बाबुरामको दिल्ली तीर्थाटनका सन्देश

मैले केहि समय देखि यो ब्लगमा लेख्न पाइरहेको थिइन तर अब रेगुलर लेख्ने बिचार गरेको छु। मेरा लेखहरु यो ब्लगमा र अन्य अनलाइन साइटहरुमा पढ्न सक्नुहुनेछ। अन्यत्र छापिएका मेरा लेखहरुलाई म यो ब्लगमा लिंक सहित पोस्ट गर्नेछु।

हालै नेपाली अनलाइन साईट पहिलोपोस्ट.कम मा मेरो एक लेख छापिएको थियो। त्यो लेख तपाइँ यो लिंक बाट पहिलोपोस्ट्मै पढ्न सक्नुहुनेछ। यो लेख नेपालीमा छ।

नेपालीमा पढ्न नचाहनेहरूका लागि यो लेख अंग्रेजीमा यहा प्रस्तुत गरेको छु। पहिलोपोस्ट्मा छापिएको लेख को हु-बहु ट्रान्स्लेसन ता होइन तर यो लेख करिब करिब पहिलोपोस्टमा छापिएको लेखको अंग्रेजी भर्सन भन्न सकिन्छ।

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An Outsider’s view

Issue of nationalism or pilgrimage – Maoist leader’s India visit

By looking at Baburam Bhattarai’s (herein after Baburam) face book and twitter posts, it is not difficult to fathom his state of mind. He is tired of listening to commentators. He is tired of gossips in media circle about his India’s travel. Quite clearly, he does not like if anyone preaches and pontificates on nationalism. And, to me, it is very surprising but quite understandable. You only have to step on his shoes for a moment to read his mind.

His recent comments have stirred the social media. In face book post, he clubs those people who are raising the issue of nationalism as the ones who jump to embassy’s parties for free ka daru (free alcohol). He is absolutely bang on target in dodging real issues. It is a classic tool adopted and used by politicians of all beliefs. They only have to point to another issue so that they can reduce the gravity of the questions and get a satisfaction of throwing a doosara (One of the variations of spin ball in cricket). By using such paintara (tricks), Baburam seems to be in a good mood to evade the question rather than trying to engage in a debate of what constitutes nationalism or patriotism for us.

Despite being close neighbours and having multiple social and cultural similarities, Nepal –India relation generates heated arguments when it comes to issue of “allowing our neighbour to play a role” in our domestic affairs. There used to be a time when CPN-UML was the torchbearer of this debate. In 2052 BS, when the Maoists decided to start their “People’s Revolution”, it was said that they had no options as the then Deuba Government even refused to glance their 40 points demand sheet where many issues were relating to India’s policy towards Nepal. After the start of the “People’s War”, Maoists’ enemy No. 1 was always the “expansionist” India. That was that time and we (or rather Maoist Party) have moved much ahead!

After Maoists joined the peaceful democracy, people slowly came to know that the inside story was something different. Though in propaganda, India was their enemy but in practice, Maoist already had a “gentleman’s agreement” with agencies of Indian government and in return, safe accommodation was ensured for the guests. After Maoists came to join the mainstream democracy, so many skeletons have started falling from cupboard that they are not in a position to form a consistent and guiding view on how Nepal should shape its foreign policy vis-à-vis India. By looking at the unfolding events, Maoist’s lack of clarity on foreign policy and nationalism is going to linger for quite some time unless they start doing early self-introspection.

This ambiguous display on nationalism is the product of Maoist’s pitiable situation back home. Firstly, the more “free and fair election” than that of 2008 pushed Maoists at the periphery of national politics. The choice that people made in a democracy cut short the luxury of the party which had just started enjoying the “fruits of people’s democracy”. Secondly, the current Constituent Assembly is hell-bent to promulgate a Constitution under consensus, if possible and if that be impossible, “under a due process” set in place by the consensus of all parties. Since Maoists are only the toddlers in democracy, they have not yet fully understood how democracy actually works. The party, whose democratic commitment is still questionable, does not stop to dream that they have the “birth right” to rule Nepal, to run government, to declare enemy, or alter the enemy and if public pressure mounts at any point of time, then, finally to promulgate a Constitution based on their whims and fancies. They naturally believe this is all kosher.

What Maoists have managed to understand, however, is that the very first requirement of democracy i.e. people’s votes are not on their side. In such a situation, they do not have any other alternatives than to seek a “divine intervention”. This desire of being intervened by a “prabhu” (word used by Pushpa Kamal once to refer “India”) has brought Baburam on a pilgrimage to India. Ordinarily, this should not be the issue of great fuss as in the past too, right from start of revolution; Maoists were getting blessed in India’s capital.

It will be interesting to see if the new God installed in Lutyens’ Delhi after May, 2014 has promised any intervention in due course. As the largest democracy in the world, I expect that Prabhu must have delivered little sermons on how humble one needs to be in a democracy. If that were to be the outcome of this trip, then, I would rate Baburam’s pilgrimage to India a very successful one.

Let’s wait and watch for few days how dialogues between the parties move ahead. That would give us a clear indication of what “Kosheli” (gifts) Baburam has brought from Lutyens’ Delhi.

By Rajib Dahal. (You can contact me at twitter: @rajibdahal, or via email to rajib.dahal at gmail.com)

पहिलोपोस्टमा नेपालीमा छापिएको लेखको पिडिएफ कपि चाही यहा छ बाबुरामको दिल्ली तीर्थाटनका सन्देश __ Pahilopost

Common Nepali’s anger through various facebook images – expressing through facebook

Today Morning, When I got up and opened my facebook page, my news feed line (how do you say like twitter timeline) was full of posts and pictures and images. I could read, see and sense the people’s disappointments and angusih over the failure of Constitutional drafting process and immature death of CA! May be even the death of democracy for sometime.

There were funny posts, funny status messages but all of them representating the painful reality of this country, outlining the foolish actions of so called representatives of peoples and naturally the anguish and hatred towards these bunch of thugs – the politicians.

I am not sure what is going to happen next in Nepal? All options are being deliberated, I am sure by State agencies and ‘nikamma’ politicians. But, one thing is sure that we common man have to be more vililant while exercising our political rights and being disciplined to curb disintegrating forces which are busy in spreading hate message based on, quite a few occassion, false historica facts. I am sure that will make me more busy in my blogging and in public discourse via social networkings and forums-online.

At this post, I  have all collected all those images (copied from facebook and pasted here) that I could see in my facebook page. The images, some may be little over the top and I may not approve it in terms of my thoughts and views. Some of the images also show the Maoist’s real faces and their brutal killings in the past. This should be a lesson for common Nepali Man in the future while exercising its voting rights.However, that is how people have expressed to show their anguish and therefore, I have pasted them here without any edit (Sadly, I could not copy the caption of some of the photos) . Needless to say, I have no copyrights over these materials and it belongs to respective owners.

For more meaningful and thought provoking sensible and civilised views, keep on visiting my blog.

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.

Girija Prasad Koirala – What he was not or….?

I know this Article is little out of date and People may have lost interest in GPK by now, but I still feel that anything on GPK would be a good read to ponder – what that man was and was he really like that?

I should have written this long time back. This article is about Girija Babu, about death of Nepal’s former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. He died in the month of March, when I was travelling and was not in Hyderabad. I thought that I will write about him soon once I get back to my online computer system. However, time not permitting and because of sheer laziness, I am writing this article today. This article is purely on ‘GIRIJABABU’ that is a man called Girija Prasad Koirala.

He was not a God! A simple human being having lots of vices though his democratic credentials were impeccable is what they say. He always remained in limelight mainly because his dictatorial leadership, not so transparent party policy, nepotism and corruption on which he indulged in. He spent many years in Media after restoration of democracy in Nepal for many bad reasons. If there was no People’s Movement in 2062-63 BS in Nepal, he would die as another leader. But that movement made him a true leader of People when others were giving up against royal takeover, and acquisition of democracy. He stuck with his democratic plans and made King to bow for that. Thereafter, his image was turned to a picture larger than size/life, whatever you may call it.

The man, who was despised by many, and a man, who always was on people’s mouth when they used to say, “Girija! Kina marna nasakeko hola! (Girija, why can’t he die?), was changed till the time he died. The transformation was in the last five years and whatever he did in the last five years before his death, will be remembered by all.

Though after he died, people remembered only his democratic legacy, many people did an oversight for his bad deeds. He was a strong dictator, no doubt within his party, and could almost do anything for power. His involvement in suppressing any opposition, humiliation to political leaders including his own party men like Kishun ji (Krishna Prasad Bhattarai), extreme favour to nepotism, always being surrounded by his own close coterie were his hallmark for many years. His involvement in Bansbari Chhala Jutta Company (a company which produced leather shoes) privatization and bankruptcy of profit making government company after privatization, his involvement in Dhamija Kand, Lauda Air Corruption cases are some of few examples where he should be remembered for not that good reasons. I was reading one article somewhere in Nepali media, I think it was written by Rabindra Mishra, a BBC Nepali Sewa Journalist (I hope he is still there) where Rabindra has tried to summarize the life of Girijababu.  In fact after his death, GPK (Girija Prasad Koirala) has been turned to a savior of democracy and it seems that all political commentators have completely forgotten his misdeeds. GPK was a great democratic hero in his last days but certainly not the greatest as it has been presented by some media. It was funny to see competition among people and media house to coronate him with so many adjectives like true democrats, people’s leaders, great freedom fighters from 2007 BS, etc. It seems that his death has brought so much agony and illusion among people that he has been transformed to a great great hero overnight and that too after his death. I think people’s perception on GPK should have been influenced by people’s short memory, which we generally tend to have and that works most of the time to our great advantage. However, if Koirala has to be missed, remembered, mourned, then all his goods and bad deeds must be considered with balance. His involvement in 2062-63 BS democratic movement alone cannot be the yardstick to measure his heights. We should also consider those notorious hallmarks that he had after he gained power in 1991 and always stuck there and did almost everything to thwart any democratic in house Nepali Congress’s movement to internal democracy in party.

I am aware of the fact that he has been remembered for his initiation of privatization and liberalization of our trade and economy post liberalization and democracy in Nepal after 1990. But, we should be equally mindful of the fact that his mismanagement of democracy and corruption culture brought severe threats to democracy – one of them being ‘Rising and Rising of Maoists’. If we thank him, appreciate him for bringing Maoists in mainstream democracy or democratic movement, or whatever you call or if you believe Maoists have come to the fold of democracy, but you cannot forgive, condone or pardon him lightly for creating that conducive environment for Maoists to breed. If he has cooperated within party for stable government and leadership and had he been not so power hungry, then, leaders could divert their attention to some meaningful actions, rather than protecting their chair from Girija’s arms or making Girija happy just to stick in power. For these things, Koirala should be remembered forever as he was a root of mismanagement or ill-governance in the country, and the fruits of his actions were Rise of thugs, called Maoists. Thankfully, may be stars or moon were on his right side, Koirala did  reach some understanding with Maoists and removed king, which act alone became larger than his life and Koirala could die in little peace, and became a great leader in our History book, probably!!!

(There will be part two of this Article based on some facts, fictions, and my talk with People on the day GPK died. I am sure that will be another interesting read.)

Uncivilised Maoists Forces

Strikes are no Solutions

Maoists should understand this. We, Nepalese people, have seen enough. We saw them, we heard them many times before and we know what their worth is. But, unfortunately, they do not understand their worth. The kinds of sympathy on Nepalese people have turned till now to hatred. Nepalese people have already realized that Maoists are unreliable and in many occasions, unpredictable and undemocratic forces in Nepal.

In April first week, when I was in Kathmandu, my sister was saying that Prachanda can speak anything in one day and next day, he changes his stance and says that I have never spoken that. He blames journalist for misquoting him. When I hear him sometimes in Television and Radio, I get frustrated for not being able to understand him what is his plan, his political parties plan. They, all communists, use only very many difficult words, verbose and a lot of complex words to confuse people.

I was chatting with one blogger from Kathmandu some days back, who is also doing some business. He was telling me that he has closed shop for some days as Maoists are asking for some ‘Chanda’ – donation and contribution whatever we call. Maoists are threatening people if people cannot give or refuse to give money. These extortionary measures are taking Maoists down but in the meantime, Nepalese people are suffering.

Now, what are the options left for Maos? I do not see many. I do not think that bragging a lot will help them in a long run. People have lost their faith on Maos. In fact, Maos have betrayed people. What they did when they were in power? They talked a lot; they confused people, showed many hopes and did nothing. They are basically waste products, and too slow to catch up the time.

They are starting their strike from today is what I hear. But for what? But for whom? Is not it their greediness for attachment to power? People fear from their hooliganism, and they close their shops and shuts down the market. Maos think they won and bring the society back with their each activity. This is what democracy they stand for? The more they do this kind of activity, the more they are being exposed before people. I am sure people have realized by now these people who call themselves as Maoists are not the forces on which we can trust. These are not the people who want development and peace in Nepal. People should break their shackle and come out on streets to chase these goons away. If we still fear from them, these hooligans are going to ransack whatever things are in good shape. Guys, time to move on make them realize that strikes are no solutions in CIVILISED NATIONS AND BEFORE CIVILISED PEOPLE.

MAOISTS ARE SIMPLY UNCIVILISED.

Talking something simple things

We go to office to work. That is simple as we all do. But what is interesting in human life  sometimes is you will go to office but do not do anything as you do not feel like doing anything. Sometimes, you go to office so early in the morning and try to do everything as either, but in rare cases, you enjoy doing something, or most of the times, deadlines matter you and your boss or superior tells you to do that within given time.

About me, working is boring. It’s so boring that sometimes, I wish to throw them on someone’s head and run away from office far somewhere where there is no work, no deadlines, no corporate responsibility, where there will be no boss and even mobile signals will be nil so that clients will not disturb me unnecessarily. I have heard that in Nepal’s mobile tower is bad, I mean there is poor network or connection but in Nepali people say, “Tower Gayo”, literally means Tower left/walked away. May be these places and corners and hills of Nepal are made for me where ‘Tower walks away’ because of poor infrastructure.

Today, I am talking about very simple things. What I work is most of the times indirect tax implications on infrastructure projects. Like, Government wants to make National Highway or some roads. Let us say that government gives that contract to some company A and company A can sub-contract that contract to three other companies. That’s how work is done in India and there arises various tax implications like excise, may be customs if things are brought from outside India, state level VAT and Central Sales Tax and Entry tax and such others. Here, I need to remind myself that I am not going to talk about complex tax issues but very plain issue of infrastructure in our society. We have poor countries, and we are residing and citizen of developing countries. I do not know why we are poor. May be we were poor and still, we are poor. People say Infrastructure plays a big role to develop any areas. If they, who claim to be expert, say, then, this must be true.

Now, talking about infrastructure, we need a lot of them. We need Road as we do not have them. We need two lane road, four lane road, six lane road, eight lane road, and only one way express highway depending on the place. We need culverts and Bridges on these roads. We need Electricity on these roads, and streetlights in city areas, then, we need telephone, mobile phones where tower does not walk away. We need clean drinking water, and we need schools, colleges, Hospitals, Public recreational centers like park, and Road safety mechanism. The list for the time should stop here. It is not that long, is it? But when can our governments fulfill these small lists. Can poor people of poor country get these 8-10 things first before they hear making five star hotel in Moon?

I think it is simple to give these things, isn’t it? But, then, why government can not give these small things to us, poor people. Let’s work on simple things first before venturing into nonsense hi-fi stuffs.

I rest my case for the day.

Farewell to YSR and The New York Times Archive

This post is not intended to be a detailed one. Just a small post out to bid goodbye to Dr. YSR.

First the sad news, The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr. Y.S Rajashekhara Reddy’s untimely demise on helicopter crash yesterday has brought this State of Andhra Pradesh in a state of shock, despair and grimming situation. The man was popular as the recent landslide victory of his in State Assembly Election and Lok Sabha Election has brought him again in power after being his victory in 2004 Election. He has just surpassed his 100 days in office. Despite numerous allegation of corruption against him, and allegation of factional politics in his native place Cuddapah, he was the man of masses. He promised a lot to the poor and the reports says that he promised most of them. That was the reason that he was elected again to serve the people of State of Andhra Pradesh. But, the God was very unkind to him and God wanted something otherwise.

Dr. Reddy was travelling to some remote village in Andhra Pradesh in a small helicopter and there were only five people. The climate and the nature’s fury, as the reports says, compelled the pilots to change the route. The plane left on wednesday morning around 9 and the helicopter went contactless with ATC immediately after some 15 minutes and nothing was heard. All machneries of state and Central Government was pressed in action and he was found along with 4 others, almost after 24 hours of his departure from Hyderabad, but when he was found, he alongwith other 4 were already with God. How merciless the God can be !

All the national Indian media have widely covered this incident and human sea on Hyderabad are there on the streets to pay their last respect. My office has also been closed for two days, yesterday and today, to pay respect to him. Eventhough I know him little and his political career, I had lots of respect for his hardwork and feel utterly sad for his untimely demise.

What we can do, when god has some other ideas! My farewell to Dr. YSR, and I am sure State of Andhra Pradesh will miss him for years.

Goodbye Dr. YSR, and May you rest in peace! Wish the God bestow courage to  family members to bear this hard truth.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Sometime back, I was browsing The New York Times, one of the best newspapers in the world with wide range of information for any readers. The Economic and technology related columns are the things that are most read by me(by me!, I do not know about others.) While browsing the website, I stumbled on a great service of this NYT. About this, I wanted to write sometime back. This was the archive service.

The archive section gives you all the news from 1851 AD. You can read the free preview and to read the full article, you have to buy/subscribe. For all those reachers, I think it is a very great service though for normal common man like me, It may not be of that much value, or may be I can not afford.

But, I feel it is a revolutionary service.It helps greatly for the researchers and specially for the students of economics, political science and history, it should be of great help.

You can access NYT’s archive section from here:http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=a&query=nepal&srchst=p&submit.x=30&submit.y=11&submit=sub&hdlquery=&bylquery=&daterange=period&mon1=01&day1=01&year1=1981&mon2=09&day2=04&year2=2009

There you can see that I had searched the term Nepal and some of the news were of 1960-70 when there was Panchayat era in Nepal under the leadership of King Mahendra and there are archived news about B.P. Koirala, the first elected Prime Minister of Nepal.

You can see another link where it reports that King took the direct control of Government.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30814F73A541A7A93C4A81789D95F448685F9

Okay all, read this news and make the full use of them.

Have a good day.

Nepali Politics: Cant stay without commenting!!!

There is no difference between entire Nepal and my room in Hyderabad these days, in terms of power trouble. There is frequent electricity power cut in Hyderabad these days and in Nepal, both political power in addition to electricity power has dried up.

My laptop has some power back up and I have been rendered jobless in this dark night. It’s dark enough to be called dark at this night as the lights from candles are fading away even before they reach me.

I am jobless in this dark night, have been compelled to use internet through wireless( wi-fi) card. Had there been power, I would be using internet only but my net would be certainly faster on broadband n I would be roaming from one website to another. Now, in this powerless darkness, we have limited option and feel like commenting about power-political power, of course.

This week, when we start commenting on power and political power in Nepal, the name cerianly erupts in mind is Prachanda- the most hated, despiged, loved, hailed as leader etc. etc. depending on your choice and political inclination.

We are all aware of political dramas unfolding in Nepal. the sacking of army chief by Government, re-instatement of Army chief by President, PM’s prachanda’s resignation and his speech against foreign power. He said that he held his head high when foreign powers were forcing him to bend as per their wishes.

Many hailed Prachanda——-it was a ‘Hail Prachanda Era’.

In some speech, it was reported that he said that his resignation was a missile against foreign dogs or something like that. Hail Prachanda became louder.

N Today’s THE HINDU, one Indian Newspaper, published Prachanda’s interview that came as a real missile to many of us. U can see his interview and new related to this here:

THE HINDU NEWS    

THE HINDU NEWS   

Here, in the above news, Mr. Prachanda shamelessly reveals that he asked for India’s help to resolve the issue. Is that his greatness? When army row is Nepal’s internal matter, why he approached for India’s help?

That means all his tallks on nationality and not being influenced by foreign interference is just a tall claim, and how long he expects to make people fool by his inconsistent big talks??

I am sure we will soon hear on our backyard people saying, “Down with Prachanda”.

New Education Tax in Nepal: An Open Letter to Nepalese Finance Minister

This letter is written as comment to an article published by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai in his Facebook Profile. Dr. Baburam Bhattrai is Finance Minister of Nepal. The article that has been published in Dr. Bhattrai’s Facebook profile is of one of the Editorials published in THE KATHMANDU POST.

My Dear Bhattarai,

I am not sure if you are the same who we presume you to be, the Finance Minister of Nepal. I hope that you are the same Dr. Baburam Bhattarai maintaining your facebook profile by yourself. I will be delighted to know even if your close well-wisher is maintaining your profile on your behalf and of course, on your supervision.

Dear Hon’ble FM, I am after this news of educational tax/educational cess/educational service tax, whatever name is more appropriate, to know more about it and to understand its modalities. My efforts to know more has become very futile and am not able to get any satisfactory answer how this tax will be administered. I have a clear answer why this tax has been imposed but how it will be administered is far from clear, at least to me. The above Post editorial also throws light of Rambhakti only to a babu (referred to government in India) like you but is not clear what negative impact can it make to people of this country.

I have some doubts and opinion about this tax which I am going to raise in this comment and I hope that you will respond at least to some comments. I do not be waiting your direct reply to me as that is probably not possible but hope that you take your own time to address some of the issues.

Now, let me talk about the impacts of this tax. As I read some online news sites sometimes back, one of the eminently respectable Minister in the field of education of your cabinet said that it is the tax that shall be paid by private School organizations whereas the some learned Inland Revenue Department’s officers opined that parents of school going kids need to pay this extra tax out of their pockets. I have not understood if the tax is direct in nature or indirect where the liability is shifted to the customers (school going kids’ parents).

Assume that before the tax is imposed, A School is charging Rs 1000 per admission and Rs. 100 per month as tuition fees for 12 months. Now, does your law prohibits these schools to charge Rs. 1000 as admission cost and Rs. 50 as Education Cess (hereinafter referred as ‘EC’) and Rs. 1200 as tuition fees and Rs 60 as EC for a year? I do not think so. And if they charge in that way, the government hopefully gets Rs. 50+ Rs. 60= Rs. 110 as Education Cess per student and that also when these School administrations do not play fraud and create forge documents bribing notoriously corrupt administration. Assume that your kitty swells by Rs. 110 per student per year, but who has to face the burden finally?

Has the per capita income of people grown up in the last 6-7 months after you formed government? Can they bear this increased cost? If yes, what are the supporting data/statistics in addition to Mao and Marx says so, if their ideology says anything of this nature.

Assume that these school administrators do not raise separate invoices but raise a single amount without bifurcating the basic costs and tax amount and give parents a single invoice of Rs. 2310/- in our above example, what remedy and alternatives these parents have except to sell out more money from their pockets?

Your 5% Education Cess is surely going to burn the customers’ pockets only and the end results is that may be some parents have to drop their kids from the school? is this what you want?????

Any way out?

I think here You and I agree on one point. Yes, the EC should be imposed to education sector and on private organizations but modalities need to be clearly worked out before imposing this tax.

The first and foremost but fundamentally flawed presumption here is that all private schools earn profits and all are there for selfish motive of making surplus profits.

We need to stop seeing private sector as evil organ of state. We need to appreciate the contributions they have made in this country when you revolutionists were busy demolishing state infrastructures without making any distinctions for what communists are known for. Anyway, my point is that there are private schools today even in country side imparting good education. These schools can not be compared with those heavy weight business institutions which are educational in nature.

So, we need to make a distinction between who are liable not to pay tax and who are liable? How?

1. The Amount of Revenue earned: We can make a flat exemption limit something like an institution earning less than Rs. 10,00,000 per year is exempted from this additional tax. This ten or nine or may be five, should be decided from the committee of experts which are naturally endowed with more wisdom than me. Here, when I say ten, it is not profit but the total income received by that private school without any deductions.

2. We can designate areas in various levels and can provide exemptions to schools straightway even if their total turnover is more than that threshold limit. For example, a private school opened in a VDC in Karnali Zone can be exempted from this tax even if their turnover is more than threshold limit. Or we can provide incentives to private schools exempting from this tax if they are opened in less developed areas and where the backward classes reside. Say, exemption from this tax if cost per student per year is less than Rs. 1000, and exemption continues for 10 straight years. If we really need education to all, we need to provide incentives to private sectors to go to villages. There is no point just to encourage YCL to go to villages and continue their unholy violence.

3. On what turnover, you are going to impose that 5% EC? This is one of the fundamental factor to decide how progressive you are. If you are saying that School A which earns 1000 as profit and School B which earns 20 as profit should pay tax at uniform rate of 5% i.e.; Rs. 50 and Re. 1, that is just proportional to their income and School B is in fact, paying more in terms of money value as determined as per basic principles of economics. The principle of diminishing marginal utility makes Re. 1 for School B more valuable than Rs. 50 for School A. This is a good incentive to hide incomes, not to get registered, to forge documents, to bribe public servants and to do many more illegal things than to pay tax.

Then, what should be done???

First of all, it should be decided that in which income, the tax is to be levied. It comes to my mind that most naturally, it should be levied on profits before tax after all the deductions and exemptions if any as per other fiscal legislations.

Suppose as said by above editorial, the rate of income tax for Educational body is 25% as per company law or under any law as it has been administered today.

Suppose School A earns 1000 Rs. profit and School B earns Rs. 20 as Profit. Then, their tax liability till today will be Rs. 250 and Rs. 5. Now, the 5% EC should come here. It should be 5% of Rs. 250 for School A, and 5% of Rs. 5 for School B. That means total accumulated tax that School A and School B shall pay will be Rs. 262.50 and 5.25 respectively.

This makes their EC liability proportional to Educational tax liability. This is little more scientific than other ways and more progressive.

There can be another way to tax educational bodies which is more progressive based on certain slabs. Therefore, the more they earn, the higher percentage of tax they have to pay. The higher percentage of tax they have to pay, the higher amounts of tax they need to pay. Therefore, instead of imposing anything extra 5% tax uniformly, we need to work out systematic tax levy mechanism where these 5% will be automatically couched and tax be levied progressively.

That’s all for now. Hope I be back to comment more on other matters.

जोखिमपूर्ण जातीय विभाजन/Risky ethnic Devides.

(In the series of Consolidating Debates on Constituent Assembly Election and prospects of Federalism, these two articles in Nepali and translation in English have been published here. I agree most of the points presented in this Article.) 

जोखिमपूर्ण जातीय विभाजन
डा. आलोक बोहरा
कसरी युगौंदेखिका नेपाली समस्याको समाधान नेपाललाई जातीय धारमा विभाजन गरेर सम्पन्न गर्न सकिन्छ ? जातीय तथा लैंगिक विभेद, आर्थिक अभाव, पश्चिमी पहाडका भोकमरी तथा खाद्य सुरक्षाका समस्या, कमजोर प्रशासन संयन्त्र, स्वास्थ्य सेवाको अभाव, पर्यावरणीय असन्तुलन, सहरी अपराधहरू, बढ्दो जनसंख्याको चाप, बेरोजगारी, शैक्षिक भिन्नता, प्राकृतिक प्रकोपहरू जस्तै– तराईको बाढी सामना गर्ने असमर्थता, बालश्रम, चेलीबेटी बेचबिखन, सामन्ती प्रथा र कतिपय अकर्मण्यता इत्यादि सबै नेपाली समस्या हुन्, न कि मधेसी, लिम्बुवान, बाह्मण । 

Constituent Assembly Election and Federal System

[Though I disagree with the learned Authors on some of the minor points in this Article, I hope that this Article will make an interesting and educative reading. I will make some of my “notes of dissent” clear after some days, in a separate Article.]

 

By Surendra R Devkota and Shiva Gautam

 

Nepal, since its existence, never had a citizen-centered governance structure. All state machineries during the Rana and earlier regimes were focused on only tax collection from the citizens and power consolidation at the center.

 

Come One, Come All To Vote Your Destiny: Election Commission

[ My few Words: This article is a copy-paste Article written by Dinesh Wagle in United We Blog. I have copied this article from UWB’s website as it helps to spread information about Constituent Assembly Election in Nepal. For further information about its original publication, see the bottom of this Article. All Copyrights over the Article and images belong to Original Authors.]

By Dinesh Wagle

As part of its unprecedented campaign, Election Commission will send 8 thousand volunteers in each and every house of all villages of Nepal to deliver invitation cards: You and your family members [who are registered at the Commission] are heartily invited to the nearby voting both for the Constituent Assembly election on November 22.

An invitation to your family to vote. Sketch by Dewen via Kantipur

Something politically motivated!!!!

I have not written anything in my blog so many days. So, feeling like I have missed out something.
I am somewhere far from my temporary-but-usual place. People call it Hi-Tech City. Yes, Hi-Tech City of Hyderabad. Flooded with fancy buildings, fancy offices with fancy names. It has given job to many, status to many, and of course, quick bucks to many. Hi-Tech City in Hyderabad is a part of changing Hyderabad to Cyberabad.

NEPAL in a New Height

It is a great pleasure for this blogger to share this News with its Readers. The date for Constituent Election (Sambidhan Sabha) has been declared in Nepal and It is going to be Mansir 6, according to Nepali Calender, i,e; November 22, 2007.

This is an election that decides the fate of ill fated monarchy in Nepal. That means, the oppressive royal regime and its coterie in Nepal can not impose their criminal, anti-social and undemocratic actions on 27 million freedom loving people.

Maoists’ Atrocities and Government’s Dillema: Both Obstacles to Peace Process

{THIS STUPID INTERNET/BLOG IS NOT ALLOWING ME TO EDIT MY POST AS I WANT. I WANTED TO PRESENT THIS ARTICLE WITH JUSTIFIED TEXT AND 1.5 SPACES BUT UNABLE TO DO SO. IT LOOKS VERY DIRTY AS OF NOW BUT I AM UNABLE TO EDIT IT FURTHER. I APOLOGIZE FOR THIS INCONVIENCE.}

There have been a lot of days since I posted a last entry in my blog. A lot of events have taken place during this period. Though nothing great and nothing significant.Life is like this, nothing great to mention and nothing great happening here in this foreign land……….

Reading news on the web has become a regular event, and the problem you will have when you have Internet in room is, you tend to read the same news again and again and whenever you open net next time, you expect very hot and breaking news. There is nothing great news I am going through these days but one particular type of News is particularly catching my eyes.Sometimes, my eyes are wide open and sometimes…….too narrow, coz of lots of surprises.There is a peace process going in Nepal among Maoists and Nepal Government. That’s great!!! But the pace of the peace process is too slow to observe even by some scientific instruments which, if available to detect pace of any dialogue.

That has worried a lot of Nepalese people around the world. It’s not going to help any one to achieve any long-term solution. There are a lot of factors that has contributed to this slow paced peace process. Meanwhile, whenever I read any news two things clearly emerge from the given situation.The first thing that clearly emerge is Maoist’s Proud in arms……This “Dambha”, “ghamanda” and disrespect to ceasefire code and other existing agreements is going to cost a lot to them. There were some sorts of sympathy and respect towards Maoists for making April Revolution Successful and for making people literate about the evil effects of monarchy and feudal forces. But, Maoists are slowly losing their place among the people. Their continuous extortions, kidnapping, and proud over their guns is going to cost a lot to them, to peace process and in long term to peace process. The people who were supporting Maoists and more importantly to republic cause may turn their face in hope of peace to some other retrograde forces.

When this happens, there is no one to blame but Maoists. There is another party to be blamed for slow peace process. They are once discarded but self certified democratic parties. The sheepish stand taken by GP Koirala about monarchy has hampered them to cling together. GP Koirala is making everything exposed that he never did politics based on principle rather than motivated by opportunities.

It is his democratic right to express his views but he does not have any right to enslave Nepali people under royal Maya. It is high time at this juncture to make unified Republic forces and start working for the peace. If Girija fails to board the republic flight, it will be he alone among the masses and let’s not swept by his views……….What Nepali want at this day is peace and Maoists must have that sense of responsible party not by way of force and terrorism but by conviction and dedication to peace process and human rights issues.

I wish everybody understand his or her responsibility.