DENGUE EPIDEMIC SWEEPS BUTWAL CHITWAN (BREAKING NEWS)

Kathmandu, 28 Oct.: Dengue epidemic has spread in Chitwan and Rupendhaehi with at least 550 positive cases reported in the two districts Thursday, according to local district health offices.
Thousands of tourists flock to the Chitwan National Park, the home of endangered tiger and one-horned rhino.
Altogether 416 positive cases were reported in Chitwan among 1,993 persons who fell sick; 18 persons have died.
Another 127 cases were detected in Rupendhaehi—110 in Butwal Two have died in the southwest terai district.
The disease spread by mosquito assumed epidemic proportion despite government efforts to contain it.
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MAOIST POLITBURO MEET POSTPONED FOR 3RD TIME


Kathmandu, 28 Oct.: A meeting of the Maoist politburo schedule to begin in Gorkha 14 November after chaat festival was rescheduled for 21 November by the standing committee Thursday because of Eid, spokesman Dinanath Sharma said after the meeting.
The meeting was rescheduled for the third time; it was first scheduled to be held in the capital then in Chitwan; dengue outbreak in Chitwan forced the change of venue to Gorkha.
The party is divided in three factions.
The meeting decided to write to the Indian government to free three Maoists for allegedly training Indian Maoists or Naxalites currently being held across the border despite strained the party’s strained relations with India.
The meeting also decided to seek Nepal government help for their release.
Chairman Prachanda reported to the standing committee on his just concluded China visit.
The meeting also discussed government efforts to present a full delayed annual budget in parliament.
“Form a government and bring a budget. Even the president is opposed to it,” Sharma said.
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TERAI EDUCATION SUCCUMBS TO BULLET INJURIES

Kathmandu, 28 Oct.: Terai education officer Lal Kishore Jha succumbed to bullet injuries while undergoing treatment at TU Teaching Hospital after being airlifted to the capital for treatment Thursday from Janakpur.
He was shot and injured by Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha Thursday.
Five suspects have been arrested.
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NC TO CONTINUE CONTEST FOR PM

Kathmandu, 28 Oct. Newly elected NC central working committee (CWC) Thursday decided not to withdraw the candidacy of Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel for prime minister to replace Caretaker Madhav Kumar Nepal.
The meet supported an earlier call for a package solution to a prolonged deadlock asking Maoists to present a plan for ending the peace process and drafting a constitution.
Paudel is the sole candidate in the race and lost the 13th round vote this week in parliament.
The CWC meets again Friday.
A party statute amendment committee under Krishna Prasad Sitaula; Arjun Narsingh KC
heads a committee to draft party regulation.
A third committee headed by Mahesh Acharya will prepare the party’s plans and policy document suggested by the recently concluded 12th general convention.
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PM NEPAL CONTINUES ATTACK ON MAOISTS

Kathmandu, 28 Oct.: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal wondered whether Maoists were contemplating a revolt by preventing the formation of government and presentation budget
He said this at a meet in Pokhara Thursday.
Nepal said the main opposition was ‘irresponsible’.
The caretaker government called either for a majority or
national unity government.
He rejected Maoist Vice-chairman Dr Bhattarai’s Wednesday suggestion for amending article 96 of the interim constitution to release funds only for the government’s recurrent expenditure.
Nepal pleaded for the presentation of
A delayed complete budget.
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DINESH YADAV NC SAPTARI DISTRICT CHIEF

Kathmandu, 28 Oct.: Dinesh Yadav was declared elected Thursday the president of Siraha district working committee.
He secured 678 of the 1,184 votes cast.
Sabur Lal Yadav and Shambu Jha have been elected district secretary and treasurer respectively.
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KAMAL THAPA IN FINALS OF ALL-INDIA VETERAN’S TENNIS TOURNAMENT TITLE

Kathmandu, 28 Oct.: RPP-Nepal Chairman Kamal Thapa Thursday won the all-India veterans’ tennis tournament under the 45+ age group in New Delhi.
He defeated top seed K L Setu 6-2, 7-6(2) to enter the final.
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CONTEMPLATING THE COUNTER OFFENSIBE


Kathmandu, 28 Oct.: It took the Government of India 10 days to summon our Ambassador Rukma Shamsher Rana and lodge a strong protest over the Maoist attack on Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood in Solukhumbu. New Delhi, moreover, allowed Kathmandu to remind itself how the remonstration was the first since 1989, when Nepal bought arms from China, precipitating a crippling trade and transit embargo that produced a deformed democracy, Maila Baje writes in People’s Review..
The contrast Sood’s plight offered with the reception accorded Chinese ambassador Qiu Guhong in Mustang around the same time doubtless aggravated the Indians from the start. But they must have waited to ascertain how the Maoists would behave in the aftermath. The ex-rebels not only seemed unapologetic but almost relished the prospect of repeat performances. Nepalis in general are left pondering the size and scope of India’s likely response to the Maoists’ brazenness.
Opinion seems divided on our end. There are suggestions from some quarters that India has, in the past few years, become more magnanimous toward Nepal. Not out of altruism, though, but out of cool confidence. In the global balance of power, New Delhi believes it is in the best position to maximize its autonomy. From one side of the mouth, the Americans can claim how China has become an equally vital stakeholder in Nepal. From the other, they must acclaim New Delhi as a partner to stabilize South Asia.
Moreover, Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s brandishing of the ‘China card’ does not amount to a clear and present danger to India because New Delhi knows the extent of Beijing’s distrust of the Maoists. The other school of thought holds that Dahal may be tilting northward on the express advice of the south to help avoid encroachment of the Indian version of the Monroe Doctrine by the Americans. If you can’t stop the dragon from breathing hard down your neck, the second best thing is to try to lower the temperature. As long as the Indians recognize that the Chinese cannot be a viable economic substitute for Nepal, they feel secure enough. So when Nepal Workers and Peasants Party president Narayan Man Bijukchhe claims that the Indians, being Dahal’s political progenitors, remain unruffled by the northern alliance, he has a point.
But would the Americans countenance a diminution of their influence? So here comes the other twist, pushed by the Rastriya Jana Morcha’s Chitra Bahadur KC. Continued political rivalry could result not only in the reversal of the republican order but the return of the Panchayat system. Before laughing off KC’s remark as a has-been’s quest to maintain relevance, consider this: for all its alleged internal ills, the Panchayat system did absorb the competing external pressures to provide geopolitical equilibrium.
It is no accident that the deadline we are most worried about is the expiry of the current mandate of UNMIN, not the term of the constituent assembly. From Chinese soil, Dahal contended that the end of UN mission would not affect the peace process.
With India set to take up its seat on the Security Council at the beginning It took the Government of India 10 days to summon our Ambassador Rukma Shamsher Rana and lodge a strong protest over the Maoist attack on Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood in Solukhumbu. New Delhi, moreover, allowed Kathmandu to remind itself how the remonstration was the first since 1989, when Nepal bought arms from China, precipitating a crippling trade and transit embargo that produced a deformed democracy.
The contrast Sood’s plight offered with the reception accorded Chinese ambassador Qiu Guhong in Mustang around the same time doubtless aggravated the Indians from the start. But they must have waited to ascertain how the Maoists would behave in the aftermath. The ex-rebels not only seemed unapologetic but almost relished the prospect of repeat performances. Nepalis in general are left pondering the size and scope of India’s likely response to the Maoists’ brazenness.
Opinion seems divided on our end. There are suggestions from some quarters that India has, in the past few years, become more magnanimous toward Nepal. Not out of altruism, though, but out of cool confidence. In the global balance of power, New Delhi believes it is in the best position to maximize its autonomy. From one side of the mouth, the Americans can claim how China has become an equally vital stakeholder in Nepal. From the other, they must acclaim New Delhi as a partner to stabilize South Asia.
Moreover, Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s brandishing of the ‘China card’ does not amount to a clear and present danger to India because New Delhi knows the extent of Beijing’s distrust of the Maoists. The other school of thought holds that Dahal may be tilting northward on the express advice of the south to help avoid encroachment of the Indian version of the Monroe Doctrine by the Americans. If you can’t stop the dragon from breathing hard down your neck, the second best thing is to try to lower the temperature. As long as the Indians recognize that the Chinese cannot be a viable economic substitute for Nepal, they feel secure enough. So when Nepal Workers and Peasants Party president Narayan Man Bijukchhe claims that the Indians, being Dahal’s political progenitors, remain unruffled by the northern alliance, he has a point.
But would the Americans countenance a diminution of their influence? So here comes the other twist, pushed by the Rastriya Jana Morcha’s Chitra Bahadur KC. Continued political rivalry could result not only in the reversal of the republican order but the return of the Panchayat system. Before laughing off KC’s remark as a has-been’s quest to maintain relevance, consider this: for all its alleged internal ills, the Panchayat system did absorb the competing external pressures to provide geopolitical equilibrium.
It is no accident that the deadline we are most worried about is the expiry of the current mandate of UNMIN, not the term of the constituent assembly. From Chinese soil, Dahal contended that the end of UN mission would not affect the peace process.
With India set to take up its seat on the Security Council at the beginning of next year, the counteroffensive from the south is likely to carry the payload of all the other directions.
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CODE FOR FLOUTING CODE

Festival time also happened to be meeting time with friends of diverse sectors. This was how this author experienced the recent Dashain holidays. Off from an extremely busy, grinding schedule, the occasion offered a great relief to be with family and friends for discussing all sorts of topics and making merriment,
Trikal Vastavik writes in People’s review.
A couple of days were spent exclusively for family and relatives; the rest were devoted in large measure to friends who competed for organizing gatherings to recall the past, chronicle the present and forecast the future course of events and non-events in Nepal.
The meetings also saw the presence of quite a few editors of various publications and news coordinators of a number of broadcast media over sumptuous food and drinks hosted by the more moneyed among the lot. Interesting information flowed liberally. The lesson was that, merely being appointed to positions of power at taxpayers’ expense does not necessarily enhance one’s credentials.
Some of the “Big” names in Nepali journalism were unclothed in their true color and character. There is this chap who in the past headed Press Council Nepal. His record is such that he wangled staggering sums of money as “coordinator” of numerous programs funded by donor agencies. The acceptance of such funds was, in the first place, dubious and even unethical for the state-funded organization of its nature. It was a period that will go down in Press Council’s history as shameful.
Press Council Nepal should make transparent all its dealings during Rajendra Dahal’s time. It can also do so of the previous terms as well. Dahal, who headed the Council by virtue of a Nepali Congress appointment, rued that his party minister gave him only a two-year tenure whereas as a provision could have given him a four-year term. When the Maoist-headed cabinet came in, he had to bow out. He would have been elbowed out of the race for Ram Baran Yadav’s media advisor’s post if someone trusted by President Yadav had decided to return home from the US and become the media advisor.
Yadav last year suggested, as published in a Press Council Nepal publication, that journalists should submit themselves to a screening test such as the one offered by the Nepal Medical Council for medical doctors. Yadav’s suggestion regarding his own advisors would also be valuable. How does he feel about his advisors running, heading and seeking funds from foreign donor agencies and embassies for their NGOs?
One of his advisors is reported to head Antenna Foundation, Media Commission of South Asian Federation of Media Associations (SAFMA) and Center for Investigative Journalism. This is not to say that these organizations have enhanced their reputations by his association. The question is: Is it ethical for the state’s president’s advisor to head such organizations? Like a centipede, the advisor has one foot in the presidential palace and several more elsewhere.
The funding agencies that talk so much about transparency, accountability and incorruptibility should know better than to fund party activists that claim to work for media freedom and professionalism, be they Tara Nath Dahal, of the “Freedom Foundation”, Rajendra Dahal, Subodh Pyakurel and their ilk. Tara Nath, also a former president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, has always been a Congress activist. He even contested the recent party elections for a seat in the Central Working Committee. Pyakurel, who projects himself as a human rights activist, contested a top position in the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified-Marxist Leninist) organizational elections last year.
Then there are these two “American Brahmins” from the Patan Gate who crisscross various embassies and INGOs seeking funds. They support foreign funding in the media because they are heavily patronized by foreign funding by way sponsorship and friendly advertisement. One of the Whiskies has been hobnobbing with UML activist Sushil Pyakurel to obtain a post for any future truth commission or rehabilitation agency. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s Press Advisor Raghuji Pant is a frequent visitor to the duo whose efforts could not prevent the UML activist from defeat in the 2008 polls for the constituent assembly.
Purushottam Dahal, who teaches at Balmiki Sanskrit campus, is not keen to speak about his teaching profession. When meeting with independent minded people and foreign representatives, he sounds reluctant to mention about his Nepali Congress association. But the recent Nepali Congress elections reiterated what he has always been. His being mentioned as a civil society leader is a mockery of the civil society movement. But then Shyam Shrestha, who used to be known as a journalist, has transformed his reputation as an “analyst” and “civil society” leader. Ask the Maoists and they will tell you about what he tries to portray for himself and what he really is.
The many foreign agencies that speak so much about press freedom and the values of civil society movement shamelessly look the other way when it comes to the issue of funding party activists or individuals with self-interests. It is like the UN agencies and foreign embassies in Kathmandu that talk of inclusiveness and go for hiring staffers on the basis of nominations from some political leaders or on the recommendation of those they frequently come into contact and support their agendas.
Some years ago, the UNDP in Kathmandu bypassed several candidates with Ph.D. from the US and other prominent universities to select as an assistant resident representative someone with nothing much in knowledge, experience and academic degree but only that of a state-owned radio newsreader and a Bachelor’s certificate. Many times, local staffers throw away the applications of candidates
UNMIN and OHCHR bosses are also learnt to have deliberately hired some staffers known for their particular political party affiliations. There is this human rights organization located at the backyard of Thapathali that is patronized by INGOs of the “secular” faith. Likewise, so entrenched are the media malpractice through clash of interests that this is hardly reported. It is like the Indian Ambassador Rajkesh Sood being booed and whose car at Solukhumbu last fortnight was hit by eight pairs of shoes by Maoist activists was not reported by most major print and broadcast media. Some newspapers mentioned the incident as an attempt at “obstructing” the ambassador’s program. They did not mention the shoes. Had some Nepali leader been the target of such attacks, the same media would have presented a blow-by-blow report.
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