Compromise Formula: 75 Multi Member Constituencies, Fully PR Election

Further Compromise: Mixed Election With Reservations (March 10, 2007)
5 Point Demand: Compromise Formula So Elections Can Be Held In June
Compromise: Add 45 Constituencies To The Terai

I tried to forge a Madhesi Alliance by trying to see what would bring together the armed, unarmed and the in-power Madhesi groups.

Madhesi Alliance Needed
Ridiculous Bahun Poudel
Talk To Goit
एक मधेश एक प्रदेश
Bahun Conspiracy To Hijack Constituent Assembly Elections
मधेशी अान्दोलनको गन्तव्य: नभम्बर चुनाव

I figured completely proportional election might do the trick. And now the Maoists have said they want the same. In my formula, the entire country would be one constituency.

Now what could we do to bring the Nepali Congress also on board?

Right now we have not figured out how to divide the 240 constituencies. The first time we tried, the Madhesi MPs shut down the parliament for a month, and for good reason.

The middle ground could be as follows.

Let the 75 districts be the 75 constituencies. They will be multi-member constituencies when a district has been alloted more than one seat. So if Morang has 10 seats, each party will put up a list of 10 candidates for Morang. If the Nepali Congress wins 20% of the vote, the UML another 20%, the Maoists, the MJF and the Sadbhavana 20% each, then each will get two seats each, the first two on their list of 10. If a party were to get less than 10% of the votes, it should be able to trade that with another party in another district. As in, if the MJF gets 5% and the Sadbhavana gets 5% in this case, the MJF could give that to the Sadbhavana in the district for a similar favor by the Sadbhavana to it in another district. But votes can not be carried from one district to another.

Every third name on a party's list must be female.

And this would be the only way to elect members to the constituent assembly. There would be only one ballot. 17 nominations by the cabinet go out the window for being undemocratic. All 480 members would get elected this way. This probably means the number of representatives from each district would double. Better would be to keep the total at 240. Half of those 240 will be in the Terai districts.

Having only one ballot will also be less confusing to the voters.

The majority coalition gets to form the new government after the polls. It is that government that calls the new assembly into session. Bye bye Girija.

The current interim parliament is dissolved before the election campaign is formally launched. That is standard procedure.

This way you are not ignoring geographical representation. But you are also not wasting votes. Otherwise we have had elections where a candidate with 20% of the votes gets the seat, and 80% of the votes go to waste.

This could be a compromise formula between the Madhesi groups and the Nepali Congress.

If we could agree on this, we don't have to declare the country a republic right away. We can wait until after the election. And all the demands the MJF put forth and was disrespected for by the government, the MJF gets to turn into election issues to rally the masses behind it.

On The Web

Proportional representation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How Proportional Representation Elections Work
[PDF] Split-Ticket Patterns in Mixed-Member Proportional Election ...
Voting Systems: Majority Election vs. Proportional Representation

In The News

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‘Obama targeted Pakistan to get boost in polls’ Daily Times
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Obama Vs. Clinton Revisited CBS News Obama is rejecting the "our sunuvabitch" strategy of making nice to Musharraf (and, I think, the House of Saud as well). HRC says that's "naive" and "irresponsible." The MSM agreed, until the polling showed that Obama had the country with him. ..... analyzing these recent squabbles is like trying to decipher Kremlin May Day photographs. Enough's enough.
‘Obama wanted to show he’s tougher than Hillary’ Daily Times
Romney attacks Obama over Pakistan warning Washington Post
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Obama Takes Heat On Pakistan New York Times
At YearlyKos, Clinton Defends Lobbyists Atlantic Online as if the presidential candidates had run out of new things to say ..... Hillary Clinton was forced to explain to why she accepts contributions from federal lobbyists. ...... "A lot of those lobbyists whether you like it not, represent real Americans," she said. "They represent nurses, social workers" -- here the audience began to boo -- "and yes, they represent corporations and they employ a lot of people." "I just... I just ask you to look at my record." Never, she said, in her 35 years of public service, had she bowed to the will of a lobbyist. ........ Two hours earlier, Clinton spoke to a convention of police officers in Chicago and might well have pointed out that police officers employ lobbyists; unions in Washington use dozens of them, as do non-profits, colleges, universities, towns and cities. ......... Sen. Barack Obama, who, like Edwards does not take donations from federal lobbyists, jumped in. "I just disagree" with Clinton's notion that lobbyists don't have a disproportionate influence on the system. "Now Hillary, you were talking about your [health care] effort back in 1993, and you can't tell me that money didn't make a difference, and you can't tell me that the money they are spending is just to contribute to the public interest." .......... "As long as we don't have public financing, I think we have to raise money from nurses, teachers and doctors, people who work on Wall Street in New York City." ........ Her platform aims to restore competence to government, to work within government to produce solutions, and to bring the Democratic Party back to power. ....... Barack Obama has placed on a pox on both houses of Congress and both political parties. ..... The Netroots crowd did not want to be condescended to, but their spontaneous applause at predictable, well-worn pander standards suggested that they enjoyed the attention. There was no crowd favorite, although Obama, who turns 46 today, was introduced to the loudest cheers. ..... HIllary Clinton praised Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy, "which was exactly the right thing to do." .... Richardson said the Democratic Party should push for verified paper ballots, same-day voter registration and work to fight Republican attempts to challenge minority voters at the polls.
Clinton Goes First New York Times As her microphone faded, she muttered “right wing conspiracy” as an aside, winning cheers and laughs right off the bat. ....... “I’m aware that not everyone says nice things about me, and it’s a burden I have to bear,” she said, to laughter, and you could feel the audience warming up to her. ....... “What you’ve done is to stand up against the right-wing noise machine,” she said. She said she wished there had been a blogosphere in 1993 when she was trying to pass her health care plan. ..... don’t tell anyone, she said — she said she reads blogs .... She said marriage should be left to the states .... NAFTA did not live up to its promises. ..... “I appreciate everything you’re doing — well, not everything you’re doing,” she said, again drawing laughter. ...... “If we just talk to ourselves we sound really smart.” ...... Her informal, non-campaign mode and the warm response in the room

20 Million Affected by Floods In India, Bangladesh, and Nepal Voice of America
Giuliani Plays Offense On Health Care New York Times
Flood situation in Bihar grim, IAF drops food packets Hindu
Congress splits on terrorism spy bill Seattle Times
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Where Rupert Murdoch Could Fall Short BusinessWeek News Corp. is in the process of updating its printing presses in Europe, which will ready the Journal for a frontal attack on the Financial Times' home turf. .... The Wall Street Journal is—I must have a macro on my keyboard for this sentence by now—one of the world's great newspapers. Which, unfortunately, is something that seems to mean less and less in today's world ...... what it means to be The Wall Street Journal today ...... Murdoch is a fanged beast who eats baby journalists for breakfast ...... an old-school newspaper guy. He has shown tremendous patience with eight-figure losses at papers ranging from The Times of London to the New York Post. ...... putting up with losses can come from aggressive investment in the future or from casually accepting a challenging status quo. The New York Post does not lose money because it's pouring trillions into a bold new strategy to reinvent itself in a Digital Age ....... none of Murdoch's major papers has been reinvented for the Digital Age. It should irk Murdoch that the BBC, which he frequently blasts, has moved much faster than News Corp. to revamp its news operations in interesting ways. ...... an expensive creative process .... a dual-stock structure won't withstand every challenge, and that there is a price to pay for confusing "protecting the journalistic franchise" with "ignoring everything the market says." As for Rupert, if he's wise, he won't let his love for newspapering in the 20th century get in the way of what Dow Jones needs to become in the 21st.
Baby Matt is Bourne Daily Telegraph the arrival of his baby daughter changed his approach to the rigorous training schedule he had undertaken throughout shooting of The Bourne Identity in 2002 and the sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, in 2004 - smash hits ..... "In the past, I didn't realise what little of a life I had. I'd work all day and then I'd go to the gym and get ready for the next day and everything kind of revolved around the next day's work and getting through the next day. ....... Damon's reputation as one of Hollywood's nicest guys is well-earned but he is not concerned with cultivating an image. .... "I try to be polite and maybe a little boring,'' he says.
FCC Ensures Open Access in 700 MHz Auction DailyTech
Besieged Karzai To Meet With Bush Washington Post a two-day meeting with President Bush at Camp David ...... how to secure the release of 21 surviving South Korean hostages, combat the aggressive Taliban insurgency and rein in Afghanistan's flourishing opium poppy trade. ........ in return for providing $10 billion in aid and more than 20,000 troops, U.S. officials may be pushing Karzai to take or accept harsh actions that many Afghans adamantly oppose. ...... Taliban, the once-defeated radical Islamic militia that has roared back to life as a power-hungry, media-savvy guerrilla force ........ moving ever closer to this tense capital in its campaign to drive out foreign troops and restore strict Islamic rule. ....... Taliban officials are demanding the withdrawal of 210 South Korean troops and the release of a group of imprisoned insurgents in exchange for the hostages' lives. ..... the Taliban are already winning the psychological war, delaying the hostage situation to gain time and public attention ....... their psychological presence is everywhere. ..... In recent months, the Taliban has made its presence felt in widening swaths of territory, moving farther out of its traditional base in the south and into provinces ringing the capital. ...... Wardak, a poor region of fields and orchards just southwest of Kabul ...... Taliban fighters hold armed meetings in village mosques and send threatening letters that force girls' schools to shut down. ....... promised roads and schools were never built, local authorities are corrupt and security is abysmal, with as few as four poorly trained policemen per district. ......... "A lot of our boys have no jobs or education. The Taliban pay them and tell them the Americans have come to erase Islam from their country. ....... "If the Taliban get power again in our province, it is only one leap to the capital." ....... a mounting toll of civilian casualties, mostly in bombing raids. The deaths have inflamed public opinion, turned many Afghans against the foreign forces and further strained Karzai's credibility. ......... collateral damage and cultural insensitivity ..... opium poppy cultivation and trafficking. .. the Taliban, which had banned it in 2000 ..... "the tie between insecurity and poppy production is more and more clear," as are the links between the drug crop and the Taliban insurgency.
Ahmadinejad says Iran won't give up nuclear plans
Experts warn Beckham buzz won't last Toronto Star his new home ground was more mall than sporting venue. ...... More important than his athletic prowess, this is what Beckham brings to America: sales, marketing savvy and heat. ..... Victoria Beckham: Coming to America, lured 5 million viewers stateside and was judged a ratings disaster. But it did represent the largest-ever audience for soccer on the U.S.'s main sports network. ....... It was Fuller who announced that Beckham's MLS deal is worth $250 million, providing little detail but sparking enormous interest. .... the whole brand those two have built around themselves ..... take a single property – American Idol, for instance – and spin it into multiple, lucrative streams of revenue. A show, a concert tour, CDs, TV spinoffs etc. ....... prompted Beckham to fire his traditional sports agents, SFX, in 2003 and hire the show biz mogul instead. ...... the Beckhams are main features of American tabloids. Though he has been unable to train for weeks, paparazzi shots of him getting his morning coffee or going out for dinner appear daily. ........ Relative unknowns in America only a year ago, the Beckhams are already being feted by Hollywood's A-List. This is Fuller's doing. ........ make big waves in the small pond of American soccer. ..... Thus far, his marketing prowess has greatly outflanked his performance ...... capitalize on the buzz now, before the public's interest drifts and Beckham's athletic sell-by date expires. ..... You sign them not because you believe they are going to play that long, but in order to spread out your costs ..... "What happened to the NBA after Michael Jordan left? You can't wrap your league around one guy." .... "late investors" in the Beckham phenomenon – the ticket buying public. .... Beckham is here to lure people into the store. It's MLS's job to turn them into repeat customers. ... "He's the cherry on top of the sundae," Quinn said. "He's not the sundae."
Obama remark angers Pakistan Chicago Tribune
Kos on Clinton, DLC, GOP attacks MSNBC the original purpose of the YearlyKos convention when he started it was "to put faces to screen names." ....... The candidates chose this year to speak at the left-leaning blogger convention instead of the once powerful centrist Democratic Leadership Council. ..... "If the DLC had a list of three million people," Moulitsas said, "they would go to that. It's not that they're centrist." ..... "It's that they hate when regular people are involved in the process," Moulitsas said, adding, "They hate Democracy if they hate this conference. It's as simple as that." ....... He said he has not met with the candidates because he's "not interested in being a gatekeeper. They don't need to go through me."
Clinton Will Hold Chat Session With Bloggers After All New York Times
Bill Clinton Steers Clear of Hillary and Obama's Feud FOX News The clearest indication that Hillary's direct and personal attack on Obama last week was a failure is the fact that Bill sounded the retreat in his speech this week at the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). ...... Her strategist, Mark Penn, described her attack as "part of an unfolding strategy." ..... "that little spat" ..... the poll showing that Obama had 55 percent of the Democrats with him as against only 22 percent for Hillary on this issue ....... In so many ways right now, Obama has Hillary on the defensive. His well-aimed shots are having their impact in the early primary states but have yet to affect the national polling numbers. ....... In New Hampshire, the same organization has Hillary's advantage over Obama vanishing entirely. In April, she was 23 points ahead of Obama. In May, her lead dropped to 19. It was only nine points in June and the race was tied at the end of July. In South Carolina, they have Hillary's losing the lead entirely, going from 16 points ahead in June to four points behind in July. ....... Hillary has not bought ads to match Obama so far because she is spooked by his fundraising success. ...... Obama has amassed a 3 to 2 advantage in funds on hand for the primary raised during the first six months of the race. Since he has four times as many donors as Hillary and fewer maxxed out contributors, his edge is likely to grow. ...... Her use of the "experience" issue against the freshman senator is increasingly ineffective as Obama shows himself to be a first class competitor in face-to-face performances. And using the issue puts her at risk of appearing to be a continuation of the same old Bush-Clinton rivalry amid an electorate gasping for change.
Why Pakistanis are easy targets for US candidates Hindustan Times Obama has carefully distinguished between “the wrong war” in Iraq and “the right war” in Afghanistan.
NEWSWEEK Poll: Will it Be Clinton vs. Giuliani? Newsweek the dubious company of Presidents Carter, Nixon and Truman ....... a comfortable 44 percent to 23 percent margin ..... Giuliani leads the field with 30 percent, 8 points ahead of former senator Fred Thompson ..... Roughly one third (34 percent) of all voters and more than half (58 percent) of registered Republicans say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is a strong supporter of gay rights. As mayor of New York City, Giuliani supported civil unions and signed a domestic-partnership bill. ...... a spouse 25 years younger. Fred Thompson is 24 years older than his wife, and Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich married a woman 31 years his junior. ...... In July 2003, not long after the president declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq, roughly two thirds (68 percent) of Americans thought taking military action against Iraq was the “right thing” to do. Today that number is roughly half that (35 percent).
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Amazon joins Google in assault on eBay's PayPal Register
Review: Google Simple, PayPal Versatile Washington Post
Amazon vs. Paypal vs. Google Checkout GigaOm Amazon, in its bid to become the underlying utility of the new web world ..... Amazon Flexible Payment Services (still in beta) .... In the most recent quarter, PayPal had net revenues of $454 million, up 34% over the $339 million reported in Q2-06. ..... PayPal Merchant Services transactions jumped 57% to $4.92 billion globally from the $3.13 billion reported in Q2-06. ..... use money (and price) to lure the eCommerce players, as Google is doing with its Checkout Service ..... charge customers in small increments until their accumulated balance reaches a limit, pay a percentage of a digital transaction as a royalty, earn a commission on a marketplace transaction, or allow one customer to pay for another customer and limit their usage to a specific amount. ........ A small web-app developer can now build, host, process and get paid for his efforts right over the Amazon infrastructure, without having to spend money upfront. ....... this is going to cause major headaches for PayPal.
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Local blogs are key to future of politics San Francisco Chronicle, USA the next frontier of political blogging will be led by people like Phillip Anderson. .... Even though his blog gets only about 1,000 visitors a day ..... Nevertheless, the mop-haired New Yorker already has the state party chair asking him for help reaching liberal voters. His allure: Local bloggers can influence the outcome of small elections. ...... bloggers who cover local politics have become the de facto watchdog in some communities and over some areas of government. ..... the rise of local bloggers is another step in the convergence of old and new media. ..... "We definitely rely on their (mainstream news outlet) stories, and they're definitely reading us." ...... The day after Democrats won the midterm congressional election in November, Anderson said to a friend, "Well, the national scene looks OK for now, but our state is really messed up." ...... part journalism, part activism and wholly progressive ..... In January, Anderson heard from Dave Pollak, co-chairman of the New York State Democratic Party. There was a special election coming up in Long Island for a state Senate seat, an election where turnout was expected to be low. Pollak knew blogs like Anderson's are read not only by political junkies but by politicians and their staffs, "so I reached out to the blogs," he said, "because they can get boots on the ground, and that's what the difference is in elections like this." The strategy worked. ........ Pollak says about $100,000 was raised and 40 people volunteered as a result of blogs spreading the word, "and in a small election, that was one of two or three things that helped us win that seat, which had been in Republican hands for a long time." .......... Earlier this year, when Anderson and other bloggers threw a "blograiser" (a fundraiser hosted by bloggers) for a state Senate candidate at a New York bar, not only did Pollak get out the word, he got newly elected Gov. Eliott Spitzer to show up. ...... Three weeks ago, Pollak hosted a meeting of 50 New York state bloggers "just to tell them what we were up to." ...... There is an understanding: Pollak doesn't expect the bloggers to march in lockstep with what the party wants, and the bloggers have no intention of giving any politician a free pass.

Barack Obama, Neocon Wall Street Journal that he should now propose invading a nuclear-armed Muslim country ...... the terror threat won't vanish when the Bush Administration does ...... Following Mr. Musharraf's ill-conceived truce last September with Taliban-connected warlords in the Pakistani province of Waziristan, terrorist raids into neighboring Afghanistan rose threefold. Al Qaeda has also been able to substantially reconstitute itself in the area ....... special forces raids or Predator strikes, or more. ..... Rumsfeld, who in 2005 is reported to have vetoed a U.S. commando raid into Waziristan on grounds that it might have destabilized Mr. Musharraf's government ....... Obama's willingness to draw appropriate conclusions from realities in Pakistan stands in refreshing contrast to his Democratic opponents
Obama Takes Heat On Pakistan New York Times












SARKAR part 1 of 13
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SARKAR part 12 of 13
SARKAR part 13, Final

Democracy, Transparency, And The Nepali Diaspora

Dear Upendraji. Dear Ambikaji.
Hello Labaji. Hello Nagendraji.

It has been a pleasure and honor to have met all of you and gotten to know you to an extent. I write to all of you at once to try and seek common ground.

Not long back I made a failed effort to launch an umbrella organization of all the Nepali organizations in New York City, almost none of which are members either of NAC - Nepalese Americas Council - or part of the NRNA - Non Resident Nepali Association - structure. I let the effort pass respecting the democratic right of those who failed to show up for a key meeting. But ever since I have been approached by people to make a second attempt.

My premise was simple. Democracy, transparency, one person one vote. An umbrella organization would be formed of all the Nepali organizations in the tri-state area. Each member organization's weight would be how many members it had. That would foster the launching of new organizations, and transparency and membership drives among existing organizations. The umbrella organization would explore issues of common interest, but it would primarily seek voting rights for Nepalis in New York City elections. If there are 40,000 Nepalis in NYC, less than 2,000 of them are members of this or that organization. The same 100 or so Nepalis show up no matter which Nepali event you go to. In short, Nepalis are not organized.

It gets said Nepalis are too busy making money. The truth is a community that can vote earns more.

I attributed the lack of progress to a lack of political consciousness, and frankly also the anti-Madhesi prejudice of not accepting a Madhesi in the lead role, especially when that Madhesi is solely offering political leadership, and not major monetary success, which should happen in a few years, but that should not affect the one person, one vote mechanism.

The Nepali diaspora is not organized in a mass way. The little organization there is reminds me of when America was founded as a country: only land owning white males could vote. Nepalis who have managed small scale successes in their host countries seek recognition from their own community by imposing on the same a nondemocratic, nontransparent organizational structure. That means most Nepalis stay away. Those who bother to show up stay powerless in the bigger picture of where they work and live. People who claim to speak on behalf of large numbers of people can not rightfully claim to be doing so. You are not a leader of anyone who did not vote for you.

Most Nepalis who can be said to be active are so preoccupied with the developments in Nepal, and that is wonderful. Nepal's April Revolution 2006 and Madhesi Movement 2007 showed the Nepali diaspora, and the Madhesi diaspora maintain strong connections to their homeland. But that preoccupation also prevents us from discussing our immediate conditions wherever we might be. "Your status gets defined solely by your passport," Upendra Mahato, founder of the NRN Movement once famously said. It is not fun to say you are a member of a powerless group. The pressure to escape that description is immense. I have felt that when trying to organize Madhesi opinion on behalf of Madhesi rights in the context of Nepal. And I have seen a mirror image of the same when trying to show Pahadis in New York City their dire immigrant status in NYC.

If I criticize the status quo of the way we have organized ourselves so far, it is not to malign the early efforts, but rather to point out there is much progress that remains to be made. If our internal organizing principles will not be democratic and transparent, we will make little headway in our effort to empower ourselves in our many host countries. We have to become mass based in how we organize ourselves.

The concept behind ANONYM - Association of Nepali Organizations in the New York Metro - was to inject democracy and transparency into the organization which would be the third pole to the NRNA and NAC on the diaspora map until the two principles are accepted also by NAC and NRNA, at which point the three become one.

After I let go of that, I have concentrated on my company, which I believe will play a key role in Nepal's economic revolution to last a few decades and is primarily geared with the Global South in mind, and Obama 2008, which I expect to make major inroads on behalf of the larger immigrant population and thus will benefit Nepalis whether or not they participate. For my continued involvement in shaping Nepal's political developments, I have been devoting time to my organization Hamro Nepal. It allows me to focus on key political developments like a laser beam, a digital democracy organization suited for this era of globalization and the internet.

But since my friends in NYC Laba Gaunle and Nagendra Ingam have been pressing on me that I should work again to launch ANONYM, I figured I would make things clear. ANONYM was about democracy and transparency. If NAC were to adopt the basic premises, NAC itself could expand. As it is ANONYM was slated to have a larger number of Nepali organizations than NAC.

And I wonder if it might not be best for Nepalis in NYC to join Obama 2008 one person at a time which is so easy to do at http://www.barackobama.com and is inherently grassroots. That way you are never short of numbers. 2300 people in Jackson Heights donated to Obama 2008 this past quarter. For Nepalis to get empowered in the diaspora, we have to forge alliance with non Nepalis. What better place to do that in NYC? Nepalis have to claim the South Asian identity, the Asian identity, and the blac identity, as in Black, Latino, Asian Caucus.

In short, I only have time for my company and Obama right now. But the ANONYM goals can be achieved through Obama 2008 and by the NAC accepting democracy and transparency into its operations. For now I want to leave it at that.

I hope I have clarified my position.

DL21C Annual Summer Bash: Barack Won The Straw Poll

छाता संगठनको कुरा फेिर ल्याउने िक नल्याउने
द्वैध नागिरकता िबना नेपालमा अार्िथक क्रान्ित सम्भव छैन
मई १२ िदउँसो १ बजे सेन्ट्रल पार्क दक्िषण पूर्व कोणा
न्यु यर्कमा छाता संगठनको अावश्यकता
New York Metro Nepalis: Organizational Challenges

In The News

The revolt of the aristocrats CK Lal Nepali Times the Madhes Uprising last winter took everyone by surprise. The international community was asking who these madhesis were and why they were so angry. ...... the farmers of the eastern tarai have the resources to continue with the political agitation. They have the time and inclination to pursue political goals and are unlikely to settle for any compromise they might consider unfavourable ...... the tarai conflict could be long drawn-out and intractable if not handled carefully ...... the Yadav’s landholding makes them one of the tarai’s most influential population groups. Since the cost of agricultural labour is low and productivity is high in the eastern tarai, big farmers (pahadi bahuns and chhetris but also Yadavs) who own land worth, say, half-a-million rupees can afford to explore other avenues. That is why Yadavs dominate tarai politics. ....... Upendra Yadav heads the MJF and Sitanandan Raya is his political mentor. Rambaran Yadav is the second most prominent madhesi leader in the NC after Mahantha Thakur. Jai Krishna Goit leads the separatist JTMM. Matrika Yadav is the public face of Maoist madhesis. NC-D looks more inclusive for having Chitralekha Yadav ....... The UML is making amends for its weak madhesi policies by promoting the interim cabinet’s Minister for General Administration Ramchandra Yadav even though he is a very junior party member. There are Rayas, Yadavs, and Goits among both rightist former panchas and the communists in the leftist alliance. ....... The realisation and frustration that their social and political standing isn’t commensurate with their economic status seems to have fuelled madhesi identity consciousness. ...... But if the landless Chamars, Doms, Dusadhs, and Mushahars were mobilised for the madhesi ‘cause’, Hatlebakk’s worst fears will begin to look optimistic.
Prachanda vs Kiran Mohan Baidya (‘Kiran’) and Ram Bahadur Thapa (‘Badal’) launched an attack on the Prachanda line. Kiran and Badal think the party should launch a republican rebellion even before the constituent assembly election and in this they are supported by Biplab, Prabhakar, and Sudarshan. ..... there is also a small faction that wants to take the Maoists back to armed struggle.
Half revolution Through the 240 seats based on proportional representation the Nepali people will be represented as madhesi (31.2 percent), dalit (13 percent), janajati, (37.8 percent), from backward areas (4 percent), and others (30.2 percent). ....... more than a million Nepalis are landless. In 19 districts, over 20 percent of households have no land. ....... About 15 percent of households do not own a piece of land on which to construct a hut and members are solely dependent on land-based wages. ....... The worries that it will end up being just another coterie of the elites of various groups are genuine. ........ Nepal’s inequity is alarming. In fact it is the most inequitable country in South Asia, which itself is one of the world’s most inequitable regions. ....... Limbus have 71 percent poverty, Kamis 68 percent, Damais 67 percent, Sarkis 65 percent, Tamangs 59 percent, Magars 58 percent, Rais 56 percent, and Chhetris 50 percent ......... Without a mechanism to ensure proper representation of the large mass of the working class people, attempts at caste-, ethnicity- and region-based inclusiveness will not help end existing patterns of social inequality.
Beyond tokenism the Baluwatar recipe for managing the problem is engineering splits within madhesi groups, luring some away with money and posts, using coercive tactics, and asking India to put pressure on them. This may, at best, work in the short-term but will sow seeds for an even deeper and prolonged conflict.
100 days to go for failing to stand up to the NC and not taking a firmer stand on republic. Dahal has compromised with dissidents by agreeing to insist on the declaration of republic as a precondition to elections. .... the Maoist meeting is preoccupied with the possibility of an election defeat. A UML forecast, which many find credible, shows the Maoists may get just 10 percent of the seats in the first-past-the-post part of the election. ....... “The peace process has achieved little, yet our leadership is wallowing in luxury and comfort.” ...... Sharma, Chand and radicals lead by Mohan Baidya feel the peace process is flawed, it has weakened the Maoists and the gains of the revolution squandered. ...... an avowed republican party is converging with the monarchy which doesn't want polls either. ...... “We want elections, that is what we fought for. But we are launching a movement for republic and proportional electoral system in our campaigning.”
Instead of one laptop per child... While computers in schools are a good idea, an over $100 million project to give each Nepali child a laptop is not. ..... Taiwan’s AsusTek has announced a $200 full-sized laptop and Intel has a similarly priced community PC. ...... children learn best as they did before going to school—by exploration, learning from errors, and responding to challenges ..... best evidence of success from Nigeria is 100 percent school attendance and “a lot of smiling kids”. ....... learning only improves if teachers, learners, and parents are closely involved in the design of their content and use.
Dailekh bridges the digital divide The two factors restricting the spread of computers in Nepal are cost and language. ..... More than 80 percent of the computers and internet connections in Nepal are located inside Kathmandu’s Ring Road. ..... a Neplinux 2.0 operating system so everything on the screen was in Nepali.
Web pioneer He gave up a potentially lucrative dot com career in the US to return not just to Nepal, but take the information age to his remote ancestral village in Myagdi. ..... “Given Nepal’s topography and cost, the future is in wireless,” Pun said ..... Today his Nepal Wireless Project in mid-western Nepal is a model of simple, effective, and successful rural internet access. ...... In five years, 22 villages in Myagdi and Parbat have been wired for just Rs 2 million. The network is used for education and to exchange information about locally produced goods and commodity prices, village activities, and weekly markets. The wireless network also provides telemedicine facilities to eight villages with doctors from a Pokhara hospital. ...... Pun’s model is proof that villages don’t have to wait for landlines for communication, and the internet is not just a luxury.

Maoists revolt against their leadership Kantipur “CPN-Maoist Joint Rebel Front” ..... coordinated by Laxman Tharu, the general secretary of the Tharuwan Mukti Morcha. ..... we will pull out the (PLA) army along with the arms .... the expelled central committee members of the party Rabindra Shrestha and Mani Thapa are also included in the new front, Tharu further claimed that 4000 Maoist cadres have joined them. ....... more than 1,000 PLA fighters were ready to join them. ...... Tharu has asked the party to quit the government by September 1. ..... issued an ultimatum to the government to pull down all India-built embankments along the Nepal-India border by the same date. .... they will launch a physical offensive against those implicated in the Rayamajhi Commission report if the government did not take action against them by the same date.
Parties can run local bodies on rotation basis: MoLD The last popularly-accepted local elections was held back in 1997.
Nepal rules out unity if Maoists keep ‘Prachanda Path’ CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal has said his party can unite with the Maoists only if the latter give up the ideology of ‘Prachanda Path’ and become a democratic force. ...... a “common republican front” of the ruling eight-party alliance, and not a front of the Leftist parties, is the need of the hour. ...... The UML stalwart also iterated that the elections should not be deferred, come what may. ...... the party will massively deploy its youth wings for “a successful and free and fair elections”. ..... The party’s last central committee meeting had claimed that it will emerge as the single largest party in the elections.
Prachanda, Sitaula discuss state of affairs Emerging from around one hour long meeting held at Prachanda’s residence at Naya Bazaar, Sitaula said that they discussed the security situation, the Constituent Assembly elections and the ongoing Maoist plenum.
'CA polls no longer a Maoist condition to remain in govt' to quit the government if some of their conditions are not met immediately ..... if the whereabouts of the missing persons are not made public and the Maoist prisoners are not released immediately ..... immediate steps to punish against those who tried to suppress the April Uprising as a condition for the party to remain in the government. ..... the party should quit the government if the elections slated for November 22 is put off.
Parliament passes civil service bill
Parties urged to focus on economic issues
सय वर्षछि नया“ राष्ट्रगान
जनआन्दोलनका दोषी’ र्सार्वजनिक
एकै दिन सत्र गोष्ठी
माओवादी निर्ण्र्ाापर्खौंं’
जनजाति वार्ता सहमति नजिक
विस्तारित बैठक सुरु

Rayamajhi Commission report publicised; Sitaula says action already taken against those named NepalNews
New National Anthem
New National Anthem publicised
Koirala reaches Biratnagar, reiterates CA polls on time Koirala stressed the need of unity of the ruling coalition of the eight parties before and after the polls ..... Koirala said he would react after the conclusion of the fifth plenum of the Maoist party ..... Maoist leadership is said to be divided over whether to go for people’s revolt if the constituent assembly elections are not held in November. ...... The fourth plenum held in India’s Haryana in 2055 B.S had decided to form “base areas” in their strongholds in some mid-western districts.
Maoist plenum beings in Kathmandu
Matrika Yadav withdraws resignation following ‘direction’ from the party leadership. Soon after announcing resignation last evening, he had held a lengthy meeting with party chairman Prachanda, who dismissed his decision to quit the coalition cabinet. ..... lack of cooperation from the Home Ministry in curbing the sandalwood smuggling; dissatisfaction over the ongoing talks with "criminal groups" operating in Terai, and the government's failure to act on involuntary disappearances. He further said his department was gripped by commission scandals. He also expressed anger that many of his party colleagues continue to remain detained. ..... A maverick minister, he had a verbal duel with PM Koirala soon after the Maoists joined the cabinet on April 1.
OHCHR concerned about Truth and Reconciliation Commission Bill provisions which would amnesty the perpetrators of gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), including extra-judicial execution, torture and disappearances. Amnesty provisions, which prevent prosecution for these offences, are inconsistent with Nepal’s obligations under international law ........ UN Secretary General had this week reaffirmed the UN’s policy of not endorsing or condoning amnesties for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or gross violations of human rights ....... the armed conflict between 13 February 1996 and 21 November 2006. ...... the absence of provisions to ensure diversity based on ethnicity, gender, caste, geographic region and religion.
VDC Secys withdraw agitation after govt assures to form local bodies government assured to form local bodies by appointing people’s representatives within two weeks ..... the cabinet has agreed, on principle, to restore the local bodies .... If a VDC secretary is killed, he/she will be declared a martyr, the government has agreed. The Ministry also agreed, in principle, to their demands for Rs 1 million worth life insurance to all VDC secretaries.
Biratnagar witnesses record rainfall
NRNA appeals to Nepali Diaspora for help to flood victims
Prachanda's clarifications: "No decision to launch people's revolt" The only decision we will be making (through the plenum) is whether to go for people's movement or not," Prachanda added. ...... the meeting concluded that the CA elections will not be possible without immediately declaring republic and without opting for fully PR-based election system. "We believe that in order to hold the CA elections, we need to address the demand for PR system raised by Madhesis, Janajatis and others
Maoist central committee meet ends; stresses republic before polls