Gaganji.
We just talked on the phone at length, and we agreed that I will write you an open, public letter.
As you know and as the world knows, I have great respect and admiration for you. I have greatly enjoyed your company in person, over email and on the phone. I think you are a great guy. Your love for Nepal is amazing. Your commitment to a republic is not born out of anger, or vengeance. Literacy is good for the Nepali people, and so is a republic. That is where you come from. You have the brains, the heart for a great political career ahead of you, I believe.
King Of India
30 Minutes With Amrit Bohra
Video Blogging
The King Is Nowhere Close To Seeing The Light
Money, Message, Organization
कांग्रेसले रोज्नुपर्ने बाटो
Khim Lal Bhattarai Arrested
Tea, Coffee Or Soda?
लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नै किन?
Trent Lott And Gyanendra Shaha
Maoists Should Go Beyond Ceasefire To Peaceful Mobilization
Major Revisions
Gagan Thapa's Right To Free Speech
Gagan's Talk In New York
A Day In The Life Of Gagan Thapa
The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Gagan Thapa
Gagan Thapa October 22 Saturday 2 PM Columbia University
Gagan Thapa Talk In Boston: Two Hours Audio
Gagan Thapa US Tour
Gagan Thapa Amerika Tour
Renaming The Blog In Honor Of Gagan's Release
Gagan Thapa Released
Chargesheeting Gagan: This Regime Has Gone Berserk
Gagan Thapa Feels Unsafe In Jail
Gagan Thapa Case Taken To The United Nations
Gagan Thapa Arrested Again
Gagan Thapa Arrested, Deuba Re-Arrested
I admire your commitment to the Nepali Congress. It is just that it has been utterly foolish of the Nepali Congress leadership to not admire it as well. They rained on your parade and disrupted the Nepal Students Union convention in Pokhara (Anatomy Of The Conflict In Pokhara, Girijaspeak: When Republicans Are Royalists) and subsequently actively sidelined you from that organization such that ever since you have only been an ordinary member of that organization. That is also your status in the party. The majority of the mediocre in that organization is not capable of imagining a vibrant future for Nepal: that is what it boils down to.
During the April Revolution the seven party leaders were not out in the streets, you were. Two thirds of Nepal is younger than you. You are not really that young. You are old enough for national politics.
My first choice would be for the Nepali Congress to come around to the agenda of a Democratic Republic and to give you a ticket for the constituent assembly elections so you end up in the assembly, the parliament. I know that is what you hope happens. I hope that happens. But I just don't see either of those two happening. People who can't even see you as NSU President are not going to be able to imagine you as a parliamentarian. There is something to be said to facing reality as opposed to wishing it were not so.
Long story short, I think we should launch the Nepal chapter of Hamro Nepal in your leadership. It will start as a nationwide organization that could become a full fledged party. You call up a convention of your nationwide network when time is ripe to launch it as a political party. In the mean time you work the phone to set up the local chapters across the nation. You pay a few visits. 62 of the 75 NSU district chiefs were behind you. Maybe they will launch the district chapters.
The king was not able to scare us. Entrenched politicians should not be able to either. Vagueness is their weapon. We should have the guts to see through their mist.
There is an urgent need for a political party that is not communist but that is staunchly republican. Hamro Nepal would fill that vacuum. Right to property is like right to free speech: a fundamental human right. It is also basic to ensuring rapid economic growth. There is a need for a party that understands social and economic justice, but that also understands that democracy and market are like electricity and magnetism. Can't separate the two. Most of the wealth and jobs get created in the private sector. On the other hand, the party would put an emphasis on human capital - namely education, health and micro credit - like no communist has done before. The idea is to put human capital on the same footing as physical capital and financial capital.
I believe the April Revolution has given Nepal an opportunity to shoot for a cutting edge democracy such that the April Revolution can stand in the same league as the October Revolution in Russia, the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and the Indian Struggle For Independence. But whether or not we will qualify will depend on if or not we can give an original twist to the concept of democracy in our next constitution. I think we should shoot for a democracy where parties do not get to raise funds, instead they get state funds in direct proportion to the number of votes they earn, and they keep all their book keeping online.
All country chapters of Hamro Nepal are to stay autonomous. And likely it will take the form of a political party only in Nepal. And so the Nepal chapter will get to have the driving seat, if such might exist. The idea is not to have the remote control in New York City. There will be an open, democratic structure for decision making right there. It is just that I think it is foolish to ignore the global network of the Nepali diaspora. I expect that network to be the number one source for Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal once the policy framework for the same has been put in place. In some ways the diaspora are the cream of the crop, and Nepal deserves to benefit from that spread. Got to milk the cow of globalization, and the cow of internet.
Hamro Nepal has three broad goals: Democratic Republic for Nepal, rapid economic growth for Nepal, and voting rights for the 100,000 Nepalis in America. That third item can be similarly understood by the chapters in other countries, or it can simply mean political empowerment.
If reality might force us to launch our own party, it is better to start on it sooner rather than later. But even if your current strategy of pressuring the Congress from the outside is to be effectively implemented, we still need a formal organization.
So I suggest we launch Hamro Nepal as a non profit political organization in Nepal, and keep alive the threat of turning it into a political party, if only to turn up the heat. But let the threat be real. We will do it if we will have to.
And let's get on Skype or Google Talk. Telephone is expensive. Rs 10 per hour is cheaper than 33 cents a minute. So we can talk as frequenly and as much as we might need to. Online we all live in the same country.
The thing about Hamro Nepal is not just its cutting edge political, social and economic agenda, but also its innovative organizational ways, its emphasis on egalitarianism and transparency. More on that later.
Proposed Republican Constitution 2006
Janata Dal Constitution
Zimbabwe: The Constitution Is Faulty
Zimpundit: Zimbabwe
The Revolution Is Very Much On
18 Days Of April Revolution: Victory
Nepal Has Hit The World Headlines
Hamro Nepal, Latest
Demoblog: World's First Digital Org Now Has a Constitution
Demoblog: Hamro Nepal: The World's First Digitial Democracy Organization
Democracy Spreading Mechanism
The Demosphere Manifesto
Hamro Nepal: Draft Constitution
Organization: Hamro Nepal
Your Many Identities
Immigrant Power
May 1 Immigrants Rally: Great American Boycott With Jesse Jackson 3
May 1 Immigrants Rally: Great American Boycott With Jesse Jackson 2
May 1 Immigrants Rally: Great American Boycott With Jesse Jackson
In The News
Govt announces ceasefire; removes red corner notice, terrorist tag on Maoists NepalNews
UML forms team to talk with Maoists
Leaders caution ministers not to disobey the agendas of seven political parties
Boucher holds one-on-one with Karan Singh Kantipur Publications
'Royalists' threat' to Yechuri, Tripathy, Raja?
US to support new govt, outcome of constituent assembly
INTERVIEW WITH PRADIP NEPAL
UML forms teams for dialogue, new constitution
Students protest against SPA leaders
एमालेमा मन्त्रिमण्डल विवाद
गणराज्य अभियान घोषणा
संविधानसभाका खाकाहरू
Nepal Government Matches Rebel Cease-Fire Voice of America
India, US discuss democracy in Nepal Times of India, India
Nepal Government dissolves Municipal bodies NewKerala.com, India
Nepal Govt, Maoists indulge in torture: United Nations expert NewKerala.com, India
Visitors
Page views yesterday291
| 13:18 | Radford University, Radford, United States |
| 13:18 | University of California, Riverside, United States |
| 13:43 | Taiwan Network Info. Center, Taiwan |
| 13:50 | Cablecom AG, Switzerland |
| 13:50 | The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, United States |
| 13:51 | United States (dickinson.edu) |
| 13:51 | Intel Corporation, United States |
| 13:51 | The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, United States |
| 13:57 | Nepal (wlink.com.np) |
| 13:58 | Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C., United States |
| 13:58 | State of North Carolina, Raleigh, United States |
| 14:05 | Netvision Ltd, Israel |
| 14:07 | Computer Associates, Islandia, United States |
| 14:08 | Harvard University, Cambridge, United States |
| 14:09 | Nepal (wlink.com.np) |
| 14:13 | Nepal (wlink.com.np) |
| Busiest day so far | 21 April 2006 | |
| Page views | 1069 |
3 comments:
first of all who are you to make demands and secondly, name dropping, chamcha-giri, snuggling with the wanna-be powerful :) you are so transparent bro, your motives all to clear !!
you are good only for propaganda value but you are bad for Nepal !!
dear mr bhagat,
it is so easy sitting in some pale-skin-land, saying THIS is good and THIS is bad. come home. come to your people. and then speak.
i still remember you giving your bullshitism lectures on the sangram morcha party to us kids at budhanilkantha school. kids do not vote mr bhagat, people that can see through your crap, on the otherhand, do. and as for voting rights for whatever may be the population that is in the U.S. you must be nuts. i read your blogs everyday and i have had it with your constant whining and complaing without having the balls to stand up. where were you when people died mr. bhagat? at some bar in new york? and whatever happened to sangram morcha?
come home and smell the blood mr. bhagat. be a man.
"Come home and smell the blood."
To: The Kathmandu Media
Post a Comment