Friday, May 05, 2006
Where Is Kamal Thapa?
Kamal Thapa Is A Nazi
Kamal Thapa Going Jail, Kamal Thapa Chukkie Pissing
No Room for Kamal Thapa in RPP: Rana Himalayan Times, Nepal
Nepal king’s men to be tried for atrocities NewKerala.com, India Three former ministers found guilty by the Mallik Commission went unpunished and were reappointed ministers by Gyanendra when he seized power through a coup last year. They are Kamal Thapa, royalist law minister Niranjan Thapa and general administration minister Badri Prasad Mandal. Since the king’s government fell last month, his ministers have been keeping a low profile. Mandal, who is also an MP, has not attended any of the sessions of the house when it re-convened from Friday while the two Thapas are said to be living under heavy army protection.
This is highly problematic if true. Is Kamal Thapa really under army protection? The king bowed to the April Revolution. The army will have to if it has not.
And if it does not, there has to be an inquiry. Who is behind this? The king? Or is the army doing this on its own?
If the king is behind this, he should get into trouble. Right now the consensus is on a constituent assembly. But if the king plays dirty behind the scenes, the country might as well become a republic before it goes for the assembly.
If it is the army, the parliament needs to pass acts to bring the army firmly under its control, and then it needs to reorganize the army top brass.
The army may not be allowed to play light with the idea that the sovereignty lies with the people.
Interim Constitution, Revolutionary Parliament
There is an urgent need for this parliament to get itself an interim constitution. Otherwise the regressive elements might think they still have some leg room.
We are not thinking in terms of kangaroo courts. Kamal Thapa still will have a right to a public trial. He still will have a chance to get heard. He will and should get legal representation.
A Truth And Reconciliation Commission is something the country can not avoid. Otherwise how will the country heal after a decade of war?
Violent repression of peaceful protestors is to be the first order of business. We have to send a clear message to the future democracy movements in the other parts of the world, in other countries that rule of law is on their side, and they should take to the streets with supreme confidence. We also have a promise to keep to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Zimbabwe: The Constitution Is Faulty
Zimpundit: Zimbabwe
Even the flawed 1990 constitution guarantees human rights. Orders to curtail the same were fundamentally flawed. Wrong.
If need be the people will come out into the streets all over again. But if that has to happen, that will prove this revived parliament has failed the people. The people have already paid a huge price to get this House revived. Now this House has to do its job.
Under what authority is the army providing protection to Kamal Thapa? Under what constitution? Under what law? By whose orders?
It might as well be that this government might declare amnesty for the likes of Kamal Thapa. But that would not be for the army to decide.
The parliament has to flex its muscle. It already has the powers.
And if the king is behind this stunt, his speech that revived the parliament is as much a sham as the two right before that that he delivered to quell the revolution. He does not look good at all.
The revolution has to think in terms of the physical safety of the parliamentarians. We can not take any chances. The cabinet has to be protected. If the army were to attempt a coup, it will be worse for them than Yeltsin's Russia in 1991. The soldiers themselves will bring the army leadership down.
The Prime Minister needs to ask the king point blank if the king is or is not behind this illegal action on the part of the army.
Suspicions remain.
I think an interim constitution is our best bet at this point in time. If the people can not express their sovereignty in the parliament, they are going to be forced to express it out in the streets all over again. And that is why the parliament has to live up to the high ideals of the April Revolution.
The Prime Minister has to talk to the king. The Defense Minister has got to talk to Pyar Jung. If those two are not behaving, the people have a right to know that is the case.
Noone is proposing Kamal Thapa be lynched. And Nepal does not have capital punishment. The state could not possibly go afer Kamal Thapa's life either. But if the fear is that Kamal Thapa might end up a victim of some angry mob, the right thing would be to put him under police custody, by orders of the Home Minister. That would be legal. The army providing protection to Kamal Thapa is highly illegal. It should not be tolerated. These are warning signs.
Parliament passes motion on probe commission Nepalnews.com, Nepal
Nepal or nothing - pro-democracy protests continue libcom.org, UK
"Blacklisted" leaders of king banned from leaving Nepal Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
SC allows FM stations to air news NepalNews
Govt's decision to scrap municipal polls could be challenged: Experts
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Thursday, May 04, 2006
Internalized Racism Among Nepalis In NYC
I absolutely, totally love New York City. I feel like I have found my hometown for this lifetime. There is absolutely nothing like it. (My Back Against The Wall, Madonna: I Love New York, If You Want To, Me, Ethiopian, KY, IN, Not Going Anywhere Outside The City, Moved)
I came to Kentucky in Fall 1996 where I had a wonderful freshman year. I was so glad I was not in Nepal. Being Madhesi in Nepal is that tough. But then I had a record-smashing success in the student government and found myself face to face with the deeply ugly face of institutional racism. And it felt like I had moved to a different plane, but it was still Nepal.
I came to New York City looking for a hometown. Career was a secondary consideration. It is not like there is no racism in this city. There is plenty of it. There is plenty of racism, sexism, classism. There is poverty, there is homelessness. But this is also a progressive city, there is unimaginable wealth. Living in this city is like going into the ocean depths: you see all sorts of exotic life forms. You see prejudiced thoughts, and social patterns, and they guard their borders with tremendous intensity. You meet racists and internalized racists who express their racism with the passion of a freedom fighter.
The city is just so big. You often hear remarks like, you are so nice, you must not be from this city. And that is a size thing. If family is circle one, close friends are circle two, and so on, most New Yorkers, when they meet in person, are meeting people in the outer circles for the most part. Most people you see once and never expect to see ever again. They are merely passing. They are part of the landscape. When was the last time you were nice to an artifact at an antique store?
I have been so pissed off at the Madhesi plight in Nepal, if it were not for the Nepal democracy movement, I had no plans whatsoever to reach out to and get to know the Nepalis in town. I was going to go the Desi route. I am half Indian anyways. India is a dirty word in the power circles of Nepal. One of the best parts of coming to America has been the opportunity to reach out to the Indian in me. Kathmandu is not exactly the place for that.
When you get hit, you hit back. Often you get hit with words, not off the chart words. Plain spoken words, but tough words. New Yorkers want to know if you are tough. The question is can you think on your feet? You have about three seconds to decide and hit back. But you can not appear to be hitting. You must just speak like you were in polite company.
Being in New York City is like being inside a crowded Kathmandu city bus, socially speaking. There is only so much wiggle room. Bill Clinton said, politics is a contact sport. Well, New York is a contact city, it is a sport. Either you love it or you hate it. I love it. There is more space in Brooklyn than in Manhattan. Brooklyn is more residential, cheaper too. Costs factor in.
Class is a dynamic concept in the city, very dynamic. You get x-rayed. People ask you what you do before they say hello. What do you do? Where do you live? Are you taking the train or the cab? There are lawyers, bankers, and others. Some live in Manhattan, others in the other boroughs. Some people take cabs.
That cab part is amusing. Every place else in America you got to have a car to do anything. If you want to go grocery shopping, you need a car. So after moving into the city, I loved it that I did not need my car no more. I still have the car: it is all paid for, and it is not worth selling off. I just loved it. So it was a culture shock to realize cabs are status symbol. I don't get it. I love the sight of crowds in trains. They are so New York.
Classism is like racism. Classist comments are like racist comments. Or at least that is where I stand. But then when someone comments here, you don't dream of a civil rights movement: you find an ism the other person falls in, and you hit back. Like I was at this political event, and a candidate for governor in some other state was at hand, raising money, and a local guy, short, embittered, balding white male, asked him a tough question, slightly belittling. The politician shot back, the thing about New York, he said, is that "You are just so big," emphasis added. One white male hit another with physicalism. It was well deserved. It was give and take, fair game. That is the New York style. Have your barbs at the ready, because you sure are going to get hit. If you can't survive in the fast lane, stay to your right. New York is life in the fast lane. Cars are whizzing by. People move fast like cars.
This city is weird, this city is amazing.
"This city is an ocean," Krishna Pahadi said. I was walking with him after his event at New York University. He was dead on. It is an ocean with all the associated life forms.
This city has to be compared to an ocean, or to the Amazon forest. The buildings are really trees. Human beings are life forms. There are as many different kinds of human beings here as life forms in the Amazon.
I came here to cultivate a few business ideas, but the Nepal movement sucked me in. It has felt like a 24/7 involvement. And in the process I have had to interact with the Nepalis in the city, or at least a few hundred of them, with the knowledge you know the rest are there too, in the background.
One of the weirdest parts of getting to know some of the Nepalis has been their intense internalized racism. You bump into these people who are so clearly not white, but the weirdest anti-black stories and stereotypes I have heard have not been from the white people in Kentucky. They have been from the Nepalis in New York. It is as if racism is like radioactivity: it is in the air. They come in, they breathe the air, and somehow being American is being anti-black. You need the communists in Russia to be a patriot in America, and when the communists are gone, you find Bill Clinton and his wife. The blacks are commies.
I have personally been targeted. Obviously my reputation preceded me. I don't know of another Nepali or Indian or African who became student government president at any American college. And so there have been stories about me circulating in the Nepali circles that surprised me they were. But the internalized racists retell the stories in a way to side with the racist whites of the yore. Some are simply being Bahun. Others are trying to inflict pain on you so maybe you will feel the pain they feel on a daily basis when they rub against the glass walls and ceilings in the city that are racial.
I don't put up with that. Racists and internalized racists are mirror images of each other. They ask for similar treatments because they act so alike. Race relations are one of my specialties. But if you want me to understand your pain, you talk to me about your pain. You don't attempt to inflict pain. I can help you talk, I can help you articulate the pain. I can help you deal with it. Heck, I can help you attain the political empowerment that could be your first step towards curing yourself in the long run, but don't you be making racist comments on my person.
Okay, so I have been famous enough to make it to the tabloids before, as have aliens, the real aliens, but then I was also in Indiana for a while where the KKK is the most active of all places in America. I never lost sleep over them. They are just political reality. You too can become political reality if you so desperately want. You just will not be welcome in my personal space.
I have been at the receiving end of some real ugly demonizations, but then if you go by the tabloids, Bill and Hillary Clinton were at one point for years accused of murder, but that Whitewater and Vince Foster evaporated off with the end of the Clinton presidency shows the whole miasma was a political weapon in the first place, and both sides knew it from the very beginning. I did not put up with it from white folks, some of whom felt really powerful, cloud in the heads powerful, will break your back or career or both powerful, I am not going to put up with it from brown folks. And, by the way, you are not that important.
Okay, so I have had enemies. Would you like some? Come into the ring.
I am a political worker. I am gifted. I am good at what I do. I do it full time. I am a political worker like someone with a Ph.D. in chemistry might be a chemist. It amuses me to see people think the kind of work I do is just common sense, anyone can do it, but they will not say the same about some chemist. No offense taken. And you often bump into some bloke who feels like your entire political career lies hostage with that one person who to you is just statistical, but he gives that attitude. And there are political purists - democrats - who are so hung up on that one thing they stand for, that they do not appreciate someone like me has to listen to that one person, and a hundred others with divergent opinions, and all of them count, should count.
At one level, the whole thing is fascinating. This is raw material you are talking about. At another level, you do have to protect yourself. I see circles. Life goes on, and you just get more and more involved.
There just is something about this city. This is the capital city of the world. There are people here from every single town on the planet. I did not say country, I did not say city. I did say town. That's right.
And treat that cabbie with respect. You never know, he might as well be a freedom fighter with a national reputation.
Millions of New Yorkers are waiting to march to voting rights for themselves.
No Taxation Without Representation. Dump some tea into that harbor for me, will you? And get on with it, you are not white. Shut your mouth on racist comments. Keep it shut while you eat.
The April Revolution Asks For A New Political Party
An Open Letter To Gagan Thapa
We braved batons and bullets. We were not scared of the king, and he and the likes of him have been in place for over two centuries. We were not scared of the army, although an emergency was threatened. We were not scared of the police, although it was let loose upon us in large numbers. They envisioned a movement, we gave a revolution.
The revolution is very much on.
But I get a very clear impression the spirit of the seven party alliance is not revolutionary. They have not taken any steps to try and bring the culprits of the previous regime to justice. That would entail getting back the Rs. 50 arab lost over the past few years to gross mismanagement and corruption. That would entail finding out who were the ones to give out orders for the gross repressions of the peaceful protestors: lives and limbs were lost. That would entail documenting human rights violations.
The king's autocracy was hell, but then that is what we expected it to be. The 1990s were hell too, only we did not expect them to be hell.
A constituent assembly is the bare minimum. But a revolution asks for more than the bare minimum. Where do the seven plus one parties stand on the republic question? Where do they stand on political reform? Where do they stand on federalism? Where do they stand on internal democracy in the parties? Where do they stand, period?
The April Revolution is one for world history. But not yet. Much work remains to be done. We still have to watch out for regression. We still have to watch out for mediocrity. We still have to watch out for unimaginative political leadership. We still have to watch out for politicians who constantly lag behind the people. We have to watch out for those who try to suggest the 1990s were Nepal's golden age, when they were anything but. We have to watch out for those who are looking for excuses and ways to impose a ceremonial monarchy upon a people clamoring for a republic. We have to watch out for those looking for escape clauses to put into the next constitution that will prevent social justice after all. We have to maintain a constant vigil, because the revolution is very much on.
Revolution? We did it. Republic? We want it. A new political party is the price we are going to have to pay.
Proposed Republican Constitution 2006
Janata Dal Constitution
The new political party has to be a fundamental departure. It will make a clear stand for a federal republic. It will introduce the concept of total, transparent democracy. It will practice internal democracy. It will keep all its book keeping transparent and online. It will contest in all seats for the constituent assembly. And it will distribute tickets for those seats in a democratic way. Only party members in a particular constituency will get to decide through internal voting as to who gets the ticket. It will not be the party president doing the distributing from Kathmandu.
We will be competing for the votes of the voters below the poverty line. We intend to go head to head with the Maoists. Fuck Mao. We are going to be the darling of the masses. Yes, we will do land reform.
The challenge is to capture the spirit of the April Revolution. No party has done it.
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.
Let Gagan Thapa be the founding president. Then let him have the prerogative to nominate four other Officers in the party for the central leadership. Let there be a district committee in each of the 75 districts. Then let's have a central committee member for each million people in the country. That is 27 members. Plus five Officers. We will combine a few districts to get close to the million mark. And then we will get one of the district presidents to come up. But all this is to be an interim arrangement until we formally hold our convention before the constituent assembly elections.
All our deliberations and expenses are to be posted online. At the district level, at the central level.
Those opposed to the idea of a new political party are no different from those in the Nepali Congress who are opposed to abolishing the monarchy. A reformed Congress is like a reformed monarchy: it is still there. It will be decades before the Congress reforms itself to our standards. On the other hand, we can come into power and pass laws to make all parties come around to our gospel of a total, transparent democracy.
Let's give a serious thought to the idea.
How big was the Congress in 1988? How big was it in 1992? I think we will have a shot at emerging the largest party in the country, because we will be the only one in spirit with the April Revolution.
18 Days Of April Revolution: Victory
On The Web
Kadima - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kadima (Hebrew: קדימה, Qādīmāh, "forward") is a centrist [note] Israeli political party. After the elections on March 28, 2006, it is also the strongest party in Israel, having won 29 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. It was formed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after he formally left the right-wing Likud party on November 21, 2005, to produce a new party which would grant him the freedom to carry out his policy of unilateral disengagement - removing Israeli settlements from Palestinian territory and fixing the borders with a separation barrier. After coalition talks with the Gil party, the two decided to form a parliamentiary block, effectively bringing Kadima up to 36 mandates.
Israel Kadima Party News - Media Monitoring Service by EIN News
Kadima
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Olmert's 'convergence' coalition made new government of Israel Jerusalem Newswire, Israel
Israel Offers Outline to Divide Jerusalem ABC News
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Israel approves construction of fence around Jerusalem; Kadima ... Canada.com, Canada
Olmert to announce Kadima's portfolios Ynetnews, Israel
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No Short Cuts: Madhesis Will Have To March
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
Anti War Rally With Jesse Jackson 4
Anti War Rally With Jesse Jackson 3
Anti War Rally With Jesse Jackson 2
Anti War Rally With Jesse Jackson
After February 1, 2005, political parties kept hoping they might not have to wage a movement. The king will come around to it, they thought. Maybe he did not mean it. Maybe he will step back. They kept asking him to take back the 2/1 decision. It did not work.
So they got together and issued a statement. This is where we five or six parties stand. This is what we want, they said. They figured if the biggest parties spoke in one voice, the king will listen. It did not work.
Then they forged an alliance with the Maoists. They figured if they can help bring the Maoists into the mainstream, the king will be happy. So they declared a roadmap to peace. It did not work.
Then they held mass rallies across the country. It is not true the people are not with us, they said. Let the king see for himself, they said. The biggest rally in the capital was organized to coincide with the king's arrival back from Africa. See, Your Majesty, we do have the people with us, they seemed to suggest. It did not work.
The Maoists tried declaring a ceasefire, and then taking it back. The first was designed to send a message to the king that the Maoists wanted peace. The second was designed to send a message the Maoists are capable of war. Neither worked.
Then they held a few more rallies. They expected a red carpet treament from the king for their January 20 grand finale rally in Kathmandu. Instead most of them got arrested. They helplessly waited in their homes for the police to come.
They figured if they boycott the municipal polls, that will finally send a message to the king. Girija even offered dialogue if the polls were to be cancelled. Tulsi Giri showed some minimal response.
Then they went quiet for two months. The quiet did not work.
Finally they waged a movement, a revolution, and it finally worked. 2/1 is now history.
There are lessons for this for the Madhesi, the most marginalized group in Nepal. The word Nepali so far has never been inclusive of the Madhesi. That will have to finally change.
The right to peaceful assembly has been earned, but the revolution is far from concluded.
The Pahadis will try hard to stack the cards against the Madhesis during the run up to the constituent assembly elections. They will say democracy is not about one person, one vote. They will say the 205 constituencies of the 1990 constitution will do just fine. That right there is the first battle. (Constituent Assembly: 300 Seats Of Roughly Equal Population) We can not settle for anything less than one person, one vote. That means all constituencies will have to be more or less similar in population size. 300 is a good number, so some of the Himali constituencies do not end up too big geographically. Minus one Speaker, 299 will be an odd number, and ensure smooth voting. And there will have to be reservations for the DaMaJaMa among those 300 seats.
The Pratinidhi Sabha will have reserved seats for the four groups, Dalit, Madhesi, Janajati and Mahila, 10%, 20%, 15%, and 25% with some overlaps. Half of the seats for women will cut across that of these four groups as well. For example, of the 10% seats for Dalits, 25% of them will have to be women. And the 10% for Dalits will be half in the Terai, but that is not to cut into the Madhesi reserved seats. 10, 20, 15 and 25 are half the supposed shares of the populations of these groups, to be revised each census. The reservation for a group is discontinued once its share in the Pratinidhi Sabha hits 80% of its share in the national population and is to kick back in again should the share fall below 40%. When identifying the seats for the Dalit, Madhesi and the Janajati, the Election Commission will seek constituencies where the groups have their largest share of populations. No three contiguous seats may be reserved seats......... Other than the specified groups, the Muslims will get two seats. The Newars will get one seat in the Kathmandu valley......... The reservations are to exist only at the federal level, and only for the Pratinidhi Sabha. (Proposed Republican Constitution 2006)We have to be on a watchout for trouble signs during the run up.
Once we secure one person, one vote, we will have to coalesce around the issue of federalism. What we want is a federal republic. Any political party that does not come around to the slogan of a federal republic is to be boycotted en masse.
If Girija Koirala will not accept a federal republic, he will face a frontal attack during the constituent assembly elections, politically speaking. If Madhav Nepal will not accept a federal republic, he will face a frontal attack. If Sher Deuba will not accept a federal republic, he will face a frontal attack. There can be no compromise on this basic issue any more than there could have been any compromise on democracy during the April Revolution.
Federalism is one issue that has got to unify all Madhesis regardless of what political party they might be in. The clay is wet. The effort we will put in now for months is worth years and decades after the constitution takes concrete shape. For the first time ever, Madhesis are about to attain total equality. This chance can not be missed.
Madhesis have to get organized. There are Madhesis in all seven political parties, and among the Maoists, although few in the leadership positions of the large parties. There are many Madhesi rights organizations that have sprouted. There are many caste based organizations. All have to come under one umbrella. A Madhesi version of the seven party alliance has to be formed. A Madhesi Caucus has to be formed for the Madhesi leaders in all seven political parties.
Ultimately it boils down to Madhesis marching in all towns and all villages. March for one person one vote in the constituent assembly elections, for a federal republic, for language rights, for equality, for dignity. We have earned the right to march through the April Revolution, now we got to march.
Dismantle The Two Armies
To: The Kathmandu Media
Chitralekha Yadav: Speaker
The Revolution Is Very Much On
Madhesi Rights: Total Equality
18 Days Of April Revolution: Victory
King Of India
My Most Controversial Blog Post To Date: On Madhesi Issue
Checkmate
Solidarity Rally DC
April 20: March Onto The Palace, End The Monarchy
30 Minutes With Amrit Bohra
Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Irrelevant
Aire Gaire Natthu Khaire Pahadis
क्रान्ितलाई नबुझ्नु, बुझ पचाउनु
Gongabu Massacre
Hamro Nepal, Latest
UN Rally
First ANTA NYC Event, Times Square Marriott
Nepali Congress Or Praja Parishad
Malaria, Polio, Monarchy
ये तो क्रान्ित है
In The News
May 1
Leaders call for interim constitution to go for constituent assembly NepalNews
Maoists lay down conditions for peace talks: Report
Cabinet likely to be announced today; all seven parties to participate
NEPAL: Interview with senior Maoist leader, Ram Bahadur Bhandari Reuters AlertNet, UK
Maoists Terrorists Want To Establish A Communist Republic
CPI wants India to release Maoist leaders
Another injured agitator dies
Alex Keyssar: Maoists and the Press
Departure ban on 'blacklisted' royalists
RNA pledges compensation to Belbari victims’ families
RPP directs its parliamentarians to support constituent assembly
HoR unanimously approves constituent assembly; PM calls on Maoists to join peace talks
राप्रपा संविधानसभामा
संविधानसभा सर्वसम्मत
डीआईजी श्रेष्ठ बढुवाका लागि नेताका घरदैलोमा
सहिद परिवारलाई निःशुल्क यातायात
प्रधानमन्त्रीको स्वागतमा मुख्यसचिव अनुपस्थित
सेनाद्वारा मृतक परिवारलाई पचास हजार
May 4
Maoists agree to sit for peace talks NepalNews
PM Koirala shifts to official quarters in Baluwatar
Local administration lifts curfew in Dang after 5 years
Dr. Hemang Dixit shot at
The government and house should work as per people’s aspiration: Leaders
Journalists in Nepal continue to face challenges: IFJ
A Modus Operandi of Constituent Assembly
Maoists welcome govt announcement, ready for talks Kantipur Publications
Medical college principal shot at in Kathmandu
CA elections after forming interim govt including Maoists: PM Koirala
Important role for ‘victimized’ bureaucrats
Foreign employment up by 44 pc
ँगणतन्त्र पनि स्वीकार्य’सरकारी विद्यालयमा अंग्रेजी माध्यम
कांग्रेसमा पनि असन्तुष्टि
सैनिक गणका छिमेकी अझै भयभीत
दिगो युद्धविराम
क्रान्तिको दोस्रो चरणका बाहक
Nepal's Maoists agree to talks with new government Reuters
Nepal Kings agents start threatening Indian communist leaders India Daily, NJ
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Wednesday, May 03, 2006
An Open Letter To Gagan Thapa
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
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