चाेखाे माया डट कम: जन्मभूमि नेपाल र नेपालीहरूमा समर्पित

 Devendra Gautam Growing up amid apple orchards and grain fields on the lap of Api, by the side of Humla Karnali and Humane Khola was fun, at least for a 'Gorkhali' kid of a senior government official. For the local people, all outsiders not from Karnali zone were 'Gorkhalis' back then and it was not unusual for the locals to dislike these outsiders.  Most probably, this dislike wells up from the bosom of the snowland from the times of re-unification of modern Nepal. Launched during the reign of King Prithvi Narayan Shah about 280 years ago, the campaign met an abrupt end after the Anglo-Nepal war of 1814-1816 that dismembered Nepal as it forced her to cede swathes of her territories. But the old wounds continue to fester as the state apathy toward genuine concerns of the zone turned province even after a switch to federalism from the unitary state system.   For outsiders, the Himalayan region offers a romantic view of life but for local communities, life is full of ...

  Birds of a feather? Birds of a feather flock together. So, isn’t it natural for Nepal’s leftist forces—the CPN (Maoist Center) and the CPN (UML) — to cobble together a new coalition, with a little help from the Rastriya Swatantra Party, CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajwadi Party?  Yes and no.  This is because Nepal’s leftist forces, barring a few exceptions, do not have much ‘Left’ left in them. In the course of time, they have watered down their ideologies so much that it is difficult to draw a line between them and the capitalist-to-the-core Nepali Congress.  Also, the CPN (UML)’s high animosity with the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led Maoist party and the Madhav Kumar-led outfit barely before the last general elections and after is still vivid in public memory. Just days before opting for a marriage of convenience, UML Chair KP Sharma Oli and Maoist Center Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal were busy hauling each other over the coals at every forum.  Do a people with ...