Submit your Article

CPN UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has been appointed the Prime Minister.

President Ram Chandra Paudel appointed UML Chairman Oli as the Prime Minister in accordance with Article 76 (2) of Constitution, according to the President's Press Advisor, Kiran Pokhrel.

Oli was appointed the PM in the backing of the largest political party in The Parliament, Nepali Congress.

UML Chairman Oli and NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba had submitted the signatures of a majority of lawmakers proposing Oli as the new prime minister in the wake of President Paudel's call on staking a claim for PM after the outgoing PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal's failure to secure trust vote in the House of Representatives meeting on Friday.

The President had called to stake a claim for PM with the support of two or more political parties representing in the parliament, giving a deadline till today.

The oath-taking ceremony will be held at 11 am tomorrow.

Most readers tend to love books about books, which is probably why there have been so many of those coming out in recent times. I liked them too. Till it all got a bit much. They feel weirdly the same, with different character names and settings. I can probably read one or two every now and then but I’m not like my friends who scoop these books up the moment they come across one.

I didn’t even read the blurb of ‘The Lonely Hearts Book Club’ by Lucy Gilmore. At that time, I wanted nothing to do with book clubs. However, I recently picked up her second novel ‘The Library of Borrowed Hearts’ as nothing else caught my interest and I needed a new book to read. “Two young lovers. Sixty long years. One bookish mystery worth solving” read the blurb. I thought it would be a lighthearted novel that I could DNF if the story didn’t appeal to me. But I devoured the book in two days. It was such a fabulous plot. It alternates between the present day and the 1960, making it charming and intriguing.

Chloe Sampson works at the library. She’s struggling to make ends meet. She has three younger siblings to look after, since their mother has left them. Then she comes across a rare book at the library when they are in the process of culling old books. Her cranky neighbor—who never gives back her brother’s frisbees when they inevitably land up in his yard—offers to buy it for an exorbitant sum. Chloe is surprised and inspects the book only to find notes scribbled in the margins—between two lovers from back in the day when the book was new.

She can’t resist following the clues and, that way, one book leads to another. Soon, Chloe finds herself wondering what happened to the two lovers who corresponded through books. What does it have to do with her curmudgeon old neighbor? Why has he suddenly become friendly with her siblings? Chloe is looking for answers while also trying to navigate life to the best of her ability. She finds herself in the middle of a lot of real-life drama and heartbreak.

The book can be slotted as romance but there’s a lot more to it. It deals with dysfunctional families and its consequences on children, friendship, and aging. The romance isn’t run-of-the-mill either. There’s a subtlety to it that makes it deep and meaningful. Jasper and Catherine were young but their relationship wasn’t frivolous. They truly cared about each other and were willing to make sacrifices if that meant the other would be happy. The writing is gorgeous with a lot of one-liners and impactful dialogues and passages. Though there is a lot of random advice, none of it comes across as preachy. All of it fits seamlessly into the plot.

The Library of Borrowed Hearts, that is set in two different timelines, is a beautiful story that I wished were longer. Don’t get me wrong, the book wraps up nicely but I wanted to know more about Chloe and her siblings. The story ends on a hopeful note but I would have appreciated an epilogue to find out what happens to Chloe, Jasper, and Catherine in the future. I can imagine it would have been nice to know the author’s version of the story. If I were to confess that I’m going to the bookstore this weekend to buy Gilmore’s The Lonely Hearts Book Club, would that tell you just how much I loved The Library of Borrowed Hearts?

The Library of Borrowed Hearts

Lucy Gilmore

Published: 2024

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Pages: 358, Paperback

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal failed to secure a vote of confidence in Parliament on Friday.

He managed to garner only 65 votes.

A total of 194 members voted against the confidence motion while a member stayed neutral.

The Parliament meeting was attended by 258 lawmakers.

Speaker Devraj Ghimire announced that the vote of confidence sought by Prime Minister Dahal was rejected.

Thirty-two lawmakers of the CPN (Maoist Center), 21 of Rastriya Swatantra Party and 10 of CPN (Unified Socialist)  voted in favor of Prime Minister Dahal.

Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party, Democratic Socialist Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party voted against PM Dahal.

PM Dahal sought a vote of confidence as per Article 100 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal after the UML withdrew support extended to the government.

Recent elections in neighboring India and results thereof continue to be scrutinized from several perspectives—both within India and elsewhere in the democratic world. The staggering number of eligible voters, 970m, alone was good enough to attract global attention in this five-yearly electoral exercise which began in 1951—almost four years after it ceased to be a British colony.

Interest in elections in the South Asia region was obviously higher than other regions, mainly because of  geographical proximity. Those sharing borders with India, including China and Pakistan, closely monitored the process with main focus on its outcome. For other neighbors, the process too was equally important. Cultural affinity also played its role as was palpable in Nepal. That the political party with commitment to Hindu nationalism continued to dominate other forces across India was bound to generate additional curiosity in a Hindu-majority Nepal. The keenness was natural.

Cultural affinity has a linguistic dimension as well. And that was in full view through media outlets, particularly during the oath-taking ceremony held for newly-elected parliament (Lok Sabha) members. As was visible, two of the lawmakers took oaths in Nepali language: Indra Hang Subba from Sikkim and Raju Bista from Darjeeling (West Bengal). Subba (35) belongs to Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and was first elected in 2019. Bista (38), a member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is re-elected this year. Although they had different political affiliations, both Subba and Bista took pride in taking oath in Nepali.

Incidentally, what can be the decisive feature identifying a person of Nepali ethnicity in a throng of 543 men and women in a spacious chamber? It is neither food nor attire. It is the language—the Nepali language—which helps to single out who is who. A ‘Topee’(cap) may occasionally offer a clue, but is not a reliable substitute for the language.# 

Realistic recognition

Nepali is one of the 22 languages recognized by the Constitution of India. But the recognition was not easily acquired; It came by only after a concerted campaign and struggle the Nepali-speaking Gorkhas conducted for decades. Nepali language was included in the eighth schedule of the constitution in 1992. 

According to India’s census of 2011, 2.9m people in India have identified Nepali as their mother tongue. Apart from Sikkim and West Bengal, Nepali speakers are to be met in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, among other places. For example, Raju Bista, who represents Darjeeling, has his origins in Manipur. On the Western flank, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are the two main states with sizable Nepali-speaking populations. Delhi is also listed as a place where a significant number of Nepali speakers are said to be residing.       

In Sikkim, Nepali has traditionally been a lingua franca–i.e. it is understood and spoken by all other communities of the state, and beyond. Prominent Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla is one of those high-ranking individuals having their lineage in Sikkim, and therefore speak Nepali flawlessly. When Sikkim’s university bestowed an honor on him, he chose to address the audience in Nepali. Shringla once visited Nepal as India’s foreign secretary, and was seen to be enjoying conversation in Nepali. One of his predecessors, who happened to be India’s first female foreign secretary, Chokila (Tshering) Iyer, was also conversant in Nepali; Darjeeling was her birthplace. 

For the people of Darjeeling-Sikkim region, July 13 is a special day when they pay tribute to the late Nepali poet Bhanubhakta Acharya. In 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee attended the function held at Chowrasta, marking Acharya’s 202nd birth anniversary. “We would like to strengthen this unique relationship amongst us,” Mukherjee said, referring to India’s ties with Nepal. 

In nearby Bhutan, Nepali remains one of the three main languages despite a mass eviction, in the 1990s, of Nepali-speaking Bhutanis. As a reporter, I have recollections of some occasions when visiting Bhutan ministers preferred to issue statements in Nepali. To further east, trouble-torn Myanmar (Burma) is another country where a significant segment of its population speaks Nepali.     

Knee-jerk reaction

Back to the oath-taking ceremony in the Indian parliament last month. Marking the occasion, this writer offered a comment on X (Twitter), in Nepali, essentially saying the obvious: That thousands of people had contributed to the campaign that led to the recognition of Nepali language in early 1990s. My observation generated some instant reactions and responses.While most of the X users cheered the news, some appeared rather inquisitive. The question was if India has constitutionally recognized Nepali, why can’t Nepal reciprocate in kind? In other words, a sort of imperative call to include Hindi in Nepal’s constitution. Ostensibly, this  is an innocuous query posed with a concomitant suggestion. My brief reply to the concerned readers contained the following points: 1) Nepal’s system runs in accordance with Nepal’s constitution; India’s governance is conducted on the basis of their statute. 2) India’s territory is large, and so is India’s population.

How is it possible to have equality between the two in every respect? 

3) Unlike Nepali, which is Nepal’s lingua franca, Hindi is yet to gain that status inasmuch as it is not accepted in India’s southern states where English continues to be the official language. 

Here I want to add a point which I did not insert in my quick response to X users: What all of us inside Nepal and intelligentsia across the southern border need to acknowledge and understand is the fact that Nepali language was included in the Indian constitution to expressly address the grievances of their own important constituency—of Gorkhas. No one in post-independent India can afford to underestimate their bravery, and the professional soldering the Gorkhas have rendered for the safety and security of India. Those who think Nepali language has been recognized by the Indian constitution merely to appease Nepalis of Nepal are living in a great illusion.    

Knee-jerk reactions, which surfaced through social media platforms like the X, are bound to be based on superficial understanding of the issue at hand. It is a pity that the emerging crowd of digital users tend to pay scant attention to the history and social background of the very country they belong to. Barring exceptions, grownup boys and girls of this ‘postmodern world’ seem to find ample time for socializing and recreation, but can spare little for serious study or research. Westernized lifestyles have made them self-centered, often at the expense of collective well-being.

Views are personal