In the end, riots sparked by the Vice President of Hindistan worked great to delay the Maoist formation of a government, and Giprako got to lead a 35-member delegation to the SHARKS Summit in Colombo. It's probably the first time in the history of the regional body that a head of government who has already resigned is leading an expedition to a Summit with the help of bottled oxygen. Since the caretaker PM needs a caregiver, he took along his daughter.
Our Baluwatar mole tells us the Old Man was at first quite reluctant to go. "Send Ram Baran," he told a foreign ministry logistics meeting, adding cynically, "or better still send Parmananda and he can give his speech in Hindi!"
The Lankans were getting frantic, but they were playing it safe by sending formal invitations to both the ex- PM as well as the PM-in-waiting. Then they got Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Dada to agree to give both PKD and GPK a tinkle because the Summit would otherwise have to be postponed because the Nepalis couldn't get their act together. The Sri Lankans have left no stones unturned for the conference, even getting the Tigers to agree not to blow themselves up in the capital during the Summit.
Now that the Left Front is out of the picture in Delhi, it was relatively easy for Mukherjiji to make his preference clear. He called Girjau on the hotline and managed to convince him to come. But what really did the trick was that the Old Fox wanted to prevent Comrade Pukada from taking all the credit for Nepal's transformation into a people's republic on the international stage.
***
President Ram wasn't that worried about losing his chance to hobnob with South Asian netas cos he's off to the Olympics next week having won the presidential race. Lucky for the prez that the original Chinese invite to Girjababoo was not non-endorsable. Which means he may have to take a raincheck on Gyanuraja's invite to dine at Nagarjun. Nice gesture by the ex-Majesty to congratulate His Excellency even though he took possession of the royal Jag.
***
Those who want a United Madhes should insist on a revision of not just the 1950 Treaty but also the 1816 Sugauli Treaty with British India after which large chunks of the Tarai were carved out wherever there was a Bhitri Madhes. Without the return of these lands, the Tarai will never be contiguous and there can't be One Madhes. After that Chitwan and Dang-Deukhuri can start their own andolan for One Bhitri Madhes.
***
Going by the write-ups in the Baddie press, the rift within the Maoists between hardcore comrades and softliners seems to be widening. It is so bad that the real problem in forming a new government is not the disagreement between the Maoists and the MJF-UML-NC, but between Jit Bahadur and Ram Bahadur. Each side is accusing the other of being backed by foreign forces, by which they mean the Big Brothers to the north and south as well as Big Daddy on the other side of the planet.
On Wednesday, while the Maoist secretariat was meeting to try to form a new government within a week, Gajurel Uncle was telling the CA the president was overstepping his constitutional prerogative by asking his party to form a government.
***
Comrade Jhallu seems to have kissed and made up with Comrade Lotus Flower about being stabbed in the back, but Comrade Makunay is in no mood to forgive and forget. He met PKD in the foyer of his house, and BRB has been declared persona non grata in Koteswor. "I don't even want to see their faces," he fumed to a visitor this week.
Comrade Awesome has finally broken his silence on what he thinks about people not calling him Prachanda. He told Gorkhapatra this week in a lengthy interview: 'Some people these days have stopped using my nom de guerre, Prachanda. I feel that is very reactionary.' Oops.
***
The winning entry for New Name Contest for a New Nepal comes from Raju in Jamal: "Rani Pokhari should be named Ani Pokhari."
Entries to the New Name Contest: ass(at)nepalitimes.com
