Nepal's ethnic battle is turning out to be a farce. As it is, nothing gets done there anyway and now to exacerbate the problem, this spineless govt is gonna create 18 more holidays. Shit, America has immigrants from all over the world, but they do not declare holidays for anything else except for Christmas.
Some new holidays.
Eid

 Bakr Eid

 Christmas

 Nanak Memorial Day

 Udhouli

 Ubhouli

 Goura

 Tamu Lhosar

 Sonam Lhosars

 Maghi

 Siruwa

So, now we might as well start celebrating Thanksgiving, July 4th, India's independence day, The Hritik Roshan Kand memorial day. For god's sake wtf is Nanak Memorial Day? Since when did Punjabis become a substantial minority in Nepal?? Idiots!

well, that gives politicians more bodies for their julus and nara programs...you get tired of staying home and watchin z tv eventually hoina ra?

smart strategy by the politicos! lets create more holidays! how about a NRN day for all of us who no longer live there? and a illegal immigrants day to celebrate all the brave souls who are living in other countries illegally to support their families back home?

If I get rich enough, i'll hire local gundas to pressure on the government to recognize my b'day as a National Holiday

Well Fu*k Maoists and resolve all issues.
Thats how I see it.

HAHAHA...All of a sudden I see that the social disparity which used to be a positive number has zeroed down and now on the verge of going negative because of the overwhelming awareness of social exclusion among leaders and the people of Nepal. As the adage goes: "Napaune le kera payo bokrai sudda khayo" HAHA.

I think most of these new 'National' holidays are regional holidays in practice(for related people or places) as I don't see the relevance of most of these festivities in parts other than where the respective ethnic groups live/belong to. For instance, I don't think Nanak Memorial Day has any relevance to the people in Himali regions. I believe most of these are just named as 'National' holiday for the sake of equal representation with other main festivities of the country and that they will only be applied to the people/places of respective ethnicities.

Correct me if I am wrong. Last thing I want is to sit idle at home for a festival I don't even know the name of and which has no importance whatsoever in the place I live.

I donno but Kantipur calls them "public holidays," so I'm guessing yes!

yeah looks like it is. i don't understand why we end up doing things of lesser priorities before those that demand more attention. there are several things that are needed to be addressed and should be done first to firmly head towards a socially inclusive society and give equal rights of opportunities and proportionate representation to all ethnicities and what we end up doing first is: declare public holidays for all of their festivals. this is freakin' insane. DUH!

"Aula dida dudo nilne bhanchan ni," tyai ho! These Madhesi netas are full blown, shameless Indian agents. The Motherphukking  Congress (I) had to come to mediate the talks between the govt and the Madhises. I won't be terribly shocked if Madhes becomes Nepal's very own Kosovo.

.Mr. Dave, you had me in stitches with the mention of hiring gundaas for pressurizing "the" government. On a serious note, it is sad to see less priority issues given more importance. Where are we heading - towards the hope of new dawn or to the black hole?

Insanity persists everywhere, Duh!

This is a haphazard decision. I think this is going to be rectified (by the elected government when things settle down and a certain equilibrium/stability is achieved) and most of these new holidays and some of the older Hindu holidays too will become “National festivals” and “Local/community holidays”.

 

If that did not happen, then there will be two Nepals. One, hard working and efficient “private sector Nepal” (private businesses, private schools etc) disregarding these holidays, and, the second, lazy and inefficient “Public sector Nepal” enjoying all of them and doing not much worthy. This can not last long.

 

To put it rhetorically, democracy, being a self-correcting system, must correct these hopefully transitional/transient anomalies as time goes by, or so I believe.

 

Nepe

 

And just imagine what 'good' this is going to bring from the already inefficient and incompetent bureaucracy of ours that's been lying there barren for ages. Talk of change, restructuring and reconstruction of new Nepal! Jeez!

Nepe ji,
Any revision, if not rectification, do you see coming from the elected government on the proclamation that declared Nepal as a secular state? I think that was another hasty decision made without proper research whatsoever on the potential threat it can bring to the otherwise religiously harmonious Nepal.

While I am quite optimistic about very many issues from local, ethnic and community levels popping up (which IMO had to be addressed one way or the other and sooner or later for the restructuring and rebuilding process), I am more worried than baffled from the haphazard decisions these short-sighted leaders end up making behind curtains without much transparency and research onto it as this can bring forth more agitation and hence graver situation than they could ever imagine in the country. Democracy can have a big learning curve but we got to make sure we don't end up making blatant errors from our judgment or the lack of it which are costly -- time-wise, resource-wise and security-wise--and which can derail Nepal pushing it further down the drain.

Just when I thought I should go back home and relentlessly work and serve my New Nepal by seeking a full-time job there, lo there are so many paid holidays.

What else do I say now???

Mr. Hyde,

 

HaHa. Paid holidays, however, are going to be paid in one way or the other by underpaid workdays, नि त ।

 

 

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

 

 

Loote-jyu,

 

I agree with your intuition and common sense regarding the cost of haphazardness. However, as for the decisions taken by our transitional government so far -- as far as I can see -- for most of them including “secular state”, indecision or refusal were about to be more costly than the haphazard decisions.

 

“Secular state” was Maoist’s and progressive civil society’s agenda and there was no way to refuse them at that time of appeasement and winning the trust being the state's need.

 

Although imposed, I am not really unhappy with the declaration of secular state. First off, I think it is good for Nepal. It keeps everybody except kattar Hindubadis happy and united, and it gives us an image of a modern or modernizing country--something that might be very crucial to attract large foreign investments (from non-Hindu and secular countries) in future. Then, not to lose our democratic credential, we still have chance (broadly speaking) to review it, if there happened to be tremendous popular displeasure/rebellion against it.

 

By any standard of fairness, if Hindu state of Nepal can get 230 unquestioned years, the secular state of Nepal should get at least 10 unquestioned years. Ki kaso ? If it has to be tested, let’s do a referendum sometime in 2017 AD. Secular state deserves some years to prove its merit. त्यति concession त दिनै पर्छ, यार ।

 

Even without all that, the new constitution drafted by new Constitution Assembly eventually (with whatever decision/reviewing/endorsement on the secular state) is going to be presented to the people for their endorsement (the exact formality has not been worked out. So it could be presented to the parliament or just plainly to the people for their vocal support or who knows will be put in a formal referendum). That should pass the democratic test for all that there are in the constitution for all practical purpose.

 

So it’s not over yet. We can not judge it yet. जस्तो लाग्छ है मलाई त ।

 

Nepe

well how about sujata's  ko Bday,sujata ko kukur ko Bday and yes  add madhav nepal, prachanda , baburam  all shhtheads Bday who are running the country also  

Not to Forget

 Rajiv ghandi,Indira ghandi  ani india ko independence day, sonia ghandi, rahul ghandi, after all  they are running Nepal now and we are becoming india in next few years .

Also Girija may add Amitab bacchan ko Bday,Lalu oprasad ko Bday as a natioanl holiday  who knows/

 

 

 

 

  Seems like its another big blow towards monopoly of bahun and chhettreiii .....

nepe bro,
i, for one, am not against secularism per se, matter of fact i think that's where we should take our nation to (a disparity free society which gives equal opportunities and freedom of speech for the people and freedom to choose their own religion and  practice culture without imposition and without coming in the way of others--signs of a free, independent nation) but i am not just confident about the way the reconvened parliament brought about series of proclamations (one after the other) including the one for secularism.

i don't know, and some of you may argue here, if religious minorities were discriminated against in any way when we were hindu kingdom, but if religious tolerance had prevailed in nepal so far, secularism wouldn't/shouldn't be a problem and sooner or later we had to be confident enough to transform into secularism. but then again, i don't know if the proclamation, rather than letting people's opinion as well to come to the table, was the way to go about it. last thing we want is those hindu extremists to create confusion among people (most of whom are uneducated) and agitation among  different religious groups--the chances of which would have been slim to zero if we had gone through a gradual progression making sure all holes and patches were covered and all screws were tightened. tetti matra ho.

I am so much happy to know that here are many people, Like me  Loving their Nation and are aware of shit decision of these Bull shits"Netas".Sandai sanga ta mero 100%Kura milo yar sandai la haat milau na yar.Kya dami manche yar.Davechapelle is also not less Wow man u r great.Let's we won't have some "so called jwalasinghs in fact machhar singhs "Here.NEpal ma aru k k holiday banki rahyo ha?

i think they should do be like who ever have festival/religious crap can get excused holidays instead of everyone having all these holidays for no reason

making ppl more lazy reducing productivity how is that helping nepal if more ppl r sitting in their ass doing nothing

especially govt official

 

 

Loote-jyu,

 

I understand your point and I also agree with the conventional wisdom regarding general precautions.

 

However, for this particular issue at hand, I would consider the following specific circumstances for assessing the need and risks.

 

One, as I talked about earlier, it was not possible to stop it. Nobody could have succeeded to deny Maoist insistence and pro-republican civil society’s support to it.

 

Two, the Hindu extremism we fear actually does not exist in Nepal.

 

Few bhardars in Hindu garbs and a few dozens of hired Sadhus do not make Hindu extremism; a power to reckon with already or a potential power of future, by definition.

 

This dismissal, so to speak, of mine about Hindu extremism in Nepal is based on my take/observation that political and economic issues and political parties seem likely to be dominant over any other issues and any other groups in Nepal for next several years, if not decades to come. In other words, the extremism of Maoist and YCL are going to ward off any Hindu extremism, be it home brewed or exported from India.

 

Nepalis are undoubtedly religious. But the good news is that they are religiously (spiritually) religious, not politically religious.

 

I think the spiritual character of Nepali religiousness is not going to change in any foreseeable future, no matter how much and how hard the Hindu extremists of India and their political ally of Nepal try.

 

So, all in all, I think there is no realistic chance for secularism for being detrimental to Nepal. Au contraire, any attempt to reverse it is going to be fought vehemently and, if the past is any guide, successfully too.

 

Mero 2 aanaa.  

 

Nepe

Nepe bro,
I agree with your first point on Maoists insistence (not that it was completely unyielding and inevitable though, as I see, since they agreed to shake hands with their once most vehemently hated enemy king, if he agreed to remain as a ceremonial figure. What's more, secularism was not the hot button issue, or so I had thought, until they hurriedly brought the proclamation for the same. However, as I said, I am not against the issue, just the implications of it I am not sure of. I sincerely hope it will be all good).

About the second point, and I am saying this at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist however to look upon things from all sides and angles possible, I don't completely write off the chance of Hindu extremists or some Pharisaical groups (one such is already in India) butting in to create confusions, if not instant riots, among various religious sects of our society, especially since most of the people are not educated or thoughtful enough to know what secularism really means to their religious beliefs and to the country as a whole. A gradual transformation with adequate awareness among people about the need and direction of secularism would have been better in any case, I believe.

That said, I hope, I am wrong. I honestly do. I don't see the need of this discussion as well as we have already gone past the stage for brainstorming before action. The more we dwell upon it, greater is the risk of making it more complicated. So I rest my case here.

Loote-jyu,

 

It was a pleasure to exchange views with you.

 

In fact, this little exchange has made me ponder over the larger issue of the mode of transformation of Nepal.

 

A gradual and systematic change is undoubtedly a rule of thumb when it comes to choices. However, the complementary wisdom that that there is no one-mode-fits-all transformation in a real world looks more of a rule than an exception. Nepal’s modern history, particularly the recent one, is an attestor to that.

 

My personal philosophy about change is: “Change when it is necessary”. I like to brand it a “progressive conservatism”. The central question of this philosophy is: who determines what is necessary?

 

We all have ready-made answer: it’s the people. However, for practical purpose, I recognize three modes of decision: 1. democratic, 2. Academic (broadly defined), and 3. Combination of both.

 

Secularism in Nepal was an academic decision (of course ultimately a political decision). There was already a consensus about it in the academia (broadly defined) of Nepal. Opposition to it was a fringe voice and it was mainly against the modality rather than the substance.

 

A case that could be of our interest is recent debate over secularism and related issues in Turkey. The questions that could be relevant to us are: has the transformation of Turkey into a “modern” and secular nation by Kamal Ataturk at the beginning of last century been good for Turkey ? Do we need to be cautious about similar transformation ?

 

That brings me to another authoritarian agent of transformation of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. How much should we be cautious of that kind of transformation ?

 

Although this is a half-baked deliberation, I think, considering all experiences (of our own country and others), a combination of democratic and academic mode of decisions rather than pure democratic decisions (which most of the time are “indecision” and “rhetoric” rather than “decision” anyway) for the transformation of Nepal is more realistic and practical.

 

More when you join in.

 

Nepe