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The five-party ruling coalition is busy working out an electoral alliance modality for the Nov 20 polls to the federal parliament and the seven provincial assemblies. Each party in the coalition is driving a hard bargain to secure the maximum number of seats in the 275-member lower house of the federal parliament. Altogether 165 house seats (60 percent) are up for grabs under the first-past-the-post voting system. But dividing the seats is proving to be a tough job. Among the coalition partners, the Nepali Congress (NC) wants at least 100 seats and the CPN (Maoist Center) is aiming for a minimum of 60 seats. Similarly, the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist) wishes to secure 40 seats in the lower house, while the remaining fringe parties are together angling for 30 seats. NC leader Shekhar Koirala recently said his party cannot go below 100 seats, even though such a compromise is a must if the ruling parties are to contest as allies. The electoral alliance has become a priority for the top leaders of major ruling parties not just to beat the KP Oli-led CPN-UML, the main opposition known for its strong organization and support base. They also harbor ambitions of occupying high state bodies. It is no secret that Congress President and current Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba wishes to be elected to the post of the country’s executive head for the sixth time. He became prime minister for the fifth time last July following the Supreme Court verdict to unseat Oli. Maoist Chairman Dahal, already a two-time prime minister, has also expressed his interest in occupying the top seat again. Baburam Bhattarai, who recently formed Nepal Samajbadi Party after severing ties with the Janata Samajbadi, as well as Madhav Kumar Nepal, the leader of Unified Socialist, have also already served as prime ministers. In the UML, Oli is the uncontested prime ministerial candidate, also having already occupied the office thrice between 2015 and 2021. The electoral alliance more or less serves the interests of the old party guards who want to remain in power. Some young leaders of major parties are ready to contest elections alone, come what may. Their focus is to strengthen party organization rather than joining forces with ideologically incompatible parties to get to power. But it is the senior and aging leaders who call the shots. Political analysts and pundits say the November elections will likely re-elect the same leaders who have been in power for decades as party leaders are unlikely to distribute election tickets to new candidates, women and representatives of marginalized groups. Preference will be given to the candidates close to senior party leaders, says Mina Poudel, a political analyst. “Even if there are women and marginalized community candidates in the fray, they will be relatives and henchmen of senior leaders,” she says. UML has decided not to repeat the candidates who were defeated in the previous elections or those selected under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system. Senior party leaders, many of them above 70 and well past their prime, are sure to get tickets. NC’s Deuba, who has been contesting from Dadeldhura since 1990s, will be vying from the same constituency again. The same logic applies to other Congress leaders such as Krishna Prasad Sitaula and Ram Chandra Poudel, as well as senior leaders of other political parties including Dahal, Nepal, Bhattarai, Jhala Nath Khanal, Mahantha Thakur, Bam Dev Gautam and Kamal Thapa. These leaders are willing to go to any length to ensure their victory. Bhattarai, for example, severed ties with the Yadav faction of the Janata Samajbadi, went on to form a new party and with the elections looming, approached the Maoist Center, his old party, for an electoral alliance. Gautam, the former UML leader, has also reached out to the Maoist Center to secure a parliamentary seat. The top priority for senior party leaders, analysts say, is to ensure their own victory and then to hand out election tickets to their close supporters. Young leaders and cadres don’t like the reliance of the party leadership on electoral alliance. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Congress. The party saw the emergence of many rival candidates during the local level elections held in May after many qualified local-level leaders were denied election tickets because of the alliance calculus. Nain Singh Mahar, a Congress leader close to Deuba, admits that his party is in a tough situation. He says the party will have rival candidates even if it decides to field candidates in all 165 direct election seats. “If we go into elections as a part of the alliance, we expect to be allocated 90 to 100 seats. In that case, there is a little chance of young leaders getting to contest elections,” says Mahar. “On the one hand, we cannot break the alliance and on the other, this alliance will rile many young leaders.” In 2017, the NC fought elections alone against the UML-Maoist left alliance, resulting in what was a historic drubbing. Even though the party was alone in the fray, there were rival NC candidates in more than a dozen constituencies. With or without the alliance, the leadership of major parties has never favored fresh candidates, or women or people from marginalized communities for that matter. The constitution makes it mandatory for parties to appoint 33 percent women while selecting candidates under the FPTP and PR categories. But youth and woman candidates were few and far between under the FPTP category in the 2017 elections. Only six women candidates were elected under the FPTP category—while 84 were elected under the PR category. Bal Krishna Mahuhang, associate professor at Tribhuvan University, says top leaders of major parties have never been serious about making the parliament an inclusive body. “They prefer to have the same-old set of leaders in the driving seat,” he says.

Nepal-China border points have never been fully functional since the 2015 earthquakes. After the quakes severely damaged the road and other infrastructure at Tatopani, the busiest border point between the two countries, it took four years for it to reopen, but even then only partially.  The Rasuwagadi-Kerung border came into operation in 2014 but due to lack of infrastructure and other reasons, it failed to serve as an alternative to Tatopani crossing, as China had planned.   Then Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2019. What little movement of goods that was taking place following the disastrous 2015 earthquakes came to a grinding halt.  Officials suspect China closed the Tatopani border mainly out of security concerns and the earthquake was just a pretext. Soon after the disaster struck Nepal, Chinese security personnel had come to assist Nepali villagers in border areas. It is said the security personnel saw pictures of the Dalai Lama hanging in Nepali houses, which alarmed them.  Tatopani Bazar, an important business hub for Chinese goods, was subsequently relocated. Once a bustling trading post is now deserted. Although the Tatopani border did come into operation in 2019, it was restricted to the movements of cargo trucks to curb the spread of Covid-19. To this day, only limited cargo is allowed into Nepal from the border point, hitting Nepal’s exports to China and contributing to a swelling trade imbalance.  The Chinese side has yet to clearly spell out why the movements of goods to Nepal from its border points are being restricted.  Domestically, the Beijing government has taken a zero-Covid policy under which it has introduced some draconian measures, such as strict and targeted lockdowns irrespective of their consequences. It has adopted strict measures with not just Nepal but all its neighboring countries. A surge in Covid-19 cases has been recently reported in several cities of Tibet, forcing the government to enforce strict lockdowns. Dozens of Nepali trades have tested positive for the infection and they are stranded in Tibet, as the border points have been completely closed for the past two weeks.  Bishnu Pukar Shrestha, Nepali ambassador to China, says Beijing has pledged to ease restrictions when Covid-19 subsides.   “The Chinese side has communicated that they have locked down major cities in Tibet, so it will take some time for things to normalize,” he says. The complete opening of the Nepal-China border points is not going to happen in the immediate future. This was made clear by the Chinese officials to Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka during his China visit on Aug 8-10. With the festive season approaching, Nepali traders are growing impatient. Ashok Kumar Shrestha, Chairman, Nepal Trans Himalaya Border Commerce Association, says businesses have been badly hit as the Nepal-China border points have not been fully operational in the past seven years. “The Chinese side has been releasing only a limited number of cargo trucks,” he says. “Surely, there must be reasons beyond Covid-19 for this.” Around 200 cargo trucks bearing goods bound for Nepal are stranded on the Chinese side. On Aug 29, a delegation of Nepali traders submitted a letter to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies with a request to take immediate measures to ease border restrictions. Expectations were high when Nepal and China signed the Transit and Transport Agreement in 2016 following the blockade imposed by India in 2015. The general feeling was that Nepal would no longer have to depend only on India to bring in foreign goods. But since the signing of the agreement six years ago, there have been continuous obstructions on the movement of goods across Nepal-China border points.  Nepal’s trade and commerce relations with China are deteriorating, not improving as was expected during the agreement’s signing. Nepali traders have been expressing their concerns, to no avail. The Chinese side has time and again reiterated that the border points will come into full operation after the Covid-19 crisis is over. It has offered no timeline and no hope to the distraught traders.  Foreign relations experts say as China is reluctant to open up about its concerns and fully operationalize its border points, Nepali officials should find out what is bothering Beijing and try to address the situation. Upendra Gautam, general secretary of China Study Center Nepal, says Nepal should not hesitate to ask China if there are other issues beyond Covid-19 restricting the movement of goods into Nepal. “For China, security is more important than trade and economy,” Gautam adds. He is of the view that the two countries should have an honest talk on the matter.  “China’s restrictions at the Tatopani and other border points follow from security concerns,” says an official with the Ministry of Industry who does not wish to be identified.    Like Gautam, he too is in favor of the two governments engaging in frank discussions to fully operate the border points. 

My husband and I rarely ever like the same book. We have completely different reading choices. Usually, I recommend a book to him, tell him he must read this book I just read, that I gave it a solid five stars, and he will roll his eyes at me. ‘A Man Called Ove’ by Fredrick Backman, which is one of my most favorite books, put him to sleep. He calls it the most boring book ever. (It’s a wonder I’m still married to him.) But we both absolutely adored ‘The Silent Patient’ by Alex Michaelides. It was probably the one book that we both agreed was better than most thrillers we had read. We also didn’t see the end coming. We wanted to read more by the author and were thrilled to come across ‘The Maidens’.  The Silent Patient is about a London-based psychotherapist who becomes obsessed with a painter who hasn’t spoken a word after she is convicted of murdering her husband. The Maidens also involves a London-based psychotherapist and the all-too-pervasive culture of silencing women. Mariana Andros is a 36-year-old, grieving widow. A little over a year ago, her husband, Sebastian, died on a beach in Naxos, Greece while on holiday. Mariana still lives in the yellow house she shared with her husband on Primrose Hill in Northwest London. She can’t get past the fact that she convinced Sebastian to go on a holiday and holds herself responsible for his death. Then she gets a call from her niece, Zoe, who studies in Cambridge. Zoe says her friend Tara is missing. Mariana fears this will be hard on Zoe as Tara is one of the few friends she has and so she leaves for Cambridge. There she discovers a secret society called ‘The Maidens’ who cluster around a brilliant Greek Tragedy professor named Edward Fosca. He is handsome and charming. But Mariana suspects there is something off with him and she starts to poke around. More women end up dead. They are killed in a grisly, ritualistic fashion and Mariana becomes convinced Fosca is somehow behind them, despite having airtight alibis. Cambridge also brings back a lot of memories as this is where Mariana and Sebastian met so there’s a lot of personal demons to battle as well. Michaelides is a great visual storyteller. The detailed descriptions of settings, with historical buildings, create an ominous atmosphere and set the right mood. But The Maidens wasn’t as good as The Silent Patient. The story feels unnecessarily dragged out at times. The Maidens isn’t as psychologically thrilling or taut as The Silent Patient either. That’s not to say it’s a bad book. It’s still a fun read—just don’t have sky-high expectations. Three and half stars Fiction The Maidens Alex Michaelides Published: 2020 Publisher: Pages: Paperback

If you have not heard the name, you have missed some of the best movies that have come out of India in recent years. This week’s movie review won’t be complete without introducing Fahadh Faasil. The actor and producer who mostly does Malayalam and Tamil films has impressed me in all his roles. And one search through his Wikipedia will show it’s not only me fanboying over one of the most versatile actors in Indian cinema today. Faasil is not the typical Indian cinema ‘hero’. He is an actor par excellence who takes ownership of the characters he is playing and relives their lives on screen. He does not need to show skin, copy Michael Jackson moves and fight Kung Fu to make his mark. Having done more than 50 films so far, Fahadh’s “Irul”, “Kumbalangi Nights,” “Joji” and “Malik” are some of the unmissable names from his filmography. Some of the more adventurous audience members will probably remember him from the South Indian mainstream blockbusters “Pushpa” and “Vikram.” Within the few films named, Faasil shows he can play lead roles, supporting roles, protagonist, antagonist and comic relief as well. In his latest movie “Malayankunju”—a Malayalam-language survival thriller—Faasil plays Anil or Anikuttan, a handyman in a small village in Kerala. Anikuttaan lives on a rubber plantation with his mother Shanthamma (Jaya S Kurup) and repairs small electric stuff for village folks. From the very beginning, the audience is shown that Anil is not mentally stable. He gets irritated quickly, has an aversion to any sort of noise and is a blatant casteist. He hates a particular community, including his neighbors, and does not shy from showing it openly. We also learn that Anil has had a deeply traumatic past incident— which could be one reason behind his present condition. But some parts of the film also establish him as a man with a conscience and friendly to those he likes. Anil is a multi-layered character that drives the film forward. Directed by Sajimon Prabhakar and written by Mahesh Narayanan, Malayankunj starts like a family drama and then transgresses into a panic-inducing survivor film that flips the storyline and changes how we look at the main character. While Anil lives a life of resentment and over-confidence, a flash flood in his area completely destroys his chosen way of life. He wakes up one day to find himself buried deep under the debris of his own house. Getting out of there and also saving a baby he has hated for so long because of her crying and her parents’ caste now becomes his mission in life. Malayankunj is not a high-budget survival film with plenty of VFX generated dramatic sequences. There is some amount of low budget CGI but the film mostly rests on Faasil’s acting, the screenplay and Mahesh Narayanan’s cinematography. From about half way, these three nearly take over the screen. Anil’s struggle and desperation are captured with the most realistic set of moving images on-screen. I cannot think of one name from mainstream Bollywood who could replace Faasil as Anil. So I hope there are no remakes of this one. I love the cinematography of Malayakunj for the way it uses the lights in its storytelling. Anil is buried in debris in an underground cave-like structure and it’s probably dark outside. So how do the camerapersons capture him for the audience? They use two different lights—one a powerful torch and other a car headlight—which have appeared in the film before. Now with only Anil on the screen, these two light sources, one after the other, become the film’s characters. Amazing stuff. The background music—which borderlines trance and psychedelic at times—also seamlessly syncs with what’s happening in the film. I looked up the music director and found A.R Rahman’s name in the credits, without a big surprise. Who should watch it? Malayankunj is a brilliant film. I know that watching a Malayalam film with English subtitles comes with its own set of challenges and there’s a chance that the context is lost in some instances. It will still be worth every movie-lover’s time spending a couple of hours on this film. Genre: Drama/thriller Rating: 4 stars Actors: Fahadh Faasil Director: Sajimon Prabhakar Run time: 1hr 54mins