Op-ed editors of broadsheet dailies published in Kathmandu on Friday have given space to a wide range of issues of both national and international importance. While elections in Province 2 and the federal and provincial polls still remain the main topics of discussion, other social and economic issues have also been given space.
Suu Kyi and the Rohingya
Dhruba Kumar, in his lead article for Kantipur, says minority groups around the world have been facing the wrath of the regime of their countries for a long time. It is easy for the state to designate them as ‘terrorists’ to legalise the violence they mete out on the minorities. He says that although personalities such as the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu called on Myanmar’s Suu Kyi to help the Rohingyas, she cited national security as the reason for their predicament. He says that Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy have always been negative towards Muslims and that was the reason they did not field a single Muslim candidate in the parliamentary elections.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also been backing Suu Kyi. When he was in Myanmar recently, he did not utter a word on the plight of the Rohingyas. India, the same country that intervened in East Pakistan on humanitarian grounds, is not in the mood to displease the rulers in Myanmar. China is also not speaking on the issue because of geo-strategic reasons. Their silence is taking its toll on the thousands of Rohingyas who are being forced to leave their country. Kumar concludes that in the modern world, minorities are not safe anywhere.
Deuba needs to resign
Nepal’s Election Commission has already announced dates for the filing of nominations for the federal and provincial polls. According to the constitution, Parliament’s tenure expires from the day nominations are filed on October 22. In this context, Advocate Dipendra Jha says that according to the constitution, the Prime Minister is relieved from his post when he is no longer a member of Parliament. It would be wise for the Prime Minister to tender his resignation so that the path becomes easy for all political parties. If he does not resign, there’s a risk of a repetition of what happened in 2013, when a non-political character, then Supreme Court Justice, was made the head of government to conduct the elections.
Is Kathmandu becoming South Asia’s ‘Vatican’?
Yubraj Gautam, in his lead article for Nagarik, says a section of writers, analysts, journalists and rights activists are trying to set the country ablaze for foreign dollars. He claims that Christians have been trying to convert Hindus and Buddhists for a long time in Nepal. He claims that the Bible has been translated into Tamang, Rai, Limbu and other languages. They even paid millions of rupees to the Maoists to press them to declare Nepal ‘secular’. The government would have stopped this if it was aware that all this interference will not do any good to the country.
Disasters in the federal setup
Shrijan Bahadur Malla, in his article for The Kathmandu Post, says that in a federal system, disaster management should be a provincial responsibility with federal oversight. He says that there are two aspects of disaster management coordination in a federal system: first is the vertical coordination between the central and state governments and the other is horizontal coordination between neighbouring states.
