First, it was Lok Raj Baral -- a harmless 70-year old political science professor.
Then others were arrested.

Now, Kanak too.

*************************************

Kanak Mani Dixit, the Editor and Publisher of Himal Khabarpatrika
fortnightly magazine was taken into custody by police on Monday
evening.

Plainclothes policemen who had been waiting at his home took him away
saying the "Superintendent wants to talk to you."

Dixit then drove to thepolice station in his own car. His wife who
went to the police station in jawalakhel where he is being kept wasn't told
the reason for the detention nor how long he will be kept.

On the one hand we have the Maoist and their Prachandra path and on the other we have the King and his Shining Path.

I fear for the journalists who don't want to toe any of the paths.

If the king thinks he is going to resolve anything by arresting the great journalists like Mr. Dixit, he is a bloody idiot.

Does anybody still have the illusion that the king is serious about resolving the country's problems? He wants to muzzle up any potential dissent and continue looting the country. Period.
Hey, ashu, I fear for you too because no matter how strongly you hate the parties and love the king, I know you will still love the country and its people over the king. And so they may think, here is a potential threat to our arbitrary rule!!!

Yeah right. Taal na betaal ko kuroo garcha. Ashu ko fear re... bidesh ma ayera samatcha manche lai? Ke Ashu, neta ho?, Ki Politically inclined journalist ho? Lonely, your fear is baseless. Rest assured, he would be safe in foreign land & if everyone who would love people and nation more than king ( urrgg, I don't love him, I don't even like him, but well, but will admire him irrespective of his past misdeeds, if he can actually "deliver" this time aroundn natra kaam chaina jatha ko) are to be arrested, they would have to arrest more than 20.mil people. Thus, lonely dude, lay your fear to rest.

It appears he was detained after his return from India for some "conference". what transpired in between on his visit to India ( New Delhi & Calcutta), and back home could be the reason for his detainment.

From what I have understood, Dixit is close to Girija baje and often subtly rights girija baje's lunatic actions ( for me chor baje ko any action is unjustified lu ja, muji buda mareni hunthio). Gyane has eyes and ears in many places in different shape and form. Perhaps what happened in "closed" quater, in fact was not so hidden after all. It appears that he is a journalist with high contacts, thus it is in the limelight. Other than that, this is a "normal" occurance, which is "we" as Nepalese, as pathetic as it may sound, have come to terms with.

But, do not worry people, if he is detained, he would be disappeared or tortured physically. Apart from normal verbal grillin, he shall be safe and sound. We all know how high profile people are detained. In coupla days, he would be free, with more limelight and fanfare.

Personally, I wish him and his family a moral support, and hope he would be free soon. having said all of the above, I understand, "achanoko chot khukuri le bujdaina", and thus it must be hard on him and his families. Hope everything willl turn out fine.

May peace & common sense prevail,
IndisGuise:)

Ashu!

Any update on this issue. It looks confusing cos himal publication does not seem to have any controversial news on any of its news publication... do not know why this step was taken?

may be something to do with his india visit......

But, do not worry people, if he is detained, he would be disappeared or tortured physically.

Read : But, do not worry people, if he is detained, he would NOT be disappeared or tortured physically.

I have heard from various people, well mostly those from the army, that Kanak Dixit is allegedlya RAW agent. While I do not put much stock on such statement, now that he is arrested after visiting India, I am curious about it. Anyone in Sajha have any information on this?

This is politics.. and parties/factions competing for the power are in power would take any sort of action they believe will give them benefits.

About Kanak Dixit or whoever being detained.... are we supposed to discuss here if the detaining process is wrong or right? I don't care. King G's force is carrying out detaining at this moment as a political moves he believes is the correct one. Similarly other parties vying for the power will take their own actions in due course. It's up to political parties on what sort of movement or melmilap they wanna go for.

People will still play the role of "wait and see".

Constitutional monarchy, anyone?

How come today's himalayan times carry no detail about arrest?

>>are we supposed to discuss here if the detaining process is wrong or right?

Not expecting much from you then, are we?

There's not much to discuss anyway. Any ambiguity in the royal move has vanished already, hasn't it? Can anyone doubt that the King is hell bent on becoming a petty tyrant?

Mr. Dixit's arrest reinforces the belief that Mr. Gyanendra will suppress ANY voice of dissent, young or old, politician or non politician, journalist or non journalist, man or woman, brahmin or sudra. Kings, naturally, demand unconditional support.

You don't see anything you don't like, shut up.

Or go to jail. (And get tortured,killed, depending on your profile)

How the hell we Nepalis are going from rule of a person to a rule of a law, I don't know. How the hell we Nepalis went from rule of a person who promises to uphold the rule of the law, to rule of a person, is obviously Mr. Gyanendra.

hijo de puta!

why such a big commotion over his arrest?????

tomorrow he will be released and will give a long speech on what happened...
..why don't we adopt an approach of 'wait and see' in this context also???


..get a life...................

For G--"Once a thief always a thief.." as if robbing the nations treasures was not enough ,he starts robbing the Nation of its Intellectuals as esteemed as Mr. Dixit!.King G is treading on soft ice..and boy is he so insecure. We'll be seeing a lot of G in action in the coming days to save his"Dear Life-The Throne ".
Regarding someone's queries as to why this was not in Himal.. well who would want to be arrested for writing the facts ? Monarchy is all about keeping the media shut on such matters and if anyone dared to even whsiper "under their hats" ,they will be robbed of their "HATS"!!

Just my twopence!
Phoenix

Regarding someone's queries as to why this was not in Himal.. well who would want to be arrested for writing the facts ? Monarchy is all about keeping the media shut on such matters and if anyone dared to even whsiper "under their hats" ,they will be robbed of their "HATS"!!


Then why is it there in Nepalnews.com and kantipuronline.com... are'nt they afraid for the same reason which himalayantimes is afraid of?

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Remember how things were handled at the aftermath of Royal Massacre. Everything happened as per Grand Design, we all know that. Girija need not hout all the time to gainpublic attention in the past. He even dared not divuldge anything about the Grand Design, had he known anything.

These events of etaining and releasing of personalities are also part of the grand design. General public may not know the consipracy behind it. We are simply shouting here why why why? We do not know the facts.. and we cannot justify the actions taken by king G.

Everybody has to do thier part of jobs... I dont' know what the ousted political parties supposed to do when Kanak Dixit or the likes are detained. Those paties never did anything even to stop the killings of fellowmen in the past. what can we expect from them? But again one can argue, they are also adopting "wait and see" policy currently.

everybody's in the "wait and see" mode. King G is also. He is waiting for melmilap with parties. For sure he is playing risky gamble.

So one of the moves is detaining Kanak Man Dixit, perhaps, who knows. He will face the consequences if that step was a bad one in future.

We better wait and see.

Things are getting clearer day by day about the intentions of King Gyanendra. First let's start from the news about the arrest of Kanak Dixit.
Kanak Dixit was detained on Monday evening without handing any charges. Some loyalists of the royal palace have already created a reason to protect this move saying that Dixit had been to India few days ago and he might be detained by the security forces on suspicion of his involvement in dissident political activities taking place in India. Some of the sajhaites have branded him as Girija's mouthpiece and some have even gone to label him as a RAW agent. Ridiculous allegations. We cannot expect any better arguement from those Gyanendra loyalists but the fact is Kanak Dixit has been arrested because of this cover story (linked) published in the latest issue of Himal Khabarpatrika. Please read this story if you want to know what is inside.

- http://www.nepalihimal.com/2061/falgun-16-30/aabaran_biswa_samudaya%20_ra_nepal.htm

The gist of the story is that King Gyanendra has not been able to convince the international community led by India about the justification of the Royal move in Feb 1. Dixit's argument in the cover story is a crystal clear fact which any person with an IQ of at least 100 can understand. How can Gyanendra expect India, USA or UK giving explicit approval of his move that includes detention of political leaders, ban on independent media and imposition of severe restrictions on civil liberties? There is no point in him to expect their support while his restrictions are no less than that of NorthKorea. There's more freedom in China, Cuba, Zimbabwe or Pakistan then in Nepal at present. How the hell can George Bush speak about rooting out autocractic regime from the world(refer to his state of the union address) if he supports Gyanendra in this situation?
If he has to generate support from India and the USA, Gyanendra most lift a number of bans. It is inevitable and the longer Gyanendra takes to soften the restrictions, the more suspicion will arise to the international community.

Dixit also adds in his cover story that the democratic freedom restored by the pressure from India and International community will be costly for Nepal. His argument is very plausible. (I have expressed a similar kind of opinion some where up in the thread almost a week ago). Gyanendra should have realised this fact and never opted to take such a draconian measure in the first hand. Once he did, he should have lifted some of those bans sooner. But he has sticked to his initial moves and this means the international community(specially India) will make this a case for bargain. Gyanendra shouldn't have allowed this oppurtunity for the international community because sooner or later he has to lift the bans if he wants to extend his direct rule for 3 years.
Now Dixit goes on to say that other countries shouldn't be given the chance to involve in restoring partial democracy in Nepal and it is us Nepalese who should step up for our democracy. Because, involvement of foreigners in our democratic movement will give them a chance of bargaining with our estabilishments time and again. Over dependence on India by our political leaders have in the past cost a lot on our bilateral trade, water sharing and territorial disputes. Again Dixit's argument is very authentic and patriotic.

So, why should Dixit be arrested because of this lead article? The new regime(in Dixit's word) had outlined it's media guideline and said- everything except the materials that help the terrorists(maoists) can be published. And there is nothing as such in this cover story. Even then, they have arrested him because their intentions are clear. 'Not to let any one who oppose autocracy to speak their mind.' If they speak, the public will be conscious and rise against them. Because Kanak has published some bitter truths about Tulsi Giri and Rameshnath Pandey, these cronies might have initiated personally to teach him some lessons- If you oppose us, we will throw you to the dungeon. I know that he will not be kept in detention for long. Gyanendra will again loose his case if he doesn't free Kanak on Tuesday and he is not that stupid to keep him in custody for long. But this is a warning to the rest of the media that the restrictions will be further tightened. He wants to scare the media. He wants to scare Kanak Dixit. And this is the most frightening part of the whole incident. Gyanendra's intention is to rule Nepal in darkness so that no one will ever venture to write or broadcast any thing against his interest in the future. However, as a professional neither Kanak should deviate his mission nor other journalists should be scared from this arrests. If they are scared, their rights will be taken partly and partially and finally the same days of Panchayati darkness will come back. Rest is the nightmare.
Much said about Kanak's article. Now I must categorically dismiss the allegations labelled on him. Not because I have any relation with him but because of my understanding of his contribution in the development of fair and analytical journalism in Nepal. He is one of the role models for investigative journalism of Nepal and a true mentor to the new generation who are taking up the subject as their profession. First, because he has expressed his fear about India's potentially decisive role in meddling on Nepali affairs, the allegation that he is a RAW agent is totally absurd. Second, because Himal have always highlighted the wrong doings of Girija Prasad Koirala in the past he cannot be labelled as a mouth piece of GPK. Infact, Himal was one of the few magazines or newspaper which have reported on wrongdoings committed by everyone Girija to Deuba, Makune to Surya Bahadur Thapa and Paras to Sharad |Chandra Shah. Himal is one of the few good things that came into existence and flourished in post democracy. They are the watershed in our media industry. To sum up, detention of Kanak Dixit is the sign of psychological rupture in Gyanendra's mindset.Instead of strenghtening his position, Gyanendra has to loose more by detaining a truly professional and responsible journalist. I hope our journalist community will not be scared of this incident and continue to explore the truth no matter if they have to end up behind bars. If they shut their mouth today, their mouth will be sewed for long.
newuser

Any news on whether the big guy is torturing him personally? Or should everyone perhaps wait, and, see.

The Keystone cops or Chinese water games? such is the state of our emergency


-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 8:51 AM
To:
Subject: Kanak has been released


Dear All, Just found out that that Kanak was released last night around midnight.

*************************

The thing about these things is that when an idividual is detained the media goes into overdrive; it gets blown out of proportion ( not necessarily a bad thing, I might add ), curiously though, not a word is heard when the individual is set free!

Many journalists including the General Secretary of Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Bishnu Nisthuri have been set free by the government. Gauri pradhan, president of CWIN, again , who was at the center of media limelight when he was arrested a few weeks ago is no more in government custody. I am sure Mr. Kanak Mani Dixit will be set free in a day or two after interrogating him.

Now, remember, the country is in a state of emergency! These are extraordinary times. The government has requested the media to refrain from printing/broadcating materials that will aid the maoist insurgents. Not that I condone it or anything, but some journalists in the US were also arrested after 9/11, weren't they? The security situation in Nepal is a lot worse than in the US I would presume.

But then again, this government seems to be very proactive. This government is getting tough with everyone: wilful defaulters, government employees, black-marketeers, businesses who are not fulfilling thier legal obligations etc. etc.