| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 20-Dec-03 12:31 AM
The Nepal government recently arrested three student leaders for chanting anti-King slogans.
Then, with absolutely no appropriate legal process and in a very hurried manner, it
has now thrown those three students into jail for three years.
The point is: Whatever one thinks of those student leaders, it's an extremely unfortunate development that the government took the step that it has taken by
giving short shrift to the legal process. Such a step does NOT bode well for Nepal
at all.
Today it's Gagan Thapa and his cohort who get arrested. Tomorrow it could be any one of us. These are sensitive, difficult times in Nepal.
Message: More confrontations and much confusion ahead in Nepal.
On another note, I could not help noticing an ad in today's Kantipur (page 2) that says: "On the auspicious occasion of 33rd Anniversary of our beloved Crown Prince,
join Shefali at the live show of Kata Laga in Bollywood Hangama on the 27th of December". The program is sponsored by Iceberg beer.
*****
These two radically different events (the arrests of student leaders on one hand and
a C-grade Bollywood starlet swaying her hips at the Stadium to celebrate the Crown Prince's borthday) lead me to conclude that when it comes to strengthening public relations and improving public image, Nepal's royal institutions have their work cut
out for themselves.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
Students' arrest unfortunate: Koirala
www.nepalnews.com
Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala Friday termed the arrest of three students "unfortunate", saying, the move to press charges of sedition against them would be "retrospective" for the government.
"It is very natural that students protested against regression," Koirala told a gathering of NC activists in his hometown Biratnagar on Friday. It is totally wrong to press charges of sedition against the students, he said. "The government has added fuel to the fire by irritating students without any reason," he said.
Security personnel Tuesday arrested three student leaders Gururaj Ghimire, Gagan Thapa and Purushottam Acharya for chanting provocative and anti-King slogans during the five parties' protest on the same day. Ghimire and Thapa are student activists of Nepal Students' Union, a student wing of Nepali Congress. Acharya is a student activist of ANNFSU, affiliated to the CPN-UML.
The Special Court Thursday remanded the three for five days for investigation upon the charges of sedition.
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| M.P. |
Posted
on 20-Dec-03 04:05 AM
This is very unfortunate. The people in the government--or whoever is acting behind the scene--should be sent back to their tenth grade and made to re-read "Galahatti". They do not seem to have learnt the lesson: "biralolaai thunera raakhyo bhane jhanai daralaagdo hunchha."
While I see the closure of schools in ktm and the miseries of widows in the war as more unfortunate than the arrest of and action against these political leaders, this incident could be another turning point in history, just like the panche-take over of ashoj 18 and attack at Dunai. If those on or near the thrown do not take the shoutings on the street--the voice of the people--seriously, those people might have to be taught the bitterest lesson they have ever learnt. I have nothing to say to those who are digging their own graves.
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PS: I do not see anywhere in the news that the 3 students have been sent to prison for 3 years? Is it a latest development?
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 22-Dec-03 12:32 PM
3 years to jail? I just read Lohani is going to free them soon.
The king doesn't know what he is doing[or I guess he knows damn well]. He has just turned mostly non-anti-king Nebi sanghe boys to republican fold. The Maoists must be enjoying this turn of event.
Whatever, I think king Gyanendra is constructing his own political 6'-8' spider hole unless he adopts Kaddafi way. When will he know that he is not 'reverred' by people whether he makes his trip to Kalikot or Biratnagar? Why not he simply contests for election, allowing constitutional assembly, if he has such a faith on his popularity?
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| alnepali |
Posted
on 22-Dec-03 12:58 PM
Exactly Ashu, MP and Biswo: HAIL to the POPULUS (The Democratic way) and DOWN to the DICTATORS
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| sage2003 |
Posted
on 22-Dec-03 02:19 PM
King is actively pursuing former panches to become his hand picked PM once more, it appears. I have a feeling Surya Bahadur is just about out, but sad to say king is ready to give the 6 month post to another of his servent from RPP or a former panche. I think this king wants to fight to the finish. Now he has really pissed off the student population, the young ones, there might not even be enough time for him to dig a hole like the one that Saddam dug for himself.The dictators of the world will never give up that easy, nepalese people have given plenty of opportunities for this king to save himself from unfortunate future. I hope the king and his followers will come to senses soon to spare another choas from falling onto people. When and if that happens, there will be no forgiveness left to spare the king, his PM and the Chamches unlike in the past.
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| DeepBlue |
Posted
on 22-Dec-03 02:45 PM
Binash Kale Biparita Buddhi......
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| EdHunter |
Posted
on 22-Dec-03 09:34 PM
Some day a real rain will come and wash the scums off the streets.......
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| mailo |
Posted
on 24-Dec-03 09:28 AM
I think for these leaders its a high time in their career
they have earned points in the run to become the future ministers of nepal
they are probably happy with these arrest, whatever we say.
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| isolated freak |
Posted
on 24-Dec-03 10:52 AM
The Student leaders are now released and I term their release as "unfortunate"
releases. The problem in Nepal right now is not less democracy, the problem seems to be more democracy. The governmnet has released the student leaders instead of trying them in the court of law, and that is very VERY unfortunate. If the governmnet starts to take everything that a bunch of rowdy students say, then god save the country. By releasing the leaders, the governmnet is directly encouraging more violence during the protests which the protesting parties claim peaceful, but anyone who has witnessed these peaceful protests can tell how peaceful they are. The studnet leaders, why do we even need them? Aren't they supposed to study and let others study? Are these leaders a true representation of the studnts who want to study? No. These are, as mailo put it, future politicians, and for them, the more they go to jail, the better. Student leaders still defiant, reads the Nepalnews.com's headline. Why defiant? Defy who? I pity our studnets. They are out on the streets and are burning cars, throwing stone sat the policemen and chanting slogans which are outright defensive and unconsttutional. Aren't they commiting a crime agaisnt the state by their activities? Anyone with even a little sanity would say they are and they are supposed to be punished, not released and then be given heroes' welcome. The main problem of Nepal: Even a few people on the street can influence the governmnet's decsions. This is pure democracy. More than a million people protested in London against the war, but the governmnet of Tony Blair still supported the War in Iraq. What an irony?
Nepali people forget things easily. These student leaders will probably be speaking at the Reporter's club and shaking hands with the leaders and the newspapers will probably publish their heroic adventures for weeks. God Save Nepal. Doesn't this all remind us of the Maoists leaders when they went public last Spring?
Back to the student leaders: Why don't these leaders protest against the political parties involvement in their organizations? Why don't they protests against students being used to serve the political parties' interests? Why don't they protest against the Maoist violence? Why don't they protests against the teachers who do not teach or against the unqualified teachers at TU? Why don't they protest against the lack of resources in their college campuses? Why don't they protest against bad housing policy of TU? Why?
The only way to deal with these rotten eggs trying to rot the good eggs is to ban the student organizations all together. Do students in nepal go to colleges to learn what they are supposed to learn or learn politics?
The fisrt step the governmnet should take now is to ban the student organziations. The second thing is to increase the tuition fee. 200,000 for a year, either you pay the fee and study, or find a job. This has to be the policy. These students and non-students in Nepali college campuses are hyper ebcause they are recieving the education for almost nothing. How can you be serious towards your studies when you pay what not even 200 a month for your graduate school? Nepal should follow the American example. Just increase the tuition fee and provide the serious students with the best education. This will not only solve all the student problems but will also help the Nepali education system turn into a functioning system.
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| isolated freak |
Posted
on 24-Dec-03 11:05 AM
Students protest everywhere. I remember the protests at The Claremomt Colleges in which I participated. We were protesting against the discrimination against the Mexican cafeteria workers at our colleges. However, there were no violence. We didn't burn anything. We didn't do anything that would disrupt the peace, nor we did anything to disrup the classes. After two weeks of protetss and after winning everyone's confindece and support, we were able to change the colleges' laws. This is what I call constructive protests to serve the community, the basic idea of american liberal arts education.
However, whose interests are these students leaders serving? What makes them go out and scream their throats off against the political system of the country and not utter a word about the mismanagement at TU? Why? What makes that Kid in the picture protest against the political system where as stay mum at the problems that Ascol faces such as being on the busiest street of Kathmandu, lack of resources for the lab etc? Why can't they protest to change the location of their campus or protest to ban honking on the street or protest to get more money to equip their labs with resources? Colleges in Nepal seem to be a place to produce politicians not scholars... and God knows what this will lead us to? All the educated folks are away. All the best minds are getting their education in the West. So who is left in Nepal? Either poor and bright studnets who do not have enough money to study abroad or just plain stupids. And the lack of proper testing system makes these exceptionally bright students study together with the exceptionally stupid students. Then there are leaders who do not want to see anyone study. This way, we are screwing the future of those students who for unfortunate reasons can't go abroad to study.
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| sage2003 |
Posted
on 24-Dec-03 11:54 AM
The arrests of these students were based on their sloganeering not based on how much destruction they caused. In a democracy no one is above the criticism, not even the king. The clause of law that was used to arrest and prosecute these students was a major part of our constitution, you can not just selectively use the constitution to serve your purpose. The king and the government both are openly violating the vary constitution they say they are using against these students. The damage these students have caused, if any, to our constitution is negligible so much so even the government after making a big fuss about it, released them without explaining why they were arrested and why they were released. This protest phase of people’s democratic right were forced by the king and his corrupt PM for continuously overlooking people’s demand and desire to save this country from disastrous consequences. The egos of all involved in this mess is so out of touch from genuine people’s concern, even after months of plea from peoples’ representative, only deaf ear was presented in response. Peace is the ultimate desire of everybody, but getting there might be violent path as history has proven time and again. Trying to suppress student movement for a genuine cause is so typical of panchayati ghost. People who use force against people for making their voices heard, will be dealt accordingly when the time comes, may it be the king, PM or the maoist. At this moment in our history, all of them fall in this category.
You are asking students to sit idle while the country goes through hell. It is this type of mentality that is plaguing nepali society that has paralyzed Nepalese people. Just do not do anything, the problem will go away is your mantra appears. There is time for study and there is time for other genuine causes, prioritizing them as needed is the way to move forward. If it was possible to quietly study and not worry about other things, these students would be more than happy to heed your suggestions. How can you do that when Maoists are threatening daily and the king and his chamches using divide and conquer tactics on them to serve their own purpose.
You complain about these student leaders using the media to promote their cause but forget that the government is doing it daily to defame them and the political parties. There is nothing wrong in using media if permitted in a democratic society.
The student fee issue you talked about is already a practice in nepali education system. Private universities are already doing it and people have choices where they want to study and at what cost. As for banning student organizations, what do you expect out of it? People’s outcries are like an over-flooded river, it will find its way out. What you call student problem is not a problem, but a solution to solve constitutional crisis that overshadows nepali sky at this moment. If it were not the students, same people would rise as farmers, porters, teachers, workers or simply citizens. The problem has to be solved, sometimes easy routes are blocked and we have to take harder routes to achieve this and that’s just what students and the entire country is trying to do now.
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| isolated freak |
Posted
on 24-Dec-03 12:14 PM
Their sloganeering was unconstitutional and is banned by the constitution of Nepal. There is always a limit to freedom of speech, so their arrests was nothing ilegal or unconstitutional. As Nepali citizens they have to abide by the constitution. The constitution isn't just a book, its an agreement between the state and its citizens (from a Jim Carrey movie).
Unlike you, I think the first priority of the students has to be their studies, not chanting political slogans out on the streets disrupting the traffic and overall "peace" of the valley. Even if they decide to protest, what harm is there to stage peaceful protests and be civil in their sloganeering, like the students in Korea and Japan do. Why burn the buildings/chairs/cars everything and anything that they can get their hands on? Like somebody said in the other thread, I certainly don't want to see the stuff brought/made by my tax money to just go to waste. We all talk about the student leaders' arrests and how it violated the human rights but have you ever given a thought on that poor police chap who got injured as one of the bricks thrown by the students landed on his head? What makes these students right and the state wrong? This is my question.
To sum up:
1. These student leaders got arrested for chanting slogans which are banned by the laws of Nepal.
2. A bunch of hooligans then burn things, create problems and threaten to scale massive-protests.
3. The governmnet releases the student leaders.
Now, imagine this:
A gangster is arrested. His gang members threaten the governmnet, and the governmnet releases him. Its the same thing. A gangster or a bunch of rowdy student leaders on the street, they all are violating the laws.
la I have my finals next week, so this is for now. A nice distraction from the studies, but if there are counter arguments, I will definately be posting my counter-counter arguments after a week. Until then, stay safe, stay warm, merry x-mas and a happy new year to everyone.
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| Sage2003 |
Posted
on 24-Dec-03 01:00 PM
The constitution you talk about is defunct because of the high-handedness of the king. If you shelve the constitution when you feel like it is no longer working for you, then you forfeit the right to use that same constitution again when time suites you. Yes, it is a binding set of rules but only when it is respected by all sides involved. All these students are asking for is the revival of this same cherished sets of rules that the country needs it so badly.
Do not get the idea I support burning of properties in the name of protesting. This whole response to your thread, is about why these students were arrested. It was not because they damaged this or that or burned tires and chairs on the street. The so called government itself has said it was because they used slogans that goes against the king. Since when we are banned from speaking the truth and who is the judge and on what basis? The law you proclaim was intended for a constitutional monarch who has a respectable standing among his people, once you lose that you are a fair game. How many times the crimes have gone unpunished because people like you stand on the way touting the law and order that does not protect.
As for your comparison of students with gangster, you be the judge how wise the comparison is. Gangsters are criminals and students who are protesting for a rightful cause. Giving in to criminals is weakness, giving in to present cause of the students for their protest is accepting responsibility and contributing to reconciliation in the name of people, democracy and the country.
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| isolated freak |
Posted
on 25-Dec-03 09:22 AM
Sage,
There area couple of things that I don't agree with you. Since I spent quite a lot answering to another poster in another thread, I will be short and to the point here.
Here are certain things that i don't agree with you. So let me just clarify my position because persudaing each other at this point is a sheer waste of time.
1. The Constitution is defunct: I don't think it is. I think it is still functioning. The Oct 4th move was perfectly constitutional. I understand you won't agree with it so I wouldn't spend time to persuade you. The "unconstitutional' move of Otc 4 forms the basis of your argument and the "constitutional" move of Oct 4 forms the basis of my argument.
2. Since when we are banned from speaking the truth and who is the judge and on what basis? The law you proclaim was intended for a constitutional monarch who has a respectable standing among his people, once you lose that you are a fair game. How many times the crimes have gone unpunished because people like you stand on the way touting the law and order that does not protect.
Well, it is banned by the constitution of Nepal to chant offensive and deregatory slogans against the institution of monarchy. This again leads to my response to your first argument that the present constitution is defunct. Since you find it defunct, you find it perfectly alright to chant those slogans, and since I don't find it defunct, I see it as anti-constitutional to chat those slogans.
3. About the comparision: Maybe I was wrong on that. But my basic idea was that whether a ganster or violent students creating havvoc on the streets of kathmandu, they both are breaking the laws of Nepal and they both have to tried in the court of law and face the "punishment".
This is all. I hope I clarified my position. Since we have based our arguments on totally opposing views, it will be almost impossible for us to convince each other. However, I respect your views and the way you presented those- in a civil manner and without engaging in name calling. I wish we could share our opposing views on this a lot, but there are certain limitations right now.
Hoping to engage in a discussion with you in other threads and topics in future.
IF
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