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The Nepal Digest Thursday 6 Oct 94: Kartik 1 2051 BkSm Volume 32 Issue 1
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Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 17:35:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ashutosh Tiwari <tiwari@husc.harvard.edu>
Subject: Great to be back!!
To: Nepal Digest <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
It's great to be back in cyberspace, and into the familiar fold of
TND.
Kudos to all of you for running TND so well and actively. All of you guys
derseve a top-most "Gorkha Dakshin Bahu" for all that you've been doing to
bring Nepalis (and friends of Nepal) in front of the screen to talk about
that certain special place between China and India.
Scanning the back issues, I read the debates/kura-kanis on Arun III and
"why so many SLC failures" with interest.
Though I question the logic and the economics behind the Arun III project
on PROCEDURAL grounds (more on this when and if I have time!), I fully
DISagree with Amulya's 'justification' for the high number of failures on
the SLC (i.e. "there's no seat at the college" argument; and, "it's all
politicians' fault" analysis). Well, more on this later, too.
Meantime, Bhupendra Pradhan, where are you? Not at HMS; that much, I've
found out.
namaste
ashu
*********************************************************
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 15:03:02 EDT
From: pramod@UFCC.UFL.EDU
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: expressing appreciation
i should like to thank all the nepalese students and vaujus at the
university of florida,gainesville for helping me survive first few
days of nostalgia.i do not intend this to sound emotional but i have
no faith in time,let not the time recite,it may have a different
version,and sometimes so called "hipocrisy"rules me and it does
argue so wrongly about my identity,i am not judge of my conscience
then.
pramod dhakal,uf.
****************************************************************
Date: 22 Sep 94 10:22:05 EDT
From: Rajendra.P.Shrestha@Dartmouth.EDU (Rajendra P. Shrestha)
Subject: News9/21
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
SOURCE: AFP
HEADLINE: Rights groups invite observers to monitor Nepal's polls
DATELINE: KATHMANDU, Sept 20
BODY:
Six human rights groups here plan to invite 100 international
observers from about 40 different countries to monitor Nepal's
forthcoming mid-term polls, a spokesman of one of the groups said
Tuesday.
The polls are being held in November to elect 205 members of the
House of Representatives to five-year terms.
The six groups have formed a National Election Observation
Committee (NEOC) to ensure the vote is held in a "free, fair and
impartial manner", a NEOC spokesman said.
The NEOC has decided that pre-election preparations must be speeded
up, and is asking for the cooperation of political parties, government
agencies, the election commission and the police, the spokesman said.
The date of the poll, originally scheduled for November 11, will be
announced within a couple of weeks. King Birendra has asked the
Supreme Court whether the timing can be altered.
The House of Representatives was dissolved on July 11 by the king
on the advice of the premier after his government lost a crucial
parliamentary debate in July.
Following his defeat in parliament, the premier resigned, but the
king appointed him to head the caretaker government and to oversee the
polls.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: AFP
HEADLINE: Nepalese king gets presidential welcome in France
DATELINE: PARIS, Sept 20
BODY:
Nepal's King Birendra on Tuesday began a four-day state visit to
France marking his first official trip to Europe since saving his
monarchy by accepting greater democracy in 1990.
The visit, during which he will hold talks with President Francois
Mitterrand and Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, is aimed at boosting
political and economic links between the two countries.
Accompanied by Queen Aishwarya, the king was welcomed at Paris'
Orly airport by Mitterrand, with whom he was due to hold talks later
in the day at the Elysee presidential palace, ahead of a reception in
the evening.
To the sound of the French and Nepalese national anthems, the two
men passed in review troops from air, sea and land forces, before
leaving the airport by helicopter for central Paris.
The trip, the first by a Nepalese head of state to France, follows
up on an invitation extended by Mitterrand during a trip to the
Himalayan mountain kingdom in 1983.
"The visit will not only deepen our bilateral ties but further
strengthen it to the mutual benefit of Nepal and France. It will open
a golden chapter in France- Nepal relations," said Kathmandu's
ambassador here, H.E. Keshav Raf Jha.
A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said the trip was aimed
at "developing relations with a country resolutely committed to
respecting democracy and human rights."
Talks with the French president Tuesday evening will be followed by
discussions Wednesday with Paris mayor Jacques Chirac, Foreign
Minister Alain Juppe and National Assembly speaker Philippe Seguin.
The royal visitor is due to meet Balladur for talks Thursday.
Later that day he will travel on France's high-speed TGV train for
a tour of one of France's most famous wine-producing regions -- the
Burgundy region south, where he will stay Friday.
The king, also accompanied by Princess Shruti and Ram Hari Joshi,
Nepal's minister of tourism and aviation, is due to leave France
Monday afternoon, returning via Italy and the United Arab Emirates.
Birendra stressed the importance of the visit before he left
Kathmandu. "French support and cooperation have positively helped
redress these constraints," he said in an interview with AFP.
"I hope visits su ch as the present one will contribute to further
consolidating our ties."
In 1991, France cancelled Nepal's debts to Paris of around 17.5
million dollars and added a grant of 50 million francs (8.75 million
dollars).
France is also helping with work to preserve Nepal's historic
monuments and gave six million francs (one million dollars) in food
aid in 1994.
Birendra, in one of the most critical periods in Nepalese history,
agreed in 1990 to give up his absolute power and allow a multi-party
system in his mountain homeland.
His trip to France comes at time of new troubles, with Prime
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala forced to call new elections for
November after being put in a minority in parliament.
It will not be Birendra's first visit to France. He first travelled
here while a student at Eton in England in 1963, but has visited twice
since then.
SOURCE: International Herald Tribune
HEADLINE: Tapping Into Nepal's Hydropower Potential
BYLINE: Jon Liden
DATELINE: KATMANDU
BODY:
How can the fourth poorest country in the world raise the equivalent of
severtimes its own GDP to develop its water resources? That is the question
Nepal is pondering, while billions of potential kilowatt-HL hours are
running into the sea.
Nepal has one of the world's largest potentials for hydropower
development, yeonly 10 percent of the country's population has access
to electricity, and the capital, Katmandu, has regular brown-
outs. Hydropower, which is considered the cleanest of the world's main
energy sources, is also one of the cheapest in production. But the
capital expenses of building access roads, dams and turbine stations
are staggeringly high for a poor country. In Nepal only 241 megawatts
of an exploitable capacity of at least 35,000 megawatts has been
developed.
However, Nepal may see a dramatic increase in its power- generating
capacity over the next decade. By using a combination of domestic
economic reform, aid-sponsored credit arrangements and the private
sector's increased willingnessand capability to engage in
infrastructure projects, Nepal is working out a formula to increase
its power production drastically without taking on huge new debts.
"Our government is committed to develop hydropower both from the
private sectoand from the public sector," said Nepal's minister for
water resources, Laxman Ghimire.
The government, Nepal's first democratically elected one since
1959, has cut subsidies of electricity and slimmed the Nepal
Electricity Authority by 1,200 people to conform with World Bank
demands.
Nepal has also passed two laws and a hydropower development
policy, which giveforeign and domestic private investors 20-30 year
licenses to develop and operate hydroHL power projects. The
regulations give more favorable concessions on income tax and import
duty than the ordinary foreign investment regulations, creating one of
Asia's most generous legal investment environments.
Two projects are currently putting the new regulations to the test.
In July, Snowy Mountain Engineering Corp. of Australia signed a
memorandum of understanding with the Nepali government to develop the
$600 million, 360 megawatt West Seti dam project over a 30-year
period. The plan is to export 90 percent of the power to India. "We
have been looking at West Seti for two years,and feel that this was
the right time to move," said Damien Keneally, general manager for
hydropower at the Australian company. "The climate is right for
commercial development of hydropower in Nepal, and there are large
shortages of power in India."
The project could be in place by 2000 if the technical study and
negotiations with India for sales of power live up to Snowy Mountain's
expectations. Feasibility studies have shown that an 18 percent rate
of return on investment would be possible for sales from West Seti to
India, provided India carries out an expected reform of its
energy-pricing system, which currently is based on large subsidies.
The International Finance Corp., the World Bank's private-sector
arm, and the Asian Development Bank, are discussing becoming
involved. Since this project is among the first of its kind,
commercial banks are less reluctant to commit moneyif the
international credit institutions are involved, analysts say.
A second project is the $120 million, 60 megawatt Khimti Kola,
which is developed by a joint venture between a Nepali hydropower
company and three Norwegian companies; Statkraft, Kvaerner Energy and
ABB Energy, an affiliate of Asea Brown Boveri. This project is fully
financed by export credits and soft loans from Norway, the IFC and
ADB, and construction has already started.
Still, no matter how many projects are started over the next few
years, Nepal will face serious energy shortages until at least
2002. The reason, oddly enough, is the country's main hydropower
project, the Arun III.
First planned in 1985, the $770 million, 201 megawatt Arun III
project has beea marathon process: after nine years, the World Bank
and other main donors have not yet firmly committed to financing it.
Some say it is a typical example of how international aid efforts
can slow dowand increase the cost of infrastructure projects. A Nepali
pressure group, the Alliance for Energy, accuses the donors and the
government of being too concerned with putting the dam in place, and
showing too little concern with theeconomic viability of the project.
"World Bank staff's main concern is to make sure there are no cost
overruns anlong delays in the construction phase. That means large
safety margins that drive the budgets up," argued Bikash Pandey, an
engineer and one of the leading critics of the Arun III project. "A
private license holder, on the other hand, would make sure that costs
are as low as possible to ensure a reasonable rate ofreturn on
investment."
The fact that $325 million in grants from Japan and Germany are
tied to purchases of equipment from these two countries adds to the
expenses, Mr. Pandeyclaims. "Tied aid purchases have been shown to be
up to 30 percent more expensive than purchases based on international
bidding," he said.
This is the main reason why Arun III is nearly double the cost per
kilowatt compared with West Seti, according to the Alliance for
Energy. The group questions calculations by the government and the
World Bank that show electricity from Arun III costing around 5.9
U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour.
"Our calculations point towards a real price of 12 cents," Mr. Pandey
said.
As important is the criticism that Nepal has frozen the development
of any major new power project while Arun III is under
consideration. "Since the Arun III project has been delayed and
delayed again, Nepal has slid into a serious gap between energy supply
and consumption needs which will cost us dearly until Arun is finally
on tap in year 2002," said a senior official at the Nepal Electricity
Authority, who could not be named. "It is absurd that we need to
usediesel- driven power plants to cover our shortages. Thermal energy
in Nepal is as sick as hydropower in Kuwait," he said.
The long planning stage of Arun III is due to a series of studies
ranging fromthe loan burden's effect on other sectors of the economy
to the project's threatto a rare butterfly species in the Arun river
valley.
The main donors, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, are
bent on making the Arun III a model project, technically,
environmentally and socially. Yet European and American
environmentalists have campaigned against the project.
By most accounts, Arun III's negative environmental and social
effects are minimal. "The locals are very much in favor of Arun III,"
said Barun Gurung, an anthropologist who works in the Arun valley.
Now, most people In Nepal say that Arun III has to be developed, if
for nothinelse, so at least to get it out of the way so other projects
can get attention. A final decision from the World Bank is expected on
the Arun III project by November.
Meanwhile, the Nepali government is growing impatient with the
project, and habeen approving others, notably Khimti Kola and West
Seti. "The ball is entirely in the World Bank's court," said
Mr. Ghimire, the minister for water resources.
**************************************************************
Date: 23 Sep 94 14:16:31 EDT
From: Rajendra.P.Shrestha@Dartmouth.EDU (Rajendra P. Shrestha)
Subject: News9/21-22
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
SOURCE: AFP
HEADLINE: EU wants economic deal with Nepal: Juppe
DATELINE: PARIS, Sept 21
BODY:
The European Union is anxious to negotiate a development aid agreement
with
Nepal, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told Nepal's King Birendra
during talks here on Wednesday.
French officials said talks on the agreement could begin when
France takes over the EU presidency from Germany on January 1.
King Birendra, on the second day of a four-day state visit to
France, discussed United Nations peace-keeping missions with Juppe,
the officials said.
The Himalayan kingdom has provided some 900 peacekeepers for the UN
force in former Yugoslavia.
Birendra and Juppe also discussed developing international
cooperation to fight drug-smuggling. Nepal is one of the transit
points for opium from south Asia's "golden triangle."
On Tuesday, Birendra held talks with French President Francois
Mitterrand, who hosted the monarch at a state dinner.
Birendra is on the first visit to France by a Nepalese head of
state, in response to an invitation extended by Mitterrand during a
trip to Kathmandu in 1983.
The king is due to meet Prime Minister Edouard Balladur for talks
Thursday.
Later that day he will travel on France's high-speed TGV train for
a tour of one of the country's most famous wine-producing regions --
the Burgundy region, where he will stay Friday.
The king, also accompanied by Princess Shruti and Ram Hari Joshi,
Nepal's minister of tourism and aviation, is due to leave France
Monday afternoon, returning via Italy and the United Arab Emirates.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: Xinhua
HEADLINE: nepali congress leader's quitting regretted
DATELINE: kathmandu, september 21; ITEM NO: 0921079
BODY:
president of nepali congress (nc), the former ruling party, krishna
prasad bhattarai deeply regretted over the sudden departure of ganesh
man singh, one of the nc founders, from the party. "singh's absence
is a blow to the nc's election prospects," bhattarai was quoted today
by local english daily "the kathmandu post" as saying in what is
believed to be the first comment from a nc leader on singh's quitting
decision announced at a press conference on september 16. in an
interview with the paper on tuesday, bhattarai complained that singh
had even "failed to receive singh's blessings for the coming general
elections" to be held on november 13. however, the nc president did
not give any comment on the two conditions raised by singh. in his
quitting statement, singh said, "if they want me to remain in the
party, they should fulfill two conditions: firstly, the prime minister
should resign; secondly, the president should reorganize all party
branches." as to whether he would contest the polls, bhattarai said,
"i have already lost three elections. but if i decide to contest now
i'm sure i'll win overwhelmingly." bhattarai lost in the 1958 and 1991
general elections, and was defeated again in the by-election held last
february. however, highly placed nc sources said that bhattarai is
seeking nomination to contest the november elections from constituency
no.2 of syangja district in western nepal. according to the decision
adopted by the july 27 meeting of nc central working committee (cwc),
prime minister g.p. koirala, nc president bhattarai and the party's
general secretary m.n. nidhi had "voluntarily offered to stay off the
november elections" for the sake of keeping party unity. however, a
later cwc meeting on september 14 decided "to leave it up to the
leaders themselves to decide whether or not to contest the elections."
it is yet to be known if koirala and nidhi would contest the polls.
------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: Xinhua
HEADLINE: nepali party nominates candidates for mid-term polls
DATELINE: kathmandu, september 21; ITEM NO: 0921173
BODY:
the communist party of nepal (uml), the former main opposition, has
nominated 196 candidates, including 12 women, to compete to the
205-seat lower house, according to uml sources today. the fresh
mid-term polls is scheduled to be held in november which was declared
by king birendra on july 11 on recommendation by prime minister
g.p. koirala after his resignation on july 10. eight uml standing
committee members, including party president man mohan adhikari, are
among the candidates. adhikari will compete in two constituencies in
kathmandu, no.1 and no.3 constituencies, simultaneously. madhav kumar
nepal, uml general secretary and opposition leader in the upper house,
will not take part in the polls. the list of candidates were prepared
by a seven-member party committee and its leadership.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: Xinhua
HEADLINE: indonesia defends decision to export ddt to nepal
DATELINE: jakarta, september 22; ITEM NO: 0922173
BODY:
the indonesian government has defended its decision to unload some
of its stock of ddt to nepal, saying that it was made at the request
of the importing country. "we are exporting the ddt upon the request
of the nepalese health minister," local press reports today quoted
hadi m. abednego, director general of communicable disease control
and environmental health at the ministry of health, as saying. he
said that nepal needs dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, popularly
known as ddt, in its drive to eliminate malaria. nepal first showed
its interest in importing ddt from indonesia during the annual south,
east asian health ministerial meeting in katmandu in 1992, according
to abednego, who pointed out that the ddt export has the endorsement
of the world health organization (who), which is paying the
transportation costs. indonesia, which outlawed the use of ddt in
1990, has been exporting ddt from its remaining stock to nepal and
myanmar. last year, it shipped 200 tons of ddt to nepal and 100 tons
to myanmar. the pesticide watch of nepal, a forum of local
environmental journalists, recently sent a letter to the indonesian
government pleading that the ddt export be discontinued because of the
hazardous effects on the environment. the indonesia pesticide action
network recently persuaded the government to destroy all the remaining
ddt it still has in stock, instead of exporting it to foreign
countries. on the other hand, the deputy director of who's office in
jakarta, bambang winardi, defended who's decision to approve the
import of ddt, saying that the possibilities of deaths caused by
malaria were greater than the negative effects of ddt.
*****************************************************************
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 1994 11:44 EST
From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
THE FEMALE CONTRIBUTION TO NEWARI (NEPAL BHASA) LITERATURE
==========================================================
[Excerpts from an article by Dr. Chunda Bajracharya in "Asmita", vol. 7, No.
26, July/august , 1994]
Language is increasingly a contested issue in multiparty Nepal. Nepali and
Sanskrit is legitimated as a lingua franca, a medium of nationhood and natinal
unity while others see this as but colonial artefact whose purpose is in line
with the modernist project of homogenization and totalization and the
suppression of other identities in the country.
In the forefront of this stuggle is the Nepal Bhasa or Newari language which
was refused to die and be assimilated in this process of Nepalization. Even as
early as the Licchavi period, the vernacular language of place names and
rivers and mountains still are Newari in origin. Linguists take this as
evidence of the deeply embedded nature and autochtonicity of Newari language
at least in the Kathmandu valley.
Despite state suppression throughout much of the recorded history, Newari
language has remained vibrant. Most of the credit has been given to male "men
of letters" such as Chitta dhar Hridaya and Siddhi DAs. Dr Chunda Bajracharya
who did her phd in nepal bhasa documents the contribution of Newari women in
enriching Newari literature.
The earliest written record of Newari language is the inscription in the
Hiranya Varna Mahavihar, Patan. This is dated 1115 A.D and gives the rules and
regulations of the Buddhist monks. In 1175, we see a pharmacologia,
"Haramkhela" , the first textbook in newari.
During the reign of the Malla dynasty, Newari was a widely used language in
vernacular and in the courts. several ballads, and poems were composed ,
capturing the dominant themes of the royal queens, namely power struggle,
mututal hostility, devotion to their husbands and their family gods, envy and
blame. There were 7 such female poetess.
The first is Hriddhi Laxmi of Kantipur, who composed, "Sowo, sowo,rasikan
basant" ["look, look, at the charms of Spring"] was in the romanticist
tradition, revelling in the joys and beauties of nature.
The second was Bhuvan Laxmi devi also of Kantipur, who composed poems that got
the appreciation and patronage of the Malla queens. Her compositions include:
"Jaya devi, soguli bhuwanya rani" [Hail, oh lordess, queen of three domains!],
"Atisundar Desh Kantipur" [Oh how beautiful is our country Kantipur,{how she
would suffer to see modern day kathmandu}], "Chi chamasiya ash" [Depending on
you...] a religious votary.
Buddhi Laxmi of Bhaktapur composed,"Laghi ni mala",[Thou hast to care over
me!] expressing her plea for kindness after being deprived of her rights at
the whim of the royal decree. This must be a pretty patriarchical society .
Newari suffered systematic State withdrawal of patronage from Surendra bir
Bikram Shah's period until in 1925 A.D.Dharmaditya Dharmacharya got inspired
by the movement in Calcutta University that one should be educated in one's
language. Dharmacharya came to Nepal to collect learning materials in Newari
and began publishing "Buddha Dharm and nepal". this journal became an outlet
for two other male writers who wrote under the female pennames of Prgjya and
Tara. The goal was to encourage female participation in the rejuvenation of
Newari literature. Articles such as "Maye lupin vidya janadi mala" or [women
should start getting educated] was penned by Laxmi nani, a woman.
Then in 1938, Moti Laxmi Upasika , female Budhist monk, wrote a poem
entitled,"How to write" inspiring other female writer to write by giving her
own journey. She wrote prolifically in one of the first Nepali journals
"Sharada" and established her self in prose as well. Her topics wer about
consciousness and subconsciousness. As recently as 1993, she published her
collections of poems called ' "Chankhunchiya surbey" [A sparrow's wealth]
Moti Laxmi was the sister of Chitadhar Hridaya, the doyen of Newari revival in
modern times. Moti Laxmi expressed reverence and dedication to him and
remained unmarried for life devoting herself to the ideals. Her themes touch
the pains of living alone, imagining married life, rebellion against the Rana
regime, Her writing is simple, clear and affective.
The next contribution was "Mukhuswan"[Bud] by Narayan devi Shrestha in 1955.
Her themes emphasized female virtuosity and pride of feminity and motherhood
and also revolt against inequity to women. She maintained that female power
can shake the world, "Nariya pachina dharati chwiwan, bhu kampit jwi
phaimakhu, chin jhigu pratap suryo gyai" or "If women so command, the earth
will stop shaking and the sun will stop shining." from her poem "nari lai" [to
women].
[the contributions of Newari women after 1955 will be dealt later.]
summarized, translated, and excerpted by
Amulya tuladhar
Clark university
[Editor, the following letter is reproduced by permission from Ajay Pradhan]
Subj: RE: Ganesh Man Quits Congress!
Ganesh Man Singh's move is calculated. He is a person who can live without the
Congress party. This is manifested in his desire to be known and rmembered
more as a statesman and national leader than as a politician.
If you consider Ganesh Man's persistent reluctance in accepting any
position within the party and his unwillingness to stand an election and
form a government, my hunch about his desire to rise from being a political
leader to becoming a statesman appears logical.
The other important element that signals his desire is his willingness to
forge ties the communists in times of crises that are of national
significance. Although, at heart, he hates communists, his ability
to rise above the partisan politics when occasions demand, simply puts him
above other contemporary "leaders", within and outside of Nepali Congress.
There is simply no one who can match up to him.
In 1989, if it was not for Ganesh Man, the coalition forces against the
earstwhile partyless system would never have come into existence; and we
would still continue to be under the Panchayat governance. There was no
other leader who saw the need to be united with the communists to present a
formidable force to the Panchayat system and to the palace.
Girija Prasad, for example, was never enthusiastic about rubbing shoulders
with the communists even though he knew that a coalition was required to
bring democracy. It was widely speculated that he was merely looking for an
opportunity to enter the Panchayat system and try to become prime minister.
This speculation, if it has even some hue of fact, would lead us to
conclude that Girija Prasad was never more interested in democracy than he
was in power. Going by Girija's more current action and theatrics, I have
no reason to doubt that this speculation was not baseless.
The basic difference between Ganesh Man and Girija Prasad, therefore, is
that Girija was always interested in power and was willing to get it at any
cost whereas Ganesh Man always thought of preserving national interests and
never ran after power of authority.
Amulya, this is not all there is to it, however. Ganesh Man, who has
implicitly sought to be known as a national leader and a statesman, is after
all someone who spent his life for Nepali Congress. Politics runs in his
blood. He is too seasoned a politician to be so politically naive as to leave
Congress party in a political lurch. He has spent too much time in this
party to retire from the party. He has almost achieved some kind of "divine
right" to be heard and followed, including by Girija Prasad.
However, Ganesh Man's feelings have been spurned by Girija too much and too
often. In the past few weeks, Ganesh Man surely did not expect the Supreme
Court to have ruled against Girija Prasad's move to recommend to King
Birendra dissolution of parliament. Given the inherent flaws (and I think
the extremist communists have been right all along on this issue) of
Nepal's Constitution, Girija may very well have had the technical authority to
do what he did.
I think this is where the irony lies. The main philosophy of the multiparty
system of polity is that whoever in the majority party is elected or
nominated the parliamentary party chief is invited by the King to form a
government. When Girija lost crucial vote in the parliament, the simplest
logic for the King should have been to imagine that the prime minister's
parliamentary party leadership was not only being questioned but being
challenged by his parliamentary party members. The King's action in
accepting Girija's recommendation of dissolution of parliament is no
better than King's acceptance of a similar recommendation by any other
parliament member.
Amulya, your point that the interpretation of the Constitution by a Supreme
Court headed by a person who himself was the chairman of the Constitution
drafting committee is very relevant and important. The ethics in
jurisprudence dictates that a court should interpret the *real intent* of
the law or a Constitution, and not merely engage in technical
interpretation. This is important, since a law or a Constitution is a
living will of the lawmakers, rather than a lifeless bundle of documents
with nothing but black and white letters.
Now, since the Chief Justice himself was the chairman of the Constitution
drafting committee, he knows best the *real intent* of costitutional
provision. It is, therefore, sad that the Supreme Court has failed the Nepalese
people in its interpretation of the Constitution.
It is small wonder, then, that Ganesh Man simply revolted against the
outcome of the Supreme Court ruling by simply doing the best he could at
this stage: Quitting Nepali Congress!
Now, no one is so politically naive to think that Ganesh Man will ever be
out of Nepali Congress. He is doing this because he has no choice. If he
stays on in the party, he has no option but to work for the party's victory
in November elections. Party's victory in the upcoming election will be a
jewel in Girija Prasad's political career-- something Ganesh Man is not
inclined to give. If he continues to rmain in the party but remains passive
in election campaigns he will be labeled as someone with petty personal
polical interests without any true love for the party. Since his love for
the party remains unfazed, the only way he could save the party from being
a spent force in Nepal's politics is by staying out of it for the time
being. Girija may have won battles, but has now lost the war.
Amulya, my analysis of the present political crisis in Nepal has become a
little too long than I intended. Let me know what you think. The coming
days will certainly be intersting to watch. By the way, I have, for the
past few weeks, been unable to post any article on SCN due to some
technical problem. If you think others on SCN might be interested to read
this viewpoint, you are welcome to post this message on SCN.
Sincerely,
Ajay
****************************************************************
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 17:26 EST
From: Jain <S=Jain%G=Vineet_K+p%BECHTEL@mcimail.com>
To: NEPAL NEPAL <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Subject: Looking for a Friend
Hi Everyone,
I am looking for an old friend - Rajesh Khanal. We studied together in New
Delhi and then he did his college from Bangladesh. The last I knew was that he
planned to come to the US for his masters. He resides in Kathmandu and his Dad
was with Royal Nepal Airlines.
My email address is a bit long winded. It is:
Jain%G=Vineet_K+p%bechtel@mcimail.com
Thanx
Vineet
**********************************************************************
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 94 14:16 EDT
To: a10rjs1%NIU.BITNET@INTERBIT.UGA.EDU
From: DGURUNG@CLEMSON.EDU
Subject: nepal digest
Title: $10,500 toilet to grace Mount Everest
Glasgow, Scotland (AP):
The World's tallest moiuntain will soon be the site of the world's
highest toilet.
Associated Metal, a Scotish firm that normally makes sinks and commodes
for hospitals, oil rigs and ships, has built a $10,500 state-of-the art
outhouse that will be installed 20,000 feet up Mountain Everest.
"Until now, climbers and Sherpas have had to go off and find boulders
and bushes to hide behind," said Phil Tolan, the company's managing
director. "Now life will be a bit more comfortable, private and clean
for them."
Stell ropes anchored with ice picks are intended to keep the toilet
and its occupants, from blowing over in howling Himalayan winds.
It comes equipped with a wooden seat for warmth and a lock for
privacy.
The tiolet is being shipped to Nepal, where sherpas will carry it up
the mountain in seven 50-pound sections that will be assembled
for use by the 55-member British Mount Everest Medical Expedition.
The group will conduct a research project on the mountain next month.
Whent the scientist will finish their work, the tiolet will be
dismantled and reassembled further down the slopes for use by visiting
mountain climbers.
Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay scalled Mount Everest's
29000 foot summit in 1953, hundreds of climbers attempting to follow
in their ffotstemps have left behind tons of garbage and human wastes
en route. The refuse decomposes slowly in the cold, rarefied environ
ment.
The Nepalese govt. has restricted the number of expeditions allowed and
raised fees in an effort to protect the peak's fragile ecology.
Note: This is an excerpt from local daily, "The News" from Greenville,
SC, USA.
**************************************************************************
From: RajeshA@aol.com
To: Nepal@cs.niu.edu
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 01:25:40 EDT
Subject: Resume:
Dear Friends,
I am currently working on my M.B.A. and will soon be hunting for a
job. I have been trying to put my resume and cover letter together and could
use some help. I would appreciate it if somebody would send me a copy of
their resume and cover letter (preferably a recent college graduate) or any
other helpful comments.. Your help would be very much appreciated.
Thank You,
Rajesh D. Acharya
Address: RajeshA @ aol.com
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