Nepal's Maoist leaders have suggested a referendum to decide the fate of the monarchy if the country is not declared a republic through parliament. Maoist chairman Prachanda and his deputy Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai, recommended a referendum to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala during their meeting on Sunday.
As the Maoists paralysed normal life in Nepal for the second day in running, the government beefed up security on Monday amid warning by a top former rebel leader that they may declare a new constitution from the streets.
Favouring a "revolutionary change" in relations with India, Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda on Tuesday said a "new era has dawned" that should help further strengthen the bilateral ties. He suggested that New Delhi should help in the development of Nepal, which is placed in between two rising economies -- India and China.
While summoning the MLA, the court also rejected the final report filed by the CBCID where the victims have claimed that the accused are their husbands.
53-year-old Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda was administered the oath of office by President Ram Baran Yadav during a function at the Rastrapati Bhawan in Kathmandu.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) at a meeting held Monday night agreed in principle to form a coalition government under the leadership of former rebels, NC spokesman Arjun Narsingh Khatri Chhetri said.
Amid the political limbo over government formation, Indian-origin Madhesi leader Ram Baran Yadav was sworn-in as the first President of the nascent republic of Nepal on Wednesday, three days after his victory in the historic poll for the coveted post.
Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Thursday resigned from his post, ending a two-month long deadlock to pave the way for the country's first ever Maoist-led government. Koirala, 83, announced his resignation while addressing the Constituent Assembly, which was elected in April to rewrite the constitution and govern the Himalayan nation, Nepali Congress Assembly member Tirtha Ram Dangol said.
The Seven-Party Alliance in Nepal has achieved a major breakthrough in the ongoing political logjam by agreeing to elect prime minister, president and vice-president through a simple majority of the Constituent Assembly, but differences continue to persist over the composition of the National Security Council.
The Seven Party Alliance, which has been at the centrestage of the democratic movement in Nepal and was instrumental in the transition of the nation from a monarchy to a republic, is virtually defunct. The Himalayan nation is witnessing a new round of political alignments and re-alignments with the CPN-UML joining hands with the CPN-Maoists, leaving behind the Nepali Congress.The UML and Maoists have reached an agreement to seek consensus with other parties on amendments.
Maoist ministers in the interim multi-party government in Nepal on Thursday resigned en masse in an apparent bid to pressurise Prime Minister G P Koirala to quit and allow formation of a new administration led by the former rebels.
In a sudden U-turn that could break the lingering political deadlock in Nepal, Maoists on Thursday decided to give up their claim on the post of president, paving the way for formation of a new government. Following its Central Secretariat meeting in Kathmandu, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist party also announced that it has withheld its decision to quit the interim multi-party government by Thursday.
Nepal's major parties on Wednesday failed to break an impasse over the formation of a new government as efforts to strike a deal on sharing of power proved futile. During crucial talks in Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's residence here, the Maoists rejected a proposal from Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML to amend the interim constitution to remove a provision requiring two-thirds majority for forming or unseating the government.
"The Lampih area is extremely mineral rich," Assam government Spokesman and Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said, as he led a huge convoy through the dense forest and muddy slippery jungle track over a mountain to assert Assam's right over the disputed land and announce a slew of packages for 3,200 villagers who have to travel for six hours on horseback to reach the nearest road fit for motor vehicles.
With declaration of Nepal as a republic and abolishing the monarchy by the first meeting of Constituent Assembly on Wednesday, a new dawn has begun for the country to be led by the 53-year-old former rebel, who is now in his strongest position to rebuild the impoverished Himalayan country.
Nepal's beleaguered King was on Wednesday given 15-day time to vacate the royal palace as thousands of people poured into the streets and sprinkled vermillion on each other to celebrate the country's transition to a republic.
A day before the declaration of abolition of monarchy, the Maoists in Nepal agreed to the provision of a ceremonial president with executive powers to prime minister. Initially, the Maoists wanted a presidential system and a ceremonial prime minister. However, other major political parties--Nepali Congress and UML-- wanted the prime minister with executive powers and a ceremonial president.
Ending a political deadlock, Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Saturday invited the Maoists to form a government, more than a month after they emerged as the biggest party in the Constituent Assembly polls.
Prashant Rasaily was the runner-up in Gateway To Hollywood, a reality television show which gave a chance to budding filmmakers to go to Hollywood. Even though Prashant did not win, he bagged a prestigious project -- he will assist Anurag Basu in the Hrithik Roshan-starrer, Kites.
A division bench comprising Justices Min Bahadur Rayamajhi and Kalyan Shrestha rejected the plea by French lawyer Isabelle Coutant Peyre to defend Sobhraj, 64, during a hearing on Tuesday, saying that the court does not have such precedence, officials said. Sobhraj, a half-Vietnamese and half-Indian, is a French national.
Despite the CBI informing the Supreme Court that Lok Sabha MP Mani Kumar Subba was a citizen of Nepal, and not India, Subba has remained defiant. Subba, one of the Congress' biggest fund-raisers, has maintained that he is Indian, and said he would prove it before the apex court. The Congress, meanwhile, is adopting a wait-and-watch approach towards Subba, even as many party leaders demand his resignation.
External Affairs Minister SM Krishna who wrapped up his three-day visit to Nepal on Friday said his meetings with the country's top political leadership was useful. Though Krishna emphasised on the importance of completing the peace process and the growing anti-India rhetoric in Nepal, the big questions remains -- are these concerns going to see any fruition in the near future? Shubha Singh reports.
Subba had given a birth certificate claiming that he was born in 1958, contrary to the records available with the Assam Regional Passport office which showed his year of birth as 1961. According to his earlier affidavit submitted in the 1998 Lok Sabha, his year of birth was 1951. Subba's records in the 12th Lok Sabha shows his place of birth as Tezpur while that of the current Lok Sabha shows his birth place as Dabgram in Darjeeling.
The Communist Party of Nepal Maoist, which emerged victorious in the recent Constituent Assembly polls, decided on Wednesday that the next government should be under its leadership and that party chairman Prachanda' would head the government. The meeting reaffirmed the abolition of monarchy and implementation of republic in the country and concluded to form a coalition government and continue consensus with other parties.
Heading towards a landslide victory in the historic Nepal polls and poised to form the next government, the Maoists have crossed the 100-mark by winning 110 seats out of the 200 results declared (according to reports that last came in). Poll analysts say it will be difficult for the Maoists to get clear cut majority in the 601-seat assembly in which 575 are elected and 26 are nominated by the new Councils of Ministers.
The elections, which are set to usher in democracy ending the 40-year monarchy, saw the first seat going to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress party, whose candidate Prkash Man Singh won one of the constituencies in Kathmandu. Maoist chairman Prachanda, Maoist war time strategist Ram Bahadur Thpa (Badal), its spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara and two female Maoist leaders Pampha Bhushal and Hisila Yami are leading in their respective constituencies.
The Nepal government and political parties should ensure that the long-awaited constituent assembly elections on April 10 are free of violence, candidate intimidation, and efforts to suppress voter turnout, according to the Human Rights Watch. The newly elected lawmakers will draft a brand new constitution and are expected to ratify a pledge by the main political parties to turn Nepal into a federal republic.The Nepali election campaign has been plagued by violence.
Veteran Communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal was on Saturday elected unopposed as the prime minister of Nepal, bringing to an end the nearly three-week long political crisis in the country. The 56-year-old Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) leader, who claims to have the support of 351 lawmakers in the 601-member Constituent Assembly, was the only candidate to have filed the nomination for the top post. The Maoists boycotted the voting process.
In an interactive programme at Rajbiraj, an eastern Nepal town, Prachanda claimed that his party Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist would get 150 seats out of a total of 300 seats in the direct election, and that he will become the first president of the Himalayan nation after the polls. He also sounded a note of apprehension over elections taking place on the scheduled date. "I am not confident that the CA elections will be held on the stipulated date," he said.
Special Court Judge Madan Lakshmandas Tahilyani stunned the Mumbai police and public prosecutor Ujawal Nikam when he acquitted two Indian nationals Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin of all the charges in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case.
David Rubin, novelist, translator, and an authority on the literature of India, died on February 2 from a stroke at Roosevelt Hospital. He was 83. His first novel The Greater Darkness, a novel of India (1963) won the Duff Cooper award as the best first novel published in England that year.
A Nepalese minister indicated that it may take weeks or months for the tainted doctor to be sent to India.
Dr Amit Kumar, the alleged kingpin in the multi-crore rupees kidney transplant racket in India, has been arrested in Nepal, the Himalayan Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
According to sources close to the director, he had made a presentation to former US secretary of state Collin Powell and later to the director of the FBI and his deputy and told them that those involved in the hijacking were roaming freely in Pakistan.
The three conspirators Abdul Latif, Dalip Kumar and Yusuf Nepali have been lodged in the high security Patiala Central Jail since their arrest about eight years ago. The three were accused of helping the hijackers in procuring fake passports and other papers and also helping them take weapons aboard the aircraft that was hijacked.
The deferment was announced as the judge was still going through the documents of the case submitted by the defence and the prosecution, the Central Bureau of Investigation, for about seven years.
The US is set to send its diplomat A Peter Burleigh to 'temporarily' fill in for David Mulford as its ambassador to India. It has been over a month since Mulford returned to Washington after getting a one-month extension from US President Barack Obama.
The DIT will have the software ready by end of September which will help decode 22 languages recognised by the Constitution.
The agreement provides a 58-42 allocation for proportional and direct election systems for the 601-seat constituent assembly
Police sources in N C Hills said the DHD (J) ultras, also known as 'Black Widow', arrived at the saw mills and fired indiscriminately killing eight on the spot.
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