Regressive Force Raising Head

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

On December 25, 2009, a group of so-called intellectuals headed by Modhnath Preshit goes to Prime Minister’s official residence at Baluwatar in Kathmandu and urges him for reviving the discarded celebration of the anniversary of Prithvinarayan on January 11, 2010. In fact current Prime Minister Madhav Nepal and Modnath Preshit have been glorifying the most merciless king and advocating to reinstate the celebration of the anniversary of the king as a unity day. This is a clear drive of the regressive force headed by no other than the current Prime Minister. Currently, Nepalis have been the witnesses of the fast developing regression in the country.

The first regression Nepalis have witnessed is the abuse of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 by First President of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal Dr. Ram Barayan Yadav directly writing a letter to the undisciplined army chief fired by the Prime Minister on May 3, 2009, and ordering him to stay on the job on the urge of the leaders of the eighteen political parties headed by Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML) Jhalanath Khanal. Thus not following the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007, the President taken the oath of defending the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 has pushed the country back to the discretionary rule of the Shah dynastic rulers. Breaking the rule of law, the President also has set off the motion of the political chaos. Mr. President, breaking law is a crime.

Then, the politicians of the pervious regime incarnated as the members of the Constituent Assembly through the loopholes provided by the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 have pushed the country back to the days of the so-called parliamentary rule when the politicians had practiced the dirty game of buying and selling parliamentarians for garnering majority votes in the parliament. Madhav Nepal defeated in two constituencies in the elections for the Constituent Assembly has taken the advantage of the loopholes to enter the Constituent Assembly using the backdoor provided by the loopholes in the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007. Next, the unscrupulous legislators have elected Madhav Nepal to the Prime Minister making the clear-cut regime of the regressive force.

First thing, Madhav Nepal as a Prime Minister did is to freeze the peace process and block the writing of a new constitution. He has provoked the Maoists through his Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari letting her to repeatedly speak out against integrating the Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army clearly going against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement the Government of Nepal has signed with the Maoists and made the part of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007.

Going against the values and principles of the democracy and the rule of law, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has promoted Toran Jung Bahadur Singh indicted for enforced disappearance of 49 Nepalis while he was the commander of the Bhairavnath Battalion, to Lieutenant General and Second-in-Command of the Nepal Army on December 24, 2009. Mr. Prime Minister, not to punish a criminal is also a crime.

The UN and the international community have raised voices against the promotion. The following is the press release of OHCHR-Nepal against the promotion of Toran Jung Bahadur Singh:

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEPAL
Press release, 24 December 2009  
Promotion of General Toran J.B. Singh concerns OHCHR
24 December, Kathmandu

OHCHR-Nepal Representative Richard Bennett today expressed concern about the promotion of Major General Toran Bahadur Singh to Lieutenant General and Second-in-Command of the Nepal Army despite widespread opposition. “OHCHR’s position since 2006 has been consistent–those implicated in credible allegations of human rights violations committed by members of the 10th Brigade in 2003 and in 2004, when General Singh was in command, should not be promoted pending completion of a full, transparent and impartial investigation. This would enhance, not diminish, the prestige of the Nepal Army at home and abroad,” said Richard Bennett.  For please visit OHCHR-Nepal website: http://nepal.ohchr.org

Promoting Toran Jung Bahadur Singh indicted for the enforced disappearance of 49 people to Lieutenant General and Second-in-Command of the Nepal Army, current Prime Minister Madav Nepal has followed the past tradition of the criminals and murders getting promotion to the most crucial positions starting from the time of Prithvinarayan Shah to the time of ending of Gyanendra Shah. President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav would need to appoint the person with the criminal background to the Chief of Army Staff if you as a President do not take immediate remedial actions against the promotion of Toran Jung Bahadur Singh.

Refusing to turn Major Niranjan Basnet over to the police for producing him at the Kavre Court, regression-minded Madhav Nepal also has shown no shame on protecting the army criminal called Major Niranjan Basnet indicted by the Kavre District Court for killing a minor Maina Sunuwar and fired by the UN Peace-keeping Mission in Chad after finding the Kavre Court has indicted him. However, Madhav Nepal has pretended to take actions simply telling his Defense Minister to turn Major Basnet over to the police. On December 22, 2009, talking to the relatives of Major Basnet at her official residence, Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari has assured them of not taking actions against Major Basnet. Thus, promoting Toran Jung Bahadur Singh indicted for the enforced disappearance of 49 people to Lieutenant General and Second-in-Command of the Nepal Army, and protecting Major Basnet from punishment, Madhav Nepal has rewarded the Nepal Army personnel for perpetrating crimes. Miss Bhidya Bhandari being the directly involved person in promoting General Singh and protecting Major Basnet, you have subjected yourselves to punishment for such criminal acts.

Leaders of the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML have never abandon their sense of apathy to federalism and inclusiveness. They had resisted the pressure of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-Maoist) to declare a republic until the leaders of UCPN-Maoist agreed on the demand for the majority rule instead of the consensus politics. Now, the leaders of NC and CPN-UML have been playing the dirty game of the majority rule placing the corrupt legislators for sale to the highest bidder for their votes.

At the same time, Madheshi legislators have sold their soul of Madheshi province to the leaders of the NC and CPN-UML for the juicy ministerial positions joining the eighteen-party coalition led by the NC and CPN-UML leaders. The sacrifice of so many Nepalese Madheshi sons during the Madheshi movement for getting the autonomous states and for inclusive administration, police and Nepal Army has gone astray. Only a few so-called unprincipled Madheshi leaders have reaped the benefits from the Madheshi movement as they have received the ministerial positions and even cash as rewards for joining the coalition of the NC and CPN-UML abandoning the people’s mandate for consensus politics given by the voters in the elections for the constituent Assembly held on April 10, 2008. The Madhav administration has frozen the process of including all the Nepalis of different ethnic groups in the administration, police and Nepal Army thus taking the country back to the state of the previous regime.

NC/CPN-UML leaders are not for taking legal actions against the criminals and murderers but politicize them believing to portray the Maoists as criminals. Not a single day has passed without one leader of the NC/CPN-UML or another talking about the Maoist cadres beating cadres of NC or of CPN-UML, or about the killing of a reporter or a cadre. However, they always have stopped short of taking police and legal actions against such criminal acts. Why they have stopped the short of taking legal actions? Most probably, they are afraid of exposing their own criminal colleagues sitting on the central committee of their respective political party. Thus, they have criminalized the Nepalese politics as in the time of the Shah dynastic rule when the killing of the opponents had been the regular political practice for gaining the political power. So, if the leaders of UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML want to break the current network of the regressive force they need to take legal actions against all the killers and criminals including the Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperative Karima Begam for slapping the Chief District Officer of the Parsa District on November 4, 2009, and remove the current Prime Minister from the position for obviously leading the regressive force.

Leaders of the current coalition of twenty-two political parties have been the agents of a regressive force for supporting their leader of regression Madhav Nepal for his position of Prime Minister. By whatever names such as Congress, Communist and former Panchas you call the leaders of these twenty-two political leaders, they have the same objective of taking the country back to the previous state so that only they could be the leaders and then ministers keeping the majority of Nepalis out of the exclusive government and in absolute poverty. Some of these leaders have already set in the motion of rallying against the federalism but soon they would rally against the inclusions of all ethnic people in the administration, police and Nepal Army.

Leaders of the twenty-two political parties have been going head-on confrontation with the opposition particularly the Maoists for not completing the peace process following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, for confusing the writing of a new constitution, and then reverting to the Constitution of Nepal of 1990 as once NC president Girija Prasad Koirala has said. Thus, the so-called leaders of the twenty-two political parties have been part of the regressive force that has acting in the country to push the country back to the regime of their interest. So, hoping to take the country back to the authoritarian rule, they have not been for institutionalizing republican and democratic institutions.

December 31, 2009