Hillary

Himalayan Daily Ramblings

Nepal minister refuses to attend state funeral of Hillary

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 25 Jan: Foreign Minister Sahana Pradhan told Tourism Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung to represent Nepal at the state funeral of Sir Edmund Hillary, Nepalparta reports.
But Minister Subba didn’t obey her [both ministers represent CPN-UML in government. Pradhan is also leader of the party team in government. ], the weekly newspaper said .
He has finalized plans to fly to Malaysia.
When there was opposition to the disrespect shown to Sir Edmund, he cancelled plans to go to Malaysia.
Hillary had shown his love for Nepal with the construction of hospitals and numerous schools in the Khumbu region.
Foreign Secretary Gyan Chandra Acharya finally represented Nepal at the state funeral.
There was nobody to firmly order the minister to go after a seriously sick Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala was confined to bed.
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Nepal Daily Diary

An Election Special

Govt., India and Maoists prepare for a vote

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 25 Jan: Government, India and Nepal’s Maoists are determined the 10 April constituent assembly should be held whatever the cost, even without an environment for it.
Government of India Friday gave 1,200 motor vehicles and 14,000 communications sets to Nepal to felicitate the Election Commission to hold the 10 April election that has been postponed twice.
Government and foreign countries, especially India, Great Britain and USA, are the keenest the vote should be held; they lent support to the present rulers, including Maoists, to topple the royal rule and replace it in aapril 2006 with an unelected government by reviving a dead parliament that had completed its five-year tenure.
The unelected dismantled established institutions like a bull in a china shop; it even killed the 16-year constitutional and democratic rule of law with arbitrary and unaccountable rule.
“There is a rule of man without the rule of law,” former chairman of the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) and one of the framers of the present interim constitution said.
The government propelled to power through street protests and foreign backing threw the 1990 constitution into the dustbin and made Girija Prasad Koirala the virtual president and prime minister—a head of state and head of government.
The constitutional, worse than a military coup, was loudly greeted by world the three main foreign players as China watched silently.
There’s chaos in the country with many doubting if a once proud country that was never colonized will survive the foreign onslaught with the help of quislings.
Constitutional rule lasted 16 years, partyless panchayat rule 25 years; what rule Nepal have 22 months after April coup, surprisingly with the King Gyanendra’s nod is still uncertain.
Maoist rule? May be. Not an impossibility.
Any government and system won’t last long any way. 25 years; 16 years; the present government is completing two years.
Nepalis have experienced one experience for certain; never did they encounter such levels of foreign interference and intervention.
Government Friday deployed more than 3,000 policemen in the holy city of Janakpur to hold a rally of seven ruling parties Saturday in the biggest show of force against the rebels in the terai.
The rebels are determined to foil the meet as well with calls of a strike in the region bordering India.
A massive confrontation is likely to break out Saturday in Janakpur—an indication government is determined to hold elections even with maximum force by deploying state troops.
Minister Ram Chandra Paudel has hinted the vote may not take place; his acing party president Sushil Koirala concurred.
More than 40 persons have been killed in almost daily violence after election was announced in December; nine persons were killed and 25 others were severely burnt when rebels torched a bus in Bara this month in the worst violence ahead of a vote.
The security council meanwhile, extended the mandate of the UNMIN 23 January for another six months to oversee
The management of Maoist fighters and elections.
Maoists, this time around, are determined, they say, to hold a vote and capture 40 percent vote to make Chairman Prachanda the country’s first president by toppling the 238-year-old monarchy.
Prachanda said Friday 40 percent of the CPN (Maoist) candidates will be women; the party is giving top leaders political indoctrination or training to go to the people in a three-month campaign..
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