KUL CHANDRA GAUTAM, Published on 2012-04-18, The dramatic announcement of handing over the Maoist cantonments to the Nepal Army on April 10 and its quick follow-through is a belated but welcome breakthrough in Nepal’s peace process. It will undoubtedly facilitate and expedite the integration into Nepal Army of those former Maoist combatants who have not More...

In the flurry of commentary on the postponement of the planned visit to Lumbini by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, some pundits and politicians have given me both undue credit and blame. Under an editorial entitled “A few loud men”, the Kathmandu Post squarely put the blame on “a few individuals claiming to represent the More...

By Kul Chandra Gautam KATHMANDU, March 9, 2012 (IPS) – Reports of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s planned visit to Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Gautam Buddha, and a UNESCO World Heritage site in Nepal in April 2012, have caused a mixture of excitement and apprehension in Kathmandu. The people of Nepal warmly welcome More...

The questionable wisdom of Ban Ki-moon’s proposed visit to Lumbini GUEST COLUMN Kul Chandra Gautam The proposed visit by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Lumbini in April 2012 should have signified a welcome new commitment for the development of the birthplace of Lord Gautam Buddha which is a UNESCO world heritage site. However, it More...

By Kul Chandra Gautam, Subodh Raj Pyakurel, Kanak Mani Dixit We three citizens come from diverse backgrounds and express ourselves, not always with the same voice, on myriad social and political issues. ‘Lalrakshak’, the magazine close to the UCPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, in its Magh-Falgun 2068 issue (February 2012) attacked us three with cover More...

फाल्गुन ७ – कुलचन्द्र गौतम, सुबोधराज प्याकुरेल, कनकमणि दीक्षित फ रक-फरक पृष्ठभूमि र पेसागत इतिहास भएका र स्वतन्त्र रूपले विभिन्न विषयमा आफ्ना अलग-अलग विचार र विश्लेषण प्रस्तुत गर्ने हामी तीन नागरिकलाई माओवादीका अध्यक्ष निकट पत्रिका ‘लालरक्षक’ले ‘यी हुन्, जनदुश्मन’ आवरण शीर्षक र तस्वीरसहित लाञ्छना लगायो । औपचारिक रूपमा हिंसा त्यागेको घोषणा आजसम्मै नगरेको, मुलुकभर बलमिच्याइँ More...

A provocative cover story in the January-February 2012 issue of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) -affiliated magazine Lalrakshak labeled three prominent Nepali citizens, Kul Chandra Gautam, Kanak Mani Dixit and Subodh Raj Pyakurel as “People’s Enemies”. These individuals wrote to the Prime Minister of Nepal, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, and advised heads of diplomatic More...

कुलचन्द्र गौतम सायद संसारभर असफल र बदनाम भइसककाले एक्काइसौँ शताब्दीमा धेरैलाई प्रेरणादायी नहुने सिद्धान्त बोकेको भएर हो कि माओवादीलाई आफ्ना कार्यकर्ता र समर्थकहरूलाई उत्प्रेरित गर्न वास्तविक वा काल्पनिक जस्तो भए पनि शत्रुको खाँचो पर्नेगरेको देखिएको छ। त्यसैले उनीहरु सधैँ आफ्ना क्रान्तिकारी एजेन्डाविरुद्ध गोप्य षड्यन्त्र गर्नेहरु भन्दै ‘सामन्ती, पुँजीवादी, राजतन्त्रवादी, साम्राज्यवादी, विस्तारवादी वा तिनका दलाल’को लामो More...

Kul Chandra Gautam Perhaps because their outdated and universally discredited ideology is not persuasive enough in the 21st century, the Maoists seem to need to invoke real or imaginary enemies to motivate their cadres and supporters. Hence they always cite a long list of ‘feudals’, ‘capitalists’, ‘royalists’, ‘imperialists’, ‘expansionists’, or their ‘agents’, who they claim More...

KUL CHANDRA GAUTAM Here is a tale of two deaths, funerals and Nepal’s reaction. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il died on Saturday December 17, 2011, but the citizens of the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” were given a cue to grieve uncontrollably only two days later on Monday December 19 by the country’s officially tearful More...