DAUGHTER KILLS FATHR, LACTATING STEP-MOTHER WITH LOVER'S HELP

DAUGHTER KILLS FATHER, LACTATING STEPMOTHER WITH HELP OF LOVER

Kathmandu, 24 March: A married daughter conspired with her lover to
kill her lactating stepmother and father in Raniban, Dailekh, published reports said Saturday
Niru Rawal and Padam Tarami killed Santa Bahadur Shahi and Nani Shahi
while asleep with a sharp weapon at home 13 March,
Niru’s husband is a migrant worker in the Gulf.
Padam said Niru instigated him to participate in the planned murder.
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DESPITE ACCESS TO INDIAN MARKET, EXPORTS HAVEN’T INCREASED
Kathmandu, 24 March: Despite India providing duty-free access to almost all Nepali products, Nepal has failed to increase its exports to the southern neighbour due to barriers related to special additional duty, quarantine and infrastructure, The Kathmandu Post reports.
According to a study report prepared by the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), Para-tariff such as counter veiling duty, special additional duty (scraped recently) and their non-transparent applications were hitting Nepali exports to India hard.
The study also identified
standard- and value addition-related barriers such as quarantine as top bottlenecks among the non-tariff barriers.
Meanwhile, Nepal has also been failing to produce goods that the Indian market demands—both in terms of quality and quantity—due to poor infrastructure, long power outage hours, poor road condition and poor quality testing infrastructure, according to the study report. “Unskilled resources, low access to finance and poor trade facilitation measures are other weaknesses,” it states.
SAWTEE Chief Executive Director Ratnakar Adhikari said despite Nepal enjoying one of the easiest market access in the world, it has failed to cash in on this opportunity due to aforementioned bottlenecks. On the one hand, Nepal has failed to produce the required quantity of goods, and on the other hand the exported goods have limited value addition, he said at an interaction here on Friday.
Most of Nepal’s exports to India are agriculture products.
With India also lowering tariff for other least developed countries (LDCs), and South Asian nations gearing up for implementing the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), there is little room for Nepal to take advantage from the Indian market as a result of tariff preference, according to the report.
The report has suggested that Nepal may even has to cope with the flooding of cheap Indian agricultural products from next year as the country cannot impose agriculture development fee on Indian agriculture products from 2013 as per its commitment to World Trade Organisation.
To avoid these problems, the study has suggested addressing political instability, solving infrastructure related bottlenecks and making more favourable environment against para-tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers.
The report’s other suggestion include negotiating with India for lowering the value addition criteria to 20 percent from current 30 percent for the next 10 years; India provide Nepal aid for trade to address Nepal’ supply side constraints and moratorium on the application of non-tariff barriers. At the interaction, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supply Naindra Prasad Upadyaya said Nepal will have to review why its exports to India stagnated over the last few years. Exports were good until 2001, got to a moderate level
until 2009 and stagnated then after, he said.
Increasing exports to India will be further challenging, as India has been gradually providing duty free market access to many least development countries, according to Upadyaya. Anand Bagaria, executive member of Nepal-India Chambers of Commerce and Industry, stressed on promoting tie-ups with investors from certain Indian states and focusing on the states as markets for Nepali goods.
He asked the government to encourage investors from a certain Indian states with incentives so that they could invest here in joint-venture and promote goods in their states.
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OPINION

EXCERPTS FROM PLATO’S CAVE

By Murari Sharma

It seems that Western conservative parties, relying on money and support from the rich, have increasingly begun to view democracy for the rich, by the rich and of the rich, because only few poor support them. This is not something Nepal should accept but, unfortunately, the country’s politics seems to be taking this very road.
Nepal is not in the same league as Western countries by a barge pole. Despite the claim and rhetoric, it has been neither truly capitalist, nor credibly democratic, nor substantively compassionate. But politics-business nexus is getting so thick that it raises a litany of ethical and legal questions in the Himalayan country, more serious than they have ever been in the West.

In Nepal, the nexus between corrupt politics, crony capitalism and crimes is getting much thicker than in the West. Most government contracts go to businesses with strongly political connections. Politicians protect rogue businesspeople and criminals when they are caught breaking the law. No businessperson has gone to jail, for instance, for pocketing more than 3 billion rupees in VAT reimbursements using falsified bills and invoices. Criminal gangs operate under the protection of political parties. Businesspeople and criminals pay politicians handsomely for such favors.

Politics has become business by another name, a means to make money and remain in power forever, in Nepal. Plato must be turning in his grave witnessing how his putative philosopher guardians have turned into a rapacious lot. No party is above the water. But the new political arrivistes, the Maoists—the self-proclaimed champions of the poor and proletariat who are raking in money not just through corruption but also through coercion and crime—are ahead of the pack.

Evidently, Nepal has been democratic mostly for political leaders and their supporters who treat themselves as above the law. When caught in a criminal act, their case is withdrawn tagging it as political, something for which all parties are guilty—some more than others. Nepal is a country where a sentenced murderer serves as a member of parliament rather than serving time in jail and the police have to apologize for enforcing the traffic rules. It is a shame that the thief, as the adage goes, chastises the constable.

The government bleeds with compassion only for political leaders, their kin and close supporters. For instance, it sends them abroad for minor treatments while people die in local hospitals for the lack of saline water and belittles real martyrs by declaring, for money, their dead supporters in gang fight or traffic accident. If you are a prominent communist leader’s son, you could get 20 million rupees just by pledging to climb a mountain—a very quick way of getting rich—that so many others have scaled on their own. Actually, the government exists to serve the politicians and their cronies, not ordinary people.

Corruption, crony capitalism and crime have made politicians the second richest group, after businesspeople. Before 1964, landowners had that honor, but the land reform slashed their wealth. After the 1990 political change, politicians have displaced landowners from the second position. If the situation continues as it is now, they could edge past businesspeople in next several years.

Paul Piff’s study has proved that the richer are more likely to be more unethical and break the law. We also know for sure that those who sell ethics and break the law are more likely to become rich and powerful, for which the evidence is already overwhelming. But some restraint on their greed will certainly elevate the status of Nepali politicians in public eyes.
(Note: Murari Sharma is a retired career diplomat who served as foreign
secretary and Nepali Ambassador to United Kingdom.)
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