In Nepal, there are hurdles to the constitution drafting that have to be resolved urgently if the radical leftists and the royalist right are not to blow away hard-won freedoms. As a player in Nepal politics, the best support India can provide is by staying outside the convention of constitution writing.
Read More »Nepal Voters Are Disenchanted With Maoists
Most of the spin doctors in Nepal were completely taken aback by a record 70 per cent turnout in the second Constituent Assembly elections last week, despite a serious threat by the radical Maoists who had vowed to disrupt the polls. The complacent senior leaders of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias “Prachanda”, …
Read More »The Deft Politicking of Nepal’s Army
The fact that the army is the most powerful state organ in Nepal is fairly unremarkable. It is an established norm of most countries, especially a post-conflict state managing a difficult democratic transition to peace. The interesting aspect of the Nepalese Army (NA), however, is its limited public role in national politics. This stands in stark contrast to other militaries …
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