It was bound to come to this. The Baidya Kaka faction of the Baddies has finally decided to take the plunge and use the "F" word against the Gang of Three Baburam-Prachanda-Prakash Clique. It has called them "fascist" for the first time. Not only that, it urged Jhusil Koirala to head a kangresi-led coalition post-27 May, and accused Chairman Awesome of having "dictatorial tendencies". Hey, isn't this supposed to be the hardcore faction?
Chairman Awesome has always been well known for speaking through both sides of his mouth, depending on who his audience is. He has been caught on candid camera doing this so often, one would think he'd have learnt his lesson not to blabber away. The latest was his exhortation to the Janajati Caucus "to take to the streets" to put pressure on the NC-UML to agree to their demands on federalismo. He is supposed to have told the activists:
I tried my best, but I just couldn't get the kangresis to agree." And a few hours later he was back at the three-party meeting in Balu Water where he said that under no circumstances should the far-west be divided, or the three districts in the east made a part of Limbuwan. Comrade Chhabilal Baje is showing that he is as clever a politician as he was a guerrilla leader: he doesn't want to alienate the Bahun Chhetri vote bank. By now, he has got pretty much what he wants with the consensus on directly-elected executive president, so he doesn't really care what happens to the rest of the constitution.
Awesome has often compared himself to the Buddha and Gandhi, both of whom he has described as "peaceful revolutionaries" like himself. We will let the Buddha decide what PKD can do to attain nirvana, but a keen Nepal watcher told the Ass he thought the Great Leader may think he is like Bapu because he considers himself a "Gun-dhian"?
The parties came up with a deal to carve the country into 11 provinces, and from the looks of it they have just rearranged the jig saw pieces a little bit from the current Anchals. And they fought a war for this? On top of it, no one is happy. Brahmins are on warpath even though the deal was done between the all-Brahmin leadership of the parties, the Madhesis are up in arms about getting a Tarai chopped up into little pieces, the Janajatis don't agree with the names and boundaries, the Tharus feel cheated. The Newars are about to organise a motorcycle rally. So they have all called for indefinite and overlapping bunds. There are days in the next two weeks where there are multiple bunds simultaneously happening on the same day. And this just in: even jailbirds want to be freed after 27 May and if their demands are not met, they have announced a phasewise protest.
The Janajati Caucus is a bit of a misnomer because as far as I know it is made up solely of non-Janai wearing non-Caucasians.
The Supreme Court has cleared Ex-Minister for Abduction and Extortion, Shyam Sunder Gupta, to vote in the CA. For the first time in the history of this nation, a legally certified criminal will be legislating from behind bars. Can't wait for the day when Chakre Milan will be running the PMO from Nakhhu Jail.
When ex-mayor Ketchup Sthapit says he wants to turn Kathmandu into a "sexy city" in five years, we hope he doesn't want to make Thamel even more like Patpong, Pokhara like Pattaya, or turn Surkhet into Phuket?