? ..... fertilizer mafia’s grand plan to smuggle twenty thousand metric tons of chemical fertilizer from India ..... and fertilizer businessman, Gyanendra Shrestha...... the plan was finalized at the agriculture ministry last Thursday at 4 pm through a meeting of the three ministers and businessman Shrestha. Senior civil servants Govinda Prasad Pandey, secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture; Rishi Ram Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture; Shiva Sunder Shrestha from the Department of Agriculture; Madhav Dhakal, director general of DRI; and Bodh Nath Niraula, deputy director general of Department of Customs were also invited to the meeting to execute the plan...... The meeting decided that Shrestha would be allowed to smuggle urea from India unhindered for the next two months. In the meeting, Finance Minister Rana directed the DRI not to raid trucks carrying fertilizer for Binayak International, an importing firm owned by Shrestha. Similarly, it was decided that Home Minister Shahi would order the police and security not to intercept trucks carrying the contraband. It was also decided that the fertilizer would be smuggled to Nepal through Bangkul, a small customs check point in Gaur and Matorawa, customs check point in Bara, and a third check point in Sarlahi.
• Everything, Well Almost, That I Saw UWB Today, Nepali Congress and CPN UML jointly took out a rally (for a few seconds though) from the Bhaktpur Bus Park in Bagbazar only to be dispersed by riot police within a minute....... two baton-barricades of police. Facing the protestors was of Janapath Police’ (regular). That barricade was backed up by another of the members of Armed Police Forces (APF). Former ANNFSU, a student organization, office building Rato Ghar these days houses one of the Valley offices of APF....... I guess he too was habituated with throwing stones and participating in demos before he joined police force a few years ago. He arrested Khadka (he was holding the hip of Khadka) and wanted to put the former home minister in a separate police vehicle. There was none. And APF policemen tried to take Khadka away from that Janapath Inspector. “No, no. Leave him to me,” he screamed at the APF guys. Then the inspector took Khadka on the main road and communicated via his set to have a van for Khadka. I guess that Inspector was recruited when Khum Bahadur Khadka was home minister........ a few policemen were finding real difficulties carrying Gajendra Karki, former central member of Nepal Student Union ...... Karki was tough. That was a first real struggle against possible arrest I have ever seen in this phase of demonstration. Karki jumped off twice from the pick-up van. He finally was thrown into a police van by more than two dozen policemen. His eyebrow was swollen by a possible baton charge by police. I didn’t see police beating him but I am sure he must have suffered terribly in that heavy struggle against more than two dozen policemen........ a trend that after “senior” leaders are safely arrested, the protest program quickly shifts to the colleges........ It is like leaders handing over the leadership of movement to students. Then the real show begins: stone pelting and tear gas firing etc....... girls were screaming slogans via a mike and burning tires in front of the main entrance gate of PK. The same Chaudhari girl (I forget her name, sorry) who was on the cover of Nepal Magazine with catapult in her hands targeting police two years in the movement against regressing, was in charge of the mike........ There were two police team on two ends of the road that goes from the main gate of PK. Students had to deal with both the teams with stones. Then, suddenly, the police team on the Putalisadak side started firing tear gas shells. I was on the Bhaktpur Bus Park side. I could see 10 shells fired within 20 or so seconds. Some shells came on the road, some inside the PK campus. The police team on my side backtracked because of the gas that was approaching us quickly. And for about 3 minutes, the road was empty, totally......... A secondary school neighboring PK college suffered the unbelievable. According to a teacher, gas from three tear gas shells (fired inside the college) entered the school premises and severely affected the students of the school. Students of lower grades in Neptune Secondary School were affected most......... I saw two shells of tear gas attacked the police themselves. That was because of the wind. The wind flowing from Ratna Park to Putalisadak blew away the gas to Putalisadak and the police team on that side dispersed........ The shell of tear gas directly hit the head of a young man. Bleeding started. It was no possibility of asking his name at that time........ I saw a doctor emerging out from the hospital in his operation theatre uniform pushing police....... Police today indiscriminately baton-charged thrice to onlookers and pedestrians........ I also heard a big sound of rock music coming out of a house on the road as the situation was tense outside. All the windows of the house were closed. But music was a solace!....... The bad thing about the protest was police firing back with stones....... As and when police threw back stones targeting protestors, students’ anger intensified. Once, stones thrown by the police hit the main electricity gird in Bagbazar and created lightning......... police were using foul language to protestors. Students were doing so ...... some policemen were in drunken state. One of them beat human rights activists who are present in all protest program these days to monitor the situation........ Policemen were in the mood of baton-charging all the HR activists and journalists........ Police also arrested a boy who they charged of leading the team that threw stones. He 22-year-old was Pasang Sherpa of Dolakha district and was living in Bagbazar. (He told me that as he was being whisked away by the police). I fear his safety because he is nobody and police might torture him........ Buddha Bir Lama ..... That young and strong man of Nepal Student Union was the leading figure in yesterdays’ tension in front of Shankar Dev Campus. He is a protest-specialist. Students say a protest program gains momentum when he arrives. Today, he was wearing helmet and escaped the initial arrest session. He was leading students from inside the PK College. I do not exactly know how he was injured but he was serious, very serious......... At 17:30, a group of police, very much agitated, entered the PK College. They went up to 3 meters from the main gate and fired a shell of tear gas inside the college premises. That shell, I was told later by a member of the PK student union, entered the science lab of the college....... The road was full of pieces of bricks. ..... Its 10 PM, everyone in my house has gone to bed and I am really tired. One thing that I have discovered this evening is that if I go on running like this from one end of Bagbazar to another for the next few days, I will definitely do one of the two things. Either I will do something significant in track and field or end up resting in a hospital for a few days. But I am hopeful about my strength.
• Questioning The Constitutionality Of The RCCC Nepal Bar Association has officially decided not to plead on behalf of RCCC. ..... even diplomats and UN agencies are critical of this extra-constitutional body.. Along with European Parliament, US Government has also demanded for the continued independence of CIAA.... It has even power to investigate the corruption cases of judiciary....... the body is formed more to create terror then to dispense justice...... in the name of giving continuity to RCCC, by switching from Article 115 to Article 127, the Royal Government is making a joke out of constitutional provisions........ Except the secretary, no other members of the commission have a legal background. Even in the case of the secretary he is a presiding district judge....... any one going critical against RCCC works can be penalized of Rs10, 000 or six months of imprisonment or both........ a constitutional body may give a wrong verdict but an unconstitutional body like RCCC can never give a right verdict.
• Arrests, Tear Gas And A Quick Plate Of MoMo One from Baghbazzar and another from Old Bus Park. .... police indiscriminately baton-charged for about 30 seconds over pedestrians and some protestors. As protestors tried to break the police barrier and went to the main road in front of OBP, army personnel inside the Sainik Manch were alert with their guns in position....... a team of APF led by the famous DSP Madhav Thapa, roamed through the narrow alleys of Baghbazzar in search of stone throwers....... Two groups of police were having close watch to the student activities and they were responding with same pieces of bricks occasionally........ the situation became such that the busy traffic of Putali Sadak came to standstill as students intensified throwing stones targeting police and at times passers by. Police too fired back, with same bricks........ a boy approached me. “Are you a journalist?” he asked. “Yes, I am,” I replied. “Oh…I am his brother,” he told me naming a reporter of the Kathmandu Post. He was there “to experience the fighting live”........ I ate one and a half plate of Mo Mo, occasionally rising from the seat and gauging the tense situation outside...... After an hour of exchanging bricks, police decided to do something decisive. They fired at least three rounds of Tear Gas and the crowd immediately dispersed. People started doing huss and buss as the gas started showing effects. Whole area was terrorized. Some people started washing their faces. I met Prabhu Narayan Basnet, journalist and former political activist. He was caught in the middle of the gas and his face was full of tears........ Majority of the crowd were onlookers.
• Army Does This, Army Does That “Army fires in air as students pelt stones” and the other “Army misbehaves with MK Nepal.” ...... “fired six warning shots in the air to hold off students of the Mahendra Ratna Campus at Tahachal in the capital on Monday [Sept 12], as protesting students blocked an army truck and ransacked a vehicle belonging to a corporation.” ....... The question is not about whether we are heading toward militarization of Nepal. How much has Nepal been militarized in recent months? ...... No one were hurt or killed on that in that firing-in-air incident but the impact is huge. The whole area was sort of terrorized...... “The army men scolded the police and asked them to return to the party office” ...... Even police are helpless. What is this? One security organ of the state promises security and escort to a people’s leader and the other one ignores that promise and insults and misbehaves the leader.