BINOD GHIMIREKATHMANDU, FEB 4

Even though Nepal earned its much-cherished democracy in 1990, it took the country yet another people’s movement—in 2006—and two constit-uent assemblies to achieve a “people’s constitution” that established a secu-lar state under a federal republican system.

Nepal’s constitution is now a little over five years old. A govern-ment that was installed by the first elections under the new constitution was about to complete its third year. And then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli took a step that left everyone stunned.

Despite leading a nearly two-thirds majority government, Oli on December 20 dissolved the House of Representatives, in a move that many say does not authorise him to do so, raising the spectre of a political insta-bility against which the country was fighting for so long.

Oli has decided to seek a fresh man-date on April 30 and May 10—a year and a half before the scheduled elec-tions—making the term “stability” farcical.

But what is more concerning, observers say, is that Oli appears bent on destroying the hard-earned gains like the constitution, secularism and federal republicanism.

In what his faction of the Nepal Communist Party says is a “show of strength”, it has planned a mass gath-ering in Kathmandu on Friday. And the venue the party has selected is Durbarmarg, the Capital Kathmandu’s posh downtown in front of the former palace of the monarchs.

After Gyanendra, the last of the monarchs of the over two centu-ries-old Shah dynasty, on June 11, 2008 had declared from the same palace that he was abdicating.

Political analysts say Oli of late has been making every attempt to win over the pro-Hindu, pro-monarchy constituency and his party’s plan to hold a mass gathering in front of the former royal palace just buttresses that theory, even though some may call it a conspiracy.

“There is a symbolic meaning in holding the gathering at Durbarmarg,” said Surendra Labh, a political com-mentator. “His visit to Pashupatinath temple to offer a special puja, his dec-laration that he will turn Ayodhyapuri in Chitwan a Hindu pilgrimage and

now a gathering of his party in the Narayanhiti area indicate that he is in a bid to woo the pro-Hindu, pro-mon-archy constituency.”

Ever since Oli dissolved the House, the other faction of the Nepal Communist Party—led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal—has been holding protests and mass demonstrations in Kathmandu and various parts of the country.

Political parties like the Nepali Congress and Janata Samajbadi Party too have taken to the streets to protest against Oli’s House dissolution.

Oli, however, does not seem to be much concerned about the Congress or Samajbadi Party’s protests.

By his own admission, Oli is trying to counter the Dahal-Nepal faction by organising the gathering.

But many are left wondering.Nepal has gone through political

upheavals over the past two decades, but it has always been a case that those out of the government organise protests or gatherings against the establishment. Oli’s party, however, is in a bid to stage a show of strength despite it being the establishment.

Analysts say Oli seems to be in a bid to prove the legitimacy of his govern-ment, which he himself has reduced to the caretaker status by dissolving the House.

According to Devendra Raj Pandey, a civil society member, the govern-ment of the day proves its legitimacy through its actions—good governance, public welfare works, development, and service delivery.

“I am hearing for the first time after 1990 that a party in the government is showing its strength from the streets and through a demonstration and

gathering,” Pandey told the Post. “It’s Parliament or press conferences from where a government defends its actions.”

There was, however, a time when the Panchayat regime organised such mass meetings to “tell” people how good it was doing for the country and the society.

Pandey said once such an event on behalf of the establishment was organised during the Panchayat era by then prime minister Marichman Singh Shrestha.

>> Continued on page 2

Plan to procure 4 million Covid-19 vaccines in final phase, ministry says

ARJUN POUDELKATHMANDU, FEB 4

With the plan to procure four million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from India in the final phase, the govern-ment intends to immunise those above 60 years after a month.

“We will start inoculating people above 60 after a month,” Dr Roshan Pokhrel, chief specialist at the Ministry of Health and Population, told the Post. “We will extend the immunisation centres to the local level to immunise the targeted population.”

The government hopes to administer the first dose of vac-cine to those above 60 along with the second dose to the health workers and other frontline workers who have been getting the first dose since last week.

The additional four million doses are also of the Covishield vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and phar-maceutical giant AstraZeneca, which is being produced by the Serum Institute of India. It is the

preferred choice of Nepali authorities since the existing storage and trans-portation infrastructure used in the country to immunise children can be utilised for its use.

Covishield vaccines have to be stored in plus temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.

India on January 21 gave a million doses of Covishield as a grant with which the government planned to inoculate 430,000 people. The govern-ment began the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Nepal on January 27 and hopes to complete administering the first dose by Saturday but only 158,487 of the targeted people have taken it until Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.

They were vaccinated at district hospitals and primary health centres.

The second dose has to be adminis-tered after 28 days after the first dose.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility announced that it will provide 2,256,000 doses to Nepal by the end of February.

>> Continued on page 3

Those above 60 will get vaccines after a month. Nepal began its drive to inoculate 430,000 frontline workers last week and 158,487 people have received the jab so far.

C M Y K

POST PHOTO: ANGAD DHAKAL

Cadres of the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Madhav Kumar Nepal-led Nepal Communist Party stop a motorcyclist at Satdobato in Lalitpur during their nationwide shutdown on Thursday.

W I T H O U T F E A R O R F A V O U RNepal’s largest selling English dailyPrinted simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj

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Seeking to change narrative, Oli resorts to show of forceDespite leading the government, Oli is holding a mass gathering in front of Narayanahiti, once the seat of kings,

raising concerns if the communist prime minister is taking the country on a regressive path.

POST PHOTO: BIJAY TIMALSINA

A view of Durbarmarg on Thursday night as the venue in front of Narayanhiti Palace is prepared for the Oli faction’s Friday mass gathering.

Confrontational politics could lead to uncertainty and instability

The way Nepal Communist Party factions are at each other’s throat bodes ill for all, analysts say.

TIKA R PRADHANKATHMANDU, FEB 4

The Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Madhav Kumar Nepal faction of the Nepal Communist Party had been taking to the streets for the last one and a half months, organising demonstrations and mass gatherings in various parts of the country, including the Capital, to protest against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s House dissolution move.

Then on Wednesday, the Dahal-Nepal faction decided to call a general strike for Thursday, prompted by appointments of 32 individuals to 11 constitutional bodies.

Despite criticism of and opposition to the form of protest they chose, which was known as “Nepal banda”

when the country was going through political upheaval and instability, the Dahal-Nepal faction went ahead with their general strike. Arson, arrests and vandalism were reported.

The general strike on Thursday was called just a day before the Oli-led Nepal Communist Party is holding a mass gathering in Kathmandu.

Later in the day, the Oli faction organised its own rally intended at not only defying the Dahal-Nepal faction’s general strike but also at making an appeal to the people to join Friday’s mass gathering at Durbar Marg.

Reports of clashes and scuffles between the two factions filtered in from various districts throughout the day. >> Continued on page 2

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2021 | 02

NATIONAL

General strike affects life nationwideRAMESH KUMAR POUDELCHITWAN, FEB 4

The nationwide general strike called by the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction of the Nepal Communist Party affected daily life across the coun-try on Thursday.

The strike was announced after the KP Sharma Oli government, which has been reduced to a caretaker state following the dissolution of the House on December 20, made appointments in various constitutional bodies on Wednesday.

Supporters and workers of the Dahal-Nepal led faction of the Nepal Communist Party assembled on main streets and city and town centres from early Wednesday morning to enforce the strike.

In Chitwan, the strike enforcers vandalised five trucks for ‘defying’ the strike.

DSP Surya Thapa, spokesperson for the District Police Office, said the strikers vandalised five trucks for defying the strike.

Many cargo trucks were left stranded near Pulchowk and on the Narayani River bridge because of the general strike.

In Karnali Province, Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, who is close to the Dahal-

Nepal faction, also joined the pro-testers to enforce the strike.

Shahi and two other ministers Bimala KC and Nanda Singh Budha rallied with the protesters.

The strike affected life in all 10 districts of Karnali Province.

In Birendranagar, Surkhet, the supporters of Oli took out a motor-cycle rally to defy the strike.

“Despite the concern of possible confrontation, no major incidents took place in the province,” said DSP Ram Prasad Gharti.

In Nepalgunj of Banke district, shops and businesses, which were open in the morning, were forced to pull down their shutters by the strike supporters.

The town of Sindhulimadi in

Sindhuli district remained tense throughout the day when the sup-porters of Oli took to the streets, claiming that the strike enforcers assaulted its central member Shantiman Karki.

Eleven people were injured in a clash between police and the strike supporters at Shiva Chowk in Janakpur.

Former ministers Ramchandra Jha and Matrika Yadav, Mayor of Sahid Municipality Udaya Barbariya and party activist Pradip Sah sustained serious inju-ries in the incident. They were taken to Kathmandu for treatment in the evening.

Security personnel fired six warning shots and lobbed 12 tear-

gas canisters to contain the situa-tion.

In Bara, police detained eight strike enforcers for trying to van-dalise a government vehicle and disrupt transportation.

In Dhangadi, Kailali, the supporters of the Oli faction took to the street in protest of the strike.

In neighbouring Kanchanpur district, a journalist was manhan-dled by the demonstrators. The strike supporters burnt tyres on the roads and obstructed traffic throughout the day.

In Sunsari district, three cadres of the Dahal-Nepal faction were detained from Bhanu Chowk area in Dharan, for obstructing the traffic. Earlier in the day, the strik-ers had clashed with transport workers.

In Morang, the strike enforcers vandalised an eatery at Biratnagar.

Protests were also reported in Butwal and other parts of Rupandehi district.

Vehicular movement was affect-ed in major areas while small vehicles plied the inner parts of the town. Security was upped in the city, according to DSP Pratit Singh Rathour of the Area Police Office, Butwal.

(With inputs from our local correspondents)

Five trucks were vandalised in Chitwan on Thursday; vehicular movement disrupted in many other places.

POST PHOTO: SANTOSH SINGH

Protesters clash with police in Janakpur, Dhanusha.

>> Continued from page 1Now the venue Oli’s party has chosen to

blow its trumpet too has baffled many, as Narayanhiti, until Gyanendra was forced to abdicate, was viewed as the source of power for the monarchs and the emblem of “Hindu kingdom” with kings regarded as an incarna-tion of lord Vishnu.

Analysts say if what Oli has been doing and how he has been doing things are any-thing to go by, it is becoming apparent that he was never committed to the secular federal republic.

“It is very much clear by now that Oli is trying to woo the pro-monarchy, pro-Hindu constituency,” said Rajendra Maharjan, a political commentator for the Post’s sister paper Kantipur. “His real face has now been exposed.”

Whether Oli will make a big announce-ment at Thursday’s gathering is still not clear but his opponents have already started making speculations that he would try to do something that could take the country on a regressive path.

Oli’s opponents say since Oli has left the Communist ideology long behind, it won’t be a surprise if he tries to play a Hindu and pro-monarchy card.

“There are talks about Oli announcing a campaign for a Hindu nation on February 5,” said Surendra Pandey, a leader of the Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal-led Nepal Communist Party on Sunday during a sit-in at Maitighar. “He now can move on this path [Hinduism].”

He added that the royalists, who once sup-pressed the communists, are now heaping praise on Oli, which clearly shows which path he is going to take.

Many are also baffled at some pro-Hindu, pro-monarchy advocates deciding to argue on behalf of Oli at the Supreme Court which is hearing his House dissolution move.

Sushil Pant, Surendra Bhandari, Balkrishna Neupane and Bishnu Prasad Bhattarai—some of the lawyers who have never hidden their tilt towards a pro-Hindu, pro-monarchy state—are trying to justify why Oli’s House dissolution move is right.

Many say since Oli has exhausted all the topics, including nationalism and develop-ment, he is now focusing on the issues that were consigned to history by the recent polit-ical movements.

Oli returned to power through the 2017 general elections, largely riding on the nationalistic plank in the wake of the Indian border blockade following the promulgation of the constitution in 2015.

Last year in May, when India opened a new road link via Lipulekh to Kailash Mansarovar in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, it was a godsend for Oli.

Bilateral relations with India had soured since November 2019 when India published its new political map placing Kalapani with-in Indian borders.

But by the time the May incident hap-pened, Oli was so cornered in the party that he decided to employ it to ratchet up his nationalist rhetoric.

However, when relations started to improve with India, Oli’s nationalist image started to fade away.

He quickly started to build a Hindu narrative.

Oli on January 25 visited Pashupatinath Temple and performed a special puja.

Four-days later, addressing a mass gather-ing in Chitwan on Saturday, Oli announced his plan to develop Ayodhyapuri in Thori of the district as a religious site for the Hindus. He has been claiming the area to be the birth-place of lord Ram.

Many say Oli, however, still wields the abil-ity to turn on the charm because of his way of changing tack according to the situation.

Baburam Adhikari from Gadhawa Rural Municipality in Dang is one who refuses to believe that Oli is going on a regressive path.

The 35-year-old decided to travel to Kathmandu for Friday’s event to show his support for Oli.

Adhikari said he has always been loyal to the CPN-UML, the party Oli led before the May 2018 merger with the Maoist Centre.

“Other leaders might have left him, but I am still with the Nepal Communist Party that is led by Oli,” Adhikari told the Post over the phone.

Adhikari believes Oli is the one leader who could protect nationalism, which by exten-sion meant a leader who could stand up to India.

“During his first stint as prime minister, he was forced to resign because he signed a slew of deals with China, including the transport and transit agreement,” he told the Post. “This time, the Dahal-Nepal faction started pulling him down ever since he decid-ed to incorporate Kalapani and Lipulekh into Nepal’s map.”

Oli’s 2016 Transport and Transit agree-ment was aimed at reducing Nepal’s depend-ency on India and he was prompted to do so in the wake of 2015 Indian blockade. It was Oli’s tilt towards Beijing that had given him an edge over his contemporary leaders, ultimately earning him votes to return to Baluwatar.

Adhikari still believes that Oli was forced to dissolve the House because the prime min-ister was not allowed to function properly.

“Couldn’t they [Dahal and Nepal] wait until the party general convention? Oli had said he would hand over the leadership,” said Adhikari, who has come to Kathmandu along with his 300 “fellow comrades.”

Adhikari refuses to admit that by dissolv-ing the House Oli had made an assault on the constitution and that his leader was trying to appease new constituencies now, including those whose agenda is a massive reversal to democratisation.

And he is not alone.Most of Oli’s supporters consider him to be

a “statesman”. On Thursday, Oli’s supporters organised a rally with the “I love you Oli” slogan.

People loyal to Oli say there is nothing wrong for a ruling party to organise a mass meeting. They also urged all not to read too much into the venue chosen by the party to organise the gathering.

Anand Pokharel, chief of the [Naryanahiti] mass gathering organising committee, said the place was chosen because no other place in Kathmandu could host over 150,000 people they are preparing to bring in on Friday.

“I have heard comments and conspiracy theories that choosing Narayanhiti as a venue for our mass gathering is an attempt to undermine republicanism,” said Pokhrel. “But such comments are so worthless that I don’t think they deserve a clarification.”

But analysts say it’s those in power who are answerable to the people the most. Just because a party leading the government is faced with some challenges does not mean it brings people on to the streets, according to them.

Pandey, the civil society member, said Oli and his party have made a mockery of democracy, governance and rule of law.

“It’s strange that the government is trying to prove its legitimacy through streets,” said Pandey, “after dissolving the most legitimate place to do so—Parliament.”

Seeking to change narrative ...

Confrontational politics could lead to uncertainty ...>> Continued from page 1

“The two factions of the Nepal Communist Party now are clearly in a confrontational mode,” said Krishna Pokhrel, a professor of political science at Tribhuvan University. “Today’s strike is the result of bulldozing the appointments to constitutional bodies, and the Oli faction is surely going to react in an aggres-sive manner [tomorrow].”

After months-long crisis in the Nepal Communist Party, born out of a merger between Oli’s CPN-UML and Dahal’s Maoist Centre in May 2018, Oli on December 20, in a drastic and unexpected move, dissolved the House of Representatives. He has called snap polls for April 30 and May 10.

Five days before he dissolved the House, Oli on December 15 introduced an ordinance to amend the Constitutional Council Act and the same day, a meeting of the Council, which he heads, recommended 38 individuals for various constitutional bodies.

Oli’s ordinance and House dissolution moves are sub judice in court.

As many as 13 writs against the House disso-lution move are being heard by the Constitutional Bench. Not even a single hearing has been con-ducted for the writs against Oli’s ordinance move as of now. Despite that, 32 individuals were administered the oath of office and secre-cy on Wednesday. President Bidya Devi Bhandari then appointed them to their respective posts.

The appointments are seen as Oli’s one more bid to wield control over key constitutional bod-ies which are meant to keep the government in check.

Analysts say while Oli has turned Nepali pol-

itics murky, the Dahal-Nepal faction is doing no good. At a time when the country is expecting some sanity to prevail, both factions are baying for each other’s blood in such a way that they could throw the country into the abyss of an unending uncertainty, according to them.

“Oli by now has proved himself to be a reck-less leader,” said Lokraj Baral, a former profes-sor of political science at Tribhuvan University who also served as Nepal’s ambassador to India from 1996 to 1997. “When he should have been pulled up for his wrongdoings, the other faction is resorting to a general strike, which will only provoke the Oli faction.”

The Oli and Dahal-Nepal factions are already in a legal dispute over the legitimacy of the party, as both of them are claiming the Nepal Communist Party as their own.

Elections are less than three months away if the court decides to uphold Oli’s House dissolu-tion. Observers wonder how nasty the confron-tation could turn in the lead up to the elections.

If the court overturns Oli’s decision, politics will return to Parliament and within the consti-tutional framework. But with the Nepal Communist Party divided, the country is likely to see a hung parliament.

Streets protests and parties calling out each other could be the order of the day, according to observers.

“It has by now become apparent that the two communist forces will head for confrontations, which is evident from their actions so far,” said Baral. “We are in for uncertainties.”

Incendiary statements are already flying between the leaders of the two factions.

The Oli faction seems to have comparatively

more organised groups with Mahesh Basnet, one of his confidantes, leading one such group that is on the forefront of not only organising the mass gatherings but also making inflamma-tory speeches.

“I would like to tell them [Dahal-Nepal fac-tion] not to dare interfere with our rallies on Friday,” said Basnet while addressing a coun-ter-rally in Kathmandu on Thursday.

On Wednesday also, the Oli faction’s youth wing had organised a motorcycle rally in Kathmandu.

“Oli has surpassed king Gyanendra in using all the wings under his faction to provoke par-ties and the society,” Khimlal Devkota, a central member of the Dahal-Nepal faction. “We have been protesting peacefully against his House dissolution move, as we have the constitutional-ly guaranteed right to express our dissent.”

But the Dahal-Nepal faction’s Thursday pro-test did not go well. Some demonstrators set a taxi on fire and vandalised some vehicles. Many complained of inconvenience caused by the sudden general strike which was announced less than 24 hours ago.

Police rounded up around 100 cadres of the Dahal-Nepal faction.

The Dahal-Nepal faction, however, blamed the “other side” for torching the taxi so as to pro-voke the situation.

“Yes, confrontations are very much likely, but it’s all because of Oli. Incidents like torching of taxis early in the morning seem to be aimed at fuelling conflict,” said Devkota. “Oli is prepar-ing grounds to impose a state of emergency, as he is getting weaker and his government is fac-ing a legitimacy crisis.”

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03 | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2021

NATIONAL

POST PHOTOS: KESHAV THAPA

Kumbha Narayan Shrestha says two strike enforcers approached him posing as passengers and set fire to his taxi early Thursday morning.

All eyes on Nepali Congress for joint agitation, but it’s not ready to commit

ANIL GIRIKATHMANDU, FEB 4

The issue of joint agitation among the major political parties against House dissolution and the announcement to hold snap polls in April and May has gained prominence again as leaders stress the need for joint resistance to what they call Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s authoritarian moves.

Nepal Communist Party chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday said major political parties were dis-cussing the plan to hold joint protests from the third week of this month.

Major parties Nepali Congress, Janata Samajbadi Party, and the fac-tion of the Nepal Communist Party led by Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal have been holding separate agi-tations since the day after Oli decided to dissolve the House on December 20 but they have failed to launch a joint movement.

Immediately after Oli decided to dissolve the House of Representatives, the Dahal-led faction reached out to mainly the two parties—Nepali Congress and Janata Samajbadi Party—and members of the civil soci-ety to hold the joint agitation but due to differences between the parties over their perceptions of Oli’s move, they could not arrive at a conclusion and the joint struggle has failed to take off.

“We are planning to launch a mas-sive and powerful protest,” Dahal said on Thursday while addressing jour-nalists in Lalitpur amid their nation-wide shutdown. “We are in touch with all major parties to hold the joint pro-test from the third week of February so that the movement will sweep out the regressive and antidemocratic forces once and for all.”

“As Oli is hatching one after anoth-er regressive move, we have felt the need to launch a powerful agitation to defuse his plan,” said a standing com-mittee member from the Dahal fac-tion. “Therefore, we have once again called for a joint agitation so that we could finish the struggle as fast as possible and cause less trouble for the general public and restore democracy too.”

But leaders other than those from Dahal’s party said there is no progress on holding the joint protest. And even if that happens, it won’t be possible to stage a decisive protest without the participation of the Nepali Congress.

“We are in talks with several parties to hold the joint agitation but the prob-lem is Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba,” Raghuji Pant, a standing committee member of the Dahal faction, told the Post.

Former prime minister and senior Janata Samajbadi Party leader

Baburam Bhattarai made a similar statement on Thursday in Sankhuwasabha.

“The main leadership of the Nepali Congress is the sole obstacle to hold-ing the joint agitation,” Bhattarai said. “The Nepali Congress has shown an oscillating character against Oli’s move.”

Nepali Congress, which has been holding the agitation in phases alone, has described the House dissolution as “undemocratic and unconstitution-al”. The party has already declined to hold joint agitation as offered by Dahal.

The main opposition in the dis-solved House has two different view-points among its leaders on the House dissolution decision. Party President Deuba holds the view of waiting for the Supreme Court’s verdict on the constitutionality of the dissolution. Another faction of the party led by senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel insists on holding the agitation until

the House is restored.Two Nepali Congress leaders told

the Post that Dahal and Nepal have separately visited Deuba recently to offer him the post of prime minister for the two years of the House’s remaining term if it is reinstated.

This is the third offer to Deuba from the Dahal faction to hold the nation-wide joint agitation and put pressure on Oli, state organs, and the Supreme Court on the agenda of House rein-statement and to take the post of prime minister after the restoration of Parliament but Deuba has not accepted yet, the two Congress leaders told the Post.

Congress Vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi confirmed the recent meeting between Deuba and Nepal but did not divulge the details.

“But if you ask me about the possi-bility of holding the joint agitation, I must say no,” Nidhi told the Post over the phone from Janakpur. “We have neither received such an offer nor are we going to lead the agitation at a time when a case against House dissolution is pending in the Supreme Court.

“Until the verdict of the Supreme

Court comes, we will keep on holding the agitation of our own. As we believe in democracy, constitutionalism and have faith in the rule of law, we should not put pressure on the court.”

Nidhi also said that the Congress would go for a joint agitation with a party, not with a faction, hinting that there must be a clear cut split in the Nepal Communist Party.

But pressure is building on Deuba, according to party leaders. Since 32 individuals including some Congress supporters got appointed to several constitutional bodies on Wednesday, Poudel has urged Deuba to call a meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee as soon as possible to discuss Oli’s undemocratic moves and the emerging situation in the country.

Dahal’s statement on Thursday was strategic, the Standing Committee member said, as the faction has the challenge of keeping the morale of leaders and cadres high. Second, as Oli is also preparing to host a major rally on Friday, it is his strategy to motivate party workers not to leave his faction. The third motive is, obviously, to put pressure on the Supreme Court that is likely to deliver its verdict only after the February-end, the NCP leader said.

If a joint agitation is held nation-wide, it might put psychological pres-sure on the Supreme Court on House reinstatement, the NCP standing com-mittee leader said.

As the confrontation with Oli in the factional dispute intensifies further, Dahal could be looking for a more sus-tained way to counter Oli’s move, the leader added.

According to Pant, if the Nepali Congress gets ready for the joint agita-tion, it will also pave the way for the Janata Samjbadi Party to join the movement. Gradually, others could join along with civil society, building momentum against what the protest-ers call Oli’s regressive move, said Pant, expressing doubt over the Congress’ reluctance to go for a deci-sive protest.

A senior Janata Samajbadi Party leader also voiced the need for a joint agitation but admitted it was impossible without the participation of the Nepali Congress.

“The country seems to be headed for a serious political confrontation and that leaves us worried about the country’s future,” Janata Samajbadi Party Chairman Upendra Yadav said.

Yadav admitted that without the participation of the Nepali Congress, any movement or agitation cannot reach a decisive point. “But we do not know why the Nepali Congress is not leading the movement.”

Tenure of two transitional justice bodies to be extended but it is not enough, conflict victims sayBINOD GHIMIREKATHMANDU, FEB 4

The government has decided to extend the terms of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons and the tenures of the commissioners of the two commissions by around six months.

The tenure of the two commissions formed in 2015 to investigate the con-flict-era cases of atrocities is expiring on February 9.

Minister for Law and Justice Lila Nath Shrestha said after the consent of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, on Sunday he submitted a proposal to revise the Enforced Disappeared Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Act-2014 for the extension till July 15.

“As I was not present at Monday’s Cabinet meeting, I formally cannot say if it was endorsed,” he told the Post. “However, I believe it got through because the ordinance was prepared with consent from the prime minister.”

The terms of the two commissions will be extended once President Bidya Devi Bhandari authenticates the ordi-nance issued by the government.

Shrestha said the government decided to extend the terms till mid-July with a view that it would be better for the new government, that will be formed after the snap poll, to make the long-term decision on issues like transitional justice. The Oli gov-ernment on December 20 dissolved the House of Representatives and announced midterm polls for April 30 and May 10.

The officials of the commissions said six months is too short for them to make any moves towards the inves-tigation of the complaints. “The six

months is an extremely short time for us to do anything,” Ganga Dhar Adhikari, spokesperson at the disap-pearance commission, told the Post. “No matter, the government continues our team or brings the new one, it should be given ample time to function.”

The disappearance commission has sought four-years to complete its job.

The government, however, remains undecided over the amendment to the Act as per the 2015 decision of the Supreme Court to remove the provi-sions related to giving blanket amnes-ty to those involved in gross human rights violations like torture, rape, and murder.

Conflict victims from the dec-ade-long Maoist insurgency between 1996 to 2006, the human rights defend-ers, and the officials at the commis-sions have been demanding the amendment as per the apex court’s verdict which directed the govern-ment to revise the amnesty provisions in the Transitional Justice Commission.

“The chairs and members appoint-ed on the political sharing cannot provide justice to the conflict vic-tims,” Charan Prasai, a human rights activist, told the Post. “The extension is just an illusion to show to the inter-national community that the govern-ment is working to provide justice.”

Ganesh Datta Bhatta, chair of the truth commission was appointed under Nepali Congress quota while Yubraj Subedi was picked as the chair of the disappearance commission on Nepal Communist Party quota.

Prasai said no matter how many times the terms of the commissions are extended, they won’t deliver jus-tice unless the victims’ community is taken into confidence and the Act is amended as per the 2015 Supreme

Court ruling. “I am also in favour of abiding by

the Supreme Court’s verdict,” said Shrestha. “However, this is a serious issue which cannot be decided solely by the government without a consen-sus from the Nepali Congress and the then Maoists.”

The two transitional justice com-missions were formed in February 2015 with a two-year mandate to com-plete investigations into the conflict era cases of human rights violations and recommend reparations. However, the commissions couldn’t even collect the complaints during the period. The government, through a revision in the Act extended their terms by another two years.

In its four years of tenure, the previ-ous truth commission received 63,718 complaints and completed a prelimi-nary investigation that involved the recording of statements from only 3,787 of the complainants.

Similarly, between 2015 and 2019, the disappearance commission received 3,223 complaints from family members saying their loved ones had disappeared during the decade-long conflict. Of these, the commission seg-regated 2,506 complaints saying the rest didn’t fall under its jurisdiction.

The government in January 2019 revised the Act yet again with the pos-sibility of extension of the commis-sions by two years. However, following their failure to deliver, the terms of the chairpersons and members of the commissions were extended only till April 15, 2019.

New sets of office bearers in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons were appointed in January next last year despite the reservation of the victims, human rights defenders, and

national and international human rights organisations. They blamed the chairpersons of commissions and members were appointed without transparency in the appointments.

In the last year the new teams too have not been able to work towards providing justice to the thousands of victims. The disappearance commis-sion has completed a preliminary investigation of all the complaints while the truth commission has done the primary investigation of around 5,000 complaints.

However, they haven’t completed an investigation into a single case.

Victims say the government’s move to extend the terms of the commis-sions portrays the government’s insensitivity towards them.

“Shouldn’t the government evalu-ate their one year’s performance before giving them an extension,” Maina Karki, chairperson of the Conflict Victims Common Platform, told Post. “We are against the extension.”

Karki said rather than giving exten-sion, the government should bid fare-well to the chairs and the members and start a new appointment process after amending the Act as directed by the Supreme Court.

Suman Adhikari, whose father was killed by the Maoists in 2002, said he along with families of other victims of the decade-long conflict had for a long time been trying to meet the Oli and Shrestha to put their concerns as the terms of commissions neared expiry.

However, they had been avoiding different pretenses. “They had been ignoring me because they wanted an unconditional extension of the com-missions,” he told the Post. “We have lost our faith both on the government and commissions.”

As citizens bear the brunt of strikes, they ask who politicians are servingSix vehicles were vandalised in the Capital during Thursday’s general strike called by the Dahal-Nepal faction. Their fault—going about their lives to feed their families.

ANUP OJHAKATHMANDU, FEB 4

When Kumbha Narayan Shrestha’s taxi was set on fire by two unidenti-fied men in Gongabu on Thursday morning, his wife Gopi was watering her vegetables at a farm in Okharpauwa, Nuwakot.

“He [Kumbha Narayan] called me and told me to turn on the TV. I told him I don’t have time to watch TV. He cut off the line,” said Gopi, 43, a moth-er of three children—a daughter and two sons aged 14, 9, and 7.

Shrestha’s taxi (Province 3-01-002 Ja5881) was set on fire at 6 am by alleged protesters enforcing Thursday’s strike. When the men pos-ing as passengers stopped him at Gongabu, Narayan had already had two fares after leaving his rented room in Bijulibazar early in the morning. The men asked him to take them to Gaushala, and then hurled a Molotov cocktail at the vehicle before fleeing the scene. Kumbha Naryan barely managed to unfasten his seat belt and come out of the vehicle to save himself.

“He was shaken. When I called him back, he said that the taxi was on fire,” said Gopi who rushed to Kathmandu on a water tanker—as there were no public vehicles on the road due to the general strike enforced by the Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal faction of the Nepal Communist Party.

Gopi along with her three children left their ancestral home in Dhading a year ago after selling their house and land for Rs 1.5 million to seek treat-ment for Kumbha Narayan, who had to be bedridden with paralysis for over six months.

“He would drive the taxi, and I would grow vegetables on our leased land in Okharpauwa. That’s how we were paying our children’s school

fees,” said Gopi. When the Post met the duo near

their rented room in Bijulibazar, Kumbha Narayan was still in shock and unwilling to talk. “The owner of the cab has ordered me not to talk to the media. The taxi cost Rs 3.2 million, how am I going to pay that money?” said Kumbha Narayan, a patient of hypertension.

Kumbha Narayan’s family was one of the victims of Thursday’s strike-re-lated vandalism. The family is not affiliated with any political party, all Kumbha Narayan was doing was working to put a meal on the table for his family.

Five other vehicles, including two more cabs—one in Kalanki and the other in Swayambhu—were vandal-ised on Thursday, according to Metropolitan Traffic Police Division.

Thursday’s general strike made life difficult for people across the country with many reported cases of vandal-ism and arrests all across the country. As vehicular movement was disrupted from early in the morning, members of the public were forced to walk to reach their destinations.

“I had my appointment with the doctor for my eye check up, but with no vehicles on the road, I had to walk all the way from Satdobato to Tripureshwor,” said Bhagwati Chaulagain, 37.

“It was afraid of walking on the road as protests were going on at Lagankhel, Jawalakhel, and Pulchowk. They were attacking motorists,” said Chaulagain.

Meanwhile, a crowd of people was seen at the passport office at Narayanhiti—most of the people walked long distances to get there. “We came here walking for an hour from New Bus Park and again we need to walk the same distance when we return,” said Rajan Thapa, 25, who along with a friend, came to

the office for a new passport. “We were planning to return home

to Nawalparasi today, but due to the strike, we are stuck here,” said Thapa who plans to go to Dubai for work. “For nearly a year, I have been jobless due to the Covid-19 pandemic, now the political parties have started their strike. It’s only the poor that suffer here,” said Thapa, 25.

The Dahal-Nepal faction has been agitated ever since Oil dissolved the House on December 20 last year.

The faction had been holding mass gatherings and demonstrations in various parts of the country, including Kathmandu.

Doctors and virologists say the country is still not out of the woods when it comes to the danger of transmission of coronavirus. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, Kathmandu Valley reported 78 new infections in the past 24 hours. They say it will take time to vaccinate the masses, but people are taking part in protests without taking precautions against the virus.

According to Superintendent Sushil Singh Rathour, spokesperson for Metropolitan Police Office, Ranipokhari, 84 people were rounded up on Thursday, including Neal Communist Party leaders Asta Laxmi Shakya, Hitman Shakya, Krishna KC, and Himal Sharma for enforcing the strike.

Meanwhile, protesters manhandled Keshav Raj Joshi, a journalist associ-ated with Shilapatra online at Koteshwor where the protesters cooked food and served participants of the demonstrations.

For Kumbha Narayan, there’s no other option but to vent his frustra-tion. “I don’t know why they are pro-testing and for what. But at least they should let us work and earn our bread,” said Kumbha Narayan.

Parties opposed to Oli’s House dissolution move are prodding the Congress to jointly launch protests, but they are perplexed by Deuba’s reluctance.

>> Continued from page 1

“Procurement process is in the final phase to buy four million doses of Covishield vaccines, and the UN health agency also will provide us with the same vaccine,” added Pokhrel. “It will not be a problem for us to run an immunisation pro-gramme for an additional population along with those who already received the first dose, as the same vaccine will be used for both groups.”

According to the first interim distri-bution forecast published by COVAX on Wednesday, the UN health agency will provide Covishield to Nepal.

The vaccines to be provided by the UN health agency will be sufficient for 3.3 percent (around one million) of Nepal’s 30 million population, as around 10 percent of the doses tend to get wasted in general, according to doctors.

Vaccines for 20 percent of the popu-lation will be provided by the UN health agency under its COVAX pro-gramme.

Nepal needs to vaccinate 72 percent of its people against Covid-19, as chil-dren up to 14 years of age constitute 28 percent of the population and no vac-cine against Covid-19 has been trialled as of now on individuals under 14.

Covishield, however, can be admin-istered only to people above 18 years as it has been trialled only on those above this age.

“We will make necessary prepara-tions to roll out vaccines to wider populations,” Dr Jhalak Sharma, chief of the Child Health Section at the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services, told the Post. “Next phases of the immuni-sation programme will be extended to the ward level and immunisation workers will be trained accordingly. We will immunise the people as per the priority list we have made.”

The Health Ministry says those over 60 will be immunised with the four

million Covid-19 vaccines and the vaccine provided by the UN’s health agency under its COVAX programme.

After inoculating people over 60, those over 55 will be immunised. People in the 40 to 55 years age group are the third priority and those under 40 are fourth priority.

The Health Ministry said that 2,256,000 doses of vaccines will come in the first phase and the rest of the jabs (16.7 percent) may come in different lots.

“As per our understanding, once the vaccine starts being delivered [under the COVAX facility], the gap will not be too long,” Sharma added.

Doctors say that authorities should continue enforcing preventive measures including use of face masks, social distancing, and hand washing to stop the transmission chain of the virus, as it will take a long time to immunise all eligible Nepalis.

“Along with the immunisation, curbing deaths and infection of the virus is equally important,” Dr Prabhat Adhikari, an infectious disease and critical care expert, told the Post. “Authorities should also pay attention to it.”

The Health Ministry said that the first phase of vaccination will be concluded on Saturday. “We will complete this phase even if all people of the targeted group do not seek immunisation,” added Sharma, chief of the Child Health Section.

“Those who were on the first priority list but did not take the jabs will only get vaccinated later at their convenience but along with the general population.”

When all Nepalis will get vaccinated against Covid-19 remains unclear.

“We will immunise the people as per the priority lists we have made,” Sharma added. “But immunisation depends on the availability of the doses of vaccines.”

Plan to procure 4 million Covid-19 vaccines ...

Law that allows amnesty for rights violators must be changed first, victims and activists demand.

POST FILE PHOTO

Pressure is building on Deuba to come to a decision on House dissolution issue.

C M Y K

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2021 | 04

OPINION

Correction

The headline of an article published on Pg 1 on Thursday misstated the number of doses of Covid-19 vaccine Nepal would receive under the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility. Nepal is expected to receive 2.25 million doses, not 2.5 million doses.

My first ‘political’ memory is a bit hazy. I remember a mashal julus going past our home in Pokhara during the 1990 revolution. There would have been slo-gans, I am sure. But I was not more than six years old, so I can’t really say.

The 2006 revolution, however, is more permanently etched in my mind. It was April, and anti-monarchy was the flavour of the month. Mahendra Pul and Chipledhunga were the centres of protests; one day, we heard a protes-tor had been shot dead. Eventually, the agreement between the mainstream parties and the Maoists, and interna-tional pressure by way of Indian nudg-ing, forced the king’s hand. The dec-ade-long civil war was over; the Maoists emerged out of hiding as a revolution-ary force that had brought the monar-chy to its knees.

Then, Pushpa Kamal Dahal over-played his hand after the Maoists’ vic-tory in the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections. Girija Prasad Koirala’s ambi-tion to become republic Nepal’s first president was scuttled, and the politics of consensus that had brought the Maoists above-ground was over. When Dahal tried to fire the Army chief, he found himself opposed not just by the Kathmandu intelligentsia, but by inter-national actors as well. The Maoists were accused of attempting ‘state cap-ture’—and Dahal had to resign, eventu-ally. Protests and daily strikes marked the day.

One day, during the week-long pro-tests called by the Maoists, I met with protestors who had come all the way from Rolpa and had been put up at a dingy monastery in Patan; they had no drinking water, and several of them were suffering from dysentery. That same week, I fled from the riot-police while on my way to work at the Post; the police charged protestors who threw stones at them, and even my press ID card wouldn’t deter the officer who nearly hit me.

By the end of the week, I wore a ‘white shirt’ and took part in a rally for peace, the same one Dahal called a gathering of Kathmandu’s ‘sukila mukila’. By next week, I regretted my participation at the white-shirt protest; despite my privileged upbringing, I was never a member of the Kathmandu elite to start with, and the calls for peace and stability while negating the demands of representation seemed to me to be another way of saying the status quo must be preserved.

I left Nepal a year later. The constitu-tion-making process entered an impasse. Another CA election was held, but the constitution itself showed no signs of emergence. Then, in the after-math of the 2015 earthquake, suddenly everyone came to believe a constitu-tion—no matter what the document said or did—would solve all our issues

and take Nepal out of the convoluted post-conflict transition period. So when the 2015 constitution was ‘fast-tracked’, despite violent protests in the Tarai and far-west, people began to celebrate. ‘Stability’, that long-lost dream, now seemed a reality. Folks believed the country needed a constitution first; everything else—representation of marginalised people, justice, federal-ism, etc.—could be resolved later. They, in turn, placed their hopes in Oli, the irony in choosing a man who tried hard to scuttle the post-conflict transition in every way lost on the Nepali electorate.

Here we are now, six years later: that same constitution celebrated by thou-sands in shreds. Here we are now, possi-bly at the beginning of a Third People’s Revolution. Forgive me the cynicism when I ask: Is Oli the cause of the cur-rent instability, or is he only a symp-tom? Does the fault not lie with our existing political system, which the previous revolutions gladly retained despite a change in the head of state? And will it be adequate to simply demand Oli step back from the brink and reinstate Parliament? For, as my friend, the Kantipur columnist Ujjwal Prasai, has written, ‘Can the Third People’s Revolution succeed unless it challenges the ideology of the influential community that Oli represents?’

Oli, after all, is an elected auto-crat—a people’s representative who has subverted the very idea of democracy.

But his ouster will only be a part of the solution. Will the politics of kleptocra-cy and patronage change if Oli rein-states Parliament (which he will not) or elections (the new magic word, just as ‘sambidhan’ was in 2015) are held once again? Can any party be distinguished from another at this moment in time? Can we forget the betrayals that result-ed in the violence and deaths of 2015? Or are we simply going to sweep them under the rug and hope for a magic wand named elections or reinstate-ment to go back to ‘normal’?

Politics in Nepal has come to be imagined as a continuation of the sta-tus quo: there is a deep desire among the elite to become close to the powers-that-be. The existing system works for those who play the game; inevitably, individuals calculate in favour of short-term gains than long-term stabil-ity. One doesn’t have to go beyond Nepali Congress’ wait-and-watch approach to the anti-Oli protests to wit-ness this. Look at Oli himself, trying to cultivate a wide audience with his Pashupati visit and his wooing of ex-Maoist combatants. And who can forget his great anti-Indian national-ism now tempered down by the need to survive? Then there is Dahal, once a revolutionary, today just another politi-cian trying to claw back to power. In between are the pro-monarchists, who believe it is once again time for a Hindu samrat. Among the ruins are the dreams of a federal, inclusive and rep-resentative Nepal. Just like the debris

of the quake itself, the revolutions of the past gather dust.

Representative democracies now seem to believe they are majoritarian autocracies, as we’ve seen not just in Nepal but in neighbouring India and the US as well. The checks-and-balanc-es that are supposed to keep autocrats in control, such as the legislative and the judiciary, have been co-opted. By any standard, Oli’s coercing and co-opt-ing of state instruments is far too malign than the ‘state capture’ the Maoists attempted in their first attempt at governance. Social justice has taken a backseat; the will of the majority is now the guiding light. The threat to democracy today does not come from those who oppose a government; it comes from the government itself, and its many supporters and influenc-ers who believe only they represent a nation.

So here we are now, the ‘world’s best constitution’ in tatters by the very men who made it, in a fledgeling republic so disillusioned that a section wants to go back to the feudal age of kings, while another argues in favour of a man who did not contribute to republic Nepal and bamboozled his way into becoming an elected king. The opposi-tion is in disarray, and we are back to the daily rallies and strikes that demand much but disillusion others. Once again, we are back in a state of permanent revolution. Where do we want to go from here? Sadly, I don’t have the answers.

Until recently, the last time Myanmar’s military supervised a general election whose outcome it didn’t like was back in 1990. On that occasion, a military junta refused to recognise the results, arrested the democratically elected leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi’s over-whelmingly victorious National League for Democracy (NLD), and continued to rule the country via the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

The same thing happened again on February 1, when Suu Kyi, now the country’s de facto leader, and other politicians, including NLD ministers, were arrested in a pre-dawn swoop. The military took charge, declared a one-year state of emergency, and promptly transferred power to the army’s commander-in-chief, General Min Aung Hlaing. Vice President Myint Swe, a former general, was named president, but yielded power to Hlaing.

Once again, Myanmar’s men in uni-form, who ruled the country from 1962 to 2011 and had co-existed with civil-ian leaders in a slowly unfolding polit-

ical transition over the last decade, have made clear their distaste for democracy. Last November’s general election resulted in another landslide victory for Suu Kyi’s NLD, which won 396 of 476 contested parliamentary seats and limited the army’s proxy political front, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, to just 33.

Although the humiliated military promptly alleged voter fraud, the elec-tion result did not fundamentally threaten its power. Myanmar’s pre-2011 constitution guarantees the army one-quarter of the seats in parlia-ment, grants it control over key minis-tries, and disqualifies people with for-eign spouses or children from becom-ing president, which prevented Suu Kyi from assuming the office.

Under these conditions, a modus vivendi of sorts had emerged: the pre-vious elections in 2015 brought Suu Kyi and her party—full of former political prisoners—to power in a de facto coalition with their former jail-ers. Myanmar’s democracy was thus clearly a work in progress. But that progress has now come to a jarring halt. In fact, the military staged its coup on the very day that the newly elected parliament was scheduled to convene.

Recent events in Myanmar are hardly unprecedented. Since the coun-try gained independence in 1948, the military, now known as the Tatmadaw, has held power for far longer than civilian leaders have. Suu Kyi herself spent a total of 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and her release in November 2010, and was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize as a celebrated resistance icon. After her release, she exercised authority under constitu-tional power-sharing arrangements that entrenched the military’s clout

and even allowed the army to intercede in government decisions when it judged this to be in the nation-al interest.

It was an uneasy co-existence, fur-ther complicated by the contrast between Suu Kyi’s goddess-like image among the people and the army’s stone-faced unpopularity. But it seemed to be working. Suu Kyi made compromises with her uniformed political partners, even at the price of tarnishing her halo by supporting them in the bitter global debates over the persecution of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

Suu Kyi seemed to be growing in power at home even as she fell from grace abroad—in the eyes of her Western admirers, and especially those in the human-rights community, who regarded Myanmar’s brutal mili-

tary campaign against the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing and even attempt-ed genocide. In defiant testimony to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, she refused to utter the word ‘Rohingya,’ thereby implicitly endorsing the majority view in Myanmar that the victims were ‘inter-lopers’ from Bangladesh rather than an ethnic minority.

Critics accused Suu Kyi of everything from appeasement to chau-vinism and racism, while admirers argued that her pragmatism was the only way to advance democracy in a country still under the military’s sway. Her acquiescence in arrange-ments that left hundreds of political prisoners in jail and continued to punish ethnic minorities disillu-sioned many, leading Amnesty International to strip her of its high-

est award in 2018, and to calls for her to be stripped of her Nobel Peace Prize as well.

Following Suu Kyi’s recent arrest, the recriminations have ceased. Many governments have expressed concern and called for her release and the res-toration of democracy. The military, on the other hand, stresses that its actions are constitutional.

Myanmar’s neighbours are treading warily in the coup’s aftermath, and there may be some curious reversals of earlier stances. For a long time, India unambiguously sided with democracy, freedom, and human rights in Myanmar—and not just rhe-torically, like the regime’s Western critics. When the SLORC violently suppressed a popular nationwide uprising in 1988, the Indian govern-ment initially offered asylum to flee-

ing students, allowed them to operate their resistance movement from with-in India (with some financial help), and supported a pro-democracy news-paper and radio station.

But then China made inroads into Myanmar, and Pakistan warmed to the generals. Chinese port construc-tion and the discovery of large natu-ral-gas deposits in Myanmar, as well as the SLORC’s support of ethnic insurgencies in India’s troubled north-east, all posed tangible dangers to India. As a result, Indian leaders reached their own accommodation with the regime in Yangon.

Today, China has moved closer to Suu Kyi, while India takes comfort in the wariness of Myanmar’s military toward China, long a patron to some of Myanmar’s own ethnic insurgen-cies. While many in India believe the country must stand up for democracy and human rights in its next-door neighbour, others counsel pragma-tism and caution as the most effective way of avoiding a repeat of the set-backs of the 1988-2001 period.

‘I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next,’ the distinguished Burmese historian Thant Myint-U tweeted following the coup. ‘And remember Myanmar’s a country awash in weapons, with deep divi-sions across ethnic & religious lines, where millions can barely feed them-selves.’ It’s a sobering reminder for all in the region.

Tharoor, a former UN under-secre-tary-general and former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, is an MP for the Indian National Congress.

—Project Syndicate

After Myanmar’s coup

SHASHI THAROOR

AMISH RAJ MULMI

A state of permanent revolutionEDITORIAL

Anarchy let looseTheir intent does not seem to be to bring

the democratic process back on track.

POST FILE PHOTO

SHUTTERSTOCK

Democracy today is not threatened by those who oppose a government, but by the government itself.

Although Myanmar’s democracy was a work in progress, that progress has now come to a jarring halt.

‘Loktantra kanoon ko raaj ho, bal michyai haina’ (‘Democracy means the rule of law and not misuse of brute force). This makes for a great opening sentence for students mugging up punch lines for a school-level speech contest. Except that the line was spoken by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said on Thursday while taking aim at his fellow comrades who had called for a nationwide general strike to protest Oli’s shakti pradarshan—in other words, a chest-thumping festival—in front of Narayanhiti Palace, scheduled for Friday.

But great punch lines do not take a second to fall flat depending on who is speaking. What Oli has done in the past several months towards undoing democracy is enough to turn a forceful philosophical adage into a joke. Each citizen of the country has witnessed the undemocratic and unconsti-tutional moves Oli has made to consolidate his power and downsize his comrades within the party.

Oli’s nemeses within the party have proven to be no better. If there was any doubt about the intention of the two factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party, it is now clearer than ever before. Their intent does not seem to be to bring the democratic process back on track. Rather, it is to consolidate their power and downsize the other faction within the party. Both the warring factions of the ruling party have exposed nothing but criminal intent to create an environment of con-frontation so that they can put the blame on the other.

This race is certain to lead them nowhere except a political dungeon full of chicanery and deceit. That dungeon has little space for humility and humanity. Once inside, it is difficult to step out, for the filth inside is too comfortable to make you want to desert it and adapt to the civility of the outside world. This is evident in the way leaders make a daily spectacle of their intra-party feud, so replete with filthy language that their speeches should come with parental guidelines.

Having weathered years of instability, leaders across polit-ical parties should now have been working towards strength-ening democracy and making a better society. However, they have shown no inclination to do so. What they are exhibiting, instead, is a consistent attempt to ruin whatever is left of the political culture and create anarchy. They have shown little regard for the political culture that is the hallmark of a mature democracy.

Worse even, they have shown close to zero concern for the lives of the people who have to toil hard to eat two meals a day. They were nowhere to be seen when the people—their voters—walked hundreds of kilometres home and went to bed hungry in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown abruptly. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and means of livelihood as the pandemic—and the lockdown—continued to keep people inside homes and ravaged the econ-omy. The leaders, though, showed little interest in easing the lives of the people.

Ditto on Thursday, when the Dahal-Nepal faction of the ruling Nepal Communist Party organised the nationwide general strike. The strike may have been prompted by Wednesday’s appointments for 11 constitutional bodies. The appointments were outright wrong, unconstitutional and provocative, but the Dahal-Nepal faction seems to have fallen to the bait to the liking of Oli.

A taxi was burnt to ashes here, a shop was vandalised there. And to observe how well their cadres were carrying on the vandal act, Dahal toured the city in his Land Cruiser Prado while Nepal rode pillion on a scooter even as KP Oli’s cadre led a march-past, chanting ‘KP Oli, I love you’. So much for their professed allegiance to the rule of law!

C M Y K

05 | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2021

MONEY

GASOLINE WATCH

FOREX

US Dollar 117.03

Euro 140.35

Pound Sterling 159.06

Japanese Yen 11.12

Chinese Yuan 18.11

Qatari Riyal 32.14

Australian Dollar 89.28

Malaysian Ringit 28.84

Saudi Arab Riyal 31.20

Exchange rates fixed by Nepal Rastra Bank

BULLIONPRICE PER TOLA

SOURCE: FENEGOSIDA

Fine Gold Rs 91,100

Silver Rs 1,300

Nepse2,475.26pts

0.34%

KLBSL SMB GBLBS SPDL MHNL RADHI9.96% 9.96% 9.9% 9.88% 9.87% 9.87%

SLBS SMFDB JSLBB MSLB USLB NMFBS10% 9.99% 9.99% 9.98% 9.97% 9.97%

HIGHEST GAINERS

PFL SBI SHL CFCL GFCL UFL-1.86% -1.86% -1.89% -1.95% -2.04% -2.39%

MEGA NBF2 NFS CORBL EICPO PLI-2.43% -2.54% -2.74% -3.02% -3.13% -3.46%

HIGHEST LOSERS

MODERATE LOSERS

MODERATE GAINERS

Shares

Recovery in sales of fast-moving consumer goods slowKRISHANA PRASAINKATHMANDU, FEB 4

Overall demand for fast-moving con-sumer goods is still down due to slow rural sales despite a surge in orders from e-commerce platforms in urban areas, firms said.

Market demand is yet to reach pre-lockdown levels even though six months have passed since the end of the lockdown, and the government has allowed businesses to operate freely, they said.

A follow-up survey conducted by Nepal Rastra Bank from October 29 to December 9 showed that 54 percent of the factories and companies had start-ed full-fledged production or opera-tion since the stay-home order was withdrawn.

Employment in these companies has recovered to 87.51 percent of pre-lockdown levels.

According to Tikendra Kumar Shiwakoti, country sales manager of Asian Biscuit and Confectionery, there was negative growth in overall food production like biscuit, noodle, confectionery and beverage in the first half of the fiscal year compared to the same period of the previous year. “Overall, sales have declined by 25 percent,” he said.

Normally, demand for fast-moving consumer goods swells following the harvest season of key crops in rural areas, but industry insiders say sales have not picked up in rural markets.

Anjan Shrestha, executive director of the Laxmi Group, manufacturer of confectionery and dairy products under Sujal Foods, said that consump-tion patterns were impacted by the pandemic with consumers focusing on buying essentials.

With the situation gradually improving, demand will likely bounce back by the end of this fiscal year, said Shrestha who is also vice-president (commodity) of the Federation of

Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

“Factories were operating at 30-40 percent of capacity, and this figure has now gone up to 60-70 percent,” he said. “Food consumption has declined as people were making less money, resulting in slowed demand in the market.”

With educational institutions closed and many people working from home, demand for packaged foods has dropped, Shiwakoti added. The pur-chasing power has also gone down, and people have been forced to cut extra expenses, he said.

Asian Biscuit and Confectionery, maker of Goodlife biscuit, 2pm noo-dles and Rum Pum, Imli Bomb and Chocho Luv brands of confectionery, observed a rise in demand in regions near the Indian border as people were

prevented from border hopping to do their shopping during the lockdown.

“When the border was closed, peo-ple had to consume domestic prod-ucts; but Nepali fast-moving consum-er goods have always faced stiff com-petition from Indian products. The raw material supply chain has been impacted internationally, and prices have risen with a spike in global demand, pushing up the price of fin-ished goods,” said Shiwakoti.

“As there is no authentic data regarding prices with private organi-sations or the government, it is diffi-cult to say by how much prices have increased,” Shrestha added.

Manufacturers say the cost of pro-duction has increased as raw material prices, transportation charges and factory expenses have swelled due to the pandemic. “We have not increased

the prices of our products, but it has become a challenge to operate with the high cost of production. It will be difficult to remain in business with-out increasing prices in the coming days,” Shiwakoti said.

“A decade ago, you could buy three packets of Preeti noodles for Rs20, now a single packet costs the same amount. The price of noodles has risen, but biscuit prices have not increased in the same ratio as con-sumers still prefer imported biscuits compared to domestic brands,” Shiwakoti said.

Most factories are running at half of capacity due to the slow sales, he said.

In a bid to diversify its product line, Asian Biscuit and Confectionery launched 2pm Ramen which is selling quite well, Shiwakoti said. Product

diversification can be an opportunity to gain market demand in the current situation.

Noodles sell well in the domestic market even when sales of biscuits, confectionery items and beverages slow down. Consumption of dairy products has decreased.

“People are still avoiding going on long tours, and hotels and restaurants are having a hard time with tourism still immobile. These reasons have hit the consumption of fast-moving con-sumer goods,” he added.

Nepal’s largest fast-moving consum-er goods company, Unilever Nepal, posted a 66.64 percent drop in net prof-it in the fourth quarter or fiscal 2019-20. The company said its net profit decreased from Rs1.06 billion to Rs355.3 million due to the lockdown enforced by the government.

According to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre, exports of noodles soared by 63 percent in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Nepal shipped noodles worth Rs954 million in the first half. Traders said that exports increased because all stocked goods during the lockdown were delivered.

Nepal’s imports of sweet biscuits swelled to Rs984 million in the first six months from Rs712 million in the same period in the last fiscal year.

Chewing gum imports were valued at Rs329 million compared to Rs269 million previously.

The country imported Kurkure, Kurmure, Lays and Cheese balls worth Rs358 million in the first six months of the current fiscal year, up from Rs355 million previously.

During the same six-month period, chocolate imports totalled Rs769 mil-lion compared to Rs929 million previ-ously. Nepal imported non-alcoholic soft drinks worth Rs1.47 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal year, down from Rs1.72 billion during the same period in the last fiscal year.

Demand is still down in rural areas despite a surge in orders from e-commerce platforms in urban centres, firms say.

India lines up deepwater port for rice, exports to surge amid global shortageREUTERSMUMBAI, FEB 4

India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh will use a deepwater port to export rice for the first time in dec-ades amid a global shortage of the grain, according to a government order seen by Reuters, which could raise shipments this year by a fifth.

The order, issued late on Wednesday, allows Kakinada Deep Water Port to handle rice until more capacity is created at the adjoining Anchorage Port.

Congestion at the Kakinada Anchorage Port, India’s biggest rice-handling facility, had led to a waiting period of up to four weeks compared with the normal wait of about a week, raising costs for ship-pers and limiting exports, said B V Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association of India.

The government blamed the conges-tion on a surge in demand, driven by production shortfalls in other rice-pro-ducing countries.

Thailand and Vietnam are the other big suppliers, but their production has fallen in recent months because of excessive rains or drought, sending their prices to multi-year highs.

More shipments from the world’s biggest rice exporter could cool global prices.

The move means monthly exports

from Andhra Pradesh alone will dou-ble to 650,000 tonnes, Rao said, adding that rice shipping would begin in the deepwater port within days.

India’s rice exports this year could rise to a record 16 million to 17 million tonnes from last year’s 14.2 million, Rao said.

The government also thinks rice exports, excluding the premium bas-mati variety, could rise by 2 million to 3 million tonnes this year, said Pawan Agarwal, special secretary, logistics, at the federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

“We are also investing to expand capacity at the old Anchorage Port,” Agarwal told Reuters.

The South Asian country has a massive surplus for export and prices are competitive, but some international buyers switched to Thailand and Vietnam because of the shipping delays, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

India’s 5 percent broken parboiled variety is being offered at $402-$408 per tonne this week, significantly lower than Vietnam’s $510-$515 and Thailand’s rate of more than $540.

India mainly exports non-basmati rice to Bangladesh, Nepal, Benin and Senegal, and basmati rice to Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

IMF says vaccines to fuel Mideast recovery, tough path ahead

ASSOCIATED PRESSDUBAI, FEB 4

Broad access to different coronavirus vaccines remains crucial for an eco-nomic recovery in the Mideast, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday, warning the path ahead remains “long and winding” for coun-tries already struggling with corrup-tion and debt.

The IMF revised its 2020 economic outlook upward for the Mideast and North Africa, now predicting only a 3.8 percent contraction as higher oil prices boosted budgets for producers and some countries suffered less than anticipated during the pandemic’s first months.

However, war-torn and debt-mired nations could be further hurt by a delayed rollout of Covid-19 vaccina-tions, further slowing any regional economic recovery from what the United Nations has called the worst crisis to strike global employment since the 1930s Great Depression.

“This is a year of reset where we are in a race between the virus and the vaccine,” Jihad Azour, director of the

Middle East and Central Asia depart-ment at the IMF, told The Associated Press. “This hinges on the speed of vaccination and the risks of a third wave of new mutations.”

The IMF forecasts economic growth of 3.1 percent in 2021 and 4.2 percent in 2022 for the Mideast and North

Africa. However, the countries that have access to the widest number of vaccines likely will fare better than those without, Azour said. He pointed to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which so far have some of the highest vaccination rates per capi-ta in the world.

The pandemic has decimated the travel and tourism industry, major employment drivers for the UAE. Lowered demand saw companies across the region slash staffing.

The UN’s International Labour Agency says about half of the workers in the Arab states now live in coun-tries with Covid-19 workplace restric-tions, down from nearly 100 percent between April and June. Across 2020, the region lost some 9 percent of its overall working hours, the equivalent of 5 million full-time jobs, according to the ILO. In Iran, Azour said the IMF continues to look at the country’s $5 billion assistance request, which would be its first loan since 1962. Tehran continues to struggle with inflation, US sanctions imposed by the Trump administration shrinking its oil sales and the pandemic.

Singapore Airlines posts $106 million third quarter lossREUTERSSINGAPORE, FEB 4

Singapore Airlines Ltd on Thursday posted a S$142 million ($106.36 mil-lion) net loss in the third quarter as passenger numbers plunged by 97.6 percent due to the pandemic, though its cargo business held up better given a tight freight market.

The loss compared with the prior year’s S$315 million profit in the quar-ter ended December 31. Revenue fell 76.1 percent to S$1.07 billion.

The bottom line loss was slimmer than its S$331 million operating loss due to a tax credit. Broker UOB Kay Hian had expected it to report a core loss of around S$470 million for the quarter, excluding any impairment charges, while UBS had forecast a net loss of S$330 million. The airlines operated around 19 percent of its pre-pandemic passenger capacity in December and said it expected to reach around 25 percent of normal levels by the end of April as it adds flights amid the spread of more trans-missible variants of the coronavirus.

AP/RSS

A medic administers a Covid-19 vaccine to a fellow medic at the health ministry, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

SHUTTERSTOCK

With educational institutions closed and many people working from home, demand for packaged foods has dropped, industry insiders say.

C M Y K

BRIEFING

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2021 | 06

WORLD

Prominent Lebanese activist, publisher found dead in his carADDOUSSIEH: A prominent Lebanese publisher and vocal critic of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group was found dead in his car on Thursday morning, shot multiple times at close range, security and forensic officials said. Lokman Slim, a 58-year-old long-time Shiite political activist and researcher, was found in his car on a rural road near the southern village of Addoussieh. A forensic coroner on the scene said Slim was shot in his chest, head and neck, killing him on the spot. A security official at the scene said Slim’s ID, phone and gun were missing.

Iran envoy sentenced to 20-year prison term over bomb plotANTWERP: An Iranian diplomat accused of planning to bomb a meet-ing of an exiled opposition group was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday in the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terror-ism in the European Union since Iran’s 1979 revolution. Belgian prose-cution lawyers and civil parties to the prosecution said Vienna-based diplo-mat Assadolah Assadi was guilty of attempted terrorism after a plot to bomb a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran near Paris in June 2018 was foiled by German, French and Belgian police. “The rul-ing shows two things: A diplomat doesn’t have immunity for criminal acts ... and the responsibility of the Iranian state in what could have been carnage,” Belgian prosecution lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier told report-ers outside the court in Antwerp.

Australia says 81 homes lost due to fires in country’s westCANBERRA: Australia said on Thursday 81 homes have been destroyed by fires across the country’s west, as strong winds hamper efforts to extinguish the blazes. No deaths have been reported from the fires, the origins of which are still unknown, although the blazes are a reminder of the scores of fires that razed large swathes of Australia’s east coast last year. Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan said firefighters have managed to curtail the biggest of the seven fires still alight, but he warned strong winds had the poten-tial to escalate the danger. (AGENCIES)

ASSOCIATED PRESSYANGON, FEB 4

Myanmar’s new military government has blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup surged amid calls for civil disobedience to protest the ousting of the elected civilian government and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Facebook is especially popular in Myanmar and the ousted government had commonly made public announcements on the social media site.

Internet users said the disruption began on late Wednesday night, and mobile service provider Telenor Myanmar confirmed in a statement that mobile operators and internet service providers in Myanmar had received a directive from the communications ministry to tempo-rarily block Facebook.

Telenor Myanmar, which is part of the Norwegian Telenor Group, said it would comply, though was

concerned the order was a breach of human rights.

“Telecom providers in Myanmar have been ordered to temporarily block Facebook. We urge authorities to restore connectivity so that people in Myanmar can communicate with family and friends and access important information,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

The political party ousted in Monday’s coup and other activists in Myanmar have called for a campaign of civil disobedience to oppose the takeover. In the vanguard are medical personnel, who have declared they won’t work for the military government and who are highly respected for their work during the coronavirus pandemic.

For a second night on Wednesday, residents in Yangon engaged in “noise protests,” with people banging pots and pans and honking car horns under cover of darkness. And the recent protests have revived a song closely associated with the

failed 1988 uprising against military dictatorship. Myanmar was under military rule for five decades after a 1962 coup, and Suu Kyi’s five years as leader is its most democratic period.

Videos posted on social media showed medical personnel especially turned out to sing the song “Kabar Makyay Bu”—or “We Won’t Be Satisfied Until the End of the World”—which is sung to the tune of “Dust in the Wind,” a 1977 song by the US rock group Kansas.

The protest movement seemed to have gotten a boost from the government’s treatment of the highly popular Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other government leaders on Monday. Her party said Wednesday she was being charged with possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies—believed to be used by her bodyguards—that were found in her house in the capital Naypyitaw.

The charge would allow her to legal-ly be kept in custody until at least February 15.

AP/RSS

Pedestrians pass by a graffiti reading as ‘don’t want dictatorship’ in Yangon, Myanmar, on Tuesday.

Myanmar blocks Facebook as resistance grows to coupMobile operators and internet service providers had received a directive from the communications ministry to temporarily block Facebook.

World faces around 4,000 coronavirus variants

ASSOCIATED PRESSMOSCOW, FEB 4

The Kremlin said on Thursday that thousands of arrests at protests against the jailing of opposition lead-er Alexei Navalny were a necessary response to the unsanctioned rallies and strongly rebuffed Western criticism.

Asked about the harsh treatment of thousands of detainees, many of whom spent long hours on police buses and were put in overcrowded cells, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that they have to bear responsibility for joining the unau-thorised protests.

“The situation wasn’t provoked by law enforcement, it was provoked by participants in unsanctioned actions,”

Peskov said in a call with reporters.Massive protests erupted after

Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who is Putin’s most deter-mined political foe, was arrested January 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning, which he has blamed on the Kremlin.

A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Navalny to prison for two years and eight months, finding that he violated the terms of his probation while recu-perating in Germany, a ruling that caused international outrage and trig-gered new protests.

Following Navalny’s arrest, author-ities also have moved swiftly to silence and isolate his allies. Last week, a Moscow court put his brother, Oleg, top associate Lyubov Sobol, and several other key allies under house

arrest—without access to the internet—for two months as part of a criminal probe into alleged violations of coronavirus restrictions during protests. Sobol was formally charged on Thursday.

Protests have spread across Russia’s 11 time zones over the past two week-ends, drawing tens of thousands in the largest show of discontent with Putin’s rule in years.

In a no-holds-barred response to the protest, police arrested over 10,000 protest participants across Russia and beat scores, according to the OVD-Info group monitoring arrests. Many detainees had to spend hours on police buses after detention facilities in Moscow and St Petersburg quickly ran out of space and later were cramped into cells intended to accom-modate far fewer inmates.

ASSOCIATED PRESSCALIFORNIA, FEB 4

A pro-China network of fake and imposter accounts found a global audience on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to mock the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the dead-ly riot in Washington that left five dead, new research published on Thursday found.

Messages posted by the network, which also praised China, reached the social media feeds of government offi-cials, including some in China and Venezuela who retweeted posts from the fake accounts to millions of their followers.

The international reach marked new territory for a pro-China social media network that has been operat-ing for years, said Ben Nimmo, head of investigations for Graphika, the social media analysis firm that moni-tored the activity.

“For the very first time, it started to get a little bit of audience interac-tion,” Nimmo said.

The network’s messaging aligns closely with posts and comments made by Chinese state officials. But it is unclear who is behind the fake accounts, which posted more than 1,400 videos in English, Mandarin or Cantonese, Nimmo said. One of the Twitter accounts, which had a follow-ing of roughly 2,000 users mostly from Latin American, also tweeted the mes-saging in Spanish.

The posts appear to target social media users outside of America, gain-ing traction in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Venezuela—places where Chinese and US diplomatic or financial interests have increasingly come into conflict.

“The overall message is: America is doing very badly. China is doing very well,” Nimmo said. “Who do you want to be like?”

The network used photos of Chinese celebrities on the accounts and, in one case, hijacked the verified Twitter account of a Latin American soap opera show to post messages, according to Graphika’s report.

The fake accounts seized on the January 6 insurrection in Washington.

One video described the US as a “failed state” and another said that

America was “running naked in front of the world” in the wake of the Capitol siege. Three videos Graphika identified described the riots as a “beautiful sight to behold,” mimick-ing the language used in Chinese state media reports around the news, the report found.

Relations between Washington and Beijing worsened under former President Donald Trump, who launched an aggressive diplomatic and economic offensive against China. That tension has played out on social media, where Chinese state officials have aired pointed criticisms of Trump. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian has been one of the most vocal critics of the US on social media.

But even after Trump’s exit from office on January 20, the fake network has continued to push anti-US posts.

Some of the accounts have now piv-oted to attacking the Democratic Party by accusing leaders of having a “one-party mentality”.

Other fake accounts have ques-tioned the safety of American-approved vaccines for Covid-19.

“The safety of the ... vaccine was in doubt, but it was quickly approved,” one of the pro-China videos posted on January 21 claimed in a headline. Other posts praised China’s response to the pandemic, while criticising America’s ability to contain the deadly virus.

“There’s this cherry-picking of nar-ratives and events that make the US look really bad,” Nimmo said.

Last month, YouTube announced that it had removed more than 3,000 channels in December that were iden-tified as part of Graphika’s investiga-tion into influence campaigns linked to China. Other Facebook and Twitter accounts identified in Graphika’s report were also removed.

Fake accounts gain traction as they praise China, mock US

Even after Trump’s exit, the fake network continues to push anti-US posts.

Thousands of arrests necessary response to protests, Kremlin says

While thousands of variants have arisen as the virus mutates on replication, only a very small minority are likely to change the virus in an appreciable way, researchers say. REUTERSLONDON, FEB 4

The world faces around 4,000 variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, prompting a race to improve vaccines, Britain said on Thursday, as research-ers began to explore mixing doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots in a world first.

Thousands of variants have been documented as the virus mutates, including the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants which appear to spread more swiftly than others.

British Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was very unlikely that the current vac-cines would not work against the new variants.

“Its very unlikely that the current vaccine won’t be effective on the vari-ants whether in Kent or other variants especially when it comes to severe illness and hospitalisation,” Zahawi told Sky News.

“All manufacturers, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and others, are looking at how they can improve their vaccine to make sure that we are ready for any variant—there are about 4,000 vari-ants around the world of Covid now.”

While thousands of variants have arisen as the virus mutates on replica-tion, only a very small minority are likely to be important and to change the virus in an appreciable way, according to the British Medical Journal.

The so called British variant, known as VUI-202012/01, has muta-tions including a change in the spike protein that viruses use to bind to the human ACE2 receptor—meaning that it is probably easier to catch.

“We have the largest genome sequencing industry-we have about 50 percent of the world’s genome sequencing industry-and we are keep-ing a library of all the variants so that we are ready to respond-whether in the autumn or beyond-to any chal-lenge that the virus may present and produce the next vaccine,” Zahawi said.

The novel coronavirus-known as

SARS-CoV-2-has killed 2.268 million people worldwide since it emerged in China in late 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

Israel is currently far ahead of the rest of the world on vaccinations per head of population, followed by the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, the United States and then Spain, Italy and Germany.

Britain on Thursday launched a trial to assess the immune responses generated if doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca are combined in a two-shot schedule. Initial data on immune responses is expected to be generated around June.

The trial will examine the immune responses of an initial dose of Pfizer vaccine followed by a booster of AstraZeneca’s, as well as vice versa, with intervals of four and 12 weeks.

The trial will be the first of its kind to combine a mRNA shot—the one developed by Pfizer and BioNtech—and a adenovirus viral vector vaccine of the type developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca’s shot is separately being trialled in combination with another

viral vector vaccine, Russia’s Sputnik V. The British researchers behind the trial said data on vaccinating people with the two different types of vac-cines could help understanding of whether shots can be rolled out with greater flexibility around the world, and might even increase immune responses.

Matthew Snape, an Oxford vaccinol-ogist who is leading the trial, said mixing different shots had proven effective in Ebola vaccine schedules, and though the new trial mixed vaccine technologies, it could also work.

“Ultimately, it all comes down to the same target—cells making the spike protein-just using different plat-forms,” he told reporters.

“For that reason we do anticipate that we’ll generate a good immune response with these combinations.”

Public Health England’s head of immunisation Mary Ramsay said there was a lot of precedent for such work, as vaccines against Hepatitis A and B were interchangeable from two different manufacturers, and similar work has been undertaken for human papillomavirus.

REUTERS

People get off the bus on Ealing’s high street where the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variant originating from South Africa has been located, in West London, Britain.

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07 | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2021

SPORTS | MEDLEY

BRIEFING

Dembele tests positive for virusMADRID: Atletico Madrid’s on-loan French forward Moussa Dembele has tested positive for Covid-19, making him the Spanish side’s fourth player affected by the novel coronavirus in the last week, the La Liga leaders said on Thursday. Dembele joins fel-low forward Joao Felix, defender Mario Hermoso and winger Yannick Carrasco who have all tested positive for the virus. The 24-year-old Dembele is isolating at home in line with the league’s protocol, Atletico added. The four players will now miss Monday’s home game with Celta Vigo.

England’s Crawley ruled outNEW DELHI: England top order bats-man Zak Crawley has been ruled out of the first two Tests against India with a wrist injury, the team said on Thursday. Crawley, who was likely to bat at number three in the opening Test from Friday, injured his right wrist after slipping outside the dress-ing room in Chennai on Wednesday. “Following the results of last night’s scan, England top-order batsman Zak Crawley has been ruled out of the first two Tests,” the tourists said in a statement. “Scan results have con-firmed that Crawley has jarred his right wrist, which has sprained the joint and led to local inflammation.”

Lille retain top spot in Ligue 1PARIS: Lille retained top spot in Ligue 1 with a 3-0 win at mid-table Girondins de Bordeaux on Wednesday thanks to second-half goals from Yusuf Yazici, Timothy Weah and Jonathan David. The northerners moved to 51 points from 23 games, leading second-placed Olympique Lyonnais by two points and Paris St Germain by three after both their main rivals also claimed three points. Lyon had Lucas Paqueta to thank in a 1-0 win at second-bottom Dijon while champions PSG, who were without the suspended Neymar, eased to a 3-0 victory at bottom side Nimes courte-sy of goals by Angel Di Maria, Pablo Sarabia and Kylian Mbappe.

Dzeko stripped of captaincy ROME: Edin Dzeko has been stripped of the AS Roma captaincy but resolved his differences with coach Paulo Fonseca, the Serie A club’s gen-eral manager Tiago Pinto said on Wednesday. The 34-year-old trained separately from the squad after a dis-agreement with Fonseca, and Italian media reports said the club consid-ered selling him during the January transfer market. But Pinto revealed that while the dispute has been set-tled, Dzeko would not continue to lead the team. “On the captaincy, a club must rely on discipline,” he told a news conference. “At the moment Dzeko isn’t the Roma captain. We will work for the interests of Roma in the future.” (AGENCIES)

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

CROSSWORD

HOROSCOPE

SUDOKU

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19) ****Surround yourself with people who are down-to-earth and grounded today. You know, the people who might not always know what the hottest trends are. These people have the right kind of focus, and you could really benefit from it.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18) ***

Everyday events and typical conversations take on more significance today. You are able to see the hid-den meanings just under the surface, which will put a whole new slant on what is happening on the surface of things.

PISCES (February 19-March 20) ***Your new relationship has more twists and turns than a Hollywood thriller. Put this crazy relationship on pause and take some time apart. Find out what life is like without them. You might just end up agreeing to disagree, which is a solid solution.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) ****You can enjoy a surge of power today, which might cause some problems with one of your relationships. This person thought they were the one in charge, and it’s going to be a bit painful for them to face reality today.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) ***

Experiment in your relationships today. Switch roles with the other person and mix it up a bit. If you’re usually the one who drives the discussion or organiz-es all the plans, ease up and let them do all the heavy lifting for a day.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21) ****

Take each hour as it comes today. Let the day unfold as it will, and try not to push things in any one direc-tion. Resist the urge to fill up your free time with errands or tasks. Being busy just to be busy is no way to exist right now.

CANCER (June 22-July 22) ***You’re starting to take on a role as supportive men-tor to the rest of your crew. This might feel a little bit uncomfortable for you, but it’s the right way for things to be evolving. You are better at connecting with others than anyone else.

LEO (July 23-August 22) ***

You have a great insight into events going on right now, and a lot of people would love to know what you know. Sitting in the catbird’s seat gives you a great feeling, and you are coming to a place where you can value your position in life.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22) ****Be encouraging and help others ride the wave of good energy that you’re on. It’s easy for you to create good times for your people because you’re feeling exceptionally generous and warm toward the people you care about the most.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22) ***Keeping in touch with your inner self is extremely important right now. You need to start listening more to that nagging voice in your head. It knows who you really are, and it will lead you to what you really need in life.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21) ***

A friend’s curiosity might be driving you a little bit crazy today. They might want to know things that you don’t want to tell them. This prying act of theirs is fairly new, and since you’re not really liking it, you need to nip it in the bud.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21) ***One of your authority figures could be a little diffi-cult to deal with today, but you probably won’t be interacting too much with them. When you do, just smile while you listen to them talk and then go right back to what you were doing.

Babar and Fawad rescue Pakistan from rocky startREUTERSRAWALPINDI, FEB 4

Pakistan captain Babar Azam and Fawad Alam put on an unbeaten cen-tury stand to rescue the hosts from early trouble and lead them to 145 for three at the close of a rain-shortened first day of the second Test with South Africa in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

Babar won the toss and chose to bat as Pakistan look to close out the two-match series and he is not out on 77, having so far put on 123 for the fourth wicket with Fawad (42 not out) to frus-trate the tourists.

South Africa had made inroads into the Pakistan top order when they reduced the home team to 22 for three, with left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj (2-51) striking early with the new ball.

He had opener Imran Butt (15) caught by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock when the batsman tried to steer a delivery to third man, before trap-ping the dangerous Azhar Ali leg before wicket for a duck. Seamer Anrich Nortje picked up the third wicket as Aiden Markram took a superb one-handed diving catch at short leg to dismiss Abid Ali (6).

But Babar and Fawad then set about restoring the innings as the wicket lost some of its early morning venom. South Africa’s second spinner George Linde was forced off after just 2.5

overs with a laceration to the small finger on his left hand. Scans revealed no fracture but Linde is likely to be impeded for the rest of the Test, which will be a blow for the visitors.

The rain started to fall as the play-ers went off for tea, with the entire final session lost.

Pakistan are unchanged from their seven-wicket first Test win, while South Africa included all-rounder Wiaan Mulder in the place of Lungi Ngidi.

Champions Liverpool’s title defence on brink of collapse

ASSOCIATED PRESSLIVERPOOL, FEB 4

After going 68 Premier League games unbeaten at the Anfield, Liverpool have slumped to back-to-back losses at the stadium that was their impenetra-ble stronghold for nearly four years.

The latest defeat—to lowly Brighton—left the champions’ title defence on the brink of collapse. Just like against Burnley two weeks ago, Liverpool were beaten 1-0 by a team battling to avoid relegation. Jurgen Klopp’s team dropped seven points behind leaders Manchester City, who have a game in hand and are on a nine-match winning streak.

City are the next visitors to Anfield, on Sunday. A win for Pep Guardiola’s team may effectively knock Liverpool out of the title race—with more than three months of the season remain-ing. “The only explanation now is that we are a fatigued team,” said Klopp, whose squad has been badly hit by injuries this season, especially in defence. “City are flying and we have to find solutions.”

Seeking to regain the title they relinquished to Liverpool last season, City produced another dominant dis-play in overwhelming Burnley in a 2-0 victory at the Turf Moor. That restored City’s three-point advantage over sec-ond-place Manchester United, who won 9-0 over Southampton on Tuesday. City have played a game less than United, too.

Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling scored first-half goals as City won a 13th straight game in all competitions — a run of victories stretching back to December 15. While City have conced-ed just two goals in 13 league games, Liverpool’s issues in defence continue as they struggle to overcome the likely season-long absence of Virgil van Dijk. They weren’t helped by goal-keeper Alisson Becker missing out against Brighton because of an illness and a muscle problem keeping Sadio Mane out for a second straight game.

The title might soon be gone for Liverpool, and a place in the top four is hardly guaranteed. The Reds are in fourth place but only two points ahead of fifth-place West Ham, who won 3-1 at Aston Villa. Everton are two points further back in sixth after beating Leeds 2-1. Leicester moved above Liverpool into third place with a 2-0 win at Fulham thanks to goal by Kelechi Iheanacho and James Justin.

From seemingly nowhere, Brighton have turned into one of the form teams of the league, with the win at the Anfield coming three days after a victory over Tottenham by the same score.

Steven Alzate scored the winner in the 56th minute for his first Premier League goal, and Brighton held on relatively comfortably to make it four league matches without conceding since running Man City close in a 1-0 loss at the Etihad Stadium on January

13. By taking 10 points from a possible 12, Brighton climbed two places to 15th and are 10 points clear of the rel-egation zone.

Jesse Lingard is looking to resur-rect his Premier League career at West Ham. After scoring two goals in West Ham’s win at Villa, the on-loan Manchester United midfielder might not be too far from a return to the England squad, either. Lingard made a stunning debut for the Hammers on his first league game since July, scor-ing their second and third goals to build on the opener by Tomas Soucek. Ollie Watkins replied for Villa.

Everton have won four straight away games in the league for the first time since the club’s glory years in the mid-1980s. And it’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goals which are leading Carlo Ancelotti’s team toward a finish in the European places.

Calvert-Lewin struck his first goal in eight league games and is now on 12 for the campaign, making him the second highest-scoring striker after Harry Kane. Gylfi Sigurdsson opened the scoring for Everton before Calvert-Lewin’s ninth headed goal of the sea-son made it 2-0 before the break. Raphinha reduced the deficit soon after halftime.

“This is a result of this season,” Ancelotti said, explaining why his team have won seven times on the road. “All the teams have more possi-bility to win away because there is no crowd there in the stand.”

Man City visit Anfield on Sunday, and a win for Pep Guardiola’s team may effectively knock the Reds out of the title race—with more than three months of the season remaining.

AP/RSS

Brighton’s Steven Alzate (centre) scored the winning goal to condemn Jurgen Klopp’s team back-to-back losses at the Anfield on Wednesday.

AP/RSS

Babar Azam (in picture) and Fawad Alam led Pakistan to 145-3 at the close of first day.

CAN calls 32 players for preliminary trainingSPORTS BUREAUKATHMANDU, FEB 4

Cricket Association of Nepal on Thursday named a 32-member prelim-inary squad for the closed camp train-ing for Nepal’s ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 matches against hosts Oman and the United States of America.

Nepal, who stand sixth in the League 2 table, are set to play four matches in the second series of the tournament—two each against hosts Oman and the USA in March.

According to CAN, the players were called on the basis of their perfor-mance in the recently concluded Prime Minister Cup and past records. The closed camp would begin from Saturday.

The League 2 features seven teams comprising Nepal, Oman, USA, United Arab Emirates, Scotland, Namibia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Nepal will play four matches in Oman, two each against Oman and the USA and 36 ODIs in total when the event con-cludes in February 2023.

The teams that finish in the top three will secure berths for the World

Cup Qualifiers while the bottom four will compete in the World Cup Qualifiers playoff set to take place in Zimbabwe in June and July of 2023.

Nepal have so far played four match-es in the three-year League 2 cycle and have two wins and defeats each. Oman lead the standings winning eight matches from 10 games played. USA are second with six wins from 12 matches played and PNG are at the bottom of the standings having lost all eight matches played so far.

Players called for closed campBikram Sob, Rajesh Pulami, Rohit Paudel, Sushan Bhari, Sandeep Jora, Sunil Dhamala, Kushal Bhurtel, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Hari Shankar Sah, Ramnaresh Giri, Arjun Kumal, Krishna Karki, Paras Khadka, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Kushal Malla, Sandeep Lamichhane, Prithu Baskota, Aasif Sheikh, Saurav Khanal, Shahab Alam, Bibek Yadav, Kamal Singh Airee, Khadag Bahadur Bohora, Anuj Chunara, Pawan Sarraf, Sharad Vesawkar, Abinash Bohora, Binod Bhandari, Dipendra Singh Airee, Aarif Sheikh, Gyanendra Malla.

REUTERS

Naoya Nagatsuma, 11th-generation owner of Tokyo stationers Soumaya Genshirou Shouten, holds a Mitsubishi pencil in Tokyo.

REUTERS

Usman Khan, 29, dressed up as Charlie Chaplin, poses for a photo with fans as he performs along the street in Peshawar, Pakistan.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2021 | 08

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE

Published and Printed by Kantipur Publications Pvt. Ltd., Central Business Park, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal, P. B. No. 8559, Phone: 5135000, Fax: 977-1-5135057, e-mail: kpost@kmg.com.np, Regd. No. 32/049/050, Chairman & Managing Director: Kailash Sirohiya, Director: Swastika Sirohiya, Editor: Sanjeev Satgainya

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With ‘Mank’ and ‘The Crown,’ Netflix dominates Globes noms

JAKE COYLENEW YORK

A

fter a year where the pandemic nearly emptied movie theatres, Netflix dominated nominations to the

78th Golden Globe Awards on Wednesday, with David Fincher’s “Mank” leading film nominees with six nods and “The Crown” topping all television series.

The Globes, delayed about two months due to the coronavirus, tried to muster some of the awards’ usual buzz on Wednesday in a largely virtual awards season bereft the kind of red-carpet glam-our the Globes annually feast on.

And perhaps to account for the otherwise lack of it, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association heaped nominations on two lavish period pieces rich in royalty—both the Hollywood variety (the black-and-white “Mank” dramatises the making of “Citizen Kane”) and the British kind.

“Mank,” about “Citizen Kane” co-writer Herman Mankiewicz, landed nominations for best film, drama; best actor for Gary Oldman; best director for Fincher, best supporting actress for Amanda Seyfried; best score; and best screenplay for Jack Fincher, the director’s father who penned the script before dying in 2003.

“Sometimes you just have to think, what does it mean in the whole big scheme of things with this worldwide, global thing going on,” Oldman said from London. “But you know, we want to kind of get back to some kind of normalcy. Life goes on.”

Netflix, which topped all studios at the Globes last year, too, led with a commanding 42 nomina-tions, with 22 coming in film cate-gories and 20 in television. No

other studio was close.“The Crown” landed six nomi-

nations including best series, drama, and acting nods for Olivia Colman and Josh O’Connor. The final season of “Schitt’s Creek” trailed with five nominations, while Netflix’s “Ozark” (four nods) and “The Queen’s Gambit” (two nods) also added to the streamer’s totals. (“Queens Gambit” star Anya Taylor-Joy was nominated for both the hit show and for the Jane Austen adaptation “Emma.”)

The day belonged to the stream-ing services. Disney+ (“The Mandalorian”) and HBO Max (“The Flight Attendant”) both notched their first Globe nomina-tions. Amazon, with Regina King’s “One Night in Miami,” about a meeting of four Black icons in 1964, and Steve McQueen’s film anthology “Small Axe,” landed 10 total nominations—a total matched by the Disney-owned Hulu, including nods for the Catherine the Great series “The Great,” with Elle Fanning, and the Andy Samberg time-warp comedy

“Palm Springs.” Apple TV+, too, scored several nods including the Jason Sudeikis series “Ted Lasso” and the Irish animated film “Wolfwalkers.”

Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7”—also a Netflix release, about the countercultural clash and subsequent trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention—came in second among movies with five nominations, including nods for best film, drama; best director and best screenplay for Sorkin; sup-porting actor for Sacha Baron Cohen; and best song.

The other nominees for best film in the drama category were

Chloe Zhao’s itinerant drama “Nomadland,” Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” and Florian Zeller’s dementia drama “The Father.”

Netflix doesn’t report box office figures and both “Nomadland” and “The Father” are yet to open beyond a qualifying run in theat-ers. So the category’s total box office—a historic low of about $265,000—is due entirely to “Promising Young Woman,” Fennell’s acclaimed #MeToo revenge drama.

“It’s an opportunity to shine a light on some smaller movies,” said Riz Ahmed, nominated for his performance as a heavy metal

drummer losing his hearing in “Sound of Metal.”

“You can always find the oppor-tunity in the obstacle.”

A year after fielding no female nominees for best director—or a best film nomination for any movie directed by a woman—the HFPA nominated more female filmmakers than it ever has before. King, Zhao and Fennell were nom-inated for best director, alongside Sorkin and Fincher. Zhao is the first woman of Asian descent nominated for best director.

By splitting up films between drama and comedy or musical, the Globes gave a boost to an awards season wildcard, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” Baron Cohen’s “Borat” sequel—one of the few nominees partially shot during the pandemic—was nomi-nated for best picture, comedy or musical, best actor in a comedy for Baron Cohen and best supporting actress for Maria Bakalova.

Also nominated for best picture in the comedy or musical category were: “Palm Springs,” “The

Prom,” “Music” and “Hamilton.”Chadwick Boseman was nomi-

nated posthumously his perfor-mance in George C. Wolfe’s August Wilson adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” as was his co-star, Viola Davis. Other acting nomi-nees included Andra Day (“The United States vs Billie Holiday”), Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”), Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Leslie Odom, Jr. (“One Night in Miami”), Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”); James Corden (“The Prom”) and the young star of “News of the World,” Helena Zengel.

Gauging the awards prospects of most films has been difficult this winter, with none of the usual screenings and events happening in-person, and a number of the films once expected to be lead con-tenders postponed. But there were still plenty of choices by the press association—an always unpredict-able group of 89 voting members—that nevertheless surprised observers Wednesday.

For one: Spike Lee, whose daughter Satchel and son Jackson are Globes ambassadors this year, saw his Vietnam veteran drama “Da 5 Bloods” unexpectedly shut out.

The press association also drew much criticism for an earlier decision to consider Lee Isaac Chung’s lauded immigrant drama “Minari,” about a Korean-American family in Arkansas in which the characters largely speak Korean, ineligible for its top award. The group instead nomi-nated “Minari” for best foreign language film.

The Globes will be the first major show of Hollywood’s pandemic-altered awards season, which will end with the crowning of the best picture winner at the Oscars on April 25.

— Associated Press

The 78th Golden Globes Awards was delayed about two months due to the coronavirus.

AP/RSS

In this image released by Netflix, Amanda Seyfried appears in a scene from ‘Mank’. Seyfried was nominated for a Golden Globe for best supporting actress in a motion picture.

The Crown landed six nominations including best series, drama, and acting nods for Olivia Colman and Josh O’Connor.

Pakistan’s Charlie Chaplin aims to raise a smile in bleak times

Usman Khan used to sell toys on roadside but during the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed himself into Charlie Chaplin, hoping to spread a little cheer.

REUTERSPESHAWAR

I

n the bustling northern Pakistani city of Peshawar a man in a bowtie, bowler hat and carrying a cane flamboyantly weaves through busy traffic, nar-

rowly avoiding rickshaws, motor-cycles and buses in a scene remi-niscent of a 1920s silent film.

Usman Khan, 28, used to sell children’s toys from a roadside stand but during the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed him-self into Charlie Chaplin, a centu-ry after the silent comedian was propelled to global fame with his slapstick antics.

“When the coronavirus was around, a lot of people were in real stress, some people gave up on life,” Khan told Reuters. “I was watching Charlie’s videos and thought, ‘Let me act like Charlie.’”

Khan dons the familiar costume of Chaplin’s “The Tramp” charac-

ter, with fake moustache and a lit-tle eyeliner. He takes to the streets, often accompanied by friends film-ing him, hoping to bring a bit of cheer in dreary times.

His Chaplin visits a gym to interrupt a ping-pong match, attempting to hit the ball with his cane, and draws ire from shop-keepers as he upends their wares, coming close to landing himself in trouble, as his namesake often did in his films. But he also draws the laughter of children who gather round him after he poses on stairs

in a local neighbourhood.“Making people smile with

silent comedy, winning people’s hearts with silent comedy is a dif-ficult task,” Khan said.

In just two months, he has gained more than 800,000 followers on the social media platform Tik Tok—people, he says, from around the globe who find his comedy a welcome respite from the pan-demic and its lockdowns and social-distancing.

Khan hopes film and television producers will notice him as well—and says if he ever became wealthy he would share his earn-ings with the poor.

The act is also a brief escape for Khan, who—like the real-life Chaplin before he shot to fame in Hollywood—comes from an impoverished family. Hawking toys does not bring in enough to cover daily expenses, he says.

“When I leave my home, I shut the door on my own problems and look to bring happiness to others.”

Japan’s animators in pencil peril over production halt

CHANG-RAN KIM & SAM NUSSEYTOKYO

Japan’s animators are losing one of the tools of their trade after Mitsubishi Pencil said this week it would scale back a long-running

line of coloured pencils.Mitsubishi Pencil will reduce

its 7700 line of hard coloured pencils to a single red iteration starting in June. The three colours to be cut—orange, yel-low-green and pale blue—were saved from a broader cull in 2015 after an outcry from the anima-tion industry.

“The 7700 line is an indispensa-ble tool for animation production, with a large impact on individuals and companies anticipated by the end of production,” the Association of Japanese Animators said in a statement.

Japan’s iconic manga and anime industries have adopted a growing range of digital tools, but many artists still put pencil to paper during the labour-intensive production process.

Mitsubishi Pencil said procure-ment problems led to the decision.

A company spokeswoman declined to elaborate, saying which raw materials are in short supply is a “trade secret.”

The company, which dates to the 1880s, does not disclose sales fig-ures for the pencils, she said, add-

ing “we’ve enjoyed steady demand from a core group of users in the animation industry.”

Traditional animation domi-nates in Japan, in contrast to the computer animation popularized by Disney’s Pixar studio.

Although useful for precision work like animating and technical documents, hard pencils can be unforgiving to the amateur.

“The 7700 line doesn’t sell any-more,” said Naoya Nagatsuma, the 11th-generation owner of Tokyo stationery store Soumaya Genshirou Shouten.

His centuries-old business still carries the red 7700 pencils, which used to be popular with architects for drafting blueprints.

That work has long since been digitised. “I probably sell about one 7700 red pencil for every 3,000 regular red colour pencils.” Nagatsuma said.

— Reuters

In just two months, he has gained more than 800,000 followers on Tik Tok.

Mitsubishi Pencil said this week it would scale back a long-running line of coloured pencils from June.

Mitsubishi Pencil said procurement problems led to the decision.