GroundReport.com

Tsering Tsomo Challenges GroundReport on Dalai Lama Envoy

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:02:17 -0600

Dear readers,

Mr. Tsering Tsomo has complained to this reporter regarding the publication of a story named “Dalai Lama’s envoy Thinley Gyatso at Sino-Nepal border?", saying this is false. He has stated in his mail that no meeting between Paras and anybody called ‘envoy’ has taken place in Mustang. Besides, Mr. Tsomo also states that Mr. Thinley Gyatso is not the representative of Dalai Lama.

This reporter based the story mainly on a Nepali website as indicated in the story itself. The reporter does not have any intention to harm the sentiment of Tibetans. Other parts in the story are widely exposed and undenied, e.g. visit of US, Indian and European ambassadors to the same sensitive spot.

However, bringing any sensitive issue into public discourse for verification is sometimes opted due to remote geography and concealment of information.

Finally, information recipients (i.e. readers or users themselves) in public and citizen journalism become the key forces to examine published reports through global interactive communication processes.

It would be worth noting that many national and international players have been struggling to give their own shape to Nepal’s volatile situation in which certain national sovereignty-related issues are debatable and worth hearing publicly for further verification and clarification.

The fundamental essence of the news story was to stimulate interest in the issue of threat to Nepal’s national independence, sovereignty and geopolitical existence.

Supreme Court Delivers Landmark Ruling on Divorce in Foreign Courts

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:11:46 -0600

Delivering a landmark ruling covering a grey area which remained untouched so long, the apex court on Friday, the 13^th November said that any marriage dissolved by a foreign court will be equally valid in India. It is well known that divorce is difficult to obtain in India than in most West and European countries. So long, divorce of Indians and NRIs were valid only if it was granted by any Indian court and any divorce granted by foreign court was subject to scrutiny and clearance by Indian Courts.

It has thus become easier for an NRI to get divorce in foreign country without appearing in Indian Courts or even in the absence of the one of the spouse in the foreign court in some cases. Therefore, for an NRI, it is easier now to get married with an Indian and get rid of the spouse (mostly wife) without much hassle.

The cause of the instant judgment was related to one Pashaura Singh of Punjab Province in India, who married NRI Kamaljeet Kaur already settled in Canada. After their marriage Pashaura too settled in Canada with his NRI wife. But as the marriage did not click, Pashaura got divorce from a British Columbian court in 2001 and remarried in India.

Kamaljeet’s brother filed a case of bigamy against Pashaura in Punjab and won the case in Punjab High Court.

Reversing the judgment, the apex court granted the divorce in favor Pashaura.

Maoist Supremo’s political exploration in Singapore

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:38:16 -0600

Nepal’s Maoist Supremo and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda left Kathmandu on Monday for Singapore for political exploration regarding the country’s current political stagnation. Nepal faces the toughest challenges that originated from the sharpened conflict between those in favor of the overall transformation of the Nepali society and those engaged in the final struggles to preserve the status quo.

Prachanda said publicly that he wanted to see his supporters and well-wishers in Singapore.

Former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala is undergoing a medical treatment in Singapore for his respiratory complications. Prachanda said he would meet him too.

Besides, Prachanda is expected to meet an Indian professor, S D Muni based in a Singaporean university.

Some say Prachanda went to Singapore after Professor Sukh Deo Muni, with longstanding relationship with some senior Maoist leaders in Nepal, has talked to Koirala in hospital.

If Prachanda, at the call of S D Muni, has gone to Singapore for political conversations with Koirala or anybody else, this will undermine his political dignity and the collective spirit of the Marxist principle, which his party wants to adhere to.

Police suppress peaceful protests in Nepal

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:33:30 -0600

This photograph illustrates how the riot police, at the direct order of Deputy Prime Minister Vijay Gachchhedar, suppressed a peaceful protests in Kathmandu.

You can see some musical instruments, some broken, at the site of suppression. Protesters were playing instruments and dancing as a way of peaceful protest against the government that they have labeled as "puppet government".

Protests paralyze Nepal government headquarters; police fires at leaders

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:17:06 -0600

While Maoist protests on Thursday completely paralyzed Nepal government headquarters at Singha Durbar in Kathmandu, the security personnel deployed at the South Gate of Singhadurbar fired at senior Maoist leaders Dev Gurung, Ananta and Amik Sherchan. According to Radio Mirmire, more than 60 others were injured with rubber bullets and tear gas shells.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was unable to attend his office as thousands of Maoist protesters besieged the government headquarters from eight different locations.

Out of 46 ministers in the government, only four were in their office, the government-owned Nepal Television reported. The four ministers had furtively entered their complex at 04:00, four hours before the Maoist protesters began to appear on roads. Not a single minister belonging to the prime minister’s party—UML—was able to come to office, reports confirm.

To further reinforce the protests, film artists, singers, musicians and literary figures had also staged their programs on roads. Maoists—now in the UN-monitored peace process—have been staging renewed protests for seven months with a demand of parliamentary discussion on President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav’s overruling of the sacking of the then Army Chief Rookmangud Katawal by the elected Prime Minister Prachanda.

Media reports in May 2009 show the Army Chief used parallel executive power by defying the elected government’s orders. This had led the then Prime Minister Prachanda to take actions against him. After President Dr. Yadav, though without any executive power, reinstated the Army Chief sacked by the Maoist-led government, Maoist Chairman Prachanda resigned his prime ministership stating that he wanted to avoid violence likely to result out of parallel rules.

Maintaining civilian supremacy—making the country’s army generals work under the elected government as Maoists clarify—has been the protesters’ principal demand which the current alliance of 22 parties (most of them with only one seat in the parliament) has rejected.

Civil Society members have suggested the government to allow the issue of civilian supremacy to be discussed in the parliament. However, the coalition partners have adopted an exclusionary approach against the Maoists, who stood the largest political party in the Constituent Assembly elections held on 10 April 2008.

Ban Ki-moon’s message is no interference: Prachanda

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:35:18 -0600

The Chairman of the Integrated Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPNM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda on Thursday said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s advice that Nepal should have a consensus government to take the ongoing peace process to a logical end was not a sign of interference. Prachanda told media that Ban spoke in favor of the peace process.

Prachanda told the media, “This government has no capacity or goodwill to understand the Secretary-General’s message. It sees peace process-friendly advice as interference while it brokers for those directly interfering in against the peace process.”

Prachanda expressed his belief that Ban gave this message to make the Nepalis watchful against attempts to derail the peace process.

Prachanda, along with his party colleagues, is participating in the anti-government gherao rally.

The party did organize the gherao program as part of its pro-civilian supremacy movement targeted at the correction of presidential coup due to which Prachanda resigned his prime ministership.

Hundreds of thousands of people are seen in the streets of Kathmandu. Many film actors and actresses as well as poets and poetesses have also taken party in the gherao rallies organized by the Maoist party.

Dalai Lama’s envoy Thinley Gyatso at Sino-Nepal border?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:55:00 -0600

Editor's Update: The following account has been challenged. Read the full report here.

Reports from various Nepali media have confirmed the secret meeting of Nepal’s ex-Prince Paras with Dalai Lama’s envoy Thinley Gyatso on 10 November 2009 at Sino-Nepal border in the Mustang district of Nepal.

The primary motive of the secret meeting between Lama’s envoy and Nepal’s ex-Prince Paras is not clear. However, many have understood the meeting as something linked to the free Tibet movement.

Almost one year ago, Indian ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood, 17 Indian military officers, US ambassador and some other European ambassadors had furtively visited Mustang’s Kimanthan, the most sensitive point at Sino-Nepal border. They had pretended to have gone on a trek when their survey campaign for free Tibet struggles was disclosed to public.

No country in the world has ever recognized Dalai Lama’s struggles though many countries, including India and America, wish to use the separatist leader for their national interests.

Since Nepal borders Tibet that Nepal has officially recognized as one of China’s autonomous regions, there can be no better place than Nepal for CIA and RAW (an Indian mechanism for international intelligence) to carry out their collaborative efforts aimed at China.

Nepal is likely to remain vulnerable to foreign interferences due to its political forces extremely loyal to New Delhi.

NATO strategists puzzled

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:19:43 -0600

NATO counterinsurgency strategists feel puzzled as five British soldiers stationed in Afghanistan get killed by a trainee Afghan policeman. During eight years of US-NATO rule in Afghanistan, 92 British soldiers have lost their lives this year alone.

NATO, after the collapse of Warsaw Pact as well as the Soviet Union, has shown its desire to expand its influence worldwide by accompanying US military missions.

However, it is up to the British to calculate how much they have benefited from military gaudism.

The US Administration, for its own cause, appears successful in mobilizing European armies in Afghanistan. European armies under NATO have tried to prove the existence of NATO in the 21st century.

But is military occupation a better alternative to cope with the grassroots factors nurturing violence and suicidal attacks? It is not yet advisable to believe that the American and European mentality is too stultified to brainstorm over the issue.

India Buys Gold, Buries Past Shame

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:23:13 -0600

Burying past shame of 1991, when India had to pledge 67 tons of Gold to Bank of England and Union Bank of Switzerland to raise some $600 million to supplement a poor Foreign Exchange Reserve of $1.2 billion- barely good for three weeks of imports and a default in foreign exchange looming large- India recently purchased 200 tons of gold from IMF at a price of $6.8 billion, a peanut investment compared to present foreign exchange reserve of $285 billion.

The background in 1991: With the fall of successive governments of Viswanath Pratap Singh and Chandrasekhar in a span of about 16 months a financial chaos has set in coupled with the cascading economic effects precipitated by gulf war, resulting in swelling of oil import bills and decline in exports, drying up of credits resulting in foreign investors withdrawing their money, conservative financial policies on the footsteps of socialistic economy and so on.

The export of gold was cleared by the then finance minister, Yaswant Sinha, before the Chandrasekhar government fell. With the India National Congress (INC) returning to power in June1991, P.V.Narasimha Rao took over as prime minister in the vacancy caused in INC by the sudden violent death of Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE human bomb. It was the time when dismantling of Soviet block was in its final stage.

Narasimha Rao took the advantage of demise of Soviet block and unshackled Indian economy by inducting Dr.Manmohan Singh, (the present prime minister) as his finance minister, who put Indian economy on the path of liberalization and the result is for everybody to see now. India is sitting on the mountain of foreign exchange reserve of $285 billion and the Indian economy is vibrant in spite of the severe down turn in West.

With this gold purchase, India is now ranked 11^th, up from 14^th in September’09 as per World Gold Council statistics. India now has a gold reserve of 557.7 tons.

UN concerned over Nepal's peace process

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:56:32 -0600

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today strongly urged Nepali political forces, including those in government, to ensure that human rights of all individuals are protected. It has called on both Nepal government and Maoist protesters not to resort to any violence since it may jeopardize the very peace process going on since 2006.

The OHCHR expressed its concern on the likelihood of violence in the name of Maoist protests and subsequent government actions. However, Maoist Chairman Prachanda and Deputy leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai have already reconfirmed that their protests would be peaceful in nature.

Nepal cabinet ministers, especially Home Minister Bhim Rawal, Defense Minister Vidya Bhandari and Media Minister Shankar Pokhrel have, all defeated in the Constituent Assembly elections held on 10 April 2008, have publicly called on security forces to behave Maoist protesters as armed fighters.

Maoist rebels joined the mainstream peace process in 2006 on condition of drafting a new constitution with inclusive and federal characteristics. Following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed between Maoists and the then Seven Party Alliance (SPA) in November 2006, Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) men and their arms are in the UN-monitored cantonments while their political leadership has stood as the largest political party in Nepal.

Currently, most of the political parties at the initiative of the Nepali Congress and the UML have unitedly boycotted Maoists, who have frequently reiterated their commitment to the ongoing peace process.