In math, if only two out of three variables can be together, its permutation can have only three values. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) have teamed up three times since 2017, the last time just four months ago. The Maoists and the Nepali Congress (NC) also got hitched three times.&nbsp; But this is the first time in seven years that the third combination of a NC-UML coalition is being tired out. It was Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoists who, despite being the leader of a much smaller party by a long margin, used his swing vote to take turns hitching up with Sher Bahadur Deuba (NC) and K P Oli (UML). Now, Deuba and Oli have jilted Dahal.&nbsp; Together, the NC and UML have a majority in Parliament to form a new government, but Prime Minister Dahal is refusing to go, saying he will only do so after facing a confidence vote within a month. It is foregone conclusion that Oli will be prime minister for the fourth time, and (if he keeps his promise) hand over to Deuba who will head the government for the sixth time till the next elections in 2027. “The Prime Minister seems to have been taken aback by how suddenly these developments happened,” says political analyst Hari Sharma. “But seeking a confidence vote is a more dignified way for him to go.” Constitutional amendments need a two-thirds majority in both Houses. While the NC and UML have the numbers in the Lower House through support from smaller parties, it will not be possible to obtain a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly without support from the Maoist Center. Sharma adds, “These two parties have come together as a matter of convenience, not principle. A constitutional amendment is only a political cover to justify the alliance.” The NC and the UML say they want to scrap provisions in the 2015 Constitution that gave excluded groups a presence in the legislature through Proportional Representation, saying it led to frequent coalition changes and instability. They have also hinted at doing away with federalism and secularism.&nbsp; “One of the most important parts of the Constitution are inclusivity and proportional representation,” says Sharma. “To see it as a problem that needs a constitutional amendment will be regressive. It would have been more credible if the NC-UML alliance had gone for political or governance reform.” Oli and Deuba tried to give an ideological veneer of the need for constitutional amendment to their secretive midnight pact, but some say it was in essence a joint power grab to offset imminent investigations into scandals that both their top leaders are implicated in: the NC in the fake refugee scam, and the UML in a land grab of a state-owned tea estate in Jhapa.&nbsp; For now, the main priority of the NC-UML is power sharing. The NC is wresting the all-important Home Ministry from the RSP’s Rabi Lamichhane which has been investigating the fake refugee and tea estate scams. Lamichhane himself is being investigated for misappropriating funds from co-operatives. The UML is to get nine ministries, including Finance. Oli had been unhappy with what he called a “Maoist budget” saying there had been no consultation with coalition partners. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was the inability of Dahal and Oli to agree on the lucrative appointment of the head of the Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon).&nbsp; The two parties have also decided to divide up provincial governments with three each, except Madhes Province. There is a geopolitical dimension with China openly backing unity among Communist parties, while India and the West want to thwart a UML-Maoist government. On Wednesday, UML ministers resigned en masse, after the party had urged Prime Minister Dahal to clear the way for a new government. Lamichhane’s RSP has said that it will not be joining the new government, while the monarchist RPP and some smaller parties welcomed the NC-UML alliance.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024070413078_88fb6f8707ee4b34ec8d67f66b1da002e09c990b6c45c030032279e11f92f53a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024070413078_88fb6f8707ee4b34ec8d67f66b1da002e09c990b6c45c030032279e11f92f53a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1582" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="UML ministers resign NT"> <figcaption>UML ministers resigned en masse on Wednesday after the party withdrew its support of the Pushpa Kamal Dahal government. Photo: PRADEEP RAJ ONTA</figcaption> </figure>  Some experts say an NC-UML alliance of the two biggest mainstream parties will make the government more stable and fulfil the mandate of Nepali voters. Indeed, despite being the first and second largest parties, the NC and UML have been playing mostly supporting roles in alliances with the much smaller Maoist-Centre.&nbsp; Consecutive governments led by Deuba, Oli and Dahal have failed to stimulate the economy, curb inflation, create jobs, or commit to transitional justice. Corruption became endemic during their tenures. Lately, Deuba and Oli were increasingly spooked by Lamichhane’s corruption probes. Bechan Jha, who was arrested last week for involvement in the fake refugee scandal, reportedly had connections right to the top echelons of the NC. And UML leaders were getting anxious about investigations into the tea estate scam. Nepal’s cyberphere is bristling with speculation that investigations to both scandals will now be sidelined. Kathmandu’s populist mayor Balen Shah added fuel to the fire with a telling social media post of Deuba and Oli holding teacups.&nbsp; <div class="embed-block"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">यो समय गिरिबन्धु चियाको हो । काले काले मिलेर खाऊ भाले । <a href="https://t.co/ayi73w61mI">pic.twitter.com/ayi73w61mI</a>&mdash; Balen Shah (@ShahBalen) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShahBalen/status/1807975048130842936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div> Nepal’s mainstream leadership must be concerned about the rise of populist parties and the public outrage on social media about their greed and opportunism. They want to amend the Constitution so that smaller populist parties do not have a strong presence in Parliament through proportional representation. In the midst of all this, the RSP suspended General Secretary Mukul Dhakal for his scathing internal report critical of Lamichhane putting his political ambition above the interest of the party. The losers in the fast-paced political developments this week appear to be Dahal and the Maoists, Lamichhane and the RSP and Madhav Nepal of the Unified Socialists. However, in the public’s eye, all three mainstream parties are the same, and citizens do not have faith in the new NC-UML alliance improving their living conditions.

Shristi Karki

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Rapid fire governments in Nepal

At the stroke of the midnight hour, and with the stroke of a pen, Nepal’s government has changed for the third time in a year.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Centre is out of a job after his coalition partner the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) joined hands with the Nepali Congress (NC) to form a new government.&nbsp;
The NC had previously ditched the UML to join up with the Maoists, and the UML had again defected to join the Maoist-led coalition earlier this year.
According to the deal that will be endorsed by both parties on Tuesday, K P Oli of the UML and Sher Bahadur Deuba of the NC will take turns being prime minister for 18 months each till the next election in 2027.
This will be 73-year-old Oli’s fourth time as prime minister, while Deuba, 78, who first became prime minister 30 years ago, will head the government for the sixth time.
Although Oli and Deuba say they want to form a national consensus government, it is not clear if Dahal will agree to bring his Maoist party into the new coalition. The NC is the largest party in Parliament, while the UML is second strongest, and the Maoists are a distant third.
Prime Minister Dahal will now have to prove his majority in Parliament within a month, but he could also resign after which President Ram Chandra Poudel will officially ask the biggest two parties to form a government.
Oli will then become prime minister for the fourth time, although the third time he was prime minister in 2021, he was in office for just one week when the Supreme Court overturned his decision to dissolve Parliament.
NC and UML leaders have said a new national government is necessary because of the need for a majority in the House to pass amendments to the constitutions to possibly dilute provisions for proportional representation in the legislature, which they say has led to instability and frequent changes in government.
However, the UML, NC and to a lesser extent the Maoists appear to be worried about the rise of populist parties and leaders in the last elections cashing in on the popular disillusionment among Nepalis with the three established parties who have ruled Nepal continuously for nearly two decades.
But the two leaders seem not to have realised that it is precisely this kind of political promiscuity that has led to frequent reshuffling of coalitions between the three main parties.
The NC and UML could also be acting to preempt possible investigations into scandals that their leaderships have been implicated in. Top NC leaders have been named in the fake refugee scandal, and the UML has been tainted by allegations of huge land grab of a former government-owned tea estate in Jhapa district.
By being in government, both parties could sideline investigations into scams that their top leaders are allegedly involved in. As per details of the Deuba-Oli nocturnal deal leaked to the press, the NC will get 10 ministries including the powerful Home Ministry and the UML will have nine including the finance portfolio.&nbsp;
The fate of the fourth party in Parliament, the RSP, and its controversial Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane is also unclear at this stage. The RSP is in the present Dahal-led coalition and Lamichhane had bargained as a party with swing votes to insist on having the home minister’s post which he has used in the past year to deflect investigations into his citizenship and cooperatives scandals.
Dahal appears to have had wind of the Deuba-Oli rapprochement and had tried to convince the two leaders that they could join the coalition he led as prime minister. Till Monday, Dahal was trying to prevent a possible NC-UML alliance, giving speeches calling for a unity of left parties.
There could be a geopolitical angle to this, since the Chinese have openly said they favour Nepal’s Communist parties to unite. And because of this, India and the West have worked behind the scenes to prevent left-wing unity.
The UML-NC ‘coup’ would prevent the UML and the Maoists from being in the same government.
There is uncertainty about the abrupt recall of eight NC-appointed ambassadors last month by the UML-Maoist coalition. Now that the NC is back in power, will some of them be reinstated?
Another uncertainty surrounds the seven provincial governments which have risen and fallen in the past year, mostly in relation to which coalition is in power in Kathmandu. The NC-UML deal is also said to include a proportional distribution of provincial governments, even though that goes completely against the spirit of federalism and political devolution as enshrined in the Constitution.

Nepal government changes again

Nepal’s rulers have been suffering from an affliction called Serial Coalition Syndrome. Symptoms include: inability to see beyond personal greed and ambition, amnesia about the national interest, serious addiction to personal power, OCD about money, and wanton political promiscuity.&nbsp;
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal once again pulled the rug from under his main coalition partner to go off with a former ally whom he has ditched twice before. With this, Nepal has had eight governments in seven years.
The Maoists and the UML had an electoral alliance ahead of the 2017 election, after which they merged their parties. Then they divorced, and now are once more joined in holy matrimony. The country, meanwhile, is back to square one, not that it was faring all that well anyway.
The Nepali Congress (NC), its patriarch and five-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba got blindsided once more by Dahal’s checkmate, just as he had been twice before by King Gyanendra.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/catapulting-to-singha-darbar">Catapulting to Singha Darbar</a>, Kunda Dixit
Dahal and Oli now have a new deal of two years each as premier before the 2027 elections. In all likelihood, there will be another coalition shakeup when it is time for Dahal to hand over power to Oli. But this coalition has just 138 votes in Parliament, only enough to win a confidence vote and may not last that long.&nbsp;
However, the crux of the matter is that these coalition reshuffles are of no real concern or significance to ordinary Nepalis, and adds to public disillusionment with the mainstream parties. The RPP and independent mayor Balen Shah have been saying, “Didn’t we tell you there is no hope from these clowns?”
Even the RSP has squandered much of its goodwill because of its leader Rabi Lamichhane's impatience to be Home Minister again so he can launder his tainted image. Dol Prasad Acharya has also been reinstated as Labour Minister despite allegations of conflict of interest over his involvement in a migrant recruiting agency. The only saving grace for the RSP is that MIT-graduate Sumana Shrestha is now Education Minister.
Nepalis will have to continue trying to survive on the brink. Inequity in healthcare will persist, thousands of young Nepalis will migrate overseas every day, only to be fleeced by recruiters and state agencies.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/what-just-happened-in-nepali-politics">What just happened in Nepali politics?</a>, Nepali Times
The new alliance just ensures that Dahal will continue to be prime minister a bit longer. He also gets to put the blame for his government’s failures, underperformance, and major corruption scandals on the NC.&nbsp;
There are only four female ministers in the new Cabinet as coalition partners keep powerful portfolios for the men. It is even worse in the provinces: of the 67 chief ministers and ministers in the seven provinces before the coalition reshuffle, only 16% were women, mostly state ministers.&nbsp;
Women and minorities continue to be useful only to fill quotas. Even so, there are no Dalits in the Cabinet. Token women are handy like this week in the run up to International Women’s Day on 8 March.&nbsp;
And why must provincial governments have to mirror what happens at the centre? Just because there is regime change in Kathmandu, there is no reason why it has to change in Dhangadi. Why does the NC have to sack Maoist ministers from provinces it governs?&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/old-wine-in-old-bottles">Old wine in old bottles</a>, Editorial
The provinces have been given neither the authority nor revenue to govern properly, while corruption has been decentralised. Federalism so far has been a colossal waste of precious resources, where the centre’s inefficiency, incompetence, poor governance is multiplied by seven.
Top leaders are loath to decentralise, and as this week demonstrated, are more power-hungry than ever before. This is against the spirit of federalism and devolution.
Fortunately, many local governments of municipalities have shown accountability and are trying to improve services. If provinces are just going to be rubber stamps of the centre, then we might as well have a two-tier government with the federal government and local municipalities.&nbsp;
Anything goes in Nepali politics, and in power struggles, all is fair. Governance, transparency and accountability are of no consequence. The lives of ordinary Nepalis do not matter. Prime Minister Dahal and his comrades, new and old, could not have made it clearer with the coalition reshuffle.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/whose-country-is-it-anyway">Whose country is it anyway?</a>, Editorial
Sonia Awale

What difference does it make?

Dairy farmers have been dumping milk on the streets because they are owed Rs6 billion by buyers. Victims of loan sharks and cooperatives have stormed Parliament.&nbsp; And that was just this week. Nepalis are increasingly exasperated with a government formed just a year-and-a-half ago, and with three more years to go for the next elections. The problem stems from the third largest party, the Maoist Centre, having the prime ministerial and other powerful posts in government. The Nepali Congress (NC), the biggest party by far in Parliament, is behaving like a minor partner.&nbsp; Last week, there were vociferous demands at the NC General Committee meeting to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/unconventional-convention">abandon the coalition in the next election</a>, and this week the Maoist standing committee also decided to go it alone in the 2027 election. &nbsp; While both parties say they will not leave the current coalition, it is clear that the alliance is fraying at the seams.&nbsp; “The Maoists and Congress threatening to contest elections independently is more an election strategy than a signal that the coalition is falling apart,” says analyst Indra Adhikari.&nbsp; She adds, “It was more a reassurance to party members at a time of dissatisfaction and uncertainty within parties. Forming electoral alliances and forming coalitions are different matters.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240301030312_679e8cb5b9a920810276d7820eb5d11e49d326b1218f39c2ae1e254fc75fb126.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240301030312_679e8cb5b9a920810276d7820eb5d11e49d326b1218f39c2ae1e254fc75fb126" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="1848" loading="lazy" alt="Coalition collision NT"> <figcaption>Victims of loan sharks and cooperatives during a protest Pradarshani Marg. Photo: HARRAM BHETUWAL</figcaption> </figure>  The current coalition of erstwhile extreme Communists with a centre-right Congress could not be more ideologically different. It was cobbled together after the 2022 elections just so that the Maoists would not unite again with the opposition UML to form a powerful leftwing government. The NC, Maoists and the UML’s commitment to contesting the election independently pertain to electoral alliances formed before the polls, not coalitions formed after, Adhikari adds. The Maoist Centre’s two-day standing committee meeting discussed the anti-secular views of some NC members and Deputy Prime Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka's criticism of Maoist guerrilla excesses during the war. &nbsp; There is also mutual suspicion between the Maoists and NC over a deal that fell through involving the NC’s Krishna Prasad Sitaula as National Assembly chair in exchange for a Maoist heading <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/kosi-now-kathmandu-next">Kosi Province</a>. The NC did not back the Maoist candidate, so the Maoists are not supporting Sitaula.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024030103038_f04c9614d05be89a523282bcf253578166a2163880de41c7fe567098dab92702.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2024030103038_f04c9614d05be89a523282bcf253578166a2163880de41c7fe567098dab92702" data-rendition-name="original" width="1800" height="1199" loading="lazy" alt="Coalition collision NT"> <figcaption>Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Sitauls spoke at the NC Mahasamiti meeting last week. Photo: MADHV PRASAD GHIMIRE / RSS</figcaption> </figure>  According to a coalition power-sharing pact, Prime Minister Dahal is supposed to hand over the premiership to Sher Bahadur Deuba of the NC and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Unified Socialists later this year. &nbsp; “Coalitions in countries like ours are at risk of falling apart from the moment they are formed, they do not work without compromise between parties that have different ideologies,” explains Adhikari.&nbsp; UML chair K P Oli is already campaigning for 2027 with a ‘Mission-84’ slogan and likened the coalition to “a lump of ash that will crumble whether it is dry or wet”. Prime Minister Dahal appears to be mulling a Cabinet reshuffle in a bid to keep the coalition together. But his attempt to replace Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat of the NC is getting no support from Deuba.&nbsp; The opposition UML, RSP, and the RPP have all demanded the resignation of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Minister Prakash Jwala of the Unified Socialist, Health and Population Minister Mohan Basnet of the NC, as well as the Maoist Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sudan Kirati. Minister Jwala was caught up in a riot on the Ring Road in December in which protesters set fire to his car, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/karnali-to-korea-dream-dashed-in-kathmandu">and two people were killed </a>when the police fired at the crowd. An investigation found he disregarded security concerns. Health Minister Basnet is being probed by the anti-corruption bureau over a 2021 procurement of surveillance equipment for the Nepal Telecommunications Authority. And Kirati is implicated in a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/lharkyal-lama-s-lumbini-inc">scandal involving a private contract in Lumbini</a>.&nbsp; There were heated exchanges in Parliament this week as coalition MPs accused the opposition of the pot calling the kettle black. The UML has skeletons in its closet too, and the RSP’s Rabi Lamichhane is embroiled in controversies involving a cooperative and his citizenship. Says Indra Adhikari: “There is absolutely a need for leaders to reflect, take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, and be held accountable. The country's crises are too important.”

Coalition collision

<img width="1756" height="1420" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101124/6372094c9c7e80680e0b5533jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>This week it will be 26 years since the Maoists took up arms against the state, and 16 years since the war ended. Sher Bahadur Deuba was prime minister in 1996, just as he is now in an uneasy governing coalition with his erstwhile Maoist enemies. The war lasted ten years, leaving 17,000 dead. Unlike previous years, preparations for <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/20-years-wasted-in-war,2850%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank">‘People’s War Day’ </a>on 13 February are muted. This is to be expected -- the warring sides are now not just the state, but are members of the same governing coalition. Today, both Deuba and his Maoist coalition partner Pushpa Kamal Dahal want to brush the dirty business of war under the carpet. Two commissions set up to investigate war crimes are as good as defunct. Neither side wants to rake up the past, and hope that time will help erase memories of atrocities.  Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai presented Deuba with a 40-point ultimatum a day before Valentine’s on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/02/16/making-war-on-the-day-of-love/%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank">13 February 1996</a>. But even before the deadline ran out, guerrillas led by Nanda Kishore Pun and Barsha Man Pun attacked a police post in Rolpa district. Nanda Kishore <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/10/31/ex-guerrilla-is-vice-president/%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank">Pun</a> is now Nepal’s vice-president, Barsha Man Pun has been minister several times and just returned after medical treatment in China. He may have been convicted of war crimes, but Agni Sapkota is Speaker of Parliament. Guerrilla commander Janardan Sharma is Finance Minister in the coalition government. In 1996, Deuba was too busy extinguishing a rebellion within his Nepali Congress party (sound familiar?) to respond to the spreading Maoist insurgency. When the police did react, it was with such indiscriminate violence that it the Maoists had no trouble with recruitment. Despite the 1990 transition to constitutional monarchy and the short-lived euphoria of democracy, the Maoists felt this would not end feudalism. They believed that it was only possible to end the ‘structural violence’ of the state by taking up arms against it. They faithfully followed the ‘protracted armed struggle’ tactics of Mao, who himself was a disciple of Sun Tzu.  They chose a remote and inaccessible region of the country where state neglect, inequity and social injustice were entrenched. But objective conditions for revolt were so ripe, the state’s response so ham-handed, that the insurgency spread like wildfire.The Maoists wanted to topple parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy, and were backed by forces inside and outside Nepal with the same goal. Emboldened by early gains, the Maoists used the momentum of the royal palace massacre of 1 June 2001 to take on the Royal Nepal Army a year later. The level of violence and casualties escalated – an average of 35 Nepalis were being killed every day at the hands of fellow-Nepalis.King Gyanendra’s ill-advised coup of 2005 backfired, and people came out on to the streets. Their demands were peace and democracy, in that order. A military stalemate on the ground, war weariness, and lobbying by external peacemakers led to a ceasefire. In the 16 years since, Nepal has gone from war to peace, from monarchy to republic, from Hindu state to secularism, but not much else has changed. Despite a progressive Constitution, social exclusion and injustice prevail, there is chronic instability, impunity, lack of accountability and governance failure. For those who still remember the horrors of war, the sacrifices have been squandered. Nepal is back to where it was in 1996 and even the political protagonists are the same people. In an election year, there is a move to rollback federalism, secularism and even monarchy. History is once more repeating itself as a farce.      Ever since the Shaktikhor tapes in which he boasted on candid camera to have hoodwinked the United Nations by inflating his party’s militia strength so he could pocket more compensation from the state, Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been known for playing to the gallery. The ongoing political tug-o-war over the US-supported Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project has further exposed Dahal. The fact that he had co-signed (with Deuba) a letter to the MCC secretariat in Washington DC assuring it that he needed a few more months to build a consensus within the coalition for ratification by Parliament was diametrically opposite of what he was saying in public against the MCC. The political fallout has been damaging for PKD, even those sympathetic to his cause have taken him to task. Cartoonists and social media are having a field-day lampooning him. But Dahal has built such widespread public opinion against the project that he is now trying to portray himself as a staunch nationalist who stood up to American imperialism.   Dahal had two chances to serve as prime minister, and Bhattarai once. The two have fallen out long since, with Bhattarai now also threatening to split off from the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) because he cannot get along with another former Maoist Upendra Yadav. PKD’s Maoist party is now a shadow of its former fearsome self. Most of his staunchest comrades have abandoned him. Many may not even remember 13 February.

13 February

<img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101120/6372091c9c7e80680e0b5523jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>The date for local elections is now set in stone: 13 May to be held at once all over the country. But the path to voting booths is a political minefield.The five-party governing coalition is split right down the middle between the supporters and opponents of the American-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress (NC) and the JSP are for it, while the Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialists are against.But neither side has the numbers if the MCC’s ratification is put to the vote in Parliament. They would both need the UML, which has been playing coy in the opposition even though its leader K P Oli had backed it when he was prime minister.There are no permanent foes and permanent friends in politics, and this is most evident at election time. In 2017, the Maoists forged an electoral alliance with the UML and swept the elections, but they failed to make good use of the two-thirds majority and spent the better part of the last four years bickering. One of the reasons for the split was Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal using the MCC to bring down Oli.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-house-speaker-embroiled-in-mcc-row/">Nepal House speaker embroiled in MCC row</a>, Nepal TimesIt eventually led to the Communist alliance breaking up into Oli’s UML, Dahal’s Maoist Centre (MC) and Nepal’s Unified Socialists (US). And now, the American project threatens to split the governing coalition too.The MCC is now all mixed up with domestic election politics, and geo-strategic rivalry between the United States and China. Dahal’s MC and Nepal’s US, are both offshoots of a bigger party and are unsure of their electoral prospects if the coalition breaks. But if it does they can whip up the MCC as an election issue against Deuba and Oli.The NC is divided about an electoral alliance with coalition partners. Prime Minister Deuba wants to pass the MCC and hold the coalition together, but powerful NC figures want to field elections for all three levels on their own. The opposition UML has a strong local base, but will not be opposed to an alliance if it can garner more seats.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/mcc-damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-dont/">MCC: damned if we do, damned if we don't</a>, Nepali TimesThis is why the MCC can be a deal-maker or deal-breaker. Only Deuba’s NC and JSP in the governing coalition are for the $500 million infrastructure project. Even within the JSP, Baburam Bhattarai and Upendra Yadav seem to have opposing views, with the former prime minister publicly supporting the grant. The Americans are piling on the pressure, saying they will wait till the 28 February cutoff date for House ratification, failing which they will pull out.Dahal and Nepal on the other hand, seem to be under Beijing’s spell. They have held several virtual meetings with top officials of the Communist Party of China who regard the MCC as a US strategic response to their own Belt Road Initiative (BRI).The media leak this week of a letter to the MCC co-signed by Deuba and Dahal dated 29 September 2021 has put the Maoist leader in hot water. Dahal was assuring Washington that he would work to form a consensus in the coalition, all the while opposing the MCC at home.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-cost-of-no-mcc/">The cost of no MCC</a>, Nepali TimesParliament needs to sit for a ratification vote, but the House has not had a proper session for six months. Oli has been blocking House proceedings because Speaker Agni Sapkota has not evicted breakaway members of the Unified Socialists. And Sapkota, who is a close Dahal confidante, once more pushed a Parliament session slated for 9 February by a week.This gives Deuba more time to cobble together numbers in the House for ratification before the American deadline. If Dahal and Nepal do not go along, he will have to get the UML on board – and that means the collapse of the coalition.In fact, the MCC has now become a bargaining chip for both the UML and the Maoist-Unified Socialists to use against Deuba. But the prime minister knows that Dahal and Nepal need an electoral alliance with him more than he needs them. The Maoists are said not to even have enough candidates to field in local government elections in May.Meanwhile, fringe Communist parties including the Netra Bikram Chand faction of the Maoists have resumed anti-MCC protests outside Parliament. And Mahanta Thakur of the smaller LSP is making an unrealistic bid for local elections to be postponed in Madhes Province by three months.The $500 million MCC compact will be used primarily to upgrade transmission lines to distribute electricity from existing and new hydropower plants in central and eastern Nepal, and also connect to a high-capacity line to Gorakhpur so Nepal can sell surplus monsoon electricity to India.The cost of no MCC equals a loss of Rs142 billion a year for Nepal by 2025 when generation capacity is expected to rise four-fold to 5,000MW. Much of it risks being wasted without the transmission lines to evacuate power. Read more:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/china-lobbying-against-mcc/">China lobbying against MCC</a>, Ramesh Kumar<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/missing-links-in-nepals-mcc-debate/">Missing links in Nepal's MCC debate</a>, Jeevan R Sharma and David SeddonAmerican lobbying for MCC went into high gear on thursday when US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu called Prime Minister Deuba, Dahal and Oli separately to warn that the US would recalibrate its relations with Nepal if they failed to ratify the compact.This followed a slew of visits by high-ranking MCC officials to Nepal in October-November last year to warn Nepal that the MCC contract was timebound.Lu is also reported to have a key message to all three leaders: failure to ratify the MCC would be seen in Washington as Nepal buckling under Chinese pressure. Left unsaid in that warning was that Nepal may have to face a similar predicament to Sri Lanka, which has faced ostracisation after rejecting its own MCC project that has led to the country sinking into a deep economic crisis.

Sonia Awale

The deal-breaker

<figure><img width="3600" height="2193" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161156/636d1f1e9c7e80680e0af44ajpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: RSS</figcaption></figure>After Nepal’s three major political parties held long overdue <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/unconventional-party-conventions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">party conventions</a>,  it was the turn this week of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre). But the question of who will lead a party that waged a ten-year war is a foregone conclusion.Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who had the nom de guerre ‘Prachanda’  when the Maoists waged their armed struggle from 1996-2006, is the undisputed leader, even through there are grumblings within the party that he is adhering to a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/pushpa-kamal-dahal-is-still-prachanda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cult of personality</a>.In fact, after hefty criticism on social media, the party on Monday took down a larger than life cutout of Dahal at the convention venue at the Nepal Academy in Kamaladi.On Sunday, the party’s 8th general convention was inaugurated in the presence of political leaders from across the political spectrum. Dahal’s former comrade-at-arms K P Oli of the UML, whom he unseated as prime minister earlier this year, did not attend – just as Dahal had skipped the UML’s convention in Chitwan last month.The assembly of Nepal’s third-largest political party, rebranded ‘general convention’ from ‘national conference’ only a day before the event was set to begin, has put Nepalis into an election frame of mind. Indeed, the speeches at the inauguration were all election pitches by Prime Minsiter Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress, Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Unified Socialists and Shankhar Pokharel, the UML General Secretary.A total of 1,631 delegates from across the country are present at the three-day convention, and will elect the Maoist party chairman, 15 office bearers, and a 299-member Central Committee. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/all-eyes-on-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">All eyes on 2023</a>, Mukesh PokharelThe standing committee meeting that decided to rebrand the Maoist conclave as a general convention also changed the number of office bearers ahead of the convention,  which means that the leadership will include the chairman, one senior vice-chairman, six vice-chairmen, one general secretary, two deputy general secretaries, three secretaries and a treasurer. Earlier, the Maoists had a senior vice president and deputy secretary general.Even as the party increases its leadership seats, the Maoist convention, like the UML and NC <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-congress-party-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">conclaves that preceded it</a>, is set to reaffirm that Nepal’s politics will still be guided by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/oli-sweeps-uml-party-polls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">veteran politicians unwilling to give up their seats of power</a> -- at least until the next five years. The only outlier was the Hindu-right RPP, which replaced veteran Kamal Thapa with new comer Rajendra Lingden.Insiders have accused Dahal of repeatedly sidelining rivals within the Maoist party, but he is set to be elected party chair for another five years. Narayan Kaji Shrestha on Monday announced his bid for party leadership in a closed-session, but he does not stand a chance.Dahal has been so adept that removing rivals for leadership that many like Baburam Bhattarai and other comrades have left to join other parties.  In his remarks before the convention, Dahal struck an introspective tone while also urging party members to reflect on the Maoists’ journey, and the mistakes made from the armed insurgency to the present.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-rudderless-political-leadership/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal's rudderless political leadership</a>, Santa Gaha Magar “Party cadres as well as the Nepali people have begun to feel shortcomings of the part of the political leadership,” Dahal said before the convention, “I am morally responsible for these shortcomings, and I will begin with self-reflection.  All of us need to introspect.”Meanwhile, political leadership from other political parties made notable remarks on issues ranging from the much-contested Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to social and transitional justice to  Maoist reunification.Prime Minister Deuba, recently re-elected party leader at his own NC general convention, maintained that the MCC would be ratified in Parliament soon, while seeming to pointedly address Dahal as he urged the detractors of the MCC to “actually read and be informed on the terms of the MCC before branding it as anti-national, traitorous, and against the interest of the country”. Deuba softened the blow, however,  by lauding Dahal’s “great contribution to Nepali politics … it was under your leadership that we held the election of the Constituent assembly and ultimately drafted our Constitution”.Read also: <a style="font-weight: 600;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/battle-lines-drawn-for-nepal-elections/">Battle lines drawn for Nepal elections</a>, Nepali Times<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/political-expediency-trumps-nepal-constitution/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Newly-minted CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman</a> Madhav Kumar Nepal struck a similar tone as Dahal in his remarks saying that all the political parties need to introspect. “We have failed to address the people’s problems,” he said. “We need to reflect on where we went wrong.”Meanwhile, CP Gajurel, Vice Chairman of the CPN (Revolutionary Maoist), a breakaway faction of the Maoists formed under leader Mohan Baidya,  said that the time has come for Nepal’s Maoists to reunite. Rastriya Janamorcha vice-chairperson Durga Poudel, speaking about the rise in voices against republicanism and secularism, spoke of the importance of a united front to defeat political regression. JSP Chairman Upendra Yadav said that Nepal would not prosper until all forms of discrimination end, saying that issues of the emancipation of Madhesi, Adivasi, Janajati, Dalit and minority communities linked with the People’s Movement of 2006 were still neglected. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-democracy-too-expensive-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Is democracy too expensive for Nepal</a>?Even though the UML’s Oli did not attend the convention, he is said to have called Dahal on the phone. The UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel regretted the failure to maintain the unity of the erstwhile Nepal Communist Party (NCP) which comprised the UML and the Maoists.On Monday, Dahal presented his political report titled The Path to Socialism in the 21st Century before the seven-member closed-session that includes Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Giriraj Mani Pokhrel, Ganesh Shah, Parshuram Tamang, Parshuram Ramtel, Purna Kumari Subedi and Rupa Shrestha Maharjan.The Maoist Chairman also spoke at length about the need to resume ’Prachandapath’— his guideline to Maoist cadres on achieving a successful revolution that was discontinued after the introduction of the peace process, as well as the need to achieve ‘scientific socialism’ through  a peaceful movement.“The document includes reviews of where we went wrong in the past in terms of ideas, organization, structure building, and strategy,” Dahal had said on Sunday.Indeed, analysts have previously attributed the failure of the Maoists to rise to national stature to Dahal’s disinterest in building any kind of functional institutional party structure.Read also: <a style="font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/purchasing-power/">Purchasing power</a>, Ramesh Kumar

‘Tis the season of conventions in Nepal

<figure><img width="1364" height="740" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d17f99c7e80680e0ac798jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>Three months after <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/deuba-5/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">assuming office for the fifth time</a>, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday finally expanded his Cabinet after reaching a power-sharing agreement with his coalition partners.Sixteen new ministers and two new state ministers were inducted to be later sworn in by President Bidya Devi Bhandari. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-is-delaying-nepal-cabinet-expansion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">appointments were delayed</a> by haggling over important ministerial portfolios between four of the five members of the coalition, and between factions within individual parties.The Cabinet expansion triggered a widening controversy this week as news emerged that Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana wanted two of his nominees to also be given ministries. This raised objections from a cross-section of the media as well from within the legal fraternity and Prime Minister Deuba’s own Nepali Congress (NC).Critics saw this as not just going against the accepted practice of not nominating unelected representatives to the Cabinet, but also because of what they characterised as a blatant violation of the doctrine of separation of powers.  In the end, Deuba only took in one of the candidates reportedly proposed by Chief Justice Rana: Gajendra Bahadur Hamal who is now Industry, Commerce and Supplies Minister.Hamal is the brother-in-law of Chief Justice Rana, and has also been a long-standing NC member in western Nepal, but was not a MP in the federal Parliament. Rana refuted allegations that he had proposed Hamal’s ministership, but most analysts believe that he was exacting a pound of flesh for his landmark Supreme Court ruling in May that led to Deuba replacing K P Oli as prime minister.The coalition partners have <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/government-in-installments/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">divided up the ministerial portfolios</a> such that the NC has eight ministers, and the Maoist Centre (MC) has five, while Upendra Yadav’s JSP and Madhav Nepal’s UML Unified Socialist (US) have four ministers each. (See list, below)The MC, US, and the JSP also have one state minister each.The expansion had been delayed due to competing demands within members of the five-party alliance, including from the Ram Chandra Poudel faction of Deuba’s own NC, as well as factions within Nepal’s UML-US party. And since this is going to be a coalition that will oversee elections in 2023, the parties all wanted influential ministries like home, foreign, communication, or those with the biggest budgets: education, agriculture, transport and physical infrastructure.While the MC had already sent its list of recommended ministers to Deuba on Wednesday, and the UML-US had reached an internal agreement, the JSP and NC were still finalising their list of ministers till early Thursday.Of the eight ministers from NC, Deuba has distributed the Law and Defence Ministries to Poudel loyalists: Dilendra Prasad Badu and Minendra Rijal respectively. Additionally, Uma Kanta Chaudhary from the NC’s Krishna Prasad Sitaula camp has been appointed Minister of Water Supply.The NC had already taken Home, Foreign, and Law Ministries when Deuba took office three months ago. Now it also has Ministries of Communications and Information Technology, Women, Children and Senior Citizens, and Industry, Commerce and Supplies.  <figure><img width="1260" height="686" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d17fb9c7e80680e0ac799jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The MC had also reserved two powerful ministries for itself soon after joining the coalition in May: Janardan Sharma at finance, and Pampha Bhusal at energy. The Maoists have now added Devendra Poudel at the Education Ministry, Sashi Shrestha at Land Management. The JSP has got the miniseries in agriculture, physical infrastructure and transport, forests and federal affairs. <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-post-breakup-politics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Madhav Nepal’s UML-US</a>, which joined the political alliance after Deuba’s controversial ordinance to amend the Political Parties Act allowed him to break away from former prime minister K P Oli’s UML, has the Health, Labour, Culture, Tourism and Urban Development Ministries. <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/political-expediency-trumps-nepal-constitution/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Deuba later repealed the ordinance</a> at great moral and political cost to make way for cabinet expansion because the move was seen to have bent the Constitution to fulfil his partisan interest. Among the new ministers appointed today, none are from the senior leaders of the parties which have nominated their second-rung leaders. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/pushpa-kamal-dahal-is-still-prachanda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pushpa Kamal Dahal</a> of the MC, Madhav Kumar Nepal of the UML-US have already become prime ministers before, and Upendra Yadav of the JSP has been minister many times in previous coalitions. This also means that Deuba has not had to appoint anyone deputy prime minister for reasons of seniority. Notable among the new ministers are the UML-US’ former firebrand student leader Ram Kumari Jhankri as Minister of Urban Planning. Besides her, four other ministers are women:  the NC’s Uma Regmi as Minister of Women and Children, Renu Yadav of the JSP as Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, and the previously appointed Pampha Bhusal of the Maoist as Minister of Energy. And Sashi Shrestha of the RJM as Minister of Land Management. List of Ministers: Prime Minsiter:  Sher Bahadur Deuba, NC Home Ministry: Bal Krishna Khand, NC Communication and Information Ministry: Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, NC Energy, Water and Irrigation Ministry: Pampha Bhusal, MC Federal Affairs and Administration Ministry: Rajendra Prasad Shrestha, UML US Health and Population Ministry: Birodh Khatiwada, UML-US Finance Ministry: Janardan Sharma, MC Defence Ministry, Minendra Rijal, NC Water Supply Ministry: Uma Kanta Chaudhary, NC Foreign Ministry: Narayan Khadka, NC Physical Infrastrucutre and Transport Ministry: Renu Yadav, JSP Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry: Prem Bahadur Ale, UML-US Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry: Dilendra Prasad Bandi Education Ministry: Devendra Poudel, MC Agriculture Ministry: Mahendra Rai Yadav, JSP Women, Children and Senior Citizens Ministry: Uma Regmi, NC Urban Development Ministry: Ram Kumari Jhankri, UML-US Industries Ministry: Gajendra Bahadur Hama NC (Uneleected) Forests and Environment Ministry: Ram Sahaya Yadav, JSP Land Management Ministry: Sashi Shrestha, MC Labour Ministry: Krishna Kumar Shrestha, MC Youth and Sports Ministry: Maheswar Jung Gahatraj, MC State Ministers PMO Office: Umesh Shrestha, NC Health Ministry: Bhawani Prasad Khapung, UML-US Education Ministry: Bodh Maya Kumari Yadav, MC

Nepal govt fills Cabinet after 3 months

<img width="800" height="436" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121144/636ce44d9c7e80680e0966a0jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>There are just so many layers of party and factional interests, alliances and dalliances, marriages of convenience and messy divorces, egos, ambitions, and personal vendetta involved, that it is difficult to delve beyond daily headlines about who stabbed whom in the back today.We must start with the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-1-party-2-central-committees-system/">central protagonist</a>, the man everyone seems to love to hate, Prime Minister K P Oli. He has proved all pundits wrong by surviving both medically and politically. This does not look like a man who has two kidney transplants—he appears stronger than ever.  He has outlasted <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/i-had-no-other-option-pm-oli/">relentless pressure</a> from the combined strength of rivals within the NCP and a constant media broadside, to unseat him. When cornered, he has used nationalism,  divided and ruled, used and discarded former comrades, and even dissolved the House and threatened elections to get his way.Oli is wily, but a statesman he is not. Had he been, he would have found other ways than <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/muscle-vs-muscle-in-nepal/">full-frontal attacks on rivals</a>, concentrating instead on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/its-broke-fix-it/">providing leadership</a> on issues that really matter to Nepalis – <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-a-state-of-disillusionment/">jobs, inflation, education, health and Covid impact</a>. He has spent all his time and energy running circles around <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dahal-nepal-hold-anti-oli-rally/">Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal.</a>If anyone wanted to dismantle Nepal’s Communist movement, no one would have done a better job than Prime Minister Oli. He <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/unity-with-the-maoists-did-not-work-out/">cracked open the NCP,</a> then he got to work on his own UML, weeding out the disgruntled Nepal faction. Oli might have been seeking revenge on Nepal, but by sidelining him, he has effectively splintered the UML as well.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/efforts-to-cobble-back-the-uml/">Efforts to cobble back the UML</a>, Mukesh Pokhrel <img width="640" height="343" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121144/636ce44f9c7e80680e0966a1jpeg.jpg" alt="">Oli has become such a central figure that as factions of the four main parties jostle to find coalition partnerships, they are all divided depending on whether they support the prime minister or not. First, his UML itself is divided, with the Nepal faction behaving like an opposition party. Oli’s strategy now is to woo away Nepal loyalists like Jhalnath Khanal, whom President Bidya Devi Bhandari went to meet at his home last week.The Maoist Centre has also lost its senior comrades to Oli’s Cabinet: Ram Bahadur Thapa, Top Bahadur Ryamajhi and others. The party removed them from MP-hood on Tuesday, but cannot seem to decide what to do next. A Nepali Congress (NC) Central Committee meeting this week called for the resignation of Prime Minister Oli. But the meeting started five hours late because of a disagreement between Sher Bahadur Deuba and Ram Chandra Poudel on whether or not to join a coalition government led by Oli.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-crucible-of-fragile-coalitions/">A crucible of fragile coalitions</a>, Shekhar Kharel <img width="640" height="322" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121144/636ce4529c7e80680e0966a2jpeg.jpg" alt="">This indecision in the main opposition NC has put the third and fourth parties, the Maoist Centre and the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), in a bind. They do not have the numbers by themselves to challenge Oli. However, there is discord within the JSP also. And the cause is, once again, whether to support Oli or not. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/jsp-as-nepals-king-maker-party/">Party chair Mahantha Thakur</a> and Rajendra Mahato have publicly stated that they are inclined to work with Oli’s UML. But the JSP’s other leaders Upendra Yadav and Baburam Bhattarai are vehemently opposed.Because of the JSP’s swing vote in the House, Thakur has emerged as the kingmaker in coalition negotiations. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/oli-vs-dahal-1-upmanship/">Maoist Centre</a> and the NC need the JSP to unseat Oli, and Oli himself needs the JSP to form the next government if the UML loses the support of the Maoist Centre.   <img width="640" height="399" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121144/636ce4549c7e80680e0966a3jpeg.jpg" alt="">However, even though Dahal threatened last week to pull the rug from under the UML, his Maoist Centre’s Standing committee meeting decided that time was not ripe to do so. The Maoists have 54 MPs, and if they withdraw support for the UML, which has 121 seats, Prime Minister Oli will have to seek a vote of confidence in the House. Oli will need 138 MPs on his side to win the vote, and will court the JSP with 34 seats or the NC with 63 seats. Dahal knows that if he withdraws support there is every likelihood that either Deuba or Thakur will side with Oli to form an election government. And Maoist leaders know that early elections will be disastrous for them.With all four parties tangled over their support and opposition to Prime Minister Oli, therefore, Nepali politics is hopelessly knotted up.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/house-of-cards/">House of cards</a>, Editorial

Untangling the knots

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3b49c7e80680e09666cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720"/><figcaption>Illustration: DIWAKAR CHETTRI</figcaption></figure>The man of the week in Nepali politics is Mahant Thakur of the Janata Samajbadi Party. He is being courted by both the Maoist Centre, the Nepali Congress and the K P Oli-led UML.The country has been mired in political games, ever since the Supreme Court restored the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/i-had-no-other-option-pm-oli/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/i-had-no-other-option-pm-oli/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1617692393603000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEbsgI2tOFeX6qxx4SDeJa5y9JQ8Q">House of Representatives</a> on 23 February. However, after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict to resuscitate NCP (UML) and NCP (Maoist Centre) on 7 March, there has been an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/muscle-vs-muscle-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/muscle-vs-muscle-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1617692393603000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGbn7z3rWp0xoNrgQkuRW0ziZR6sg">impasse</a>.The UML is the largest party in the House with 121 seats. In order to attain majority, it needs the backing of one of the other parties in the house-- the NC, Maoist Centre and Janata Samajbadi Party.The Parliamentary arithmetic is such that the UML needs the JSP to form a new government, or to survive a possible no-confidence vote. The Maoist Centre can only withdraw its support for the UML if it can get the numbers from the NC and the JSP.The NC itself requires the JSP MPs on its side to ally with the Maoist Centre. Which is why various political leaders have been making a bee line to the Mahant Thakur residence in Sano Thimi this past week.The UML is not in favour of forging a partnership with NC, the chief opposition in the House, with 63 seats in the lower house. The Maoist Centre which has 54 MPs, have repeatedly stressed on withdrawing their support to the government at any given time. In this scenario, the 34 seats held by the JSP will be enough to bail out the government.The leaders of the Oli faction say the possibility of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/a-kathmandu-spring/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/a-kathmandu-spring/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1617692393603000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEBu8negwV_Echty4HOzMRDmtnVDw">forming a government</a> with the JSP is “highly probable”. As per the demand by the JSP for the release of Resham Chaudhary, the government has not just constituted a dialogue team, but the team has already started deliberations. So, is the JSP all set to form a coalition with the UML? Mahantha Thakur  spoke to Nepali Times about his preference.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3b79c7e80680e09666djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="889" height="605"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Nepali Times: You said recently in Janakpur that talks with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli are progressing positively. Are the UML and the JSP inching close to an agreement regarding formation of a new government?Mahant Thakur: We have held several rounds of discussions with Oli. He has said he will not resign and if the motion of no confidence comes up, he will face it and if the result does not favour him, then he will go for a fresh mandate. We have put forward our demands. The Prime Minister has sought the opinion of the Attorney General. He is seeking legal advice to decide on what procedure to adopt. This is why I said the dialogue was positive, but no decisions yet.The Prime Minister has not given assurance to fulfill your demands?PM Oli has said he will do his best regarding our demands. He gave us three options. First would be participating in the government. Second, would be to support the government from outside, and third, if we do not go with them, then we should not go anywhere. Our friends lost lives in jail, fighting for their rights. They were injured and even physically disabled. We will decide what to do after these issues are resolved.What are your demands?Release of prisoners, Constitution amendment to address citizenship-language issues. Most of the leaders of today have either made it by taking up arms or have been through prison sentences. All of them have already received clean chit. Our politics has never been for power. Cases have been filed against us because we were demonstrating for our rights. In just 13 districts of Madhes, there are 292 registered cases against more than 1,200 people.Prachanda himself admits there are many cases against him, but those cases do not affect him. On the contrary, we are facing punishment for merely protesting to demand our legitimate rights. We had reached an agreement in writing with both Oli and Prachanda in the past on amending the Constitution, so that our demands could be addressed. But it was not implemented.Can Resham Chaudhary and others who were convicted by courts also be released in the name of political consensus?Resham Chaudhary was not present there on the day the Tikapur incident happened. He is not involved. The ones who were responsible for the massacre fled. Everyone is aware of the fact that Resham Chaudhary is innocent. He was victimised because where the incident occurred is a Tharu settlement.Which of the parties do you think will more likely back your demands?  So many things are best left unsaid until the time is right. In the present context, the Nepali Congress who was expected to lead the government has stepped back, so it is not possible for them to address our demands. The House constituted for five years was dissolved by PM Oli within three years. Even though the Supreme Court has reinstated the House, Prachanda is protesting against Oli. Technically, they still have not separated from Oli. So there is no ground for us to be confident regarding support.Has this indecision itself split your own party? It has been less than a year since our party was unified. We had to reorganise the ranks during the merger. When a party unifies, it is not possible to keep the posts from the previous parties intact. Some positions might be annulled. That causes tension in the party. But whatever the decision, we have agreed to forge ahead as a unified party. We had agreed on every individual providing their own inputs during deliberations and making unanimous decisions when the merger happened. We will not back unilateral decisions.Your name has also come up as a possible Prime Minister.  Madheshis are remembered only when there is a major crisis. People from the Madhes are brought to the forefront only when a mass is required during protests. During the premiership of Baburam Bhattarai, after Nepali Congress and UML declined to head towards the poll under his leadership, my name was suggested. Even now, the circumstance is dire and there seems to be public support, as well. But to actually be nominated as a Prime Minister, an agreement has to be reached in the House.Oli has not offered you to become the Prime Minister?No, he has said he will not resign.Have Nepali Congress and Maoists offered the JSP leadership of a new government?Both Congress and Maoist have sought our support. But they have not asked us to take leadership. During a meeting with us, Sher Bahadur Deuba said he would not table a no-confidence motion, but that if the offer of Prime Minister comes up, he would think about it. He offered to make a coalition government with our support, but we said that we would not form a coalition until our demands were met.By when will your party decide whom to support in the government? The first executive committee meeting scheduled for March could not be held due to inadequate preparations, as the political report to be presented at the meeting had not been finalised. More work is being done in the context of adjustment, so the meeting is yet to happen. Now that Holi is over, we will soon be fixing a date for the meeting.  It will discuss our stance on the current political stalemate, among other things.Full interview in Nepali in Himal Khabarpatrika: <a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/122703" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/122703&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1617692393603000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFQK7-C8MrhW_J1iYVFxYDwDZ4Peg">https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/122703</a>

JSP as Nepal’s king-maker party

Architecture can be a powerful agent of change, shaping not just spaces but the way people live, connect, and experience the world.&nbsp; For Nepal, which is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/natures-fragile-gift-to-nepal">gifted by nature</a> and rich in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/ambassador-fund-cultural-preservation-nepal,2092">cultural heritage</a>, &nbsp;reviving rural architecture with modern amenities could hold the key to more <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-sustainable-tourism-means-in-practice">sustainable tourism </a>that benefits local people more. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/bayalpata-hospital-in-nepal-wins-global-design-award">Design and architecture</a> are amazing tools to create a unique experience for visitors,” says Spanish architect Tomeu Esteva of Esteva i Esteva Architecture Studio. “Difficult destinations have beautiful hotels with design and comfort.” Esteva was in Kathmandu with his colleagues at an event organised by the Spanish Honorary Consulate at Dwarika’s Hotel last week to showcase buildings which Nepali architects can adapt with local material and design inputs.&nbsp; Rural architecture holds a unique significance: it is more than a shelter and must reflect <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/inking-an-idenity">local identity, culture</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-humla-from-heritage-loss">heritage</a>. An area’s natural and cultural harmony can be upset by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-protected-areas-from-infrastructure?fbclid=IwAR1wK0MDFlFST_2EYb3f54LS4-fPt6rYfLG1DJ1JaQsU3w8-ezyXIxGOqzk">poorly planned development</a>, speakers at the event said, but the environment can be improved and revitalised by well-integrated structures.&nbsp; Another Spanish architect, Belen Moneo, has designed hotels at elevations of 3,700m in her home country Spain that supply natural spring water spas. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/lost-in-reconstruction">Creativity in construction</a> must be encouraged. Rural architecture always shows possibilities of what we can do better,” Moneo explains, adding that designs must enhance <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-healing-power-of-nature">the beauty of nature</a> and give a natural feel at a time when steel, glass and cement dominate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/rebuilding-kathmandu-after-the-1934-quake">urban design</a>.&nbsp; This is why the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/weaving-nature-into-craft">use of natural products</a> such as bamboo, local timber, straw and rammed earth are in demand from customers who want a fresh eco-friendly look encouraged in construction of rural architectural structures. The demand for boutique hotels has increased world over, with &nbsp;more and more tourists favouring aesthetics, experience and comfort over price. While creativity is an important part of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/architecture-for-mountains">construction and architecture</a>, incentives to build and use <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Building,370">rural construction materials</a> still remain minimal, and Moneo emphasises the significance of design and execution.&nbsp; Esteva helped design the Vana Retreat in Dehradun that kept the natural environment in focus, with the structure giving an elaborate aesthetic experience to visitors. Another example is Hotel Las Mercedes in the Dominican Republic which was designed and constructed by Moneo and the company she co-founded Moneo Brock, respecting and revaluing the traditional architecture of the area. Hotels providing such experience could attract tourists and revenue. The Spanish ambassador to Nepal Juan Antonio March Pujol said, “The role of architecture and architects in developing tourism is crucial, not only in urban areas but rural settings as well.”&nbsp; The concept of rural boutique hotels gained traction in Spain during the 1990s, particularly in regions like Majorca with economic and environmental sustainability as the main focus. In Nepal <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/12-full-opinion/guiding-nepal-s-tourism-industry">the tourism industry</a> directly employs about 1 million people, and makes up about 8% of the country’s GDP. In Nepal, the stone homes of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/reviving-himalayan-vulture-and-culture">Mustang and Manang</a>, bamboo and mud structures of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-tarai-s-shrinking-forests">the Tarai</a>, and the Kathmandu Valley’s terra cotta tile skylines, graceful temples, and tranquil bahal courtyards are all examples of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-traditional-seismic-resistant-designs">Nepal’s traditional architecture</a>.&nbsp; Nepali architect Sarosh Pradhan has been working for the past eight years on the Brakka Village project in Manang Valley north of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/municipalities-want-to-manage-annapurna">the Annapurnas</a>. Other examples of this kind of rural architecture for high-end tourism are the Shinta Mani Hotel in Mustang and Khumbu Lodge below <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a>. Says Pradhan, “There are places in Nepal that radiate purity and embrace simplicity. Creating projects in such settings require deep reflection and thoughtful planning.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421030444_a07a23f6b60fa89c0f35b9dc1aaf19937da4881e6bfb2e1858f3c27dff91729f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250421030444_a07a23f6b60fa89c0f35b9dc1aaf19937da4881e6bfb2e1858f3c27dff91729f" data-rendition-name="original" width="4608" height="2184" loading="lazy" alt="A new architecture for Nepal's tourism"> </figure>  Rural architecture is not easy, and sometimes more expensive. Inflation, energy efficiency, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/those-who-stay">the climate crisis</a>, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city">increased costs of living</a> pose obstacles to sustainable rural architecture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/forgotten-international-starchitects-in-nepal">Forgotten international starchitects in Nepal</a>, Anne Feenstra and Varun S Bapu Esteva says faith and trust between client and architect is necessary for any project to be successful. He adds that architects must practice being humble, the process of designing always involves learning and not imposing their ideas on clients. Nepal is uniquely positioned for the growth of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hiking-up-the-benefits-of-tourism">rural tourism</a> because of its stunning countryside as well as its internationally renowned traditions in holistic wellness. Creating infrastructure that is small, thoughtfully planned and that respects both tradition and contemporary hospitality standards is crucial. “Projects in Nepal can be made cost effective by using materials from houses that have been brought down,” says Esteva. “Pilot projects involving <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/local-government-by-the-people-for-the-people-of-the-people">local people </a>and simple designing also helps the process.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/vacant-homes-become-homestays-in-nepal">The growth of homestays in Nepal</a> is a step in the right direction, but they are still a bit too rustic for the international traveller who also wants comfort and is willing to pay extra for it. Upgrading the facilities in homestays and ensuring that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-archive-of-nepali-heritage">architectural heritage</a> of the locality is preserved using locally sourced building material could allow owners to charge more. Says Sangita Shrestha of Dwarika’s Hotel, “Our effort is to build upon rural architecture by empowering local communities and using what is available locally. We can fine tune and encourage indigenous design and training.” The vision goes beyond just boosting the economy, it is about building a future where tourism helps villages grow in a healthy and lasting way. Instead of using up resources, it gives back to the land and the people. It supports local communities by<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/staying-in-nepal-to-create-jobs"> creating jobs</a>, improving infrastructure, and protecting natural beauty. When done right, tourism can be a tool for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/progress-and-or-preservation">preserving culture and nature</a>, not harming them. Architects must therefore see their work as more than just designing buildings, they also need to care deeply about people and places, especially in rural areas that can benefit the most.&nbsp; With global interest in sustainable and off-the-beaten-path travel increasing, Nepal stands at the cusp of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential">tourism transformation</a> that values community-driven, eco-conscious hospitality. A mix of modern ideas and traditional knowledge could transform rural tourism in Nepal. Says Shrestha, “Young architects should spend time with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/the-unsung-heroes-of-conservation">local and indigenous communities</a>, listen to their stories, and learn from their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/life-and-livelihood-in-remote-nepal">ways of living</a>. These communities have deep knowledge about the land, materials, and climate. If this wisdom is used in new designs, it can help create tourism spaces that truly benefit everyone.” &nbsp;

A new architecture for Nepal's tourism

Extract from an addendum to Nepal's Two Wars, Chapter 2 in the updated edition of Essays on Nepal: Past and Present by Sam Cowan, a retired British Army general with a long association with the Gurkhas. The book was first published in 2018, and republished earlier this month by FinePrint exclusively on Amazon. The addendum details a one-to-one conversation the author had in the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8884">Royal Palace </a>with the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">King Gyanendra</a> in November 2002 just after he had taken his initial steps on the road that ultimately led to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14681">the abolition of the monarchy</a> in Nepal in 2008. In the early evening of September 16, 2002, in my role as Colonel Commandant of the Brigade of Gurkhas, I had my second and last official audience with King Gyanendra to give him an update on the Brigade’s activities over the previous 12 months. I had some 6 or 7 such audiences with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/preserving-king-birendra-s-family-home">King Birendra</a>.&nbsp; These were official affairs with the British ambassador of the day present, along with key <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12233">palace officials</a> and a representative from Nepal's Foreign Ministry. The two monarchs were very different in character and temperament, but both treated me with the utmost civility and made the audiences as relaxed and easy for me as possible.&nbsp; It is, however, worth recording that when the official business had been covered, King Birendra, with a twinkle in his eye, often ended by asking, “Now General, what’s the gossip in London?” The second audience with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8026">King Gyanendra </a>was my last official act in uniform. We came back to Kathmandu in the first week of November (after treks) to stay for a few nights with our Defence Attaché before heading back to the UK. Waiting for me was a message from the Palace saying that King Gyanendra would like to meet me informally: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6933">no uniform</a> and no ambassador.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080420_f9046f9882d4481781d14f2b64f18c7fbbea62562e1d74e3465de6d01fb43750.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250421080420_f9046f9882d4481781d14f2b64f18c7fbbea62562e1d74e3465de6d01fb43750" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="2406" loading="lazy" alt="Gyanendra crowned page 1"> <figcaption>Nepali Times Special Edition of 6-14 June 2001 with enthronement of Gyanendra. </figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_21333d6ae21828eb47fe3f849438d215fe2804460d47bb2896ef4aee4e895ad2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250421080424_21333d6ae21828eb47fe3f849438d215fe2804460d47bb2896ef4aee4e895ad2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1857" loading="lazy" alt="Royal massacre"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 22-29 June 2001 covering the royal massacre after which Gyanendra became king. </figcaption> </figure>  Although I had no idea what the purpose of the meeting might be, events in Kathmandu since I last saw the king put me on edge. On October 4, 2002, Gyanendra had dismissed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, allegedly for failing to hold <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/what-goes-on-in-nepal-s-elections">elections</a>. He had put in place a new prime minister and a cabinet personally selected by him. When I heard the news on my travels, the people I met were generally supportive of the king’s actions. There was a general view that something had to be done, the country was going nowhere, and the king deserved his chance, not least to solve<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/14-years-after-conflict-no-closure-in-nepal"> the Maoist </a>problem. Back in Kathmandu, views were not so sanguine. The chosen prime minister, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, was a relic from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/mob-movement-and-mayhem">the Panchayat period</a> whose party had failed to win a single seat in the last elections held in 1999. Some of the chosen cabinet ministers had, to put it mildly, dubious reputations, and others had no record of proven competence in any field. There was a fear that the king’s real motive in dismissing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/deubas-denouement">Deuba</a> was to start to reverse the democratic gains made since 1990. I informed <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-britain-mark-centenary-of-1923-treaty">the British ambassador</a> about the invitation. He was strongly against accepting it, which was probably the clinching reason for my decision to do the polite thing and accept it. On the evening of November 7, 2002, I presented myself at the royal palace, alone and in civilian attire.&nbsp; As in the past, the Military Secretary, Major General Vivek Shah, met and escorted me into the presence of the monarch. This time, however, he was politely asked to leave the room and shut the door behind him. King Gyanendra greeted me warmly and invited me to sit down.&nbsp; Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-ghost-of-monarchy-returns-to-haunt-nepal"> The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_e382af945d0ad2a04ae41fabe5393f793dd10f54cb1220f111c7c9e7423eb558.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250421080424_e382af945d0ad2a04ae41fabe5393f793dd10f54cb1220f111c7c9e7423eb558" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="993" loading="lazy" alt="Gyanendra coup"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 4-10 February 2005 after king Gyanendra's coup imposed media censorship. anendra became king. </figcaption> </figure>  I had wondered, and to be truthful, had worried, not just about the purpose of the meeting, but about how the conversation might start and develop. I reduced my resolve to two points: be polite but speak candidly. The latter resolve was quickly put to the test with the king’s opening words: “Sam, [in previous meetings it had been ‘General’, you walk the highways and byways of this land more than most, tell me what the common man is thinking?” &nbsp;“Your Majesty, I have no idea what they are thinking, but they are waiting.” “Waiting?” “Yes, Your Majesty, they are waiting to see whether what you did some weeks ago in appointing your own prime minister and cabinet ministers is going to make any difference to their lives or whether it is just going to be more Kathmandu hot air.” “Everything is going to be difficult and is going to take time, a lot of time.” “Your Majesty, time is the one thing you don’t have. You must act quickly and decisively to take advantage of the opportunity you have created. Everyone knows that you have appointed these new ministers. Why don’t you get them in here one by one and tell them that they have three months to deliver a programme in their area of responsibility that is going to make a difference to people’s lives? Most will fail to do so. Sack them! It will be a powerful signal of your strong intent to deliver real change.” I can express the opening of our conversation in this way because just about every word is still etched in my mind. The king’s response to my last quoted words was to challenge me to give an example of something that could be delivered quickly. I can give a verbatim record of what I said in response to this unexpected challenge: “Health posts, Your Majesty, there is no shortage of them throughout the country as building them has been one of the sources of local corruption, but very few have any medicine to issue at present or have skilled people to assess and meet medical needs. Your Majesty, children are dying for lack of a few pills. Given the right priority, over a period, say of six months, every health post could be fully stocked with medicine and manned with trained people. This is something I could help to lead for you as I know it would have strong international backing. At last, people would know that you mean business.” As I warmed to the theme, I could see no sign of the king having any enthusiasm for the idea, and I quickly disengaged as it dawned on me, as it had clearly dawned on the king, that the reason for the deficiencies in health posts was to prevent any Maoist combatant from gaining access to any <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/tech-away/nepal-s-health-tech-industry-is-here-to-stay">medical support</a>, and if this meant people suffering, so be it. The subject of the Maoist insurgency inevitably came up, and I took the opportunity to elaborate on what is written in the final four paragraphs of the article above. I advised King Gyanendra that, self-evidently, since there were three parties in the conflict—him, the Maoists, and the political parties—it was imperative that he form an alliance with one of them, preferably the political parties; otherwise, he would find himself isolated, as the other two parties would inevitably, at some stage, form their own alliance. However, it quickly became apparent that the king’s mind was on a totally different track. On the Maoists, he told me that he had channels open to them, but he was scathing about the political party leaders. He made it clear that they would be waiting for a very long time before he gave any power back to them, and that is a polite way of expressing the actual words he used, but “crawling through the door” is a phrase which has stuck in my mind.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_5403455ff6168f0d202a96cb53edea69136d74d59b989cfcc7cc4a1d57672cb5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250421080424_5403455ff6168f0d202a96cb53edea69136d74d59b989cfcc7cc4a1d57672cb5" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1317" loading="lazy" alt="fall of monarchy"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 28 April-3 May 2005 with cover image by Ajay Joshi of jubilant protesters after street demonstrations sidelined king Gyanendra, paving the way for a ceasfire and restoration of democracy. </figcaption> </figure>  As the conversation developed, it became ever clearer that King Gyanendra had decided to go in alone, relying on the misleading assurances he was constantly receiving from <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14954">the army</a>, and no doubt his close advisers, that the Maoists could and would be quickly defeated militarily, and taken out of the equation. This would obviate the need for him to do any deal with the political parties.&nbsp; Thus, the way would be clear for him to establish a version of his father’s Panchayat system, under a constitution that would be granted to the people by him, their sovereign, as his father and brother had done in 1962 and 1990. As in those constitutions, ultimate power would have remained in the sovereign’s hands. This proposed direction of travel was very clear from what the king said to me. In sum, King Gyanendra was motivated by a desire to emulate his immediate predecessors by granting his people a constitution that would restore his father’s Panchayat system in a modern form and give him a central role in decision-making. What was particularly dispiriting was that beyond this single objective he had no plan worthy of the name, nor demonstrably did he have the people with the skills to implement an appropriate plan even if one had existed. Crucially and depressingly, there was little or no indication from the king that he realised that such a course of action could put Nepal’s monarchy into serious jeopardy, as indeed proved to be the case. <h2>King Twice</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250420110436_315d519fe3d68d2406ebe1480fed54720fbf21b8907a4da5cde751fdc623d445.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250420110436_315d519fe3d68d2406ebe1480fed54720fbf21b8907a4da5cde751fdc623d445" data-rendition-name="original" width="1302" height="632" loading="lazy" alt="“Tell me what the common man is thinking!”"> </figure>  <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah has been king twice</a>. In 1950 he was enthroned briefly as a child king (left, above) by the Rana Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher when his grandfather, King Tribhuvan, fled to exile in India. In 2001 he was crowned king again after the massacre in the royal palace in which his brother King Birendra and nine other members of his family were killed by Crown Prince Dipendra.&nbsp; During his second reign, Gyanendra gradually asserted power by sacking Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in 2002, and then taking full control after the 1 February 2005 coup. He was sidelined after the ceasefire in April 2006, and became a commoner after the Constituent Assembly finally <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Ftnp-abolishing,624">abolished the monarchy in 2008</a>. In the past year, Gyanendra has tried to exploit public dissatisfaction with the political parties to restore the monarchy.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080432_26ef4a4b0e3cee9fdc6794446702efe16550d293904b4f6dd46fe35d4d10c788.jpg" data-media-id="editor_22" data-image-id="20250421080432_26ef4a4b0e3cee9fdc6794446702efe16550d293904b4f6dd46fe35d4d10c788" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Essays on Nepal by Sam Cowen"> </figure>

“Tell me what the common man is thinking!”

“It's Kathmandu.” Just as the family was sitting down for one of its extended lunches, that jubilant cry was from François Driard’s grandfather announcing the next posting for his diplomat parents.&nbsp; Driard (pictured) was 18 in the summer of 1996,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/chasing-a-nomad"> a bit of a hippie</a> already, and his life was about to change forever with the magical word “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/time-capsule-of-kathmandu">Kathmandu</a>”. “I was awed with that information from my grandfather, nothing else mattered … In France <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/tales-of-courage-and-suffering-cx95f89e">in the 1990s</a>, Kathmandu had a mythical aura,” Driard recalls. He came to Kathmandu for Christmas that year to visit his stepfather, the French Ambassador Michel Lummaux. It was to be the first of many visits during school holidays, before he decided to permanently settle down in Nepal. “Kathmandu, and Nepal, were very different then, it was magical, I liked the nature, the people, civilisation, temples, trees,” says Driard, who explored the country sitting on the top of buses. “Visitors talk about the crazy <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city">urbanisation</a>, traffic jams today, and all that is true. But Kathmandu has not <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/loss-of-soul-and-soil">lost its soul</a>.” After his stepfather’s tenure in Nepal ended, Driard worked as a business reporter for international publications but decided he did not want to be anyone’s employee anymore. In 2007 he landed in Kathmandu with €20,000 in savings to invest.&nbsp; He knew a few crucial things about himself: he liked food and nature, which is very much tied up with his upbringing--full of lively conversations during lunch and dinner at the family table between <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-yak-cheese-is-on-world-map">abundant cheese, wine and cigars</a>. So he decided it would be cheese, and registered Himalayan French Cheese and went to the French Alps for a month to learn how to make Tomme de Savoie. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-story-of-langtang-cheese">Cheese making is such an ancient craft </a>and so I thought I won’t need much money or studying which I hated and indeed, if you have a tamako bhado and fire you are set,” explains Driard. But Nepal’s temperature and humidity were not ideal, even at higher altitudes. The first customers for his cheese were the Hyatt Regency and Nina and Hager. But he needed to create a market for cheese in a country which only knew hard churpi in the north and soft paneer in the south. He started selling his cheeses at the Summit Hotel weekend market, expanding to his own 1905 Farmer’s Market which later moved to Le Sherpa in Maharajganj, where it is now, and also a market at Labim Mall in Pulchok. He had cow dairies in Nuwakot and Dhulikhel, and finally a yak cheese unit at 3,379m in Ramechhap. It was the yak blue cheese from here that went on to win a Gold Medal in France, putting Nepal’s French cheese on the world map. “People come and try our cheese at the market, they ask questions. There is a lot of education to be done about cheese,” adds Driard, who also has three cheese shops in the Valley. Driard now makes 25 types of cheese. The products are being noticed and every year he has French students coming to Nepal to learn the art of yak cheese making. “In France, one family or company makes one kind of cheese for generations. In that I’m very unique as a cheese artisan,” he says. “The students come in to learn but I tell them to also teach us something too, add another cheese to my collection.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/langtang-after-10-years">Langtang after 10 years</a>, Sonia Awale Being a foodie, Driard is now also dabbling in meat with his own charcuterie at Meatini with bacon, ham, sausage and pâtés. All of this is now served at his Emilio’s Pizza, a leafy hideaway in Lazimpat. His South Side in Moksh is probably the smallest wine bar in the world. “I call the process sublime,” says Driard of his ventures, which have grown organically. “You need the same temperature and humidity of 12°C and 80% for cheese, meat and wine.” Emilio’s speciality is the eight-cheese pizza (which has eight types of cheeses), and a pizza with bhutan topping (not the country but fried intestines and organs Nepali-style). He has opened a small branch at Courtyard in Pokhara.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250426070456_bacae302c040dc18eeecdeafda72ddf06a6d2cec138ea9be7e45fe94cdf8b5b3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250426070456_bacae302c040dc18eeecdeafda72ddf06a6d2cec138ea9be7e45fe94cdf8b5b3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="8 cheese pizza"> <figcaption>Eight-cheese pizza</figcaption> </figure>  With two artisanal cheese units, two farmers’ markets, a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-meat-of-the-story">meat processing unit</a>, a bakery, and wine bar he now envisions a vineyard so he can add Nepali wine to his repertoire. Another future plan is to start up an agri-tourism business where customers can drink, eat and work in peace. In the past 20 years in Nepal, Driard has not always succeeded in his ventures but this hasn’t curbed his enthusiasm. He is learning as he goes, and like an old wine, Nepal is growing on him. Its slowness suits his French art de vivre with eating slowly outdoors, having conversation, importing less.&nbsp; “I have proven that with even a little money you can do a lot of things in Nepal,” adds Driard. “In the West, they easily invest half a million euros on a cheese factory, I invested 10 times less.”&nbsp;

Fromage, vin et charcuterie Népalais

Bhuthan भुठान starts with Bishnu Bahadur KC played by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/dhuwa-smoke-telefilm,2671">Hari Bansha Acharya</a> on a call, requesting to speak to the visa officer. By this point, he had <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-should-now-allow-visa-on-arrival">applied for a visa </a>to Bhutan 10 times, but was denied each time. KC was a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-women-excel-in-sports-in-2024-z9ramyct">national football player </a>in Bhutan in 1988 before he and other Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people were forced out of the country in the 1990s as part of the Druk regime’s ‘One Nation One People’ campaign. Over 100,000 Bhutanese Nepalis were forced out, driven across India and dumped in Nepal where they lived in seven<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp"> refugee camps</a> supervised by the United Nations and other charities until they were resettled in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries starting in 2007. In the fictional movie with the satirical English title The World’s Happiest Man, KC has resettled in the state of Ohio in the US but wishes to visit his home country once before he dies. Between flashbacks, we learn KC has died without having fulfilled his wish. &nbsp; The drama then focuses on KC’s two families from two marriages as they debate whether to cremate him as per <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/muslim-hindu,2996">Hindu rites </a>or give him a Christian burial. A mediator played by Hollywood actor Bruce Dern urges them to take a firm decision before it is too long.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250430140420_b398a08091b866da2b0b8f6c1e6e26781609749aba896bfd2c68a10a519295c3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250430140420_b398a08091b866da2b0b8f6c1e6e26781609749aba896bfd2c68a10a519295c3" data-rendition-name="original" width="945" height="945" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutan, the movie"> </figure>  There are drawn out scenes of KC being baptised and when he is confronted by his first wife from Darjeeling played by Anuradha Majumdar, he says he changed his religion in the hope that he will be <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/bhutan-s-refugees-between-hope-and-despair">allowed back in Bhutan</a>.&nbsp; We find out KC has a second wife, a Christian Nepali played by Puja Chand. Dayahang Rai as the younger son doesn’t have much screen time to flex his acting chops. &nbsp; Acharya competently portrays a man that is equal parts haunted by the memories of and longing for his home country. KC’s pain and loss is acute when he is teaching football to Gungun but between mid-scene, he freezes, perhaps lost in memories of being in Bhutan’s national team. &nbsp; In another scene, KC recalls his mother singing a lullaby in Dzongkha. He also has a box filled with medals, photographs and a football which he deflates with a knife in a powerful depiction of his <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/searching-for-a-homeland-away-from-home?fb_comment_id=1506516030025634">complicated emotions about his homeland</a>. KC keeps checking his mailbox in the hopes that his <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4977">visa application</a> has been accepted. He says in Nepali: “If a tree that has already struck roots in one place is shifted to another, it will not survive.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250430140420_4a9c27410326489576c04dedf40016bda3825e8f9663317f54fbfec4cbda6d34.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250430140420_4a9c27410326489576c04dedf40016bda3825e8f9663317f54fbfec4cbda6d34" data-rendition-name="original" width="1422" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutan, the movie"> </figure>  Dern’s character says that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">western world</a> has become “lonely in pursuit of happiness”, another reference to Bhutan’s obsession with its Gross National Happiness index. Scenes shift quickly throughout making the story difficult to follow at times. The use of symbolism is a trite overdone. Nonetheless, भुठान is a nuanced depiction of raw pain and agony of losing one’s homeland. But one cannot help but leave the theatre feeling deflated. KC dies without having visited <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/small-bhutan-dreams-big">Bhutan</a>, but perhaps he does in his afterlife. It is up to the audience to create its own ending to this sad story of exile. भुठान Mad Monkey Films, 2025 Directed by Binod Paudel 102 minutes In cinemas in Nepal

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