HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 25 July 2013 Unfortunate remarks It was very unfortunate to read the news report “Send Gyanendra to jail, growls BRB” (THT, 24 July, Page 1). Dr. Baburam Bhattarai’s remarks over the former King’s current visit to flood devastated areas in the western part of Nepal have hurt his well wishers. It really did not suit the level of his intellect and seemed a cheap political statement. His statement has decreased his political height. He has been badly criticized by his fellow party members and election commission members. There was nothing to do with former king’s involvement in distributing relief materials to the flood victims. After all he is simply an ordinary Nepali citizen. Why BRB had to worry about? Can’t we be more civilized in this 21 st century while expressing our thoughts and concerns? Who had barred BRB from putting former King in jail while he was the Prime Minister? What instigated him to call some selected journalists to his res...

The Himalayan Times 12 July 2013 Reasons for CA failure I think the major political parties including Madhes based parties should have now realised that to forcefully install the concept of federalism in Nepal was one of the main reasons behind complete failure of the erstwhile CA that had to be ended without drafting the new constitution. It did not seem feasible by any means to be instituted in such a small and poverty ridden country. Was it necessary to follow the same suit of one party by the others in the name of new Nepal where multi-cultural, multi-religion and multi-racial groups of people used to harmoniously live for decades? Accordingly, was it necessary for NC to spend its valuable time on such an impracticable issue as reported in the news report “NC polishing its policy on federal model” (THT, 11 July, Page1) rather than fruitfully spending its time on resolving other political problems? The current leaderships in NC have completely devi...

Community Empowerment for health I find the term “empowerment” sometimes difficult to define in its true sense for several reasons. It is used mostly by the development pundits who claim themselves to be the experts of designing and implementing development programs. I could not also simply remain untouched and unmoved by this term because of my long involvement in a Swiss funded bilateral rural health development project in the mid eastern hilly districts. I remained initially hesitant whether I should put together successful stories of its working approach and share with the development pundits or not. However, my inner conscience kept me pushing hard to do so. Empowering the individuals, groups and organizations, who were considered to be the working partners or stakeholders, was the key working approach that remained to be the most challenging task for the project. Identifying the real working partners at the grass root level who were individually or collectively invo...

The Himalayan Times 6 July 2013 In limbo The decision made by the Central Committee (CC) meeting of CPN-M held recently in Pokhara for disrupting the upcoming second CA election was unfortunate but not surprising with reference to the news report “CPN-M poll disruption programmes soon” (THT, July 4, Page 5). It was a gross mistake of the four major party political parties and Regmi led election government not to heed their grievances with regard to November poll. In a democratic system, there is no way of making unilateral decision undermining the existence of other forces and groups. Participatory decision is the best option to be opted in truly following up the democratic norms and values. The evolution of the current political crisis is the direct result of autocratic political acts of so called four major political parties who have completely ruined the democratic system of the country. Their 11 point deal and the 25 point presidential decree on Interim Constitut...

The Himalayan Times 28 June 2013 Scary situation Looking closely at the increasing number of drug users in the country as publicized by the Home Ministry on the occasion of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking “Statistics paint scary picture of drug use” (THT, 27, June 2013, Page 2), one can only say that such a large scale of drug abuse is really nerve-racking. According to the data, the percentage of drug use among the young people varies from one group of users to anther. The unemployed people tops the list standing at almost 50 percent, employed people at 29 percent and students especially of 6-10 grade, SLC appeared and Plus Two students at 21 percent. There has been tremendous increase in the number of drug users (current number 91543) against the official data in 2008 (46309).   The actual number could be much higher if in-depth survey had been done. I am not so sure whether there has been any thorough study done by any IN...

The Himalayan Times 21 June 2013 Revival of monarchy It was not surprising to read the news report “RPP-N chief foretells monarchy’s revival (THT, 19 June, Page 5) considering the insensible and immoral political acts of so called senior leaders of major political parties. Looking closely at their political activities during the last 6 years, the republicans seemed completely disoriented in institutionalizing second jana andolan achievements. They have completely failed on all costs-from nation building to constitution writing to the preservation of national integrity and social harmony to maintenance of law and order to good governance to economic developments. They continued to make mistakes and ignore the plight of the common people. They found to be engaged in power politics and blame game undermining the universally accepted democratic norms and values. They spent the first four years after the Second Jana Andolan most unproductively. They proved themselves ineffect...

It was not surprising to read the news report “Over 58 per cent fail to clear SLC” (THT, 12 June, Page 1) considering the ongoing teaching-learning practices in Nepal especially in the public schools. There are several factors that have been contributing to such a low performance in the outcome of the SLC results. Some of them are (1) highly politicized environment (2) lack of proper monitoring and supervision by the higher authorities (3) poor management in the distribution of text books out in the rural areas (4) teachers absenteeism (5) teachers irresponsible acts (6) traditionally designed curriculum (7) insufficient and poor infrastructures and so on. If we looked back at the success rate in the last decade, the pass percentages found to be gradually declining from one year to another year showing that there were some serious deficiencies in the educational system of Nepal . None of the concerned authorities showed any serious concern on these burning issues.   Th...

The Himalayan Times 5 June 2013   It was true that the majority people of Nepal wanted to see the end of undemocratic rule of the king when the II Jana Andolan was in its peak back in 2062/63. It was known fact that once the then king took over the rule in his hand in February 2005, the agitating political parties united together against this move, joined hands with the Maoists and started the final agitation that remained to be successful in bringing thousands of people out in the streets. The king had no alternative but to abdicate as reported in “How ex-king helped in demise of monarchy” (THT, 29 May Page 1). As a result, Nepal was declared a republic. Much water has flowed down the Bagmati Bridge so far. The political situation in Nepal has become more fragile and uncertain. The major political parties those had cohesively worked together to declare Nepal a republic state have completely failed to institutionalize the second Jana Andolan achievement. Se...