Crisis in Nepal: Prachanda fires Army chief, President steps in

Nepal's three-year-old peace process and experiment in political partnership between former insurgents and pro-democracy forces today appeared to have been dealt a crippling blow after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, on the diktat of the Communist Party of Nepal Maoists (CPN-M), sacked Army chief General Rookmangud Katawal for “insubordination”.

Dahal’s move, which sparked protests from most political parties, including ruling coalition partners, and put a big question mark on the continuance of the government, was rejected by President Rambaran Yadav who, as the Supreme Commander, directed Katawal to continue as Army chief. Yadav even sent a letter to this effect to Dahal but the Prime Minister’s office declined to acknowledge it.

The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) held an emergency meeting after Katawal’s sacking and decided not only to withdraw its ministers from the Cabinet but also move a no-confidence motion to bring down the government.

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First time after ouster, former Nepal King coming to India

In what ostensibly appears like a private visit, former King Gyanendra and his wife Komal will tomorrow leave for a two-week long visit to India, their first after the monarchy was abolished from Nepal in June.

They will attend a family wedding in Bhopal. Prime Minister Prachanda was informed about the visit today, an official source said.

The Secretariat of the former King has kept the trip under wraps but Foreign Ministry sources told The Indian Express that the King has not been issued any passport which means the former royals will use their “citizenship” or simple travel documents to visit India.

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Some infiltrators from across border, no one is complaining

These are cross-border infiltrators the country shouldn’t mind having. Haldwani in Uttarakhand and the Terai belt in Uttar Pradesh have been receiving guests from neighbouring Nepal—the critically endangered Indian one-horned Rhinoceros.

Even as the Kaziranga National park reels under a spate of rhino poaching, the Indo-Nepal border has proved itself to be a valuable corridor for the Indian one-horned rhinoceros. Rhinos have been crossing over from Nepal’s Bardia and Shukla Phanta Wildlife reserve park towards the Lagga Bagga forests and the Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh.

And last month, a rhino from Nepal was found in Haldwani. It’s almost like a trip down history: it was rhinos from Nepal which formed part of the parent stock for the first-ever rhino trans location done in Duhwad National Park in Uttar Pradesh in 1984. Wildlife experts say that this is just the right time for allowing co-mingling of the Indian and Nepali rhinos to augment population of this rare animal.

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Secular Republic of Nepal is born

Half an hour before the stroke of midnight today, Nepal became a Republic. The transition to "a secular, federal, democratic, republic nation" was formalised with a resolution moved by Home Minister K P Sitaula and right away passed by 560 votes against four by the newly-sworn in Constituent Assembly.

Minutes later, the Royal Standard flying atop the Narayanhiti palace - home to five kings so far - was brought down by palace officials.

The transition to a democracy means abolition of the monarchy and dethronement of King Gyanendra, with all the privileges of the royal family taken away with immediate effect. He will have no rights in social, political, cultural or religious fields more than what any Nepali citizen is entitied to.

However, constitutional experts raised some concern about the speed with which the resolution was passed, without members being allowed to record their objections. "It is unheard of, unacceptable and unconstitutional that such an important resolution was passed in such a shabby manner," constitutional lawyer Bipin Adhikari told The lndian Express.

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