By Arabinda Ghose
Doordarshan, which has been conspicious by its absence from Kathmandu for the whole week from the day King Gyanendra dismissed the government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba on February 1, has begun with a grand faux pas. It is describing the Indian Ambassador to Nepal as the High Commissioner there.
The correspondent who has been sent is apparently under the impression that Nepal was a British Colony and after independence became a member of the British Commonwealth. Envoys extraordinary and plenipotentiary, posted in Commonwealth countries, are called the High Commissioner, although they are treated like ambassadors of any other country.
But Nepal was never a part of the British empire and in fact had never been subjugated by any foreign power in its long history. The country remained free even during the reigns of Chandragupta Maurya, Samudragupta of the Gupta dynasty, the Mughals or the British. The Nepalese people are very proud of this fact and calling Shri Shankar Mukherjee, the Indian Ambassador to Nepal, the High Commissioner, is in effect, an insult to the Nepalese people.
Banned Nepalese organisation active in India?
A large group of Nepali-speaking people held a demonstration on Parliament Street, New Delhi, on February 4, vituperously condemning the King of Nepal and monarchy there. Nothing wrong in staging a demonstration in a democratic country.
The police obstructed their march beyond a point on Parliament Street, which again is the norm here.
However, did the police remember that under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2004, the Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES) is a terrorist organisation and its activities should be banned.
One does not presume that all those present on Parliament Street and elsewhere are members of this banned Nepali organisation, but at least one speaker that day let the cat out of the bag by saying that he was a disciple of ?Lenin and Mao?.
