TWO MOTORCYCLISTS KILLED IN BARDIYA Kathmandu, 20 Feb.: Two motorcyclists were killed overnight in a head-on collision with a truck at Baluwa in Bardiya. A third person was injured. nnnn RAIN TO BOOST WINTER CROP Kathmandu, 20 Feb.: Production of winter crops is likely to go up this year following winter rainfall although it occurred a bit late, RSS reports. … production of wheat, barley, and lentils is likely to increase according to the ministry of agriculture. This year wheat production is likely to remain at 2.4 metric to remain per hectare. The rain is likely to hemp maze crop as well. . GACHHADAR ATTEMPT TO EXTEND POLICE TENURE FAILS Kathmandu, 20 Feb.: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bijay Kumar Gachhadar’s proposal to extend the service tenure of Nepal Police’s personnel from 30 years to 32 years was flatly rejected by the Cabinet on Sunday, Anil Giri writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Sunday’s Cabinet meeting decided to conduct more homework on the proposal and ordered an assessment of future consequences for the police force, if the proposal comes into operation. If Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudel had not taken a strong stand against it, the proposal was likely to get a nod, which would have set a wrong precedent for the police force, said a minister who did not wish to be identified. In the single-page proposal, tabled at the Cabinet meeting without adequate discussions with the Home Ministry, DPM Gachhadar had proposed extending the service tenure of Nepal Police personnel and officials from 30 to 32 years and reduce the term of the Nepal Police IGP from four to three years. IGP Kuber Singh Rana, who is set to retire in September, would receive a lease of another 23 months in office. The proposal, however, did not contain the signature of Home Secretary Nabin Ghimire, which could mean that there is suspicious underfoot, said the minister. Each proposal tabled at the Cabinet required the signature of the concerned government secretary. The proposal, which aimed to amend existing Nepal Police regulations, was also tabled without required consent from the Ministry of Law and Justice. When Poudel called on Home Secretary Ghimire at his office on Sunday morning, the latter admitted that consent was not sought from the Law Ministry before preparing the proposal. “Both DPM Gachhadar and the chief secretary exchanged words for and against the proposal. DPM Gachhadar told Secretary Poudel that he had received consent from Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai before tabling the proposal at the Cabinet,” said the minister. While the PM did not object to the proposal, some ministers and the chief secretary sought reasons for the need to amend the service term of the police at this critical juncture. Gachhadar responded that the new proposal will elevate and provide chances to sitting DIGs to reach the post of IGP for the first time in the history of the Nepal Police. Later, even the PM realised that this was not a scientific proposal and required serious homework and a detailed study on the kind of impact it would leave on the police force. Gachhadar is making a ‘last ditch effort’ to pass the proposal by attempting to woo ministry mandarins to gain support but that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. nnnn GOVT. LUKEWARM TO IMPLEMENT SOP FOR FOREIGN WORKERS Kathmandu, 20 Feb.: The delay in the introduction of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has raised questions about the government’s commitment to regulate the foreign employment sector, said representatives of overseas employment agencies. They said that the failure to implement the SOP, despite eight months of continuous exercise, is proof of the government’s unwillingness to combat widespread malpractices in the sector. Acknowledging the problems faced by migrant workers due to the overlapping of duties and the poor distribution of power among different state bodies, the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) had initiated the process to introduce an SOP over a year ago. “The state mechanism is extremely messy. In absence of the clear demarcation of work, both migrant workers and manpower agencies have to deal with several offices to OPONNIONcomplete one single work,” said Bal Bahadur Tamang, chairman of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA). Stating that the solution to a wide range of problems lies in the implementation of the SOP, the NAFEA has threatened to take to the streets if the government fails to set up the SOP within a week through endorsement by the Cabinet. The SOP’s preliminary sketch, as envisioned by the MoLA, incorporates the work jurisdiction of all stakeholders, including the Department of Foreign Employment, (DoFE), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the Department of Immigration (DoI), the Nepali missions in destination countries, the labour desk at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) and recruiting agencies. Stakeholders have admitted that the allocation of specific duties to specific bodies could enhance the speed, quality and volume of services. According to NAFEA, the preliminary draft has also clearly outlined work and deadlines to all concerned bodies. For example, the draft SOP directs the DoFE to issue final work approval within one day, three minutes to immigration to check documents and the like. “Currently, immigration, the labour desk and airline staffers can demand documents that do not concern them. Since such activities are planned loopholes for bribery and irregularities, workers will heave a big sigh of relief if such issues are resolved,” said Tamang. MoLE officials too admitted that workers face difficulties due to the involvement of various ministries and related departments. They said that various reasons, including the bribery scandal involving two sitting ministers, the formation of the Rapid Response Team and a High Level Monitoring Commit-tee, had delayed the SOP. MoLE Joint-secretary Binod KC said they are still working out the SOP to avoid any drawbacks. “Since it directly concerns various stakeholders, it is natural that planning will consume time and effort,” said KC, who also heads the Foreign Employment Division at the ministry. According to officials, NAFEA’s announcement of protest against the backdrop of constant discussions is a mistake and will do them more harm than good. nnnn OPOION Lest Memory Fades and History Forgets SP HB Thapa – The Spy Catcher SB Pun November, 2012 Background: Internationally, regionally and domestically, the 1960s was a tumultuous decade. Internationally, the Russo-American cold war was at its peak with the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the near nuclear holocaust due to the Cuban missile crisis. Regionally, India, despite her professed non-alignment and Panchsheel, was resoundingly thrashed by China in the brief 1962 border conflict and the Indo-Pakistan relationship after the 1965 war was at its lowest ebb. Domestically, King Mahendra booted out the democratically elected government of Prime Minister BP Koirala in 1960 and took over the reins himself. The Nepali Congress exiles, with the tacit nod of India, harassed King Mahendra all along the Indo-Nepalese border from safe havens on Indian soil. The astute Mahendra had the audacity and foresight to sign an agreement with Mao Zedong’s China to construct the Kodari Highway across the Himalayas, connecting Kathmandu with Tibet’s Lhasa. For India and the Western countries (USA in particular), this meant Mao’s communism would come galloping down the Kodari highway at neck-break speed into Nepal and India. Recognizing Nepal’s strategic geo-political importance, all eyes and ears were glued on Nepal. India and China, America and Russia plus a host of western countries (Britain, Switzerland, Israel etc.) came to establish their ‘listening posts ’ in Nepal in the guise of generous developmental ‘aid’. Sohrakhutte Pati Police Thana’s Booty: It was in such background and decade in 1964 that Harka Bahadur Thapa, a former 1950 Mukti Sena officer, was the Kathmandu valley Superintendant of Police. One evening when the sun was setting, the Sub-inspector (SI) of Sohrakhutte Pati/Chhetrapati Police Post noticed a porter carrying a box passing by his Post along with a person who appeared to be the owner of the box. Like all policemen, the SI, guided more by the possibility of making some quick side bucks rather than fulfilling his moral duty, hollered at the porter ‘Hey, what’s in that box?’ When the supposed owner of the box dashed away to mingle with other passerby in the fading light, the SI ordered the porter to bring the box into his office. Questioned, the porter replied that he had been hired to carry the box merely up to Balaju. Like all Nepalese porters, neither did he have any knowledge what was in the box nor did he know who the owner was. As the owner had run away, the SI decided to open up his ‘booty’. The SI received the shock of his life when he found inside the box well-greased arms packed in waterproof plastic bags. This ‘find’ was immediately relayed up the higher chain of commands to Valley SP Harka Bahadur Thapa, IGP Pahal Singh(PS) Lama and Dhundiraj(DR) Sharma, Chief of Intelligence Department that was aptly called Guptachar. DR Sharma’s Deputy at Guptachar was Devi Singh Thapa, a smart ex-2/4th Indian Gurkha Rifles man . Many at Guptachar remember Devi Singh as a professionally sound man who trained them in the art of intelligence. It was Dr. KI Singh who, during his short tenure as Prime Minister in 1957, inducted him into HMGN service. Initially posted at the Palace’s Royal Intelligence Bureau, Devi Singh was transferred to Guptachar as the Palace was not comfortable with his hyper-smartness. Chinese Arms All Over Kathmandu Valley: Investigations revealed that the arms caught at Sohrakhutte Pati were of Chinese origins. While this strange ‘find’ was under investigation, Police began to get phone calls from villagers at various locations informing that they sighted freshly dug-up suspicious looking earth mounds in their areas. Such calls came from remote scattered places like Gokarna, Kakani, Godavari, Palung etc. At each of these freshly dug-up mounds, Police found a cache of well preserved Chinese arms of Korean War vintage stashed away in plastic bags. The whole Kathmandu valley was abuzz with rumours that these Chinese arms were a part of Chinese preparations to invade and takeover Nepal. Didn’t the Chinese army run amok all over northern India’s Ladakh and NEFA in 1962? That, some argued, was the grand Chinese design for Nepal. There were even stray suggestions that the Nepalese army should immediately enter the Chinese embassy compound at Hattisar and search for the remaining weapons. Kathmandu valley’s SP, HB Thapa, was one of those few lone voices who did not agree with such simplistic Chinese invasion theory. He believed the Chinese arms were planted by some vested parties for deliberate ‘disinformation’ purposes. But he had no evidence to prove it. SP Thapa Concentrates in the Kakani Area: SP Thapa visited all the arms dumped sites and made thorough inquiries with the villagers. He obtained nothing, no clues at all. However, SP Thapa, with the Sherlock Holmes-like incisive mind, held on to one single seemingly casual clue. When villagers were questioned whether or not they saw any foreigners strolling along these dump sites, ‘kueres’ were sited in places like Kakani and Godavari. But ‘kueres’ at these beautiful touristic locations, particularly Kakani from where one glimpses at close range the gorgeous Ganesh and Langtang Himals, were definitely very normal sightings. Cracking any mysteries, SP Thapa concedes luck, that fickle lady, has to be on your side also. Based on the Chinese arms captured at Sohrakhutte Pati, SP Thapa theorized that these arms headed for Balaju were probably meant for the Kakani dump site. He, thus, concentrated his time-consuming and torturous searches in the Kakani area. A lot of ‘kueres’ some with haversacks in their backs and some with butterfly catching nets trekked around that area. Based on the Sherlock Holmes logic that the Chinese arms dumper could have stayed overnight either camping or in the lodges/houses in that area, he had the whole area thoroughly scrounged. But he found nothing. Lady Luck Comes to SP Thapa’s Rescue: This is where the fickle Lady Luck walked in. A depressed SP Thapa went to Kakani one more time. Without anything particular in mind, Thapa decided to visit the large rambling government fruit farm there. SP Thapa was lucky to meet the farm’s chief who invited him to a cup of tea at his office. Over a cup of tea, Thapa gleaned that the farm did have a guest room for visiting government officers but ‘kueres’ did occupy it on a few rare occasions. When asked who those ‘kueres’ could be, the farm chief replied that he was given a visiting card by one such ‘kuere’ and fumbling around in his desk drawers luckily produced it. It belonged to a Robert Stone, Political Officer, US Embassy, Kathmandu. From there on, due surveillance and investigations revealed that Stone along with Devi Singh Thapa, DR Sharma’s own Deputy at Nepal’s Guptachar, were the main agents responsible for planting those Chinese arms. Stone was declared persona non-grata and deported from Nepal. Eye witnesses report that the much embarrassed Stone, during his deportation from Tribhuvan airport, feigned fainting and had to be carried in a stretcher to the awaiting plane. Field Marshall Nir Shumshere JB Rana Recounts: Field Marshal Nir SJB Rana, the then Commander-in-Chief, in his memoire , Mero Ek Satapdi, puts this Chinese arms episode in the following casual manner: ‘Tes bakhat Chin sanga Nepalko ramro sahayog sambhanda adan pradan bhairaheko thiyo. Tesaile Nepal Chinko communist bewastha bata prabhabit hola bhanne ashanka Americalai thiyo. Tehi ashankako bharma Americanharu Kathmanduka bibhinna thauma afaile hathatiyar jaminmuni lukai communistharule falano thauma timiharuko biruddha proyog garna hathatiyar lukayeko chha bhanne bluff call telephone samet garne gareka thiye. Telephone ko adharma khojna janda sachchai hathatiyar fela pani parthyo. Yasta telephone call bata hami teti bela khub sataiyeka thiyau. Tar bujhdai janda yo sabai karyakalap Americanharu kai chal ho bhanne patta lageko thiyo.’ Field Marshall Rana did not deem it necessary to mention either SP HB Thapa’s name or explain how the ‘bluff’ telephone call mystery was solved. It is indeed sad that the Field Marshall, who must have had access to the fullest of inside details, devoted a mere seven line description of this episode when his nation was in intense turmoil, trapped, as it were, between the rock and a hard place. General Chhetra Bickram Rana, former Home and Chief Secretary, Recounts: Around the same time in that critical decade, America’s CIA was not alone in attempting to ‘de-stablize’ Nepal. India’s intelligence agency was also working hard like a beaver in Nepal. Now consider what General Chhetra Bickram Rana, former Chief Secretary and Home Secretary, had to say in his reflections on Purba Prashasak ka Samjhana ka Goretaharu when he was the Home Secretary around 1963: “….Bharat bata jasusi garna ek jana bekti Nepal ayeko rahechha. Tyo manislai maile pahile choti Biratnagar ma bheteko thiyen. Tyanko Police ko hakim DIG ra Anchaladhishle ek jana manis ayeko chha. Tesle ‘Ma Bharat ma dukha payeko manchhe. Tyanhan bhairaheka anek kura thaha chha’ bhanera malai jankari diyekole….’Testo manchhelai yahan rakhna bhayena. Kehi paisa diye pathaidinu’ bhanera uniharu marfat kehi rakam dilayeko thiyen. Tehi manche pachhi Kathmandu ayechha ra ekdin Shri 5 ko Sarkarko Chhapakhana herne jasto gari Gorkhapatra chhapakhana ma gayechha. Kura garda gardai tanhanka Manager Ramraj Poudel lai ‘Malai yasto-yasto manchhele yasto gareko thaha chha’ bhani mero huliya diyechha….Ramraj le pani so kura ‘jaher garnai paryo’ bhani sambandhit thaun ma jaher gari diye. Mantriharule chhalphal garechhan ra ‘Arashtra tatwa lai saghaune kam gareko’ bhani nirnay garera ma mathi mudda chalaye chhan…. Pachhi tyo bekti [jaslai surakchha ka sath rakhiyeko thiyo] Bharatiya Guptachar bhayeko pramanit bhayo. Usko juttako taluwabat kagajpatra ko nissa haru niskechhan. Arko tarfa Bharatiya haru Griha Mantralaya ma ayera ‘Euta yasto manish ayeko thiyo, ke bhayo?’ bhanera sodhkhoj garna thalechhan….. Tesai bakhatma American Guptachar Sansthako ek jana dhurandhar bekti ‘Stone’ bhanne thiyo, usle malai bhetera ‘Yasto-yasto manish ayeko thiyo. Tero nam ma yasto ujur gareko thiyo….’…. Tes ghatana ma maile tin thariko chhalkapat dekhen: American, Bharatiya ra Nepaliko….” A number of important deductions could be made from General Chhetra Bickram Rana’s above reflections: i) Both American and Indian intelligence worked in close tandem in Nepal as the ‘dhurandhar Stone’ came to inquire about the missing Indian agent. ii) Both America and India worked diligently on what HB Thapa termed ‘the mischievous art of disinformation’. That is, deliberately planting wrong information to achieve their objectives. While CIA planted the Chinese arms ‘materials’, India’s intelligence planted discrete ‘disinformation’ on certain targeted personalities. If India had succeeded then much to King Mahendra’s embarrassment, his own Home Secretary, Chhetra Bickram Rana, would have been booted out as an accomplice of ‘arashtra tatwas’. This would have completely demoralized the government’s bureaucracy. By subtly planting such wrong information at appropriate places, the ‘character’ of an important personality, who needs to be badly weeded out, is ‘assassinated’ and the system itself purged him automatically. So ingenious! iii) It is not only the Americans and Indians but even Nepalese worked as subversive agents of other countries against their own motherland. In his Purba Prashasak ka Samjhana ka Goretaharu General Chhetra Bickram Rana, unlike Field Marshall Nir Shumshere, did have the courtesy to name HB Thapa in his reflections thus: “Tyo belako Guptachar baliyo thiyo….Ramro kam garne Harka Bahadur Thapa bhanne bekti Guptachar ka Hakim bhaye…. Unle bado ramro sanga intelligence ko kam chalaye…. Ahile ko sthiti ko barema bhanne mero adhikar chhaina.” General Rana, even in his ripe old age, had not lost his diplomatic charm in keeping himself mum about the intense guptachar activities of ‘friendly countries’ in present-day Nepal. Before Memory Fades and Lest History Forgets: Investigations revealed that CIA had Devi Singh Thapa, the second-man-in-command at Guptachar, conveniently in its pocket. Stone and Devi Singh were the masterminds behind those Chinese arms episode. The powers that be had their ‘hands and listening posts’ in every conceivable place. Devi Sing , the seemingly dynamic ex-Indian Gurkha officer, was immediately sacked and put behind bars. The Americans and Indians nearly succeeded in their mission to torpedo the Nepal-China relationship that King Mahendra was so carefully nurturing. An impressed King Mahendra promoted SP Harka Bahadur Thapa to DIG and transferred him to head the Guptachar itself. Though a tiny under-developed nation, Nepal’s sons did pit their wits successfully against the two large American and Indian Goliaths. Such successes, however, require the fullest trust and backing from the highest level, whoever that be, Kings, Presidents or Prime Ministers. Unfortunately, in the last two decades (1990-2010) that trust and backing, badly plagued by the either with us or against us syndrome, has simply failed to crystallize. This article attempts to record for future Nepalese generations that ‘felling of the Goliaths’ by SP Harka Bahadur Thapa and his colleagues so that it would not fade away and suffer the ignominy of obliteration. If this CIA instigated ‘Chinese arms episode’ does get recorded in some tiny corner of Nepalese history, however tiny that space may be, then justice would have been done to all those who toiled for their country in that critical phase of history! The End