Protest Letter against unethical media tactics in Nepal – Invitation Letter to UNSG

You can take a Nepali out of Nepal but you can not take ‘The Nepal’ out of a Nepali, is all that I can say about me. It is a modified dialogue from some Hindi movie but describes me aptly.

Another such punchline can be ‘You can take politician out of Nepal/out of spectrum but that position will not be vacant as that will be automatically filled by Nepalese Journalists.’

This is a state of the state. Eveything will be politicised there and sometimes, we have seen that personal ego has taken precedence over national interest. The latest burning example was the egoistic ward of words from Kanak Dixit, Kulchandra Gautam who must be having the lasat laugh now when all Nepalese are puting their head down on despair and shame.

There was a talk that Ban Ki Mun, United Nations Secretary General was to be in Nepal in April for taking part in Lumbini Related Conference but Kanakmani Dixit, Kulchandra Gautam  (KMD & KCG) did not want this as that Conference Committee was headed by Maoist Head Prachanda. KMD & KCG utilised all their media power and their connection and finally, Ban Ki Mun decided to cancel/reschedule his visit. I hope to believe that United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Mun decided to cancel his visit based on some other circumstances but this post is to, once again, condemn the pathetic spirit of Journalism exhibited by KMD & KCG. They should know that every Nepali is putting their head down being disgusted by their person ego getting precedence over Nation’s glory.

I have written in protest to their action, in my earlier post here . Some of the friends in Kathmandu have drafted a Protest Letter and submitted the letter to United Nations Office in Nepal, Office of the Prime Minister in Nepal. You can read that letter (both in Nepali and English) here

I have also drafted a protest letter which has not been sent to anyone but I thought I share the letter with you readers.

The essence of this letter is to protest the unethical media rant in Nepal, and invite United Nations Secretary General to Nepal and urge him to visit Nepal without any delay.

Note: I am not fan, neither the supporter of Maoist Government. But, I think there are cerain things above your political ideology and beliefs and these guys, who were opposing the visit of United Nations Secretary General, failed to respect people’s desires. I condemn such media tactics.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

His Excellency Ban Ki Moon                                                                                                                                                                                          22nd March, 2012
Secretary-General, United Nations
New York, NY
United States of America

Dear Secretary-General,

We, the undersigned Citizen and well – wisher of Nepal, have come to know this very sad news that your Excellency has deferred the proposed visit to Nepal which was scheduled to take place on April 28, 2012.

As we understood that your Excellency was supposed to attend a high-level multi-stakeholder international meeting on Lumbini during your visit in Nepal and give impetus to ongoing peace strengthening process.  We were hopeful that your arrival to Nepal at this crucial phase of history would have strengthened Nepal’s peace process, its image and glory around the world and it would be a significant event for the emerging youths and leaders of this country which is slowly consolidating the fruits of its struggle with its medieval past. People of Nepal were also expecting this visit to be a landmark event for the consolidation of peace and stability and the event in the birthplace of Buddha, at Lumbini, would have spread the message of universal love and brotherhood around the world.

At this point, we are not sure why your Excellency has cancelled your proposed visit. However, alongside media reports, we had the benefit of going through a twitter post, if this represents the official view of United Nations in Nepal, which has been produced in verbatim,

“ UNSG’s visit to be rescheduled to allow more time for preparations for Lumbini meeting & to avoid distracting current key peace negotiations”

– twitted by Robert Piper ‏ @UN_Nepal

We feel it is our duty to inform your Excellency the response above only shows the lackadaisical approach exhibited by the UN Representatives in Nepal and the response runs in contradiction to the aspiration of Nepalese People.

It is well known to all of us that United Nations was established to make peace sustainable in the world after humankind suffered from horrendous impacts of two World Wars. Therefore, the presence of United Nations and its representatives would be always for the strengthening of ongoing peace process in any parts of the world. However, the above response on twitter shows that your Excellency’s presence in Nepal would have distracted the current peace strengthening process.
We submit that we have been disgusted by such comments from Robert Piper as such views go antithetical to United Nation’s role worldwide.
Promoting Peace and Universal brotherhood worldwide have been the hallmark of United Nations and such comments from a responsible person would only undermine the height of this esteemed organisation.

We strongly request the call back of Mr. Robert Piper from Nepal for undermining the role of this cherished organisation in maintenance of peace worldwide.

Your Excellency, we would also like to brief you on the ongoing peace and constitution making process in Nepal. Nepal has elected Constituent Assembly in the year 2008 where Nepal Maoist Party had emerged as a largest party in Constituent Assembly cum Parliament. The Election was conducted by a Constitutional body in Nepal, Election Commission. Two other main stream parties – United Communist Party Nepal (Marxist and Leninist), and Nepali Congress have come at second and at third position on the basis of candidates that are elected to Constituent Assembly and regional parties based in Southern Nepal, representing ethnic ‘Madhesh’ have emerged as a new force in Nepal. The Election Result was accepted by all participating political parties as mandate of People. Today, the Government is headed by a leader from Nepal Maoist Party and the government was elected after it proved its majority on the floor of parliament in accordance with the democratic system prevalent in the civilized world.

The above facts are very crucial at this juncture as our subsequent submissions and request are based on the above historical facts. Though the constituent Assembly was elected in 2008, Nepal had a fair share of bickering over the modus of government and on the issues of federalism. Whatever we could achieve till now in Constitution drafting process – the recognition and blame, both must be shared by all political parties.

The political developments in Nepal, we believe, had a bearing on the cancellation of your schedukled visit to Nepal since we have seen in Media Reports that your Excellency’s decision to cancel the visit was also prompted by some of the Journalists’ and ex- UN employee’s comment questioning the wisdom of the time. However, We are firmly sure that such irresponsible and unethical Media writings by some of the Nepalese journalists and those of so called Human Rights Activists have not been taken seriously by your Excellency’s Office.

As your Excellency is aware that Nepal is a constitutionally governed democracy which is trying to secure people’s right firmly and is going through a crucial transition phase. Even in this situation, Nepalese Media enjoy, too a great extent, unhindered freedom. Nepalese Press, especially based in Capital Kathmandu, enjoys right to appreciate and criticize its government without any fear.

Sometimes, the appreciation and criticisms of government, to a large extent, are not based on any facts and substance but are motivated by political inclination of the journalist. Such reporting by media personnel cannot provide any information to the people so as to make an informed choice/decision on actions of government. Nevertheless, even such journalists are protected under the laws and constitution of this country. This shows that Nepal has already taken steps in a right direction to safeguard the outcome of people’s struggles.

We would like to inform your Excellency, on the above background, that certain sections of Nepalese Journalist and ex-UN employee, who have been unfortunately labeled as ‘civil society’ of this country were involved in propaganda writing merely having different political leanings than that of the party heading the current government. We express our anguish over such baseless, fabricated, malicious, misleadin and dishonest media writings by these people against the visit of your Excellency in this country.

We are sure that your Excellency’s Office in its best wisdom has been been able to sense the lopsidedness of such reports. We believe that your Excellency has properly considered the inherent baised view prevalent in such writings and have given the proper merit by summarily dismissing
these fabricated news items.

Therefore, we, the young and aspiring, the forward looking, and the optimistic people and friends of Nepal have drafted this letter to express our anguish over the dishonest media writings in Nepal to misguide the office of your Excellency. On behalf of our Motherland Nepal, we apologise to your Excellency for hurting your sentiments and we apologise for the malicious and capricious attempt of these narrow minded opportunists’ who have made a futile attempt of lowering down the dignity of United Nations and the office of your Excellency.

At the same time, We also express our sadness and displeasure for cancelling your Excellency’s visit to Nepal in a haste and without proper information to the People of Nepal.

We firmly believe that your Excellency will soon schedule a visit to Nepal being unfazed by such dishonest media Reports. It is our immense pleasure to inform your Excellency that People of Nepal will look forward to seeing you soon at Lumbini, at the birthplace of Buddha and the moment when it happens, sooner than any later, we believe will mark as a watershed in the peace loving history of Nepalese People.

WE, the undersigned.

Mr Dixit! Play with a straight bat!

For me, the maximum pleasure that I derive from my acts is when another person is doing the same what I do or when I will be doing exactly the same what other person does.  The more the number, the greater the pleasure. I think it is true for all sorts of people while doing good thing or bad thing, more numbers doing the same makes the work easier, better and enjoyable!

I had a great feeling while watching ICC T20 Qualifying matches where Nepal was playing for a berth in T20 World Cup competition. Nepal has been ousted now but there was glimmer of hope when the tournament had started. After a long time, I was watching/following Nepalese Sports (I am not so great fan of football) and did not really know that Nepal had badly lost the match in football few days back.

We, few of those Nepalese, who could spend time in twitter, were rooting for Nepal till last match sharing scores of Nepalese Team with each other and enjoying every run Nepal scored and every wicket Nepal could scalp. Since I, and majority of us, did not have facility to watch match live in stadium and in Television, we just imagined the sound of timber when ball hit the wicket, we imagined how the bail must have been displaced when Nepalese Bowlers were taking wickets. We imagined that Nepalese bowlers caught the ball diving in the air when they were able to effect catch out. Similar was the joy in our face when Nepal scored runs. We could visualize that the opponent mid on, silly point, gully and mid off fielders were sweating when Nepal was scoring. It was our imagination and we were happy forgetting all those political doldrums going In Nepal.

However, we knew that it was a short lived joy because of two reasons – one Nepal could not maintain streak of wins and politically, in Nepal, there was nothing that was happening that could secure the future of next generation of Nepalese. (Our generation is already doomed!). The moment cricket match was over, we used to be back to the same uninspiring and demotivating news and our smiles and joys would suddenly fade away. When Nepalese Players were struggling in extreme temperature in Middle East, following were some of the news that was burning the political and governmental civilization in Nepal:

• Son of Prachanda was given 20 million Nepali Rupees by Baburam Government for climbing Mt. Everest for securing peace and constitution. Can you believe? Later, Pracahndaputra was so kind to us that he politely declined to take that money.
• Daughter of PM Baburam was given a post in Nepal Cricket Association. To our knowledge, she has no credential to be there and I read a news that she too thanked the government of Nepal/Cricket Association for nominating her despite her zero knowledge on the subject but politely declined to be in committee because of her other commitments.
• The Constitution Writing in Nepal is going nowhere and we do not know when or at all constitution will be written. Everyone is asking the resignation of PM Baburam when there are hardly 60 days left before the Constituent Assembly in Nepal runs out of fuel that parties are filling time and again but latest Supreme Court judgement has put the check.
• The Maoist Party has developed two lines and it is on the verge of split. Within the Maoist itself, the group led by Mohan Baidhya is calling for resignation of PM Baburam.
• Maoist Supremo Prachanda has shifted to an expensive, big and spacious house some months back but that does not take away the fact that he is still a leader of ‘proletarian class’.
• Some unheard Maoist affiliated Tabloid has said three people of Nepal, Mr. Kanakmani Dixit, a journalist, Kulchandra Gautam – former UN employee, and Sushil Pyakurel (I guess!) – Who is known as Human Right Activist, are the biggest enemy of people! People, as I understand, refer to Maoist. The news and the tabloid was a unheard one until Mr. Dixit started republishing this in all social networks possible and he got enough space in Nepalese Media. Mr. Dixit, for unknown reason, also approached Baburam Government. The tabloid got fair share of advertisement for little cost.
• Thereafter, the news came that Ban – Ki – Mun, the UN Secretary wants to come to Nepal to visit Lumbini but there were articles that Mr. Dixit does not want this. I heard other two, so called People’s enemies also did not want Mun to come Nepal at this time.
• Final News that I read today that Mun has decided to cancel his visit to Nepal

Therefore, today, Mr. Dixit must be doing ‘Cheers’ to him alone and with his ‘elite’ and so called ‘intellectual’ friends but Nepalese people did not get anything in the end. Mr. Dixit made a small news article a matter of his prestige and ego and did not hesitate to cross any LaxmanRekha to belittle Nepalese Government. The government which has been reduced to just of the name has nothing to lose, but the losers of this whole saga are Nepalese people and Nepal. A person has won the fight to make his ego upright but in the whole process, did not flinch even for a second to nudify himself before the public. It has just shown how eager is our ‘elite’ and ‘intellectual’ class to sabotage the name of the country on the false pretext of empowering democracy.

This is the reason why there was so much of euphoria when Nepal was winning one after another and even in those matches where Nepal lost, we were not letting down our country. We supported them till the end; we wanted our country’s team to score every runs possible and to scalp every wicket possible. In a small gesture, young Nepalese put their country before everything.

But, there was another thing important there. The boys, who played on the ground, were playing with pride and with team efforts. They scored with straight bat. They did not shy away from facing the bouncer, and the beamer. They played to win but they lost unlike Nepal where everyone is playing not himself to win but with an intention of making other a loser. Mr. Dixit has managed this time to play a reverse sweep, has scored with thin edge, has managed to cross the mid on where the fielder itself is very weak but he should remember, he can be a good player only he masters the class and form and plays with patience. In the war of ego, he has forgot the spirit of the game and the game for him would be to be a model journalist for young generation and a messenger of Nepal for peace trying to make world conscious of what exactly is going on in the name of democracy.

However, his constant rant about Maoists, very unbalanced news wholly criticizing every action of Maoists but completely shutting eyes for other malady of the country, in the name of Human Rights issue – unnecessarily herofying the Tibetan Refugees, Mr. Dixit has left an undeniable impression that there is nothing called ‘unbiased’ and ‘professional’ journalism when a person’s ego will be given the supremacy. This is in a way, blatant misuse of media power in Nepal. Mr. Dixit will be soon forgotten as a ‘Senior Journalist’ of Nepal and will be remembered as a one ‘from old school of thoughts’ who considers himself as the most educated, intelligent. The false impression Mr. Dixit has about himself will make him play reverse sweep in Nepalese Political and media sector for few more times but that day will not be that far when he will caught plumb LBW once he starts losing his readers.

There are two Nepalese proverbs that summarize the actions of Mr. Dixit in last few months, “Budeshkal ma Manchhe (People in Old Age)………………….” And “Bhirma Chadheko Goru (The bull which is at the top of the hill)”. The day is not that far where Nepalese people raise their finger for OUT unless Mr. Dixit starts playing with a straight bat.

The farcical Saga of Kantipur

(If any errors are there, I will do additional editing tomorrow and link to old posts tomorrow.). Happy Reading

This is the final editing to this Article with Updates in recent days. The development to date is Kantipur has apologized about this incident. Kantipur claims that it conducted its investigation and found Mr. Luitel ‘guilty’ of plagiarism. In its apology, Kantipur has said that it has removed Mr. Luitel from the responsibility of ‘Hello Sukrabar’, the famous youth supplement of Kantipur Daily. This is not clear if Mr. Luitel has been assigned back end job or has been completely terminated from the service of Kantipur Publications but that matters least here. Mr. Luitel’s letter as a Reader has also been published in Kantipur where Mr. Luitel has documented his reasons of not being able to quote the sources and has also apologized to the readers.

The Link of that Kantipur News on apology can be found here: http://epaper.ekantipur.com/showtext.aspx?boxid=145032109&parentid=20026&issuedate=1022012

It’s a very good step taken by Kantipur and the rise of social networking, hopefully contributes more in the future to caution Journalism Sector.

Some related blogs and facebook page on the matter can be accessed from friend bloggers and facebookers below:

http://www.mysansar.com/archives/2012/02/id/24508

http://storify.com/nepaldiary/plagiarism-ism

http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2012/feb/feb06/news01.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150638052786948&set=a.433501021947.218551.688386947&type=1

The above facebook page was the first unacceptable reaction of Kantipur which was condemned by entire right thinking people including me below in my Original Post.

The Original Post is below with minor edits:

The question of standard of Nepalese Journalism has once again been exposed. You can ask me, “Was there any standard at all in the first place?”. I thought it had. It had, I thought, especially after an Editor of Kantipur, supposedly the largest selling Nepalese National Daily, promises on the public forum that he will come with some sorts of clarifications on the issues of plagiarism by Kantipur (Yes, plagiarism by Nepalese National Daily Kantipur and not merely by an individual Reporter). However, the Paper fails to respect the views of the Editor and in effect, shows the middle finger to the readers and Critics of the papers who tried to correct a self declared intellectual and spoiled brat on small values of Journalism and values of feedback of his readers.

Though I said the promise was made by the Editor on Public Forum, it was in reply to two followers in his twitter account and he can state that he made a private promise if he wants to. Since the promises were not directly made to me, he can well question my ability to question him. However, we see the editor of a national daily in many ways: a public figure and a responsible institution to the people and readers of this country as much as he would have liked our political leaders to be responsible. Otherwise, if editors are to lose the confidence of the readers and the people, the nib of their pen would not last longer and they lose all their ‘barking ability’ when situations demand.

Going to the root of the matter and to present the facts in a succinct way, let us revisit the few events that have unfolded recently and in a recent past.

The Friday Supplement of Kantipur Paper seems to be fairly popular among the Nepalese Youth and it seems to contain contemporary topics on social, political, technological, lifestyle and sports etc. matter in a light hearted matter. The Supplement named as ‘Hello Sukrabar’, being focused for the youth seems to be managed by fairly young and immature groups with questionable education and journalistic credentials. However, since the paper was directed at large to the youngsters, it could not have been under intense journalistic priority of editors, nor even the readers complained much on the content and language where everybody acted to be in the modern phase of ‘high and bye’ generation.

However, occasional discomfort of readers with the tone, language and content of the ‘Hello Sukrabar’ was heard here and there in the past. At this stage, if the Editor of the paper had applied his mind, he would have definitely checked the multiplying arrogance of sharp but brash group who worked for Hello Sukrabar. But, rather than putting the system in the place, even some of the relatively senior journalists came to the rescue and defense of that rash gang at Kantipur and perpetuated a persecution of readers’ views not on any rational argument but trying to show all the readers who are critical of the writings as dumb. This has definitely tarnished the image of Kantipur among the young readers who thought that Kantipur represents a temple of truth and fair views. Otherwise, if it indulges in such a corrupt practices, whole edifice and ethics of Nepalese Journalism will crumble soon.

The problem in Kantipur is not rash mind making mistake as nothing better can be accepted expected from them but when the seniors, instead of reprimanding the juniors, spring to their defense with a confrontational question to the readers like “what moral right you have to tell us when you have not seen the printing press”. This was the best Kantipur Joke ever we could have heard in the year 2011 and we thought it was over.

But, now, we realise Kantipur had saved the better one for the year 2012.

The issue was raised about the originality of Articles claimed to be written by Mr. Ashish Luitel, a self-declared intellectual by his conduct in public forum. The number of Articles, till date, that are under the lens of originality are more than half a dozen and the so called writer has been questioned whether he copied them from New York Times. The Articles are related to the technology Sector.

The young journalist, if he can be called a one, who is most probably still flying high due to his ambidextrous ability of copying from other Papers and translating them in Nepalese Language, has admitted in his Twitter Account that he has made a mistake but ‘unintentionally’. Now, it is time for aspiring journalists to know if plagiarizing more than 6 or 7 Articles can be called ‘unintentional’ what in earth would be intentional then?

Of course, the young journalist has not stated what mistakes he has done but has shown a turn around by saying that he appreciates the thoughts of valuable readers. It is very fresh in our mind that it’s not long ago that he treated readers not even with a respect that scum would generally entitled to. How come so much turn around? How did he take such turn around now? It is simply because he has been caught red handed and people have shown with comparison that almost 7 Articles Mr. Ashish Luitel wrote were actually plagiarized from New York Times Articles without any credit to original source. When the young celebrity Journalist was getting all accolades from the plagiarized articles, editor did not waste his time pondering about the unexceptional talent of a kid. oOr in my opinion, Mr. Editor was fully aware of the source of the articles but considered as if he was doing some sort of favor to Nepalese People by letting them to read in Nepali which otherwise illiterate Nepalese would have never been able to read from New York Times.

The murky nature of this matter raises several fundamental issues like what is the role of a paper in first place? Should not it promote new talents focusing on originality? And What should be the roles of editors? Are not they supposed to be the person who are responsible for choosing and deciding what will be printed in a Paper? Or the quality of Nepalese journalism is so low and editors are simply incapable, incompetent and are there only for namesake?

Well, giving a benefit of doubt to whole journalism filed, should we refine our question and ask Is Mr. Sudheer Sharma, Editor of Kantipur a simply incompetent man in helm of affairs in Kantipur who could not even detect 7 plagiarized articles being published in the paper? Even more incompetent to issue a genuine apology when the matter of plagiarism was brought to his attention? Or, is Nepalese journalism is stooping so low and making way for king of plagiarism to give a stardom in the short span of time?

The readers’ concerns should have been handled properly by the paper and after the Editor promised to clarify. However, the childish approach of Journalism was brought in focus when Kantipur issued a one line in its February 3, 2012 Hello Sukrabar that the source of Article published under ‘Wiki Tech’ should have been New York Times etc. and was omitted because of technical reason. This smacks of dishonesty.  in public and despises the readers. The one line which have been hidden somewhere in the bottom of one of those pages in very tiny letters fails to tell us:

A. How many Articles were published where Credit of New York Times was omitted? (We, the readers have found till now 7 Articles. But, the King of Plagiarism can accurately tell to his editor how many such articles were plagiarized.)

B. With what heading and on which dates such articles were published? Or how come the source of such articles were missing over the period of time?

C. Under Wiki Tech, only one authors plagiarized the articles and published them or Do Kantipur have band of plagiarizers? to write Articles under different ‘talented’ journalists?

D, Especially, how they realized that the source is missing? And more importantly, what does source New York Times etc. means? Whom does the copyright of these Articles belong? Is it under Copyright transfer agreement with New York Times such articles were translated? These questions assume significance here as on readers’ views, the articles were plainly copied from a Single paper and translated to Nepali thereby violating the copyright of original article. Or Did Editor tried to say when he mentions ‘including New York Times’ that there are other articles which have been copied may be from Guardian, Times etc. etc. in the same fashion as were done with article from NYT?

These all above questions remain unanswered and we may never get answer to these issues so long as arrogant bunch rule the affairs of Kantipur. There is a need of regime change in Kantipur as well.

Let me think for a moment Mr. Editor was in a good faith when he promised that he will clarify the issue. May be he came under intense pressure from management, and junior and immature employees in the organization and surrendered before their pressure. Whatever he did under whatever circumstances, when the prig like Mr. Ashish Luitel remain as a face of Kantipur, and any street urchin with questionable education and qualification keep on becoming journalist, there will not be a day that far when another farce like these will not be repeated.

The pusillanimity that has been exhibited by Editor Mr. Sudheer Sharma is another wasted opportunity for mainstream media to show a brave face among the public. However, this farcical saga called Kantipur and its established practice of ‘Quick Guide to be at the top with the help of…………(U know what)’ hopefully will not last long and we can only hope we need not have to voice again on ‘unmeritorious topics.’ which have inglorious conclusion!

Condemn the Plagiarism!!

Reforms Necessary in Nepalese VAT Law

Reforms Necessary in Nepalese VAT Law

Value Added Tax (‘VAT’) was first introduced in France in 1954 and today, it has been implemented worldwide with tremendous success. In Nepal, after intense debate and deliberation, it was implemented first in 1997. However, it is felt that its positive impacts are yet to be fully realised even after almost 14 years of implementation. The main problem that the government is facing each year is lack of compliance by all taxpayers due to various reasons.  In this article, a brief attempt has been made to analyse the radical changes those are required in Nepalese VAT laws with the changes on the ways the business and trades are carried in modern times.

First, to start with the positive impact that VAT laws brings is taxation at every stage of supply chain and credit to taxes paid on inputs and on input services. Therefore, the foremost good factor that VAT laws bring is the removal of cascading effects. The term cascading effects refer to ‘tax on tax’. Therefore, VAT shuts door for multiple taxation, thereby removing cascading effects in supply chain as every buyer and seller will be entitled to avail input tax credits and adjust its credit with its output tax liability. In principle, we have understood VAT laws to be so.

However, in practice, not necessarily the implementation of VAT laws always removes cascading effects. Therefore, we need to have an effective and good VAT law that alone brings the intended consequences to the tax payers. In practice, what has been observed is the concept called ‘exemption of taxes’ on ‘exempted goods and services’ which act as a barrier to smooth supply chain. Mainly, the essential goods and services, for example rice, pulses, flour, fresh fish, kerosene, salt, health services, contraceptives, medicine etc. are exempted from payment of VAT on a simple rationale that these commodities and services are essential for human survival and imposition of taxes will increase the price of these products thereby making it inaccessible and expensive for poor citizen of our poor country. Morally and ethically too, this sounds a great welfare measure taken by the state. But, in practice and in a world which is full of profit making enterprises, this rationale does not work so greatly as think it to be. We can understand the tax exemption behind the agricultural products like wheat, paddy, flour etc. and agricultural tools, shovels, etc. But, Nepalese VAT law even exempts taxes on air travel, gold and silver, mobile phone set etc. which is beyond anyone’s understanding and these types of exemptions have only accentuated the obstacles to smooth supply chain.

While the output goods and services are exempted from the payment of taxes for those goods mentioned in Schedule – I of VAT on its output side, it may not be so in case of input goods/services. Therefore, a vendor who purchases raw materials and services, and manufactures an exempted product, say medicine, cannot utilise its input taxes that it has paid on inputs. Its input tax credit will go to become a sunk cost. In this situation, the only options available to the manufacturer/seller would be to add up the cost of taxes paid in inputs in its final outputs and pass that cost to the customer if manufacturer/seller has to keep its business running. Therefore, while declaring certain goods/services as exempted goods/services, the government is not doing any yeoman’s service to its citizens except those few essential goods.

Keeping goods and services exempt will also have another round of disadvantages – that is to the vendor which buys these exempted products and services, utilizes these input goods and services for manufacture and sells its outputs which are taxable in nature. In this case, this vendor will not have any input tax credit and has to collect the tax amount from the public/customers, which will only increases the price of these products.

Internationally, it has always been a moral dilemma among legislators/governments to frame effective VAT laws containing provisions that leave entire supply chain unaffected. Since revenue and fiscal laws stand on the different footing than other laws, they are enacted as per the economic and fiscal needs of the nation unlike other general laws which may be enacted to curb one or the other evils. Government will also make use of tax laws to control the flow of goods and services as per demand of the country on the prevailing economic condition. Therefore, though it may be desirable not to have ‘exempted products/services’ at all, but practicality, does not allow this to happen. This is fully understandable. Having said so and being fully aware of the government’s constraints, the challenges posed by exempted goods and services in supply chain is not that difficult to address if genuine efforts are made and willingness are shown by the government.

Arguably, the easy and effective ways to curb the threat posed by exempt products/services are to make them taxable by declaring the rate of tax at Zero Percentage for these products/services. This is internationally known as ‘Zero – rated goods/services’. Our Nepalese VAT law has already enumerated this concept but only few categories of items and transactions find place in Zero-rated list.

Currently, the exports are Zero – rated which is in consonance with international tax principle that only the products/services be exported and not the taxes so that our products become competitive in international markets. Other Zero rated transactions in the list are the supplies made to industries located at Special Economic Zone (SEZ), battery used in solar power generation and manufactured by domestic manufacturers etc. The need of the hour is to reduce the number of items/services and transactions currently mentioned at Annexure – I of VAT and move them to Annexure – II so that exempt products would be converted to taxable one, i.e. to convert them to ‘Zero-rated’ goods/services.

By introducing the concept of ‘Zero – rated’ for maximum number of goods and services, the goods and services would get taxable life – making inputs utilised for producing these zero rated goods creditable. Though there may not still be output tax liability, the vendor would be able to use the credits that it has accumulated while producing/distributing ‘Zero – Rated Goods’. Therefore, the expansion of this concept in VAT laws will make a good impact on the business community and ultimately, the impact will be felt by the consumers. A small effort from government side can make a big difference!

Another possible remedy that can be injected to streamline the credit mechanism would be rather than making these products exempt, a small VAT should be imposed on them. In Nepal, currently, there are only two VAT rates – 0% and 13%. In this context, a middle path can be found making majority of currently exempt products taxable, say at the rate of 1%-3%. Though imposition of tax may make these products little more expensive and may not go well with ‘people – centric!’ political class but we must understand that imposition of tax at small rate will not be so burdensome on us- the public and on the other, and helps not to snap the supply chain.

From the point of collection of revenue too, mostly these products are relatively inelastic and therefore, will not have any impacts on their demand. There would be more positives to the economy in the long run with these measures which may not at first glance, look so populist. This second prescription is recommended only when government is unable to declare exempt goods as ‘Zero – rated’ having constraints due to other economic factors. Whatever government does, however, should be for giving impetus to economic development and should propel our economy to forward direction.

© Rajib Dahal. The Author is an Advocate and can be reached by posting your comments in this blog.

Nepal: (Un)Necessary – ‘doctrine of necessity’

My this article below is published in Telegraph Nepal today. You can read it from here:

http://www.telegraphnepal.com/views/2011-09-21/nepal:-unnecessary-doctrine-of-necessity.html

THE term ‘doctrine of necessity’ has found an unwarranted place in Nepalese legal development despite not having any acceptable legacy behind it. The doctrine itself has a very dubious purpose to serve and the outcome of application of this doctrine would be debated for a long time. The doctrine, in its simple understanding, is a validating tool for those illegal, extra-legal, and invalid administrative state actions and these actions get validity from one’s understanding of necessity, mostly based on his/their momentary understanding of what was the necessity of that time. Therefore, there would be divergence in views even among the legal luminaries. One’s view of what was necessary at a time can always be contested by other set of legal luminaries.

Therefore, in this article, my effort has been to make a jurisprudential fathoming of legacy that ‘doctrine of necessity’ inherits and to examine whether we have acted judiciously to patronize this doctrine in Nepalese legal development.

The doctrine helps to bestow legality on any extra-legal actions if such actions are found to be to restore legal orders and if, at the give point of time, the state machineries would have no alternative viable recourse available. Therefore, most often, the courts have given breath to this principle when constitutional validities of states are to be upheld even when such state actions sans constitutionally permitted limits.

The credit for giving birth to this principle goes initially to the medieval jurist Henry de Bracton (c.1210-1268), and later, justification of the doctrine has been advanced by another great authority, William Blackstone. The legal maxim that has been credited to Bracton goes like this: “……………that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity…………………”

The constitutional lawyers should be troubled in Nepal as the doctrine seems to be gaining unshakable ground to justify diverse extra-legal state actions. In a judgement delivered in April 2010, the Supreme Court of Nepal, in a matter relating to parliamentary hearings for appointment in constitutional bodies, had opined that all the articles of Interim Constitution of Nepal can be amended as per the doctrine of necessity except those relating to democratic republic, human rights and an independent judiciary. The reasoning though may sound to be a political victory for the supremacy of parliament; it comes with the imminent danger of having serious implications in the future.

Once again, the discourse on this doctrine has gained momentum since the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Nepal has invoked this principle in another verdict while upholding the extension of tenure of Constituent Assembly (CA). The court cited and applied the doctrine to uphold the Ninth Amendment of the Interim Constitution of Nepal. The court verdict has, therefore, upheld the extension of the tenure of the CA by three more months on May 28, 2011. The Supreme Court reasoned that the objective of CA was to draft and to promulgate a new constitution and to conclude the peace process and that has not been achieved yet. Therefore, the doctrine has to be applied to uphold the actions taken by CA when the twin tasks are yet to be performed, reasoned the Apex Court.

A brief overview to world history shows that the Chief Justice Mohammad Munir of Pakistan had invoked the doctrine to validate the actions of Governor General Ghulam Mohammad who had dismissed the Constituent Assembly and appointed a Council of Ministers in 1954. While putting breath in the doctrine in modern times, Justice Munir in Pakistan in 1954 relied on Bracton’s maxim ‘that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity’, and on the Roman law maxim urged by Jennings, ‘the well-being of the people is the supreme law’.

In countries like Nigeria and in Fiji, this doctrine were invoked and applied whenever the state had acted against the constitution. There were striking similarities in all these states at the time when the doctrine was invoked – dysfunctional parliamentary democracy. Therefore, this will inevitably leads us to the question – whether doctrine of necessity is a necessary doctrine when there is a breakdown of parliamentary democracy.

In the instant case, another immediate question that needs to ponder is how long the doctrine of necessity can save the functioning of CA or any such extra – legal actions of state actors in the future. Dealing with the issue vis – a – vis functioning of CA, what if, the CA fails to perform its functioning of promulgation of new constitution but based on this doctrine; it keeps on extending its term for another dozen times. By adopting this doctrine by highest judiciary of the country, we have placed ourselves in a very precarious situation where CA may not function as per the mandate given by people and the constitution but whatever it does going outside the Constitution would be held constitutional. Then, what incentives CA members would have even to be serious for constitution making when their terms and tenures are guaranteed by ‘doctrine of necessity’. There would be some argument to say that the doctrine of necessity alone cannot extend the tenure of CA for more than six months. However, the so called sovereign CA has all the incentives to amend the provisions in Interim Constitution and remove such barriers where if the mighty CA wishes, it can extend its term by innumerable times.

At this juncture, the first and foremost issue among the legal experts should be the implications of borrowing such principle into Nepalese Legal System which can have serious ramifications on fundamental points concerning the rule of law and constitution, the retrospective exercise of legislative powers by the law makers, and the yardstick and benchmark to adjudge the legality of actions in the future.

What we have to understand is the constitution is not only a legal document but also a political, social, economical testament and vision of a nation. Constitution embodies the hope and aspiration of the people of many generations and expected to be so in the time period yet to come. Therefore, CA, which has received the mandate from the people, will be exercising its power in various capacities and its functioning are not merely discharge of legal and constitutional functions. In this scenario, in my humble opinion, the court should have rescued itself to adjudge on the matter of extension of CA tenure, as the issue will have different dimensions including political and courts are not to interfere on such political powers. It is not only the implications of the outcome is political but the role of CA is itself is different from parliament under democratic set up. As the ‘doctrine of necessity’ comes with enormous peril of being misused and susceptible to tampering in future, it would be difficult for courts to stay away from the controversy inasmuch as the present verdict could be taken as stamping on the power of CA to extend its term, sometimes based on its own sweet will and fancy.

However, if we have to take a positive from the verdicts rendered, a silver lining can be that the court has upheld the supremacy of the parliament/CA and this supremacy could have been upheld even without resorting to ‘doctrine of necessity’. When there is enormous pessimism on people for not having stable functioning parliamentary democracy with able executive, it can only be hoped that the verdict, though may be founded on uncanny reasoning would be taken as a positive steps towards stable supreme parliament. If people are able to take this positive, another positive hope that comes to our mind naturally would be, hopefully, we will soon see our New Constitution.

© Rajib Dahal. The Author is an Advocate. He can be reached at rajib.dahal@gmail.com

To my dear Kali

Kali, U remember?

I met you in Chennai way back in 2005

U remember the night – the last night of that year

what only didn’t we do?

we laughed, we joked, we thought

The world is small and can not keep us apart

we were simply naive and immature

You thought what I thought and

we both were wrong!

 

Hey baby, I am just joking

we were right

we are far but always together in our feelings

we are in different time zone but still

everything clicks together between us

U miss me there, and I remember you here

You think of sending sms and I start typing one here

You finish typing sms and then, you receive mine

you smile there and I here, after few seconds

Isn’t that lovely? Isn’t that great?

Don’t you think we are madly in love? You think, don’t you?

 

But, you also think and so do I,

you think what i think and

we think

how long this can go?

Don’t we need to settle?

Exactly!

The same what I was thinking

We will baby one day!

You ask me one day?

I say soon, this year

from a far distance

you look into my eyes and you say, “I trust you”

I imagine us being together and

and I softly say, “I love you honey” “I love you so much”

N my roommate kicks on my butt

N I hear “oiee gadha sapna pani k k dekhna thalis?” (Oh! you dumb ass! what kinds of dreams you started seeing these days?”

There is a pain on my ass

but, I remian calm and say to myself

If only he knew my kali!

Super Freakonomics – A Book Review

In my previous post, I had reviewed the book called Freakonomics. At the end of the post, I had mentioned that the joint authors of Freakonomics have ventured in writing another similar and equally famous book called ‘SuperFreakonomics’. I have just finished reading the book called SuperFreakonomics and the review is here.

Generally, I read books buying. But, this time, I downloaded the book and took print of same in my office.  I cannot read soft copy as I do not find coherence and attachment on online reading except short news and columns. If you are interested in downloading this book and like to read, you can get the book from here. (However, you are advised to find out yourself if the e-book you are going to download whether comply copyright laws and if any violation, you alone would be responsible for any consequences, if any.)

Now, coming to the merits of the book, the book is interesting and since it is a sequel of the previous book Freakonomics, the subjects addressed here in SuperFreakonomics are also similarly freakish. The authors have chose very interesting subjects and tried to see their co-relation between economics and these simple topics which seemingly may never have any relation whatsoever in our mind. For example, the authors talk about economics of prostitution and it is very interesting to know that prostitution these days, has been reduced as compared to previous centuries. Thanx to consensual partners, friends and girlfriends and boyfriends. It also shows how the cost of prostitution is going down and shows oral sex is utterly cheap. J Anyway, the point is earning capacity, ability and differences between high class prostitutes – who are good looking, intelligent and ready to serve their customers and the low class street prostitutes. It also shows the violence involved in this profession.

The second interesting issue is about how to deal with terrorists. Is there any way where terrorists can be identified easily before they strike their target. There are also topics in the book regarding drunken driving versus drunken walking and from data, they show that may be drunken walking is always more riskier than drunken driving. They also deal with issues of longer life: the one who gets a noble prize is likely to live extra few years than the one who is just nominated. It seems same thing is also possible in Basketball Game. N the authors also discuss about the effect of name on academic performance and tenure in Universities. The Author having both surname and first name both starting from A seems to be much luckier to get academic nominations than the one having both starting from Z. want to change your name?

So, above are some of the topics that SuperFreakonomics deals with and comes the final topic that has been very much controversial. The topic is about Global Warming. Though the authors take all the topics lightly and try to find out simple and easy answer, in global warming, their easy answer looks something much simpler. They talk of sending some sulphur dioxide in stratosphere, which is as I understood some 25 kilometers above our land, and try to cool the earth and save us from global warming. I am not sure if this works but the Authors have been criticized for their ‘nonsensical’, ‘bizarre’ and for their unworkable approach. The authors have been criticized by New York Times Economist and Nobel Laureate Paul Crugman and other environmentalist for distorting the facts and figures and research of other scientist and economist. Whatever! But, on plain reading too, it looked the issues and ideas look less convincing to me also. So, this Chapter on Global Warming is something, I say, is less researched by Authors before they decided to write a book on it.

You can read other reviews of the books here, here, here, here and here. These reviews are both appreciation and criticisms of the books, especially on global warming chapter and the way to solve it. Overall, the book is good to read. May be, I already read something similar book – Freakonomics and since the matters are addressed and handled in similar manner, this time I found it less interesting but still enjoyed. I recommend you to read it once! Interestingly, the review on The Guardian also did not rate it so highly in comparison to Freakonomics.

In the series of books reading, I am reading next a book called Shantaram written by Gregory David Roberts. The book is about India, especially about Mumbai and autobiographical account and fiction of a person/author who escaped Australian Prison and forged a Passport and came to India. The book is very interesting, I know and what I also know is the book is very very bulky – something about thousand pages. Therefore, I will be taking something about a month; minimum may be, I guess, to complete the book. Therefore, in between reading of Shantaram, I plan to read some small book also – most probably of Manjushree Thapa or of Samrat Upadhyaya. Whatever I read, I come with updates and reviews.

Keep on Reading!

Freakonomics – a Book Review

I had read this book called Freakonomics sometimes back and going to review it here today. The book can be purchased from here:

http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/steven-levitt/freakonomics/9780141019017.html or from many such other online book stores. I strongly suggest you to look around in various websites before you buy as there will be varying discounts. The book is written by Steven D. Levitt, who is an Economist Professor and Stephen J. Dubner.

The book is amazing to speak in short and in few words. For those like me who want to read on plain economics without going in deep and without being distracted by calculus and quantitative analysis, the book is the one to read. For them, who know economics but do not know how to apply on our common sorroundings, the book is the one to read and ponder. Though the author takes help of the some of the mathematical tools to analyse, what he does is to apply economics principles in seemingly unrelated topics. For example, no one thinks that there is any economic rationality behind drug dealers staying with their mothers. But, the book demystifies this point says that yes there is. Think of the economic linkages between cheating primary school teachers in USA, sumo wrestlers in Japan. You cannot think of anything unless you read the book. Cheating, I mean, cheating in their profession and not in their personal lives. J

This is the greatness of the book. The Authors, one Economic Professor and other a Journalist after constantly observing, researching and applying minute principles of Economics come to the conclusion that there are economic rationality and relations between various social activities. Let us see another example and this is the first topic covered in the book and I found the most amazing among all. What is the reason of reduction in Crimes lately in US, in the decade of 1990s when there were predictions that crimes go unchecked? There were experts who told that crimes would grow but when crimes did actually reduce, then, he same experts came with various explanations like Gun Control Laws, Rise in Affluence, Population Control, and better Police in US etc. etc. These experts could not see these all when they were predicting that crimes would go unchecked but when actually crime rate got lowered, they started devising reasons for that. That may be so, they may be right but Freakonomists say that these experts are either wrong or even they are right, they are fractionally right. So, what is the main cause of crime reduction? They relate the incident of Roe v. Wade, US Supreme Court judgement which allowed the abortions legally. The Authors say that this judgement made sure that unwanted children were not born in US and mainly, the unwanted children used to get birth in poor black ghettos, and reduction of such numbers ensured that the children which were like likely to get driven to crimes were not actually born. So, US got a relief! No one saw this point before authors make a link between a US Supreme Court judgement and a crime and whose effects were to be seen after 20-25 years as the judgement made sure 20-25 years back that a child was not born who is going to be a criminal once he attains an age of 18-20 years later. What a link and what an observation.

The books keep on revealing those economic secrets that once you start, you cannot stop. I am sure that everyone who read it must have liked it. So, it became a bestseller. The greatest point about the book is the book is very simple, written in a simple language and you need not have even college level economic degree to understand it. Authors make it so simple that it is just like reading stories and nothing about economic principles. Second thins about the book is it covers such a simple topics that we wonder what economics has to do with such a mundane things. But, authors are good and very good to demonstrate us what economic link they are trying to unravel.

But, do not be confused that this is not a standard University textbook on Economics. This is not a book that you read and be economist, as one of the Authors is a Journalist here. This book does not help you to score more marks on your Economics Paper in College. But, certainly makes you wiser and takes you to the world that you start thinking for a while, if not for a longer time period. I say, a MUST Read. Enjoy Reading! And Comment here with your views.

For Official Freakonomics Blog, you can visit here and for other reviews, here, here and here.

(A Short Note: The authors were maintaining a blog with New York Times and later have published another book called Super Freakonomics, I shall review the second book shortly.)

Book Review – An Economist’s Miscellany written by Kaushik Basu

I just finished reading a very small and interesting book called ‘An Economist’s Miscellany written by Kaushik Basu’. Mr. Basu seems to be a renowned economist in India which I did not know before I read the book. He is currently the Chief Economic Advisor to Indian Government/Prime Minister and works from Finance Ministry, New Delhi.

Before that a PhD in Economics, Mr. Basu was professor in Delhi University and as a visiting Faculty to other US Universities.

His book can be bought from http://www.oup.co.in/search_detail.php?id=145824 or from many other online sites.

The book is about Economics, his travel reporting, his memoir, his thoughts on current social and political events, and lots more deep thought issues relating to social sciences. He writes on everything and makes the book very very intelligible, easy to understand, relevant and interesting. The book mainly contains the adapted versions of his already published newspaper articles which were written on different subjects. In the book, he makes Economics a very easy one sans derivative, anti-derivative, i.e. without using calculus, without any sorts of quantitative techniques and therefore, makes the complex concepts of economics a very easy one and very easy to understand. He does not go after theorist and theories while talking on economics. He talks of normal social events to demonstrate how things are from economist’s angle.

However, it should not be construed or misconstrued as economics book. It is not. If you want to read economics as per the syllabus prescribed by world’s greatest Universities or searching for some standard textbook on economics, this is not. This is a whole point how this book covers economics of common man for common man and to understand the economics concepts from Basu’s book, you need not have in-depth knowledge of economics. This is a beauty of the book. The Author demonstrates us how sexy! A economics can be without any fashion and cosmetics. The plain and simple beauty of economics, it portrays.

This is about the chapters that deal with economics. But, Mr. Basu deals on more things than economics alone in his book. As already said, he deals on travels and arts. He deals with sexual, minority and women rights. He talks on laws on land acquisitions; he talks on same sex rights; he talks on government enterprises like Air India how badly managed they are! Therefore, the economist gives you handful of things on various subjects and on subjects on much more than economics itself.

After his articles are chronicled in the book, there are two short stories translated from Bengali to English. The first one deal with money lending business and second one is on religious superstition. Whole book is written in a light hearted manner and so, these two stories also appear to be. These both the stories, I had heard and read before long time back and to read them after a long time, was a very refreshing. In the end, there is a play and put in a lighter manner about Profession, conference and love. The story revolves round Delhi University and Train Journey to Banaras (Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh India), and then, a professor snatching (of course not literally) other man’s wife and marrying (?) with her who happens to be a very bright student of the professor in Philosophy many years ago in Delhi University. And the book is over.

While reading this book, nowhere you feel bored. Since the book itself is a small one, and there are multiple short articles, stories, essays, you can read them without any difficulty. The lucid manner of writing makes each article interesting. You have to travel with Authors to various places around the world and he shows you the world’s some of the best Universities, Professors, of course economists, arts, and museums. Therefore, at no point, you feel fatigued from the book.

The Oxford University Press has taken care to publish the beautiful book and the paper quality is a finest one. Nicely hard covered and appropriately priced, (Of course, I bought with discount from one of the Indian online e-commerce sites and I recommend you to check many of them before you purchase, you get wholesome discount), the book is a one who every intellectual and common man must read it. You must read not because you become economist overnight but it teaches you the quality of being simple and the pleasure of reading stuffs which are simple and therefore, beautiful.

I had almost forgotten one aspect of the book that was: author frequently makes reference to his mother. Maa was 90 years old woman and always with love and insights to the author who lately started losing memory power and the Author lost her in October, 2010. Our condolence to Mr. Basu on her demise!

Overall, I rate the book 4/5 and strongly recommend reading and sharing your views.

You can read its review here , here , and here as well.

Book Review – an elegy for democracy – forget Kathmandu

I have recently finished reading this book called Forget Kathmandu by Manjushree Thapa, a much praised Nepalese Author who can write books in English Language.

The book was published many years back, most be the first edition should have been out by 2004-05 but later, the author seems to have updated the books with recent updates. I could lay my hand on updated edition of 2006 which has tried to cover the political misadventures happening in Nepal at that time.

This book, I had started reading almost 6-7 months back but had to stop in between as it could not meet my expectation then. The expectation was because of reviews and other aspects of author that I had read in magazines, webs and in NewsPaper. It could not meet the excitement of expectation then and I just stopped. Later, I thought  I should give a chance and finished reading by sticking my principle that once I start reading, I should finish it however, unintelligible, boring or idiotic the book could turn out to be.

So, how was the book? Before that, what was the book all about?

The book was about Nepal based on the Author’s travel to remote west during one of those ceasefires between Maoist insurgents and Government of Nepal. But the time line of the story starts immediately after the royal massacre of 2001 and goes to flashback to make the readers conversant about Nepal’s feudal history, about how Shah Dyanasty was established and how Shah Kings were in the past. The history whatever has been reported on the book is based on whatever author could hear and read from childhood textbooks. There is not much research on that. She conviniently takes the liberty of bashing Shah Dynasty throughout making unreasonable linakges between how irratically some of the Shah Kings acted in the past… when I say past almost 150-180 years ago.

The author wisely claims that it is not that ‘History’ that we generally understand and mean by ‘History’, and therefore, takes a complete liberty of attacking everything about Nepalese Moanrchy from past to present. The book conviniently makes general remarks about geographical unity of Nepal but culturally disintegrated nation. The same statement here and there that every left, right, royalist, businessman anyone makes when they have to give speech in public.

Now, if that is so, who is responsible? Of Course, Brahmins and Kshatriya, and those who were educated and became closer to ruling class. Now, the book starts bashing to higher castes. So, target is educated higher caste people who were in control of power and argument starts that they did nothing for the nation.

Now, the turn of how Maoist movement erupted in Nepal. As everyone says and the book mentions that after people of lower casters and dalits  and woman are oppressed for years, they get the Maoist movement a forum to voice against state and Maoist have tried to channelise the sentiments.

Then, the author revolves around evryday’s incidents about how many people were killed in cross fire between Maoists and Security Forces. Of Course, she knows the reality between these so called cross fires and keeps on going about how many people die from cholera, dysentery etc. everyday in far remote western Districts where the insurgency has already made the living a normal life very very difficult.

In the end, author takes a trip to few of the western Districts of Nepal along with a malcom so called Human Right Activisit and talk with people. Majority of People talk about state forces’ atrocities but on the same breath also mention the dislikes to Maoists. They do not like Maoists because insurgents force them either to join the party or mostly force villagers to feed party cadres. While walking in these districts, She meets young people without any future if you join party or not as Nepal hardly gives any real oppourtunity unless you belong to an educated elite class having good political connection and the book ends its story. In the updated version which I got, there are few extra pages on Maoist and Political Parties’ meeting and agreement to topple monarchy in Nepal through peaceful movement sometimes during 2006. This is all or everything about the book.

So, how was it? To be very genuine and honest, I was disappointed. I found author just wanted to flow with the sentiments based on whatever was already in public and in the general knowledge of almost everyone. There is no new research and at ease the generalisations have been made.

You are democrats or not, leftist or rightist, I feel that one sided bashing of elites, higher castes and royalists leave a sour feeling. Not that they do not deserve to be criticised, but the book fails to constructively align its thoughts on how to bring the country back and particularly which era to blame for Nepal’s calamity. Being born in a remote country side and brought up there, I have seen many of such social problems and discriminations in Nepal and many young people like us are witness to Maoist problems. Therefore, getting lecture and ‘gyan’ on these things from manjushree did not bring anything new in terms of knoledge and value addition. Though looking at her family and educational background, her ability to talk on these issues could also be well questioned. However, I would not go to that extent to criticise this book.

Well, for the foreigners, may be, for them who have very less idea about Nepal, the book can be a starting point. Or may be for them, who would like to know negatives about our country, it can be a solace but after going through some reviews and having expected a something different than usual sloganeering on the issues, the book turns out to be a forgetteable one.

If you can lay hand on it, You may read it. Otherwise, you can concentrate on good books. In my shelves, I have another 2-3 books of Manjushree and I, at least once, expect to read and comment on them – good, or bad, whatever the creations turn out to be!

Till Next post, enjoy reading my blog.

Blogging back in the old domain

From some days, I was planning to write few blog pages and then, I got time today. I have just finished reading two books and I want to do review of them. But before that, about little information about my blogging and plan.

Mostly, I write in English. In English not because I am exceptionally good at that language but I find it comfortable to type. I have very poor skills in Nepali typing. But I like Nepali Gazals/Ghazals/Ghajals/Nepali Poem or Kabita and want to  type them in Nepali to make them meaninful.

Therefore, from few days, I was thinking that I would maintain two separate blogs – One for my usual writings in English in this page and another for my Nepali Gazals/Ghazals/Ghajals/Nepali Poem or Kabita and anything that may like to write in Nepali sometimes.

I had shifted to this page thinking that I would be able to type everything from a page but this new page does not seem to be supporting my Nepali text. There is some problem that I can not figure out and after doing some conference with my friends who are supposed to be technically good, I am not yet able to solve the problem. Therefore, going forward, my articles in Nepali will be published in this page and those in English would be published here.

What I said above was the plan till morning but later, when I thought to start the blogging, I realized that my this page is down because of exceeded bandwidth. Since restoration of page is going to take some days, for the time being for few days, I will be blogging from here.

There is a long history how I started my blogging and in the past, I have blogged here and there. Those all pages are still very dear to me. Though I have completely stopped blogging in those pages but in case you wish to visit and read my old posts, you can visit here and here .

N Keep on Reading for more!

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

Dear All,

I was maintaining a blog here, but today morning, when I saw my own blog, I got a message that my blog has exceeded the Bandwidth Limit. Since I am not a technical guy and not so conversant with these technical jargons, I have requested one of my friend brother to see the issue. He is the one who has provided me space to host my site. He says that he is revamping and moving his space or rather to a new host, the problem should be solved by tomorrow or within next two three days. Till the time, we are not back there, Please visit this blog and keep on commenting.

Thanking You!

We moved to my own personal blog!

If you are wondering these days why we are not updating this blog, please kindly note that we have got a new domain http://rajibdahal.com.np/ . Soon, We will be discontinuing our blogging here and will only blog at http://rajibdahal.com.np/ .

Please do visit us at http://rajibdahal.com.np/ and offer us your suggestions, if any you have.

Do not forget to read our latest article there, and please comment us whenever you feel.

Our new website uses the wordpress platform and we will do our best to make your surfing even more pleasurable.

Rajib Dahal for Talkingforum Team.

We already moved from here

If you are wondering these days why we are not updating this blog, please kindly note that we have got a new domain http://rajibdahal.com.np/ . Soon, We will be discontinuing our blogging here and will only blog at http://rajibdahal.com.np/ .

Please do visit us at http://rajibdahal.com.np/ and offer us your suggestions, if any you have.

Do not forget to read our latest article there at http://rajibdahal.com.np/?p=23 and please comment us whenever you feel.

Our new website uses the wordpress platform and we will do our best to make your surfing even more pleasurable.

Rajib Dahal for Talkingforum Team.

http://rajibdahal.com.np/

We have got a new domain http://rajibdahal.com.np/ . Soon, We will be discontinuing our blogging here and will only blog at http://rajibdahal.com.np/ . Please do visit us at http://rajibdahal.com.np/ and offer us your suggestions, if any you have.

Our new website uses the wordpress platform and we will do our best to make your surfing even more pleasurable.

Talkingforum Team