Democracy For Nepal

Thursday, May 18, 2006

A New Nepal Has Been Born

Royal powers curtailed drastically, HMG/N becomes Nepal govt, RNA turns into Nepali Army, Nepal declared a secular state NepalNews The Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Rastriya Janashakti Party, which are not the constituents of the SPA also supported the proposal ...... no members of the parliament voted against the proposal...... depriving His Majesty the King of all the privileges enjoyed by him and declared the reinstated House as “supreme.” ...... the provision of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Nepalese Army being held by HM the King has been scrapped. The provision has deprived the King of his control over 90,000 soldiers of the country........ dissolution of the Raj Parishad Standing Committee ....... the parliament will form necessary procedure to go for the election of the constituent assembly........ the full executive power will lie to the parliament........ the monarch will not have any authority to enact the law concerning royal succession, which will be done by the parliament....... scrapped the provision that His Majesty the King’s acts could not be challenged before the parliament and the Court........ changing the name of the Royal Nepalese Army into Nepali Army, and replacing “His Majesty’s Government” with the “ Government of Nepal”....... monarch will no longer convene a session of the parliament....... the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall convene the session on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. A special session of the House can be called on the request of 25 percent of the lawmakers........ The cabinet will decide about the appointment of the army chief, mobilisation of the army will be done as per the decision of the council of ministers. However, that will have to be approved by the stipulated parliamentary committee........ made the income and assets of the King taxable........ the parliament will fix the expenditure of the Royal Palace....... has declared all the provisions of the Constitution and laws that contradict this proclamation “ as nullified"......... it is not necessary to be the member of House of Representatives to be the minister......... has declared Nepal as a secular state and added that the government will make provision for resolving the citizenship problem.
“Historic” proposal tabled at HoR
Cabinet approves HoR proclamation

This is huge. This might not hit the world headlines, but this is huge. Like humongous huge.

Dean, DFNYC, Daily Kos, Justin, Brooklyn, Nepal

Now finally the parliament can tackle the army like it tackled the king. We don't have to wait for the peace talks to fire a few bad apple generals. We know who they are. We have to restructure the top level right away.

Just like we have now gotten rid of the shadow of the king and the army from the constituent assembly elections, we have to now do the same to the Maoists. The elections have to be utterly free and fair or they will have no meaning.

The beauty of what just happened is that a parliament did it. That is the 21st century way. The people already voted for a parliament. They should not have to come out into the streets, they should not have to face batons and bullets.

Interim Constitution, Revolutionary Parliament (April 8)

Audio: Baburam Bhattarai

Nepal Lawmakers Move to Limit King's Powers Washington Post, United States To be enacted, the resolution must be voted on as a series of laws, officials said. That was expected in the next few days. ..... laws will be drafted to implement the resolution ...... Earlier, the government banned rallies around key areas in the capital ahead of the vote.
Nepal parliament approves plan to cut king's powers Reuters AlertNet
Nepal clips King Gyanendra's wings Rediff
Nepal government to curtail King's powers NDTV.com

Nepal issues prohibitory order in capital city Xinhua, China
Monarchy in Nepal to end within a year: party leader Xinhua, China Bam Dev Gautam has claimed that monarchy in Nepal will end within one year...... According to Gautam, the seven-party alliance should join hands with the anti-government guerrillas to form an eight-party alliance to finish the monarchy in Nepal.
Monarchy will End Within a Year: Bamdev Himalayan Times
UN ready to monitor truce in Nepal: Special Advisor United Nations (UN) has agreed to assist Nepal in arms management and is ready to monitor the cease-fire and to be an observer during an election to a Constituent Assembly...... UN has not offered to play the role of mediator here, but is ready to monitor the cease-fire and be an observer...... The UN will help only when the Nepali government and anti-government guerrillas agree and request UN help

Maoists Should Lead Interim Govt: Yadav Himalayan Times Matrika Yadav said today that the Maoists must be allowed to lead the interim government.... Yadav said action would be taken against those collecting donation forcefully...... "We will continue collecting donations but it won't be forceful," Yadav said. He added that the Maoists would not threaten or take any kind of action against those opting not to give donations to the Maoists. He said that the Maoists are compelled to collect donations to run the party, militia and the Maoist government....... He took moral responsibility for the past criminal activities carried out by the Maoists.
Khadka Flays Deuba's Political Myopia
Cabinet expansion on backburner
AG says House is not be-all, end-all

India must checkmate ISI influence in Nepal Sify, India
Nepal-India border issue in Indian parliament Kantipur Online
Sexual Violence in Nepal's Conflict American Chronicle, CA
House should be allowed to fulfill responsibility Gorkhapatra
Local leaders sore over Maoist reluctance to return property Gorkhapatra

US wary of Nepal Maoists despite truce: official Reuters Washington was willing to help Nepal's security forces if the government requested it. ...... "there are multiple reports of the Maoists' continued campaign of violence, extortion (and) shakedowns."

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18 May