In Perspective - The Weekly Nepali Source, September 13, 2006

On New Citizenship Laws

• The Cabinet passed a Citizenship Bill on August 26, 2006. According to it, the criteria to obtain citizenship have been considerably eased. Persons residing in Nepal since 1990, born to Nepalese mothers, or recommended by three Nepalese citizens are now eligible for Nepalese citizenship.
• Three things are expected to happen. A portion of those rightfully seeking Nepali citizenship will finally become citizens. Another group of Indian nationals who want dual citizenship (just in case), will also get it.
• Most important, the Bhutanese government will breathe a huge sigh of relief because they will finally get away with their ethnic cleansing of Bhutanese of Nepali origin.
• Obtaining Nepali citizenship will be the easiest way out for India, Bhutan and for the UNHCR (which has been absolutely ineffective in negotiating any resolution for over a decade – still, the jobs pay well).
• It’s a win-win situation for everyone except when it comes to calculating the net welfare effect of the Nepali state. It’s unlikely tax revenues will go up in proportion to the spike in population but it is very likely that welfare expenditures will come to rely fully on foreign aid (increase debt), at least for the rest of this century.

On the Plight of Tourism

• Earlier this year, there were good signs that the Nepalese tourism sector would get back to normal as hotel occupancy projections were on the rise and tourists were back in fashion.
• But now, this prospect seems unlikely. Small hotels, lodges, and guest houses (particularly in the Thamel area) are having a hard time. In preparation for their so-called convention, Maoist-affiliated organizations have extorted an estimated 3 crore rupees from business in Kathamndu.
• Owners of hotels, lodges and guest houses are being “forced” to give “donations.” Each of them has been asked to provide free lodging and food to approximately 30 to 40 Maoist cadres.
• Arrangement for the lodging of Pushpe and Babu Ram (and other high ranking leaders) have been made in Vaishali, Marshyangdi and Grand Hotels. Prakash Shrestha (former employee of Hotel Yak & Yeti), Toya Dahal and Madhav Pandey (of Hotel Everest) have been assigned to collect donations from different hotels.
• In spite of the Maoist vision of “extreme tourism,” there is generally little interest for serious tourists to come to Nepal to watch a bunch of thugs, have their dictate. Hoteliers are saying that if Maoists stay in their hotels, tourists will stay away. It is said that this type of “extreme tourism” in Nepal is no longer in fashion because Hamas and Hezbollah have taken top spots on the list of radical organizations to visit.
• More likely to visit will be curious, pseudo-academics of the hippy variety, who are eager to have adventurous encounters with the Nepali Maoists so they can go home and put up pictures on their websites to glorify gun-toting 14 year olds from the comfort of their very bourgeiose lifestyles. Unfortunately for the hoteliers, these types aren’t known to be big spenders.

On the Council for Social Welfare

• The objective of the Council for Social Welfare is to uplift people of society, especially women and children.
• Executive members of the Council are expected to be dedicated and committed toward fulfilling the Council’s objectives. The concerned Minister is expected to see to it that the Council is heading toward the right direction.
• But Minister Urmila Aryal seems to have priorities different from those her post demands. She seems more concerned with the welfare of Executive Members of the Council than those the Council are supposed to uplift.
• As per the Minister's decision, the Vice Chairman, Member Secretary and the Treasurer will now receive a remuneration of Rs. 40,000 per month which itself is higher than that of minister's own salary.
• It is believed that each executive member is to kick back Rs. 15,000 to the Minister in return for the favor. Vice Chairman, Data Ram Khanal says that they are not getting the full amount for themselves, rather collecting the amount for the party, and laments that their names were unnecessarily dragged into controversy.
• The idea it seems is to engage in money laundering, term it the collection of donations for the party and then turn around and blame the Maoists for extortion. What a truly original idea!

On getting serious about business

• Himalyan Bank closed it branch office in Banepa on September 12, 2006 because of Maoist pressure.
• Maoists had “demanded” that either a “donation” of Rs. 10 lakhs be paid by Himalayan Bank or that the branch office in Banepa be closed.
• Since the Maoists have dubbed their extortion drive as “voluntary,” Himalayan Bank “voluntarily” closed down it Banepa branch.
• Other banks and lending institutions are also considering the cost-benefit of doing business while being “voluntarily” extorted. More shutdowns are expected.
• More interesting in this case is a display of how the Maoist mind works. Although they claim to be a modern Maoist group, they demonstrate no understanding of accounting, of shareholder value, of the Board of Directors or how business in the 21st century works.
• How do we know this? Because instead of going to the owners of the bank to demand money, the idiots wrote a letter to the branch manager, who they thought was the owner of that branch.
• The extent of Maoist business know-how is confided to mass producing yarcha gubma and getting money out of the sky to invest in hydropower projects. Not encouraging signs for people in private sector business.

On the collection of taxes

• Maoist central leaders have instructed their cadre not to collect taxes in districts.
• In turn, cadres in districts are also preventing government officials from collecting taxes in the same districts.
• Their logic is tit for tat – if they can’t do it, then the government can’t do it and the government can’t do it because they said so. That’s that.
• Calling in the security forces to deal with this situation would be a violation of the code of conduct. Asking the UN to verify that taxes aren’t being collected would be stupid.
• So why not forget about security forces altogether so that we won’t have to get upset when taxes aren’t collected because without security forces to pay salaries to, the loss of taxes won’t be that bad.
• Also, most of the traffic police jobs seem to be handled very well by Maoists who conduct vehicles while having their 2 times a day, rallies. If they’ll do it for free, why bother paying the traffic police on the streets today?

On interim government representation

• Even though the Maoists are not physically in the interim government, they are apparently represented quite well by DPM Amik Serchan who walks into sessions of parliament and special government meetings, with his cell phone dialed into Pushpa’s private line.
• When Serchan threatened to quit the government (because the government hardened its stance on the Maoists), it is said that the whole Maoist negotiating team begged him to stay on. There is no good alternative to a “human mic” inside Parliament that - a function that Serchan has been performing relentlessly.