12th ROUND OF VOTINGFOR PM 10 OCT

Kathmandu, 7 Oct. The 12th. round parliamentary voting for prime minister in more than three months will be held 10 October.
The 11th round vote Thursday was inconclusive.
Sole candidate NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel garnered only 104 votes, one lawmaker voted against and 40 persons stayed neutral.
Only 145 members of parliament participated in the vote in the 599-member parliament.
The 13th round vote will be held 26 October if the next bout is again inconclusive.
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KRISHNA PRASAD BHATTARAI DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL

Kathmandu, 7 Oct.: Two-time former prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai was discharged from Norvic Hospital where he underwent treatment for heart and lung ailment Thursday.
“I feel when I reach after 100 years of age, my desire to become prime minister will be fulfilled,” Bhattarai said amid laughter of his supporters,
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UN OFFICIAL ASKS FOR IMPLEMENTIGN 13 SEPT, AGREEMENT
Kathmandu, 7Oct. Concluding his two-day visit Thursday before UNMIN winds up its extended mission 15 January 2011, UN Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, urged political parties to push efforts to complete their fulfillment of 13 September to complete rehabilitation and integration of 19,000 Maoist in the next four months.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist Chairman reached the deal described only as a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ by UNMIN Chief Karin Landgrin who attempted to undermine the landmark Nepali effort to push the derailed peace process.
Government reaction to her statement was vitriolic.
“..,there are exactly 100 days remaining before the peace process enters a new phase. I encourage the parties to view this period as 100 days of opportunity to demonstrate to the Nepali public and international community their obligation to fulfill their commitments spelled out in the 13 September agreement.
“From UNMIN’s perspective for the next 100 days, the priority for the parties should be the resolution of the issue of integration and rehabilitation.
“I came to Nepal on behalf of the Secretary-General to assess progress in implementation of the Four Point Agreement and preparations for a smooth transition to the post-UNMIN phase.
“It is incumbent upon the parties to agree as soon as possible to a clear work plan on rehabilitation and integration with timelines and benchmarks. UNMIN needs to have an early and clear understanding with the parties on the way forward as it moves to withdraw.”
“We are certainly not walking away from anything. What we have been trying to do here is to succeed and try to be as helpful as we can to the people of Nepal in this process. I think that we have been at it a long time.”
the visiting UN official said
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Treading between two Thapas

Kathmandu, 7 Oct. From the extreme ends of the political spectrum, at almost the same time, Nepalis last week heard frantic pleas for preserving the nation’s identity.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal President Kamal Thapa, who has become increasingly vociferous in asserting the need to restore both Hinduism and the monarchy officially at the core of nationhood, has come out heavily against foreign egregiousness in this area, Maila baje writes in Nepali Netbool..
Ideologically opposed to both religion and royalty, the Unified Maoist’s Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal, too, has acknowledged the urgency of strengthening Nepal’s ‘glorious’ identity in the face of sustained external onslaughts. What he didn’t say merits no less scrutiny. Contrary to what might have been expected from someone of his persuasion, Badal hasn’t explained how both institutions might have subverted that glory.
Nor has he expounded on how an identity he presumably believes had once stood out in the comity of nations might regain its position without them. That’s why it becomes prudent to anticipate some point of convergence between the opposite camps without the cynicism that customarily surrounds the subject.
Internally, there has been growing recognition – from votaries themselves – that the political changes ushered in since April 2006 to the detriment of the monarchy have failed to supplant the crucial pivot it had provided to the nation.
Indeed, through sheer legacy and character, Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala regained the leadership the assorted crew of activists and organizers had become tempted to arrogate to themselves in the post-uprising period. Flawed as his leadership was in terms of stemming the slide, Koirala’s departure only revealed the threat of tentativeness on holding the center. True, it may still be impolitic to equate the country’s fate with the crown and religion. Amid the inability of the successor elite to create a new anchor, howls of derision become barely distinguishable from those of despair.
The principal foreign powers have secured their ground sufficiently to acknowledge the perils of prolonged rivalry. During the last phases of the active monarchy, the United States managed to build a huge embassy largely bypassing what would have been close parliamentary scrutiny. The Indians dug in deeper by installing their long-awaited consulate in Birgunj and forcing their way directly into the northern reaches of Nepal with economic largesse. The Chinese secured a clampdown on their Tibetan challengers and much more. At this stage of republican Nepal, all three powers have reached a point unrestrained by the logic of the strategic triangle. The European Union, Japan, Pakistan and Russia all feel they have a stake in the region. Non-state advocacy groups consider themselves no less important stakeholders.
A sense of mortification prevents the architects from repudiating their blueprint. So U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake recently cited ‘progress’ in Nepal whereas the International Crisis Group described the country as not being exactly gripped by ‘chaos’. As a psychological palliative, neither assertion is comforting on the ground because of the obvious disconnect.
Conversations in private reveal the depths of the foreigners’ amazement at Nepal’s ability to rile them. Haunted from the outset by the prospect of an open-ended commitment, they have been assiduously attempting to build internal capacities to hasten an exit strategy. Every ostensible breakthrough has sowed the seeds of the next confrontation. The four-month extension of UNMIN has bought the international community time – but for what? Precipitate action would require the courage of convictions, something you know is sorely lacking when all the external players are busy scratching their heads.
The convergence between the statements of the two Thapas may have been entirely coincidental. In terms of the imperative of internally driven peace, the possibilities are too good not to cherish.
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Ram Baran: Like deputy, like boss

Kathmandu, 7 Oct.: Ram Baran Yadav, as president, is trying to carve out an assertive role for himself. Political leaders of various hues did not envisage anything more than a ceremonial role for the head of state under the Interim Constitution, Trikal Vastavik writes in People’s Review.
The last vestiges of anything more than a nominal head were supposed to have been dispensed with. The recent developments along with Yadav’s activities are more than just hints of the Shital Niwas occupant’s craving for an active role, the argument being that he has his responsibility to protect and preserve the provisions of the Interim Constitution that installed him.
He has been seeking advice from economists, lawyers and other sundry, ostensibly to share ideas and be acquainted with public opinion. His coterie drops hints that it was not for nothing that not long ago a special envoy sent by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met him twice. Some of those drawing state salaries and pitching tent at the presidential palace in inebriated state have been letting off the cat, “Sooner or later, the president will have to do something to end the crisis the country is experiencing. The existing situation should not be allowed to go on like this for long.”
That the late Girija Prasad Koirala chose not to pay a courtesy call on President Yadav was clear and the reason clearer. It was no secret that Koirala was prepared to risk anything if he could become the country’s first president. He thought that this would “immortalize me” as the one who contributed the most to end monarchy and make Nepal a republic. He confided this to his family circle. Whenever someone conveyed him that people like Prakash Koirala and even Sashanka Koirala had serious reservations about his drastic approach to the political system being adopted, he dismissed the conveyor of the reports with a scorn. Prakash Koirala, son of the Nepali Congress’s “Mahamanav” (Superman) B. P. Koirala, told anyone who cared to listen to him that his uncle had “invited ruin” for the nation.
Girija Prasad Koirala’s dream, however, was rudely ended when the Maoists and the Madeshi parties flashed signals that they would not support him. Shockingly to Koirala, the UML, too, decided to ditch him. The Maoists were against Koirala on the count that the ambitious Koirala would bring “controversies” to the post. They anticipated him to act like an active monarch, which, to people like Mohan Vaidya “Kiran” would be “worse than an active monarchy”.
If compelled to make a choice between an active president in Girija Prasad Koirala and a ceremonial monarchy, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai would have easily preferred the latter. Having been publicly taunted too often by Koirala that it was he who brought the Maoists from terrorism to political mainstream, the Maoists were put off. They also felt that Koirala would do anything for self-aggrandizement and his daughter Sujata’s climb to power; they considered it suicidal to install him as president. Koirala is learnt to have banked heavily on Baburam Bhattarai for support. Sujata’s overtures to the Maoists, aimed at smoothening the passage to presidency, proved worthless.
Yadav, as a consequence, never received goodwill from Koirala’s who had himself dreamt of becoming the country’s first president and died regretting he did not make it. Koirala’s disappointment was written all over the face. This was also indicated by the fact that he never chose to pay a courtesy call on Yadav at Shital Niwas. Yadav’s advisors vainly dropped hints that Koirala would add to the high office’s strength if he visited the president regularly.
According to Koirala’s family circle, the five-time prime minister never recovered from the shock of not making it to the presidency. Were it not for his presidential ambitions, first implanted by the Maoists, he would have insisted on retaining some form of monarchy. That is why he, later, encouraged his daughter Sujata to appear soft on monarchy. It also made him wince to see his one-time loyalist regally installed in the very seat he craved for. Yadav did make regular phone contacts with his former boss in the Nepali Congress. Koirala was deliberately patronizing in tone when responding to Yadav and he made this known to those who paid courtesy call on him at his residence.
Koirala felt that Yadav could have talked the Madheshi parties into supporting him as the country’s first president. Koirala loyalists had even shared their impression that the Maoists were trying to create a rift in the NC by trying to scuttle Koirala’s desire to hold the post of president.
Koirala failed to realize how extraneous forces had provided the required dose of tonic in formulating the seven-party agreement in the Indian capital in November 2005. Had he assessed the actual worth of his own contributions to the 2005-6 movement, he would not have nursed any bloated sense of self-importance and resulted in the mess the country has been since the last five years.
More than two years in office, Yadav is more confident now, having also developed a great liking for the office. He, like Napoleon Bonaparte, would also want to be an assertive ruler. At a time when even his deputy, Vice-President Parmanand Jha, publicly wails over not being given a proper role, Yadav’s desire might sound a logical—even if unconstitutional—outcome of ambitions and over ambitions in a country where political turmoil and instability have become a norm rather than an exception.
Coinciding with leaders like Workers and Peasants Party Narayan Man Bijukchhe recommending president’s rule to end the prevailing national crisis, Yadav seems to be hyperactive in his “consultations” with mostly individuals known for their pro-Congress stands and a sprinkling of leftist members. But things might not be as smooth as he might like to believe. Former NC Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba group is accusing the president of having lobbied for Sushil Koirala’s panel in last month’s NC elections. Deuba loyalists claim that Yadav was against Bimalendra Nidhi and his father Mahendra Narayan Nidhi in Japankpur politics from “the very beginning”.
Meanwhile, Yadav’s advisors boast about their boss’s “role” and what he could do with the president’s inherent power. Low intelligence and big mouth spill the beans all over. His aides and pals share the details and narrate the same to assert their own importance.
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