| Username |
Post |
| DHUMBASSE (DUMBASS) |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 03:50 PM
DID you all hear that ?
mancche ko ho ..gahiro talle ta chinya hoina maile tara manche chahi thulai manche ho bhanee thaha cha ..l
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| Trikal |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 05:00 PM
Dhumboji,
Good thread. At least We can share some grief on Mr. Rishikesh Shah.
He was one of the active revolutionist of People's Revolution 1950-51; former permanent representative of United Nations and Ambassador, Minister, Chairman of Royal Council; popular Scholar and Historian, senior most Human Rights Activist. And ect...ect...
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| Garibjanata |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 05:22 PM
BRIEF BIO OFTHE DESEASED(I am a owner of 2 books written by him:History of modern nepal part one and two.
1)WAS GENERAL SECRETARY OF NEPALI NATIONAL CONGRESS ( DILLI RAMAN REGMI's PARTY) (from modenr nepal,part 2)
2)HIS LEADER(REGMI )EXPELS HIM.Shah fails to mention in his book (modern nepal,part 2)why he's expelled
3) JOINS B.P.KOIRALA's NEPALI CONGRESS;becomes one of his advisors(modern nepal, part 2).
3) then leaves NEPALI CONG. AND BECOMES PANCHAYATI CONSTITUTION KO ARCHITECT(other sources-google)
4) MAHENDRA MAKES HIM FIRST U.N. REP of NEPAL (google)
5)IN HIS LATER LIFE BECOMES HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE(google).
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 09:42 PM
1. A scholar who has written prolifically on Nepal's political history -- and has probably done more than any other Nepali to educate and introduce Nepal to foreigners. Series of history books, meticulously researched and chronicled, from the medieval times to the 1990s. I'd rank one of his earliest books very highly, "Heroes and Builders of Nepal" -- very basic, simple book, but highly educational, and considering the date of its publication, a landmark output that contributed in its own small way to the early efforts of consolidation of the Nepali "project" on statehood. But the book itself has suffered faint charges of plagiarism -- he has been accused of lifting bits from Surya Bikram Gyawali's earlier work in Nepali without giving due credit. Gyawali has been mentioned only in passing. Foreword written by Mahendra with whom he had a love-hate relationship. Helped draft the first Panchayeti Constitution. Shah perversely gloated after Panchayat's demise: "maile lekhya sambidhan tees barsa tikyo".
2. Scion of the Bhirkote dynasty -- a petty feudal, who nonetheless advocated and partook in progressive changes. General Secretary of the Nepali Congress after the Birgunj Mahadhibhesan, 2012 Bikram Sambat.
3. In politics, flimsy loyalty and lack of consistency/firm stances throughout -- numerous opportunistic alliances in the early days of his career; lost some credibility and popularity later in life for eccentric, ill-thought remarks. But very candid and outspoken. Had ties with the Maoists; claimed Baburam still came to see him incognito as recently as until last year. A side truth is -- he was personally close to Baburam, who used to frequent Rishikesh Shah's brother's residence in Delhi when the former was a student at JNU.
4. Nepal's first Ambassador to the UN in 1955; as a well-read, articulate, presentable diplomat, did a lot to introduce an isolated Nepal onto the world stage. Was shot in NY -- the then US Secretary of State rushed to the hospital from DC to console and condole an undisturbed Shah.
5. Diplomatic highlight in 1960 when he met Nikita Kshruschev the Soviet Leader together with the then Nepali Prime Minister, BP Koirala, and debated the then hot topic of "triad leadership" of that world body. Kshruschev was presented a convincing counter-argument by the two Nepalis. [Interesting factoid here: Kshruschev went on to record the incident in his memoirs saying some "charismatic leader from the third world" tried to change his views. Shah went on to claim later that it was him who Kshruschev was referring to. This episode has been noted by Koirala in his Atmabrittanta also, more modestly. He says -- Ganeshman Singh spotted the reference during his Sundarijal imprisonment and showed it remarking that the "chahakilo yuba neta" in question must have been him. This was between the 3 of them, all dead now, so no one knows the truth].
On balance: a remarkable, controversial Nepali who left a mark in the country's political and diplomatic history, as well as scholarship.
His death is a national loss just like that of Mr. Lainsingh Bangdel who made an international mark in another genre.
May Mr. Shah rest in peace.
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| krishna |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 09:49 PM
Paschim, trikal, thanks for bringing forth the achievements of Mr. Shah.
My condolence goes out to him and my prayers to his family.
May God grant them the power to live without such a prolific scholar and a gentleman!!!!
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 10:22 PM
I don't have a lot to say about Mr Shah. However, I remember one particular fact about him: (please correct me if I am wrong since I am writing from my memory.)
After the death of former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjold, of Sweden who died (when he was going to Congo on September 1961 to do something about their civil war )in some helicopter crash, Rishikesh Shah was the head of the commission formed to investigate the death. That was a very important responsibility bestowed upon him.
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 10:53 PM
Biswo, what you wrote is accurate, and that was indeed a great honor for him and Nepal.
But I have since heard (repeated ad nauseum in Nepal) this fact being extrapolated to assert, for propaganda purposes, that Shah COULD have become the Secretary-General of the UN, but was blocked by the Nepali king. Now, that is stretching it a bit far. I mean, Shah, on a relative scale, did good stuff for Nepal internationally, but Sec-Gen of the UN, dream on!!!
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| Nepe |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 11:07 PM
Paschim,
Informative remarks and a good eulogy. Great !
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 11:08 PM
Paschim,
I agree with you, and we all know, Bhupi wrote about the same time, 'Nepal Hallai Hallaako Desh ho'.
U Thant became secretary general in Nov after Dag's death.We know UN secretary generalship was then made to go to different continents alternately. Unless somone is a person named Butros Butros Ghali, he would serve two terms in UN as secretary general.
For any Asian to be the UN secretary general in UN, he needed to wait for another fifty years.
That's why Mr Shah was not likely to be UN secretary general.
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| Jayahos |
Posted
on 14-Nov-02 11:14 PM
Few notes:
***
This is what nepalnews has reported:
He was Ambassador to the USA and Permanent Representative to UN 1956-1960. Minister of Finance 1960-64; elected chairman by the UN General Assembly to the International Commission for examining the death of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in 1961 in an air crash over Congo; a candidate to succeed Hammerskjold at Secretary General and lost to Burma's U Thant; founder member of Nepal Council of World Affairs.
*** Further his controversial personality:
He was vocal in the final days of PANCHYAT to give whole security arrangement of Nepal in Indian hand.
***Bimarsha has published his old interview where he mentions about one letter from Baburam Bhattarai urging him to help them (Maoist) which is now in custody of Kamal Mani Dixit.
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| Garibjanata |
Posted
on 15-Nov-02 12:24 AM
Paschim, are u a relative of shahji? How do u know all sal-nal,andra-budhi about him?
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 15-Nov-02 02:26 AM
Jayahos -- I just read that interview on today's Bimarsha. There, Shah says Baburam came to see him until "3 years ago" (interview date of 2055). In another interview with Rishi Dhamala, I think he has claimed a more recent interaction. I could be mistaken. But I hadn't believed that. There's a moving story about BRB and his ageing parents -- like a good Hindu son (but a non-believer in religion), he apparently took his father and mother on a trip to the four Hindu holy sites in India (chaar dham) before plunging himself in the ruthless guerrilla movement in 1996, and disappearing totally from public life.
Garibjanata -- No, I am not related to Mr. Shah. I have no feudal roots, am just a *garibjanata* myself! About nali-beli, as Clint Eastwood tells his girl (Rene Russo?) in the very last scene of the movie, "In the line of Fire", let me just say -- I know a thing or two about people. Well, he actually says "pigeons", but you know :)
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| protean |
Posted
on 15-Nov-02 02:33 AM
Just saw this tribute to Shaha written by Deepak Thapa, who had interviewed him recently.
__________________________________________
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/issue119/headline_2.htm
Rishikesh Shaha, 77
Nepal’s scholar-statesman Rishikesh Shaha died Thursday shortly after Deepak Thapa had visited him and written this tribute. We print this piece in the present tense to keep Shaha’s memory alive.
There is something particularly winsome about an ailing old man lighting up and giving you a smile of welcome. That is how Rishikesh Shaha greets you when you enter his room. After the initial shock of seeing how wasted he looks, the first thing that strikes you is the dhaka topi that somehow remains perched on his head even in repose. Then the sadness creeps over you as you realise that there lies a piece of Nepali history, and he is dying of lung cancer.
While working with Himal South Asian, we used to describe Rishikesh Shaha as Nepal’s scholar-statesman, and I doubt if there is any other Nepali who can share that designation. Just look at his accomplishments. A founding member of the Nepal Democratic Congress, one of the constituents which later became the Nepali Congress, he later sided with Dilli Raman Regmi in the Nepali National Congress, and was even part of the People’s Front together with Tanka Prasad Acharya’s Praja Parishad and the Communist Party of Nepal to oppose Nepali Congress policies.
Thereafter, he left for New York to set up Nepal’s permanent mission to New York in 1956, and also served as the country’s first ambassador to the US. It is a measure of his stature in the world body that in 1961, he was appointed chairman of the international commission to investigate the death of Dag Hammarskjøld, the UN secretary-general who died in a plane crash in the Congo.
Shaha was brought back to Nepal in 1960 after King Mahendra’s takeover to serve as a cabinet minister. For the next couple of years, he was shunted around as Foreign Minister, special ambassador to the UN and as chairman of the commission to draft the Panchayat constitution. Having won a Rastriya Panchayat seat from the graduates’ constituency in 1967, his statement calling for a more representative and a more responsible political system landed him a 14-month prison sentence.
Shaha never served in a public post after that, but became prolific as a scholar. He was a visiting professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Regent’s Professor at the University of Calfornia at Berkeley. His books, most notably, Nepali Politics: Retrospect and Prospect, Essays in the Practice of Government in Nepal and Modern Nepal: A Political History have become standard reference works, while his Introduction to Nepal and Heroes and Builders of Nepal provide perhaps the best introduction to the country.
Rishikesh Shaha’s deep commitment to the issue of personal freedom was evident when he founded and led the Human Rights Organisation of Nepal in 1988; no mean feat during the authoritarian Panchayat days. He later left the organisation but did not relent in his own personal crusade against injustice.
In recent years, Shaha was accused of being an apologist for the Maoists because of his friendship with Baburam Bhattarai, with whom he corresponded even after Bhattarai went underground. But Shaha was also accused of being pro-absolute monarchy for asking the king to step since he believed the politicians were ruining the country.
But he was above all a humanist, and a keen analyst of the Nepal’s political evolution. Writing in 1996, a couple of months after the “people’s war” began, Shaha said: “The signs of an imminent legitimacy crisis are already visible in Nepal’s fledgling democracy, and the immateriality accorded to the civilian deaths in Rolpa is a foretaste of difficult days ahead.” Only a statesman with vision can foresee events so far into the future.
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| DHUMBASSE (DUMBASS) |
Posted
on 15-Nov-02 08:12 AM
Thank you all for enlightening this 'Dumbass' about Rishikesh shah. I had an opportunity to go to his house and see him in person, a long time ago, even though a very brief one. I had gone to receive a preface on a book before the book went to press.
I waited him in his living room, as is customary, and he came downstairs with a bunch of papers and a book in his hand, " Yo lagera gurujilai dinu, Kitab sarai ramro cha, ma phone ma kura garchu uhasanga bhandinu" .
quite an experience huh!! May his soul rest in peace!!
Aba ke ta? aba Nepalka diggaj hasti haru yesari jana thale pachi ko banki rahane, Girija koirala ?
Reminds me of a dialogue in an Indian movie : ' hey bhaggwan!! agar utthana hi tha to kyu isko uthaya, Girije ko kyu nahi uthahya, "
Chati patak patak karke .. re kya ajha lastma
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| jeevan gurung |
Posted
on 15-Nov-02 06:37 PM
Seems like he must have been an excellent leader needed for time right now. Sad to know that in such a time like this, a nation lost another leader.
May his sould rest in peace...
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| ashu |
Posted
on 15-Nov-02 07:16 PM
Shah wanted to join Nepali Congress in 1991.
The Nepali Congress folks, including Giriija and Ganesh Man, were against Shah's
joining NC. Outwardly, they ridiculed Shah for being a Panchayati Constitution-maker.
Inwardly, by some accounts, that they were just scared of Shah's intellect, his strong personality, his worldwide contacts and feared that he would, if allowed into the NC fold, would upstage them pretty soon.
May Shah's soul rest in peace.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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