RAJENDRA KHETAN ELECTED

RAJENDRA KHETAH ELECTED EVREST INSURANCE CHIEF

Kathmandu, 1 April: Rajendra Khetan has been elected president of Everest Insurance Company by the board, an announcement said.
The company also announced a 20 percent cash dividend for shareholders
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CURIOUS CASE OF QUI GUOHONG

Kathmandu, 1 April: Qiu Guohong and weakness? If those words go together, then that may be yet another indication of how bad things are likely to turn for us in the months ahead, Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook.
The first wave of news blandly suggested that Beijing had recalled its ambassador in Kathmandu eight months before he completed his three-year tenure. Then came suggestions that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was dissatisfied with Qiu’s ‘weak diplomacy’ in neutralizing anti-Chinese activities in Nepal. Really?
This is a man who, emulating his counterpart from India, began consultations with Nepalese politicians even before he had presented his credentials. Over time, Qiu’s pronouncements grew candid vis-à-vis Nepal’s independence and sovereignty, reminiscent of the pre-Cultural Revolution Mao Zedong era. While Qiu’s tenure saw a flurry of official Chinese visits, political and military, there was also a conspicuous spurt in assertions of Beijing’s soft power.
The Chinese Embassy, as the prevailing narrative holds, shrewdly facilitated the seven-point pact between the CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist and a new government as President Ram Baran Yadav was on an official visit to India holding consultations on how to proceed with the protracted deadlock. Qiu’s embassy persuaded democratic governments to crack down hard on Tibetans in Nepal who were exercising their own democratic rights in exile.
Sure, his tenure had its share of downs. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s government collapsed after an abortive attempt to sack the army chief. The fact that our current Prime Minister, Jhal Nath Khanal, who received a abrupt phone call from India and cut short his visit to China to return home to criticize the Maoists’ move he was originally said to have supported, reflected poorly on Beijing.
Moreover, the Maoists’ fall came after the leaking of a draft Chinese treaty that, among other things, envisaged a tightening of Nepal’s commitment to a One China policy. The Krishna Bahadur Mahara cash-for-votes telephone controversy was not one of Qiu’s proud moments, either.
But Qiu, Maila Baje believes, fared better than his predecessor, Zheng Xialing, who was also recalled before the completion of his term. Zheng, who made history by becoming the first ambassador in Kathmandu not to present his credentials to the king, ostensibly displeased his bosses by his inability to anticipate Tibetan protests in Kathmandu on the eve of the Beijing Olympics.
Said to have been vacationing while much of the Tibetan exiles’ planning took place, Zheng returned to work forthwith and hit hard on Nepal for not doing enough to calm the streets. But it was too late.
Generally speaking, Chinese ambassadors do not seem to have had a consistent tenure in Kathmandu. Zhang Shijie (1960-1965) and Cao Chi (1972-1977) each served over five years. Li Debiao (1987-1991) and his successor Shao Jiongchu (1991-1995) served over four years each. On the other hand, men like Ma Muming (1981-1983), Zhang Jiuhuan (1995-1998) and Wu Congyong (2001-2003) were in Kathmandu less than three years.
The shortest tenure was that of Yang Gongsu who served barely a year and a half when he was recalled in mid-1967. But he was part of Cultural Revolution’s foreign policy fallout when Beijing recalled every ambassador except – inexplicably – the one in Cairo. (Technically, Yuan Zhongxian had the briefest term – six months between 1955 and 1946 – but, then, he served currently as Beijing’s envoy to Delhi and Kathmandu).
What makes Qiu’s case curious is the revelation by a Nepalese daily he had lost out to the military attaché at the embassy. The military man, who is said to rank higher than Qiu on the ladder that really matters, considered Qiu too lackluster in his approach to the Tibetans.
That underscores a conspicuous trend wherein the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has acquired a growing influence over Chinese foreign policy. Juxtaposed with the substance and symbol of PLA chief Chen Bingde’s recent visit and the jockeying in the Tibetan exile movement following the Dalai Lama’s latest announcement about his future role, are we surprised that the Terai and the southern realm beyond is once again swinging into harried action?
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DUPLICITY DOES NO DELIVER

Kathmandu, 1 April: It is three weeks since the long-ailing Krishna Prasad Bhattarai died. It was not at surprising that many sections of society offered profuse praise to the departed soul. Nor was there any surprise over the shower of praise by the very Nepali Congress leaders who till a few days previously treated their party's founding member as "senile". Somewhat surprising was that he was hailed the previously indifferent lot as a "statesman" par excellence! Naturally, the overwhelming majority of the Nepali society could not help wonder as to why the authors of the new songs of praise waited so long to bare their heart, Trikal Vastavik reports in People’s Review..

Till the day Bhattarai died, leaders and some thugs masquerading as civil society "leaders" were crying hoarse that Nepalis suffered because they had no statesman. In fact, the late Ganesh Man Singh, too, had lamented that there was no statesman in Nepal. Or could it be that Bhattarai, bound to wheel chair, suddenly developed statesmanship to fulfill their dream of seeing a Nepali statesman?

NC President Sushil Koirala considered himself a cut above the rest as a true follower of his predecessor, the late Girija Prasad Koirala. GPK, whose autocratic style of functioning and treating his party like a fiefdom, never gave any democratically effective direction. Close to GPK for three decades, Sushil Koirala was known for his loyalty to his mentor than for any brilliant thought. He now heads the oldest functioning party.

When GPK breathed his last a year ago, there were many among NC members and other parties that lauded his contributions to the yet to be defined "loktantra", which rhymes with the "people's democratic" republics that were seen for several decades after World War II before they dispensed with such prefixes in the 1990s when the Soviet Union disintegrated freeing, in the process, its satellite states in Eastern Europe.

Needless to say, there are many in the NC leadership who privately attribute the current debacle of the NC to GPK's "over-ambition" and deep desire to ensure the reins of the organization within his family members. But then these weaklings shout against a leader when out of earshot but chant songs in praise of the same leader.

Bhattarai, never the scheming and wheeling-dealing politician, had less clout than GPK at any given time since 1992, a year after the 1991 general elections that saw Bhattarai lose the contest but successful in conducting the polls as the prime minister of the interim coalition cabinet.

When mentioning that Bhattarai was the first speaker of the country's first elected parliament in 1959, the news media did not bother to note that Bhattarai was the first speaker of an elected House while he himself lost a general election. They also chose to overlook the fact that he was for reviving the 1990 Constitution and spoke for constitutional monarchy.

This is not the first time that the mainstream media and the self-styled civil society leaders generally choose to bury something not convenient to their partisan scripts. When Shialaja Acharya, of the NC, died, most of the media did not see it significant to mention that she had championed for constitutional monarchy till the Delhi-authored 12-point pact unleashed the 2005-movement and brought about drastic changes that are yet to deliver positive results to Nepalis in general. They were reluctant to mention the fact even when she was named as ambassador to New Delhi.

For that the matter, Anuradha Koirala was a former minister in the cabinet headed by Lokendra Bahadur Chand, and yet when she was named the Hero of the year 2010 on the strength of poll conducted by the CNN, the fact was ignored.

Ganesh Man Singh and Bhattarai had shed their ties with the party they founded. Their dissatisfaction was chiefly with GPK. Last fortnight, the GPK loyalists were shoving each other to pay tribute to the man who they had ignored or treated with indifference as GPK camp followers.

No wonder, a police officer posted along the funeral route to Aryaghat on March 6 was heard commenting, "As long as he (Bhattarai) lived, no one cared for him and now when he is no more they all are praising him in such lofty terms. Nepalis go to extremes!"

Bhattarai was described as a "pauper", yet he was widely reported to spend Rs 25 per a "paan bida". There was this Rana with wide contacts in NC, who used to go around commenting on the frequency with which Bhattarai changed his jacket ("coat"). No wonder why calls for proper auditing of political parties' incomes and expenditures are not entertained.

Another perturbing question is why this Amita Kapali is functioning as if she is a family member of Bhattarai. It is true that she served faithfully to Bhattarai for over two decades. But this was no reason why the State machinery complied with whatever Kapali desired.

Undoubtedly, Bhattarai, on the whole, was a far better politician than GPK. He was not associated with corruption. His relatives complained against him for not showering them with special favours. I would also compare him with Ganesh Man Singh. The latter, when offered by King Birendra to become premier of the interim government in 1990, politely declined and suggested Bhattarai's name. This was Singh's honest estimate of himself and his acknowledgement that Bhattarai would discharge his responsibility better than others he knew of. And Bhattarai did indeed complete the task of drafting the new constitution and conducting multiparty general elections for the first time in 30 years.

NC leaders in particular and politicians and their followers in general stressed for "all" Nepalis to practice the tenets of Bhattarai's "philosophy". I have some reservation. Those who said so should themselves set an example by being the first ones to practice and demonstrate Bhattarai's beliefs. They need to also explain what their current stand is on Bhattarai's life-long belief in constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy. Does his unflinching faith in the 1990 Constitution match with those who now praise him to the skies?

Exercise consistency instead of bothering us common folks with sermons from the pulpit to do this and not to do that. Practice begins at home, party and government. Either Bhattarai held "reactionary" beliefs or he endorsed something the select groups that boss around the affairs of the State today have missed the bus and messed around with the country's road to stability and progress.
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