People's Democracy

AGONY OF NEPAL

Monarch Seeks To Muzzle The Press

  S K Pande

HERE is one more of the kind of numerous examples of a brazen attempt to muzzle the press, which ultimately came a cropper. This latest attempt, set to boomerang, is being challenged in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Nepal though it rings a bell for all the neighbouring South Asian countries including India.

Visualise this scenario after yet another coup d’etat, in Nepal --- all phone lines and internet communication snapped off; military censoring news; journalists paranoid, some in a tizzy, but some indeed fighting it out. One of the first acts of the king after the take-over was to summon all newspaper editors to the palace. They were told that all publications would be ‘vetted’ with immediate effect. This does happen to the press in Nepal when the monarchy decides so. Recall the flash two years ago --- over one 100 journalists were arrested during the previous state of emergency and many of them were tortured. The same pattern with more ferocity now. But is it just the monarchy behind the censorship and the emergency? Some pointers are clearly there.

A PEEP INTO HISTORY

First came the coup, yet another black day in the history of the press in Nepal. Two days after seizing power, King Gyanendra moved on to tighten his grip over Nepal by coming down heavily on the media --- issuing a ban on independent news broadcasts and threatening to punish newspapers for reports that run counter to the official monarchist “spirit of the royal proclamation.” A similar announcement on state radio said private radio stations would no longer be allowed to broadcast any news or opinion. All broadcasts were to remain “purely entertainment,” the statement said. Contacts in Nepal said, “We have military censors on the job here.” The news blackout and a cut in internet and phone services, that accompanied the declaration of a state of emergency, may have diluted the call for a nationwide strike in Nepal. And so too the no-nonsense censor in uniform that is there to take care of newspapers and TV stations.

As The Hindu put it, constitutional governance takes years to build but may collapse in a day. Following the end of the Ranas’ rule in 1951, governance in Nepal was conducted through a number of interim advisory governments. No sooner was the multi-party constitution adopted in 1959, it failed. B P Koirala had led the Nepali Congress (NC) to an electoral victory. But in 1960, King Mahendra suspended parliament and took control. To him, Nepal was not quite ready for a parliamentary democracy in which political parties compete for power. A new panchayat based constitution was created in 1962. Amid years of indifferent governance, then, political agitation led to a constitutional referendum in 1980. As a result, the king agreed to allow elections but without political parties.

Increasing discontent led to a new constitution in 1990, which created a parliamentary democracy with a bill of rights and an independent judiciary. In 1991, G P Koirala led the Nepali Congress to victory and became prime minister.  But in 1994, he was defeated in a no-confidence motion. He lost the elections and a communist government was ushered in. It also fell soon. Thus the period 1992 to 2001 saw many governments --- as a result of party splits and infirm coalitions.  During the 1990s the Maoist rebellion intensified. Talks for a truce failed in 2001 and a state of emergency was declared, which is remembered for its flourishes of state lawlessness.

DRIFT CONTINUES

Now, where does Nepal go from here? The situation is serious and drifting out of control. When King Gyanendra used the emergency powers in November 2001, the situation worsened in many ways, which forfeited the confidence of the people.  Quite apart from the constitution’s violations, the present situation was hardly the time to compound a military crisis into a constitutional disaster. It is in the overall interest of Nepal that the king retract his order sacking Deuba, declaring that the three years old emergency was neither necessary nor prudent. On February 2, he swore a cabinet of loyalists in. What is needed is to create national governance of consensus, one which may again usher take Nepal into a democratic framework.

What stands in the way? It is quite well known that not very long ago, in fact in 2002, the US of America pledged 20 million dollars to fight terrorism. Now the moot question as: what Nepal expects from America now or, even more so, what America under President Bush threatens to do? 

After King Gyanendra dismissed the eight months old Sher Bahadur Deuba government and declared a state of emergency on February 1, the king also suspended the freedom of press, speech and expression, the constitutional rights to assemble peacefully, to privacy and against preventive detention. The only reports coming from inside the country are being smuggled out or broadcast through the BBC and UN organisations in the country. The only news reaching the country is that from short wave services such as the BBC World. 

Through a statement, newspaper organisations in India reacted immediately under the umbrella of the International Federation of Journalists, while at a workshop in Bangalore. These included the All India Newspaper Employees Federation, Indian Journalists Union and National Union of Journalists. In Delhi, there was a rally organised by the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), at a short notice. On political plane, the reaction was sharper with parties of the Left and many centralist parties rising in unison to demand the restoration of democracy along. Understandably, the BJP has been silent.

From Nepal, the Federation of Nepali Journalists condemned the move that has ended the freedom of expression, freedom of press and other rights of the citizens --- rights that were won after great struggles and sacrifice. Its statement said: “Press censorship and the presence of army in media houses have begun.  Communications have been completely disrupted. Now there is no free press, and it has been effectively killed. At this time, the Federation of Nepali Journalists believes that its duty is to fight for freedom of the press, democracy, a just peace and national freedom…”

IMPERIALIST ROLE

This muzzling of press in a neighbouring country deserves maximum opposition from scribes. It is good that a coalition of journalists’ organisations and press freedom groups in South Asia continue to challenge, through protest and solidarity actions, those who violate the freedom of press and independent journalism. But more than statements investigative journalists in Nepal must probe in particular the role of the Royal Nepalese Army, advised primarily by the US.

Does not the US have a specific plan for Nepal? Recall, say, December 16, 2003. Christine Rocca, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asian Affairs, heard a report from the chief of military operations of the Royal Nepalese Army, at army headquarters in Kathmandu. Prominent in the report (which in a security breach later appeared on the Internet) were details of a plan to create paramilitary squads in the countryside, under the name of “Civic Peace & Development Mobilisation Committees.” The plan proposed the use of “retired security forces personnel” ---with “logistic support” from the army. Today in the Himalayas, the US air force and military personnel are getting biannual opportunities for ground experience in mountain warfare. The Maoists may be at the receiving end, but is not the government in Kathmandu only too happy to let the Eagle dare? All this, plus some military hardware and other goodies. Under the previous government, India too had some joint sorties in Nepal.

Today the Indian government has taken a stand in Nepal, and there is some humming and hawing by the bureaucracy as well. Statements on press freedom are also emanating from international scribes’ organisations. But then remember the previous regime, dignitaries from American think tanks and, of course, the fact that the FBI made an official Indian entry. Obviously, the Yankees are cultivating the South Asians with a fervour never before seen. In India too, we have more than a date with the USA’s National Endowment Fund for Democracy. Similarly, sops do arrive to pep up some journalist bodies and individuals too from a wide assortment.

S ASIA FALLING INTO US TRAP

In February, a foundation hosted a roundtable in Dhaka where representatives of civil society from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in addition to Bangladesh, discussed the role of the United States in South Asia --- some say, for the benefit of the US government. Experts have mushroomed by the dozen in South Asia, and a significant number are for increased US engagement in the region. The white sahibs have been replaced by Ivy League brown sahibs and friendship outfits, flushed with dollars, are mushrooming for scribes also. We have seen an assortment of modern priests to make South Asia shine. Actual native opinion makers must be told as to what is going on in the name of fighting terrorism.  Whatever US decides on the plea of fighting terror, it becomes the official viewpoint of many governments in the world. Parts of South Asia are thus falling into the US trap, and herein lies the danger of Nepal like situations.

The Americans have been courting the media and intelligentsia too in a massive way. There are mushrooming sponsored articles by US think tanks on free market, merits of US unilateralism and the coziness of the Washington Consensus. News reports are slanted to show US warmongering under the re-elected US messiah in dazzling light. And think tanks are booming with equal ease in Nepal and India with an air of superiority airs. The manufacturing of consent in India, Nepal and elsewhere has in a way created a make-believe world, and a competition of hailing the great superpower. Recall February 2004, with Mirage and Mig fighters from Indian Air Force happily escorting Eagles of the US Air Force over the Himalayas. Thus the Bharat-rakshak IAF engages with USAF --- in “fighter sorties” called Cope India '04. For, the self-declared regional superpower decides to cozy up to the global superpower! And the declared aim is --- an increased understanding of each other's capabilities and how the two air forces might work together as a combined and integrated team. In exactly the same manner, the US air force trains the Nepalese Royal Airforce. In Nepal, the Yankees have a special role also in the mirage called development.

In India too, regional security is being promoted under the watchful eye of the great superpower. As far back as on December 5, 2001 was the Indian parliament officially informed that an FBI office had started operating in India --- in the context of growing Indo-US bilateral cooperation on counter-terrorism. While the necessary mechanism to counter terrorism was already in place with the Extradition Treaty and the Joint Working Group on Counter-terrorism, the Legal Attache Office was meant to ensure more effective coordination between Indian and US enforcement agencies. It is also expected to signal greater commonality of interests in the fight against terrorism, which would in turn exert pressure on terrorist groups. Later on, in October 2004, US ambassador to India, David Mulford, made it his business to directly write to a state’s chief minister making an SOS offer to help. 

Today “anti-terror” means different things to different countries, and the US has its own meaning. For in the name of anti-terror, US planes have bombed a country out of virtual existence, in defiance of the UN secretary general’s plea for forbearance. The hunt is on for partners to hail the US security services as Supremos, as global Gestapos whose might as right cannot be disputed. In his essay "The Rules of War Enable Terror," Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard University's Law School holds that the universally acknowledged international law prohibiting torture must be ignored if "terror" is to be defeated. And Professor Dershowitz's theory is being followed in a variety of ways. Yet, all said and done, it’s time for the press in most of Asia to reflect what has it been reflecting in the past decade or so, get out from its heavy doses of trivia, and give up selling dream worlds.

In the meantime, even during the present emergency in Nepal, select western news agencies are playing their role in bringing out part-truths and some half-truths, while, on the other hand, many local papers are fighting censorship in a variety of ways. As for our very own Doordarshan, it is said to have reached there when many journalists had started packing their bags. Mercifully, even if reacting after a gap of one day, the government of India pulled out of the SAARC summit and thereby showed its concern over the Nepal developments. (INN)