CPN-UML can’t get its act together. On Saturday, the party decided to recommend that the prime minister should be elected directly by the people when the Constituent Assembly discusses governance issues in the new constitution. But, soon after the meeting, some party members were trashing the decision. The Himalayan Times writes:

Electing the PM directly by the people was the party’s official view passed by the eighth national convention held if February last year. However, a politburo meeting held recently had revised this view. Nevertheless, UML’s Constituent Assembly (CA) members in the CA Committee on Forms of Governance had voted in favour of parliamentary democracy proposed by the Nepali Congress.

Later on, UML CA members in the committee were divided. While four members demanded that the party’s official stance be recognised in the committee’s concept paper, three others stood by what had been decided by the party’s politburo meeting. “Our official stance has remained unchanged,” CPN-UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal told mediapersons at the end of the meeting.

Talking about confusion, the Maoists must be going through a serious identity crisis. Apparently, the Young Communist League members raided hotels in Narayanghad yesterday and forced 26 people out accusing them of being involved in “indecent activities”. The Kathmandu Post reports:

Hotel entrepreneurs said the YCL men arrested even couple staying at the hotel on the accusation of their involvement in “indecent activities”.

The women were handed over to their relatives, while men were freed on the presence of mediapersons.

Here we thought this kind of moral policing was characteristic of countries like Iran, where religious laws prevail.

The ironies continue. Nepal—the country with second biggest water resources in the world, the country that wants to sell hydroelectric power to foreign countries—is going to have to import electricity from India. Republica writes:

“We have reached an understanding to bring 15 MW from Biratnager and another 15 MW from Gandak,” [said] Minister for Energy, Dr. Prakash Saran Mahat.

Minister Mahat, however, added that the import will not reduce the loadshedding hours entirely, but would help in maintaining the NEA’a plan to not let the hours exceed beyond 12 hours daily. “The import will not bring down the daily nine hours loadshedding that we are currently facing, but we will now be able to maintain the 12 hours daily maximum power cut by the direst month as per the NEA plan,” Mahat said.

There is, however, nothing ironic about the following news: A study has found that suicide is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age (15-49) in Nepal. From IRIN:

The total population of women of this age group in these districts was over 86,000. But in preliminary findings that the study described as shocking, of the 1,496 deaths recorded, suicide – rather than maternal-related issues – was the single leading cause of death, accounting for 16 percent of deaths.

The study said mental health problems, relationships, marriage and family issues were factors in suicides, as was youth, since 21 percent of the suicides were committed by young women aged 18 years and under.