keep it up Kashish…

good show..

man we got the predictions so wrong .. this election :)

Awesome, did you say the big heads of Nepali media and intelligentia got this shit wrong? And
suprisingly the country is STILL realiant on their prognostication that Maoists WILL follow democratic polity. What are the chances that airheads like Kanaks and Kundas of Nepal
will get that wrong too. I cringe at the slightest possibility of that thought materializing. Insanity abounds.

Fucking hasish smoking perverse intellectuals will be the first casualty of political relapse, and righfully so.

So,the commies are gonna write the constitution
now eh? And a DEMOCRATIC one at that? Contradiction, or is it sheer stupidity,that never hints of budging from the damned land and its people!

Reality check for all who think this is actually a parliamentary election; well it’s NOT. But it was probably the MOST important one - even more than succeding elections that will take place for parliamentary seats and forming government majority.

However, if the commies want to constitutionally
declare Nepal a communist dictatorship now, they
CAN, in which case succeding parliamentary elections would be pushed for about, oh, say
another 50 years or so, or until we have another
revolution. So we wait again…bleh!

insightful, to say the least.

any takes as to why/how the maoists were able to gain the majority as they did, especially considering predictions? i’ve heard about america’s classic lesser-of-two-evils syndrome or the hunger to see new faces in politics (and not just having three men shuffled, yet again) or the fear of the maoists retreating to arms or coercion itself….verses the preferable notion of the people voting out of their conviciton that it will be the maosits who usher in the naya nepal we’ve all talked up about for so long.

also, i believe IFES quoted the presence of over 60K election observers…both nepalis and foreigners. how did voters react to their presence? any hostility towards the (especially international) observers who spotted the polls to ensure “free and fair” elections?

thanks for the analysis and update…really loving it = ]

So far, the only seeming explanation is that many UML/left sympathizers did in fact lean towards the Maoists and the Nepali Congress fatigue in the country seems to have been a lot larger than anticipated, if the loss of the key Koirala based candidates is to say anything. The question now is how the UML will play themselves out. But both the two major parties clearly need to reorganize themselves. Narhari Acharya’s win and Sushil and Sujata Koirala’s loss should clearly mean something to the NC leadership.

Prashant also has a write up on Nepali Times today, following up on some of the things he talked about on our show.
(http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/election/news.php?id=29)

Fresh results also indicate that the Madeshi groups are doing fairly good so far, but an interesting development has been the election of Baban Sign, who goes by the alias Mr. John. He of course claimed to have masterminded the vicious 3-simultaneous bomb blasts in Kathmandu in September 2007, which Samudaya.org had covered also (http://samudaya.org/200709/another-black-september/)
You can find a report on his win on Nepalnews.com
(http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/apr/apr14/news08.php)

As for the election observers, in 2007 there had been some frustrations with some of the bigger INGOs that were stationed in Nepal for the elections, but generally there has been no indication that there was any resentment towards them. If anything, I would think that they helped give the voters a sense of security during the polls. Although the election passed without any major incident, we have to remember that voter security and ballot stuffing were definite threats even till the morning of. And their presence most certainly helps validate our elections (not that it would be invalid without them), regardless of the results. And there really is no telling how much influence this huge election monitoring body, with prominent figures such as Jimmy Carter, had in ensuring the Maoists and other groups refrain from violence or from making more explicit threats to voters.

A part of our next podcast will follow up on the elections and also see if we can dig deeper into the case of Mr. John being elected

Thanks for listening.

so it would seem that the voter logic in nepal is really no different (or that they had to undergo completely unusual process, ahem) in casting their ballots….that’s a relief! i do remember the maoist actively campaigning during the build up to the elections as i recall hearing about travelers who went to nepal (beyond that of kathmandu, anyhow) who said they saw very little presence and campaigning of any political party but the maoists. so, it all makes sense, i suppose. the historically major parties will now have to revamp their political platform and plan - which is probabaly not a bad idea!

per the babn singh and the likes or the entire party actually….what measures are being taken to address past deeds and misdeeds (dare i say atrocities?!) this includes by mainstream and not)

[crap - didn’t mean to enter the confusing text as is written up there but whatev]

also, what i waned to ask was how the maoist/government/army who have committed crimes during the conflict ought to be treated now that we are emerging into a new nepal? what lessons are there to be learnt from joseph kony in uganda or the truth and reconciliation committee of south africa? should we forget the past and move or should nepal sit down and invest in setting things “right”?

not to bombard this wall…but i realized the word crime does not do justice to the issue at hand or nearly define the events and is too vague a word to be used in this context, but i think we have a general idea of what i mean.

also, thanks for the essay of a response, kashish. i’m learning more on samudaya then in class these days =]

update:

In Conversation’s host, Kashish, will be talking about Nepal on the Asia Pacific Forum (WBAI 99.5FM), New York tonight!

Tune in 8:00-9:00pm EST
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
ASIA PACIFIC FORUM on
WBAI 99.5 FM, New York City
Listen online at: http://www.asiapacificforum.org

Kashish, keep up the good work brother.

thanks kashish it is nice for nepali