CA sends third subject committee recommendation to constitution drafting committee

Kathmandu, 30 March: The constituent assembly (CA) which met Tuesday after a long recess, sent articles with recommendations to a main constitution drafting to be incorporated in a proposed constitution that has to be promulgated by 28 May.
The main committee has now received recommendations from three of 11 committees only.
Drafting committee chairman Nilambar Acharya warned his committee can’t recommend or prepare a draft constitution for approval by the CA if all 11 committees don’t send a consensus recommendation.
The assembly session was adjourned until 2 April.
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Section of Nepali Congress supports Krishna Prasad Bhattarai’s call for restoration of monarchy

Kathmandu, 30 March: Former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai came out of a self-imposed political dormancy on Sunday, with a call to revive the 1990 constitution and monarchy, The Kathmandu Post reports.
While this came as a surprise to many, sources said, it was a well-orchestrated and calculated move mounted by the religious right to confront republicanism, federalism and secularism—the bedrock of interim constitution and post- 2006 politics.
“It is not Kali Baba or Pilot Baba who are behind these developments, but the politics of the right and a number of political figures: said a NC source.
A series of meetings among a section of pro-royalist Nepali Congress leaders was convened at the residence of former lawmaker Omkar Prasad Shrestha in Lalitpur after the demise of Girija Prasad Koirala last Saturday.
“Once-powerful NC stalwarts and now discredited leaders such as Khum Bahadur Khadka and Govinda Raj Joshi were notably present in these meetings,” said the NC leader.
On Saturday, said the leader, a meeting at Shrestha’s house decided to urge Bhattarai to take a lead in opposing the three agendas….
According to Shrestha, Kishunji will now get into active politics ‘anytime’.
Vice-president Paramananda Jha on MJF was the first high-ranking official to come out in the open to support of a Hindu state on March 13 in Dhangadi.
Before making the public statement [call for a Hindu state], he[former BJP chief Raj Nath Singh] met former King Gyanendra…discussed the future political course and the strategy to revive the Hindu state, said a close aide of Gyanendra.
Gyanendra, according to the aide, is all set to get into active politics.
…on March 24, Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar of MJFL said the new constitution will affirm Nepal’s identity as a Hindu state and the ‘Hindu identity of Nepal shall never be compromised’.
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Pro-Gurkha British actress Joanna Lumley angry with her govt.

Kathmandu, 30 March: Glamorous actress Joanna Lumley on Monday hit out at a minister who accused her of maintaining a ‘deathly silence’ since she forced the government into a U-turn on the settlement of Nepalese Gurkhas, AFP reports out of London.
Lumley said Kevan Jones, the minister responsible for military veterans, had tried to smear her and taint the campaign she fronted to win the right to settle in Britain for Gurkha soldiers who have fought for the British army.
The Gurkha Justice Campaign has been accused of encouraging the Nepalese former troops to come to Britain only to find they are destitute and living in poor accommodation once they arrive.
Flanked by lawyers who worked on the campaign, Lumley told a prèss conference in London,” We have come here with sense of regret that we have had to come to this, which is really to clear our names in public.”
‘I want to say to the people of this country, what you did was to back a just cause and we have not stopped working solidly for Gurkhas in the quiet, as we promised the prime minister we would.”
Jones—who had made his comments to a parliamentary committee this month—on Monday issued a statement ‘unreservedly’ apologizing for causing any offence and said he had the ‘greatest respect’ for Lumley and the campaign.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown also expressed regret over Jones’ criticism, in a ‘positive’ telephone conversation with Lumley after the press conference his Downing Street office said.
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