CA gets three-month extension

PM Khanal to step down for national govt , Integration within three months 

After hectic parleys late into Saturday night and wee hours of Sunday, the political parties struck a five-point deal, paving the way for a three-month extension of the Constituent Assembly.

According to the pact signed by top three leaders of the three major parties the Constituent Assembly term will be extended by three months; fundamentals of the peace process will be readied within three months; the first draft of the new constitution will be prepared within three months; the Prime Minister will quit to pave the way for formation of a national consensus government; and the Nepal Army will be developed as an inclusive institution by implementing the past agreements signed with Madhesi Morcha. However, it wasn't clear when the Prime Minister's resignation would come.

Present Situation and Historical Task of the Proletariat - Nepal

                                                               - UNIFIED COMMUNIST PARTY OF NEPAL (MAOIST)

Today, our great and glorious party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), has arrived at a serious and extraordinary juncture of possibilities and challenges. 

The way how people's revolution, in the external struggle, is advancing amid immense possibility of victory and serious danger of defeat, in the same manner, party's internal life, as a reflection of the former, also lies in the midst of potentiality of advance and danger of anarchism and chaos as well. The height to which we can create new unity, voluntary discipline, self-confidence and vigour by means of a correct line, strategy, tactic, plan and programme to ensure as far as possible the decisive victory of revolution in this complex crossroads of class struggle, to that level will we be able to make victorious the revolution and party by safeguarding them from the danger of defeat and anarchism. In order to develop that kind of line and plan, we, by abandoning all kinds of subjective prejudices, must be able to have objective estimation of the situation and balance of class force based on the universal theories of MLM. The plan and programme prepared on the basis of objective analysis will enable our party to lead the decisive victory of revolution. Expressing high regard and esteem to the entire known and unknown martyrs of Nepalese people's revolution including those of ten years of people's war and admiring the entire disappeared, injured fighters and their family members, this plenum of the central committee will be able to bring about a new dynamism in our party.

BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY - Conflicting signals

                                                                                                                  V. VENKATESAN

The Supreme Court judgment dismissing the curative petitions against its verdict in the Bhopal gas criminal case leaves observers nonplussed.

IN BHOPAL ON May 11, survivors of the gas tragedy taking out a rally in protest against the Supreme Court's latest verdict.

ON May 11, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously delivered a judgment that, perhaps, should never be considered a precedent. The Bench, comprising Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and Justices Altamas Kabir, R.V. Raveendran, B. Sudershan Reddy and Aftab Alam, held that a judgment delivered by the Supreme Court could not bind a lower court and that no decision by any court, including the Supreme Court, could be read in a manner as to nullify the express provisions of an Act or the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The judgment, according to several experts, is deeply flawed. The Bench delivered the judgment while dismissing curative petitions filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and others for recalling and setting aside the Supreme Court's judgment in Keshub Mahindra vs State of Madhya Pradesh, delivered on September 13, 1996. In Keshub Mahindra, a two-judge Bench, comprising Justice A. Ahmadi and Justice S. Majmudar, had quashed the charge of culpable homicide under Section 304 (Part II) of the Indian Penal Code, framed by the sessions court, against nine Indian accused in the Bhopal gas disaster criminal case and had directed the trial court to frame charges against them under Section 304-A, IPC.

The three foreign accused – the then chief of the Union Carbide Corporation, Warren Anderson; UCC; and Union Carbide Eastern Inc. – were absconding and did not, like the Indian accused, appeal against the charge of culpable homicide framed by the trial court. The Madhya Pradesh High Court had upheld the charge of culpable homicide against the accused before they went in appeal in the Supreme Court.

Under Section 304 (Part II) of the IPC, whoever commits culpable homicide not amounting to murder shall be punished with imprisonment, which may extend to 10 years, or with fine or with both if the act is done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause death. Section 304-A, on the other hand, seeks to punish those causing the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide with imprisonment for a term that may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.

Trial by fire

                                                                                                                                  V. VENKATESAN
                                                                                                                                     in New Delhi

 As the joint drafting committee begins work on the Lokpal Bill, its civil society members face challenges from various quarters.

 Social activists and civil society members of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee, (from left) Kiran Bedi, Swami Agnivesh, Anna Hazare, Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan, Justice Santosh Hegde and Arvind Kejriwal, after a meeting in New Delhi on April 23. 

AS the leader of the five-member civil society group within the 10-member joint drafting committee to prepare the new Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare finds himself in an unenviable position. After his successful agitation for equal participation for civil society in the legislative exercise to create the first Lokpal at the Centre, people expect him to set high standards of probity for his team, even though it will have a short tenure (ending on June 30) and a limited agenda. Allegations casting aspersions on civil society members on the committee, even if they relate to the past, make them defensive and distract them from the committee's task.

Anna Hazare himself was prudent enough to ignore the allegation of financial impropriety against him. The Maharashtra government instituted a commission of inquiry under Justice P.B. Sawant in September 2003 to inquire into allegations of corruption and maladministration against a few State Ministers and Anna Hazare, who had led a campaign against them. The commission's report, submitted on February 22, 2005, concluded: “The expenditure of Rs.2.20 lacs from the funds of the Hind Swaraj Trust [a trust which Hazare runs] for the birthday celebrations of Shri Hajare was clearly illegal and amounted to a corrupt practice” (page 365).

Sections of the media highlighted this in the days after Hazare's recent campaign. But his close confidant, Swami Agnivesh, described this in a television programme as a mistake rather than an instance of corrupt practice; some observers considered it too technical to cast aspersions on Hazare's personal integrity. In 2005, Hazare had challenged the State government to take action on the report, but the government chose to ignore it. Hazare did not offer any fresh explanation on the subject after the recent campaign.