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Book Review| Weena Pun’s ‘Kancchi’: A Captivating Tale of a Mother’s Search for her Missing Daughter in Nepal

Published : Nov 27, 2024 10:28 IST - 5 MINS READ One dark November morning in 1995, Maiju surreptitiously escorts her 16-year-old daughter down the slippery, rain-drenched slopes of Torikhola in Nepal to help her catch a bus to her aunt’s house in Pokhara. “The age apsaras are when they are sent to lure wise old sanyasis out of their …

Nepal

View from the Himalayas | New coalition, old policy? How Nepal govt’s new parties must strike a balance in the region

Even for those following Nepal’s political developments closely, keeping track of splits, mergers, coalitions, and unifications of its numerous communist parties can seem arcane. In a flurry of events last week, the three communist parties came together in the ruling coalition, with Prime Minister Prachanda expelling the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the 275-member Parliament, from the government. The …

With shifting alliances, elastic ideologies of political parties and personal ambitions of leaders, political instability continues to plague Nepal. Even though the NC had emerged as the single largest party in the last elections held in November 2022, the Maoists, who were a distant third, held the balance of power. Second, the NC, even while being in the coalition, decided …

Prachanda's third term as Nepal PM: Why this time India should invest in him

Given that he is backed by Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress which has traditionally been supportive to India, New Delhi must actively engage with him for greater political-economic stability and more equal and mutually beneficial relations Political stability has eluded Nepal with the return of Prachanda as Prime Minister for the third time. When Prachanda was forced to resign in …

Nepal’s coalition politics, a game of musical chairs

Coalition politics in Nepal increasingly resembles the game of musical chairs; in Kathmandu too, it is the same cast of characters who have been taking turns for nearly two decades. On December 26, Mr. Prachanda was sworn in as Prime Minister and in return, he assured support to the UML for the posts of House Speaker and President. However, both …

Nepal: Does republican transition threatens political stability, still?

Pushpa Kamal Dahal has a fatal attraction with power. In fact, the UML-CPN’s sudden marriage of convenience is a throwback to the previous elections in 2017 when both parties had formed the government with a commitment to merge into a single Nepal Communist Party.Much water has flowed through the Bagmati river since then with Mr. Oli’s refusal to hand over …

Nepal politics, past, present, and future

The general elections in Nepal that were held in November passed off peacefully but prospects for a stable government remain elusive. Mr. Oli assumed the post of Prime Minister in 2018 and despite promising Prachanda, never ceded control of the merged Nepal Communist Party. Mr. Oli’s authoritarian traits soon antagonised some of his senior colleagues, Madhav Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, …

Power roller-coaster: On Maoists and UML sharing power in Nepal

There seems to be no limit to the opportunism in Nepal’s top polity. Newly minted Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal’s Communist Party of Nepal was part of a six-party alliance led by the Nepali Congress that collectively finished just above the absolute majority mark in the parliamentary elections held in November. After being denied this, legitimately, in his blatant hunger …

For Nepal’s newly appointed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, the post is quite a familiar one. Oli-led Nepal Communist Party — formed with the merger of Mr. Oli's Communist Party of Nepal and the Pushpa Kumar Dahal-led Communist Party of Nepal — in the 2018 elections, Mr. Deuba and his Nepali Congress had been reduced into a smaller opposition force. …