No one should have been surprised by our sagging fortunes at SAG in Dhaka. The whole thing was jinxed from the start. The falling lift, the royal anthem on repeat, the 21-0 thrashing we got from the Big Brothers in hockey, and then, as if the strange rectangular version of our double triangle banner wasn't bad enough, the Banglas hung the proud Jangi Nishan upside down.

But we only have ourselves to blame for the ugly fisticuffs between Nepali sports officials prior to the kabbadi game. We should have enlisted those karmacharis in the wrestling tournament, I'm sure we could've got a few golds there.

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The best proof of the old adage that there are no permanent friends or permanent foes in politics is the current honeymoon between Comrade Girjau and Chairman Chhabi Lal. Clearly, the Gleneagles Summit was a deal to install GPK as president and PKD as PM so the two could live happily ever after. But that was not to be. The main hurdle was not between the UCPN-M and NC but opposition from kangresis themselves to the Old Man, and from comrades to the Old Fox.

Come to think of it, the High Level Mechanism is made up of three individuals who think they should be in power but aren't. PKD was PM and sorely misses it. GPK always thought it was his destiny to be the first president of the world's newest republic. And JNK found out that winning an election gave him control of neither his party nor the government. They need a role, poor fellows, hence this triumvirate that hoped it would have the power to change the govt. But to really solve this country's problems, it seems we need an Even-Higher-Level Political Mechanism that includes India and the P5.

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SuzyQ is in a deep sulk because of the stink over passports. Not only did she lose a fat chance to finagle the deal to alter the MRP ToR midway through the bidding process, but her PA has just confessed to selling a whole bunch of Nepali passports to Afghans trying to smuggle themselves into Australia. The Machine Readable Passports were supposed to prevent just such misuse of passports, but the way her ministry is going about it Somalis, Afghans, Sudanese, etc would all be eligible for Nepali passports even before Nepalis themselves. All this is what must be keeping Suzie Didi so busy that she boycotted the Rastrapati Bhavan for the credential presentation ceremony on Wednesday, preferring to spend the day as a dutiful dotter, scheming to get the Maoists to power just so Daddy can be president.

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Chairman Ferociousness has shown us all the pitfalls of being too clever by half. He funded Jhallu's candidacy in the UML convention last year and is still trying to split the UML, he's tried to dismember the kangresis although they were doing pretty well by themselves. He is now being consumed by his own Machiavellian machinations, and is running out of ideas, as each of his smart aleck plans has failed to get his party back in the saddle. In the epic saga of the rivalry between Chhabi Lal and Lal Dhoj, it is BRB who has prevailed for now.

ass(at)nepalitimes.com