May 29, 2011: Where To From Here?
March 20, 2005: Doing Business With Baburam Bhattarai
The guy is honest. He is smart. He is a communist, but he is not dogmatic. He is socially progressive. A few years back he compared the plight of the Madhesis in Nepal with the blacks in South Africa during the apartheid regime.
For the first time I am feeling like the peace process in Nepal might finally pick up pace. This alliance between the Maoists and the Madhesi parties also makes sense politically on the ground. The Maoists rule the hills and the western Terai, the Madhesi parties hold sway over the rest of the Terai. The Maoists compete with the Congress and the UML in their strongholds, the Madhesi parties compete with the Congress and the UML, but primarily the Congress in their strongholds. This Maoist-Madhesi alliance might prove relevant also after the parliamentary elections after the new constitution. The Congress and the UML are the parties of the 1990 constitution. The Maoists and the Madhesis are the parties of the constituent assembly. The Congress and the UML disliked the idea of a constituent assembly for as long as they possibly could. They both came to the idea of federalism kicking and screaming.
This prime minister and this alliance could see a full four year term after the next parliamentary elections. But first the work on the constitution.
The Madhesi parties' primarily tussle continues to be with the Nepali Congress. It is not with each other.
NepalNews
Bhattarai elected new Prime Minister of Nepal: Bhattarai received 340 votes while Poudel received 235 votes. .... In addition to his party UCPN (Maoist) which has 237 lawmakers in the 595-member Constituent Assembly, United Democratic Madhesi Front with 65 lawmakers and few fringe parties had also supported Bhattarai. ..... Bhattarai was born in a village called Belbas in Khoplang VDC of Gorkha District on May 26, 1954. He was born in a low - middle class peasant family .... He scored the highest marks among total examinees in SLC examination conducted in 1970 and topped the I.Sc board again in Amrit Science Campus, Kathmandu.
SC trashes petition challenging legality of CA tenure extension
Baburam Bhattarai’s profile: Bhattarai was elected from Gurkha-2 in the CA elections held in 2008 with the 80 percent of votes cast in his constituency
Peace, constitution and relief to people are top priorities, Bhattarai says after getting elected as PM
Dahal heaps praise on Bhattarai: "A-one candidate". .... Dahal also said that his party was in favour of consensus to take the peace process and constitution-drafting even as the government is formed on the basis of majority. ..... Speaking in the House before Dahal, Bhattarai said he was not in favour of majority government personally.
Madhesi Front declares support to Bhattarai; UML goes with NC: five UDMF leaders ..... both sides agreed to negotiate to determine the ranks of Maoist combatants going for integration and to reduce the number for integration up to 7000 from the proposed 8000. .... They also agreed to make the public services inclusive and start inclusion of Madhesis in Nepal Army by fixing a certain number.
Republica
Small cabinet to be sworn in Monday: an agreement has been reached to give 11 ministries to the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF). The new cabinet is also likely to get four deputy prime ministers. .... Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar from the MPRF-Democratic, Upendra Yadav from MPRF-Nepal, JP Gupta MPRF-Republican and one from the Maoist party are the strong contenders for the deputy prime minister. .... The Maoist party is likely to send its Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha into the cabinet as the deputy prime minister .... there is a tussle between Upendra Yadav and Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar over who gets to become senior in the cabinet. Yadav may send another party leader into the cabinet if he doesn´t get a position senior to Gachchhadar in the cabinet.
Madhesi alliance to decide its vote Sunday: the Madhesi leaders proposed to the Maoist leadership that a directorate under the Nepal Army should be formed to accommodate 6,000 personnel each from the security agencies, the Maoist combatants and the Madhesi community. That means the directorate will have 18,000 personnel. ..... the alliance has proposed that such a directorate should be mandated to work in the field of development and industry. They have clearly stated in their proposal that such a force will not have any mandate for border security and any combat role. The Maoists, in their proposal made public Thursday, sought to give a general military mandate to such a directorate. ...... Madhesi leaders Jitendra Dev, Laxman Lal Karna and Hrideyesh Tripathi prepared the amended proposal. .... the Madhesi parties have also sought from the Maoist party an agreement on sharing constitutional appointments and other governmental appointments.
Maoists, Madhesis ink four-point deal: no citizen will be deprived of their land ownership, besides agreeing on giving "special" relief for those affected by the Maoist insurgency, Madhes movement and Janjati movement...... "All the court cases against those involved in the Maoist insurgency, Madhes movement, Janjati movement, Tharuhat movement and Dalit and Pichadabarga movements will be dropped and they will be given general amnesty," the second point of the agreement reads. ..... uphold universal fundamental rights, constitutional supremacy, rule of law, press freedom, accountable judiciary, inclusive democracy autonomous states with right to self-determination and competitive politics
