Adds Impetus To Implement Bilateral Deals

Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s three-day visit (March 25-27, 2022) to Nepal has added new impetus to Sino-Nepal cooperation and partnership. In the recent past, the two nations had signed a number of agreements but their implementation has not gained pace owing to several factors such the COVID-19 pandemic, internal instability and external pressure. Prior to making his stopover in Nepal, Wang toured Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, bolstering its peripheral diplomacy that...

Strategic Autonomy In Foreign Policy

Globalisation and geopolitics are two separate phenomena but they have combined to complicate the domestic politics and foreign relations of small states. Globalisation has accelerated the movements of capital, technology, goods, people, values and cultures across the globe. This sort of transformative change was never seen before in the history of mankind. It has offered both opportunities and challenges to the nations. For small nations like Nepal, globalisation has enabled them to benefit from...

Assists Alliance To Ride The Storm

The five-party coalition government has ridden out the storm after the House of Representatives (HoR) endorsed $500 million US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grant with the 12-point interpretative declaration. The dispute over the MCC Nepal Compact has threatened to end the unity of the alliance’s partners but the adoption of resolution proved to be a win-win situation for them. It created a middle path, enabling them to avoid the imminent political crisis and accept the MCC grant although...

Local Governments Have Miles To Go

WITH the country all set to go for local polls on May 18 this year, the political parties have started their campaign to tip the scales in their favour. Considered as the base of grassroots democracy, the local polls will be another milestone in consolidating the federal democratic republic. The timely election for the local bodies boosts their authority, legitimacy and governance. It tests people’s sovereignty and enhances their participation in the decision-making process.

Impeachment Against CJ Rana Can It Revitalise Judiciary?

The continued disruption of the House of Representatives (HoR) by the main opposition CPN-UML has brought the parliamentary business to a standstill. At the moment, the House obstruction has hindered pushing the impeachment motion against suspended Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and tabling the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Nepal Compact.

A Moment For Reflection

Democracy is now the most fascinating word. Owing to its power, it is on lip of every politician no matter which party or ideology s/he supports. There is widespread assumption that upholding the idea of democracy provides a sense of legitimacy. The sheen and lure of democracy continues to grow despite the fact that political scientists in the West lament that democracy is in deeper crisis in their nations. Their frustration arises from their inclination to link it with power and hegemony that is...

Avoiding Geopolitical Pitfalls

Nepal’s metaphoric identity as a ‘yam between two boulders,’ coined by its founding father Prithvi Narayan Shah, continues to be veritable to this day despite all seismic internal and external upheavals spanning two centuries and a half. There were efforts to deconstruct this sagacious saying by many phony intellectuals and political radicals. But the popular adage reminds the rulers of the geopolitical sensitivity of Himalayan nation constrained and protected by complex topography. Even in...

NA Poll Rout Bodes Ill For UML

The five-party alliance has registered a resounding victory in the recent National Assembly (NA) elections. It made a clean sweep of 18 seats out of 19 in the Upper House. The main opposition CPN-UML that suffered a humiliating drubbing; it managed to secure only one seat. Ironically, some UML leaders have expressed happiness that it won one seat and bagged cross-votes in some provinces as it had to fight against five parties. This is UML's pseudo happiness that hides its growing dismay in the wake...

Save Narayanhity From Commercialisation

The Narayanhity Palace Museum has come into limelight for wrong reasons. Once a symbol of power, dignity and majesty of kings, the Narayanhity Palace has now turned into stories of corruption scam, sleaze and fraudulence, mocking the hubris of fallen mighty rulers. Of course, the history of Narayanhity was not completely clean either. But in republican era, it should serve as a history book for the posterity. The systemic corruption also crept int

Maoist Path Of Revolution Who Will Bell The Cat?

Unlike the conventions of Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, the CPN-Maoist Centre’s ongoing 8th national congress hotly debated party chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s ideological and political report to shape its future political course and strategy. NC and UML’s jamborees were confined to picking the leadership and their leaders and delegates were least concerned about the ideological discourse. On the other hand, the Maoist Centre’s convention that kicked off la