चाेखाे माया डट कम: जन्मभूमि नेपाल र नेपालीहरूमा समर्पित

Yours truly will try to be as objective -- and dispassionate -- as possible on a very very passionate issue between Nepal and India.  Most probably, you have guessed it already.  Indeed, yours truly is talking about India's plans to build high dams on Nepali territories, including the roughly 300-metre Koshi dam, to protect its territories from disasters during the rainy season and utilise waters accumulated on the laps of our hills during the rainy season for irrigation, navigation, power generation and for inter-basin transfer of water from water-surplus regions to water-deficit regions. At home, subservient political leadership has been on hard-sale for quite sometime, trying all sorts of tricks to create a support base for such projects among the public largely opposed to them after bearing for decades the disastrous consequences of the Koshi, Gandak and Mahakali treaties, by promising to operate vessels on these river systems once these mega structures come int...

Did Nepal raise the two most important issues in its relations with India during the visit of India's Minister for External Affairs, S Jaishankar?  First, what are those issues? Yours truly feels that they are: Cartographic aggression and demographic aggression.  It is hard to get the exact details of encroachment upon Nepali territories because our southern neighbour seems to be acting like an eraser erasing thin pencil lines drawn on a paper. But the Lipulek region in Nepal's Far-Western Region and the Susta region along the Narayani river basin are said to be the largest chunks of river that Nepal's southern neighbour has been occupying illegally.  An afterthought: Shall we not call these chunks of land India-occupied territories of Nepal?    In this context, the government-owned English daily,  The Rising Nepal , has recently run an  interview  ( http://therisingnepal.org.np/news/21217 ) with the celebrated border expert and the ...

Plastic ban on Everest  Climate change has climbed up the Himalayas. Increasing instances of melting of the Himalayan snow, Everest Brown Haze, glacial retreat and formation of glacial lakes and glacial lake outbursts (GLOF) with considerable losses downstream are some of the indications of an impending apocalypse on the lap of the Himalayas and far beyond, which will bring great perils if humanity fails to mend ways and live with the laws of the Nature. Amid this gloomy scenario, there's some good news. Awareness of climate change and its impact on the fragile Himalayan ecology is also climbing up the mountains.  The Republica daily reports about the decision of the executive council of Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality to ban plastic items of less than 30 microns thickness in the rural municipality, which is home to Namche Bazaar, the gateway to Mt Sagarmatha, the world's tallest peak that literally draws a large number of tourists, who leave behind a huge carb...

A recent protest for reservation near New Road, the heart of Kathmandu.  Affirmative action has always been an emotive issue around the world and will always remain so, it appears.  While its supporters say this provision is crucial for ensuring inclusion of indigenous nationalities and other marginalised communities in state organs, those against it argue that this is against the very spirit of free competition and meritocracy. Taking part in this debate are those, who say reservations should be for a certain period. They say that instead of allocating seats, the state should focus on boosting the capabilities of disadvantaged sections by taking appropriate measures, pointing that the reservation regime has benefited only a few people from upwardly mobile sections at the expense of 'others'.          So much for the intro from yours truly. Now the news.  The Kantipur daily writes that activists favouring reservation clashed with poli...

Introduced without much fanfare (ribbon cutting, coconut smashing, big promises and all that jazz), this column aims to offer a cursory reading of news reports appearing mainly in the Nepali print media. Though no big name in the Nepali media firmament, yours truly will try through this forum to offer an unbiased and insightful analysis of the stories by not discriminating against any publication big or small. The effort will be on coming up with this column daily, though yours truly admits that the task will not be that easy for a juggler. Hope you all will be with yours truly through thick and thin.  When the credibility of Nepal's political leadership is at an all-time low, secret visits of the top honchos of the ruling party, the CPN Double, will do little to improve the ratings.  Instead, such visits will further alienate the Nepali citizens from mainstream politics, contribute to the cause of domestic and foreign forces bent on destabilising the country fur...

Courtesy: welcomenepal.com The report The world's tallest peak, Mount Sagarmatha*, will surely get some respite if the government chooses to implement the report of a taskforce formed under Joint Secretary Ghanashyam Upadhyaya, it appears.  According to a report in the Kantipur daily, the taskforce report submitted to Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Yogesh Bhattarai, has proposed that only climbers, who have scaled six-thousanders and seven-thousanders, should be allowed to attempt the tallest peak .  The report, to be made public at the ministry at 1 pm on Wednesday, quoted a source as saying that a climber should have scaled a peak of around 6,500 metres before seeking to climb Sagarmatha.  This comes in the wake of increasing concerns worldwide about traffic jams at the world's tallest peak that has not only put climbers at risk but is also contributing to the degradation of the fragile Himalayan environment.  Indee...

What's happening in Jannat , (one of the) heavens on Planet Earth after India invoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, depriving Jammu and Kashmir of special status without taking local political parties into confidence, bifurcating amid a curfew like situation the erstwhile Muslim-majority independent state with a Hindu monarch that had to sign into the instrument of accession with India in the wake of looming threats from Pakistan  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_of_Accession_(Jammu_and_Kashmir) ?  The crisis in the Jannat has some of our political analysts overworked, but this is nothing compared to the punditry of some of the seasoned analysts across the southern border. Amazingly, some among our crop of analysts are consigning it as a purely domestic  (The link is in Nepali. Yours truly is posting this, with the belief that learning a bit of Nepali will do you guys no harm) matter of India, pointing that we do not need to rack our brains over i...

First of all, as a political observer, yours truly will try to be as dispassionate and neutral as possible on the emotive issue of the recent Indian move on Jammu and Kashmir. The move to revoke Article 370 of the Indian Constitution has ended the special status given for the state thus far. This means Indian citizens from outside the Kashmir Valley can purchase land , establish businesses and marry with local women without the latter having to lose special rights that they enjoy as the local citizens of Kashmir. Social media is already abuzz with Indian youths' plans to marry women from Kashmir. Perhaps a little bit of restraint and respect for a woman to choose her partner will do these people no harm.  On the contrary, it will do the Indian Union a huge amount of good.     Apparently, the move, in the eyes of the Indian state, is also meant to bring about deeper integration of J&K into the Indian Union.  If the union were really seriou...

What impact will the Indian move to bury Article 370 have on the Indian Union?  The move seems to have brought happiness to peoples in large parts of India. Are the people of Jammu and Kashmir also happy with this move? If so, why's there unprecedented security on the streets of Kashmir? Why is there a kind of curfew in the valley, with phone lines cut off, internet switched off, huge security deployment on the streets and local leaders in house arrest?       Will this move further bolster the union or weaken it to say the least?  How will it affect the relations between India and China, given the fact that the latter has already opposed the  move to bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories — J&K and Ladakh — in decisions that seek to assert the supremacy of the Indian Constitution over the frontier state and effectively rewrite a chapter in its turbulent post-Independence history? How will if affect t...

What do the rivers tell you?  While observing the gushing waters of the Vishnumati from the bridge and the river banks at the Balaju Chowk with a number of other curious peoples the other day, the rivers' message to humanity seemed, including those with houses and properties close by, to be loud and clear: Don't ever mess with us. Interfere with the ways of the Nature at your own peril.  Yours truly could surely have spent some more time over the bridge, but to his own peril. With such a huge amount of water flowing beneath, he got a dizzying feeling, it seemed to him as if the world around him was spinning and the ground beneath getting swamped. Aware of the inherent danger, yours truly headed home, only to find streets turning into gushing rivers, pedestrians and motorists trying hard to wade through them on the shallow waters of Dhungedhara.  Ironically, Mother Nature seemed to have realised our political leadership's vision of running vessels on our river...

Introduced without much fanfare (ribbon cutting, coconut smashing, big promises and all that jazz), this column aims to offer a cursory reading of news reports appearing mainly in the Nepali print media. Though no big name in the Nepali media firmament, yours truly will try through this forum to offer an unbiased and insightful analysis of the stories by not discriminating against any publication big or small. The effort will be on coming up with this column daily, though yours truly admits that the task will not be that easy for a juggler. Hope you all will be with yours truly through thick and thin.  No, we should not be indifferent to this extent. A recent report in blastkhabar.com reveals that around 50 peoples from 10 'flood-hit' families have come all the way to Dharan from Tikamgadh of Madhya Pradesh, India.  According to the Google Map, the distance between Tikamgadh and Dharan is 1,138.5 km via the National Highway 27 with the travel time of a...

Are we a free country, where anyone is welcome? You see, with the thick cover of forest no more there in the southern plains of Nepal and thin presence of Nepali security personnel along the border, there’s virtually no restriction on the free movement of peoples from Indian territories to Nepal, while the movement of peoples from Nepal to the other side of the border remains severely restricted with progressively increased presence of security personnel on the Indian side . For a smaller country like Nepal, it will be impossible to match India's border security presence in terms of number of troops, weapons and surveillance equipment. So, in the long run, we will have to shut the border altogether by desisting from opening one border point after the other for cross-border trade and transit with around two dozen trade points already in operation.  What of the historic, people-to-people ties, one may ask? Well, our giant neighbour has such relations with virtually every count...

Good god! What is this world coming to? One of the online news portals of Nepal, onlinekhabar.com , has claimed to have made a revelation that will do little to boost the image of Nepal’s paramilitary force, the Armed Police Force. Citing a source, it reports the arrest of Sub-inspector posted at the APF Battalion Number 1 Yogendra Raj Thapaliya, former constable Thanithan Singh Gurung, Ramesh Karki and Narayan Parajuli on the charge of their involvement in an attempted case of organ trafficking. This came to light after police rescued Vishnu Khadka (24) of Bangthali (Kavre) from Kathmandu about a week ago.   Fanindra Prasain, chief of the Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj, admitted the arrests. The report quotes Prasain as saying: The investigation into the case is going on, so we have kept it a ‘secret’. Gurung, the former constable, reportedly claimed during interrogation that his sister was a kidney patient and needed the kidney. But the investigation...

Introduced without much fanfare (ribbon cutting, coconut smashing, big promises and all that jazz), this column aims to offer a cursory reading of news reports appearing mainly in the Nepali print media. Though no big name in the Nepali media firmament, yours truly will try through this forum to offer an unbiased and insightful analysis of the stories by not discriminating against any publication big or small. The effort will be on coming up with this column daily, though yours truly admits that the task will not be that easy for a juggler. Hope you all will be with yours truly through thick and thin.  Another long season of political instability looms large in Nepal after a brief period of relative peace, it appears. Today's media reports indicate just that. The Annapurna Post daily reports that the Biplav-led CPN-Maoist has attacked 35 NCell towers in 21 districts.  The report, quoting Bipin, a member of the party's Seti-Mahakali bureau, says: The party has ...