India and Bangladesh have signed the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade in 1980. It is not allowed to lapse whoever is in power in Dhaka. In fact, the protocol is regularly given a three-year extension, which shows that there is across the board national consensus on the validity of the trade pact.
21 November, 2011 08:15:00
If the Pakistani leadership expected Bangladesh to wave the green flag on EU tariff concessions, it could be either because of rank arrogance that dates back to the days of Yahya Khans and Zulfikar Ali Bhuttos or outright ignorance of history and global trade. If flood devastation in the textile belt of Sindh in 2010 was the reason for EU bending its rules, Bangladesh has a stronger case for such a relief since it is visited by devastating floods year- after-year. ...
24 October, 2011 06:35:00
Nepal’s second Maoist Prime Minister met “friends, comrades and gurus (teachers)” from the Indian Socialist and Communist parties at various functions organised in Delhi. He said Marxists and Maoists are "very dogmatic and sectarian" in their approach, while he personally lays emphasis on the need for assimilation of various thoughts arising from a people's movement....
01 September, 2011 08:10:00
‘Selling out to India’ is a charge that political parties often fling at each other in Bangladesh, which makes it difficult to take big decisions in the bilateral relationship….India is often tardy in the implementation of its promises. It took a special thrust form the top leadership to remove the glitches in implementing the decisions taken for disbursing the line of credit. The Indian government will have to work hard to show the gains of connectivity within a short period or the mood of optimism in the bilateral relations can dissipate and become a political football in Bangladesh’s fractious politics....
28 August, 2011 11:50:00
Son of a poor farmer from Western Nepal, Baburam Bhattarai was known as a 'wonder kid' in his childhood and youth. He is not a conventional Marxist hard-liner. He enjoys a broad based support than his own party chief Prachanda with whom his differences are a matter of public record and animated media discourse. Academic excellence, clean image, administrative acumen and above all pragmatism are his USP.
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17 August, 2011 07:55:00
The display of Chinese bonhomie is in sharp contrast to India’s reluctance to make any diplomatic forays into Nepal at the present juncture. New Delhi’s stand is that as a friend and neighbour, India wishes national reconciliation in Nepal but will not take direct part in the process. It is for the local players to take their own judicious decision and move ahead. ...
30 May, 2011 06:35:00
"There is a view that the basic problem is Nepali Congress’s insistence on disbanding of PLA as the first step towards peace and reconciliation, seeing the Maoists as a threat. To accept this line is to close eyes to the reality of the countryside today and also to gloss over the way the 2008 election was held and won. Level playing field may be an economic jargon. But it is very much relevant to the political arena too, particularly in countries like Nepal where left extremism had held sway over the hinterland for long years."...
27 April, 2011 06:15:00
The anti-India sentiment in Nepal is a by-product of one or the other forms of authoritarianism in the country. In other words, anti-Indianism has by-and-large been popularized by authoritarian regimes so that they could avoid the larger political objectives of democracy and political transformation. And this sentiment has invariably been used as a bargaining chip to get Indian support. ...
17 April, 2011 03:25:00
As of now Prime Minister Khanal appears to be unnerved by the threat posed by his Big Brother in the government but two recent developments are pointers to a new scenario, says the author, a SAARC Fellow, working for his PhD...
12 March, 2011 03:35:00
HuT is only a recent phenomenon but Islamist menace in Bangladesh is far more deep rooted and goes back to the days of undivided Pakistan, particularly to the Yahya Khan regime. The problem was aggravated during the liberation war when the Pakistani military establishment patronized and promoted religious groups to target ‘traitors’ amongst the Bengali nationalists and later during Khaleda Zia rule....
08 March, 2011 03:50:00
Nepal is home to around 20,000 exiled Tibetans but only those who had arrived in the country prior to 1989 are treated as “residents” and are given ‘limited access’ to social, economic, political, and civil rights. ...
06 March, 2011 10:45:00
The history of nuclear power reactor in Bangladesh is a forty-five year long history of hope and despair -- a history of missed opportunities. Prime Minister Hasina came to power in Dec 2008 elections with a promise to end chronic electricity shortages by 2014....
07 February, 2011 02:10:00
The ‘sacrifice’ by Prachanda, in which he backed a candidate from another party, was his show of defiance against India. It is no secret that Prachanda and the Maoists want a pro-Chinese leader in the driver’s seat. The ‘sacrifice’ won him few encomiums from the other parties but it enabled him to install as prime minister someone who would be his proxy and follow the road-map for Nepal that was prepared by the Maoists.
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15 January, 2011 02:45:00
A consensus amongst the three main parties (NC, UML, and the Maoists) alone will ensure the two-thirds majority required for adopting the statute. It is not easy to achieve with all energies in the next few days focussed on consensus on who should lead the government and on what should be the share of ministerial berths...
16 August, 2010 02:15:00
News Round Up...
11 August, 2010 01:05:00
News Round Up...
10 August, 2010 03:15:00
News Round Up...
09 August, 2010 02:53:00
Kathmandu, Aug 9: After the fourth round of election failed to decide a new prime minister, the UCPN (Maoist) held consultation with its only rival ...
08 August, 2010 01:15:00
News Round Up...
05 August, 2010 01:05:00
KATHMANDU, AUG 05 - Visiting Former Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran has intensified political consultation from early Thursday morning. Shyam Saran, who has been ...
