See for yourself about your future KING.
http://www.newsinsight.net/nati2.asp?recno=3372
Friday, September 30, 2005
I N T E L L I G E N C E
CBI, DEA probe Nepal prince's drug links
6 July 2005: The US FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have sought
assistance of the CBI, the Narcotics Control Board and covert
agencies to investigate the notorious crown prince of Nepal, Paras,
after an American ally in South East Asia tipped off about his
rapidly expanding drug network.
Paras has been allegedly in the drug business for seven years, but his
stakes and that of the Nepalese royal family have grown by leaps and
bounds in the last few years, alarming the DEA, and panicking the US,
and the crown prince is now reported to be operating his network
beyond South Asia.
In December 2004, the US-friendly South East Asian state began
investigating new drug markets in the region, and the trail lead to
Nepal, and investigators in the guise of tourists established the
link to Paras, who was subsequently invited for a tourism promotion
event.
During the promotion event, the South East Asian state was confronted
with meetings between Paras and local drug lords, who were under
surveillance, and the recorded conversations produced iron-clad
evidence against Nepal's crown prince, which was when US agencies
were contacted, for independent corroboration.
US agencies in turn approached Indian investigators about three weeks
ago, which had an inkling of Paras's drug dealings, but a more
substantial probe has commenced since.
News 3.
http://www.indiareacts.com/archivedebates/nat2.asp?recno=1179
Friday, September 30, 2005
C O M M E N T A R Y
Nepal crisis II
Once again, India is being tested, on drug-related charges against
Nepal's royal family.
7 July 2005: India has a new Nepal problem. The US FBI and Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) are investigating Nepal's crown prince,
Paras, for international drug running. Paras has a terrible
reputation, as a bully and a thug, and his role was never cleared in
the assassination of King Birendra and his family in 2001. To that
extent, anything suspected against Paras should not surprise.
But the size of the drug charges against him are huge, and what amazes
is that he has escaped exposure so far, and not even a whisper upto
now, although that he had a drug habit is well known. In December
last year, a US ally in South East Asia (Intelligence, "CBI, DEA
probe Nepal prince's drug links," 6 July 2005) began investigating
new drug markets in the region, and the trail lead to Nepal.
That country's investigators visited Nepal in the guise of tourists,
and further inquiries implicated Paras. Paras was invited for a
tourism promotion event in the country, and when Paras went over, he
consorted with druglords who were under surveillance. Their taped
conversations further nailed Paras, at which point, US agencies were
tipped off for independent corroboration. Less than three weeks ago,
the FBI and DEA sought the assistance of the covert agencies, the
CBI, and the Narcotics Control Board.
Officials said they knew Paras had a drug habit, but nothing that
warranted this scale of international investigation. But US agencies
are panicking, because the interests of the Nepalese royal family in
drugs, and not Paras alone, are growing by leaps and bounds. Seven
years ago, when Paras is said to have entered the drug business, the
stakes of the royal family were less, but they have grown enormously
now.
This is not a matter for India to deal alone, because Paras's drug
networks reach beyond South Asia, and he is therefore, if FBI and DEA
reports are to be believed, an international criminal. Moving against
him would destabilise the Nepal monarchy, and possibly deprive King
Gyanendra of an early male successor, since Paras's son, Hridayendra,
is four years old.
It is not a matter of Paras alone, though. The royal family as a
whole, or a majority of it, is involved in the drug trade, and it is
their fast expanding role which is panicking US agencies. This would
suggest the drug charges have a hot chance to rock the Nepalese
monarchy as a whole, which is when the issue explodes from a drug rap
to one having major international implications, and one constituting a
manner of foreign policy crisis in the neighbourhood for India. Nepal
without a monarchy, or a monarchy bust apart by drug charges, is
unthinkable.
A section of government lead by Natwar Singh and the Left would rather
have Nepal without the monarchy, a model republic that shares very
good relations with India, without the royalty flirting with China/
Pakistan, flirting with ideas like a Nepalese nuclear-free zone, and
entertaining notions of spirited independence. No one can bet that
Nepal-India relations will be wonderful without a monarchy, and no
one can say with any certainty that the majority of Nepalese will
accept such a situation.
Anyhow, the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, was not willing for such
hare-brained schemes when he resumed military aid in principle to
Nepal to fight the Maoist insurgency after a meeting with Gyanendra
in Jakarta in April. Days ago, non-lethal military supplies were
cleared for the Royal Nepalese Army despite Left opposition. Since
these supplies were cleared with knowledge of the drug rap against
Paras and potentially involving the entire Nepalese royal family, it
is fair to assume that the government wants to wait and watch the
situation. Nothing can be more sensible, but it is necessary that we
have our own calculations.
It is key to resolve if we are looking at Nepal without a monarchy,
and to this writer, it looks a scenario fraught with risks. Regime
change, replacing an ancien regime with a new one, always excites
strategists and foreign policy hawks, but if Iraq's example is
anything to go by, or Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979,
the experiment can turn into disaster. One cannot determine what turn
nationalism will take, and Afghanistan first and Iraq, one each for
superpowers, the USSR and the US, turned into jihadi training
grounds.
Better perhaps a known enemy than an unknown friend, and this is
truest for Nepal, bordered by India's strategic rival, China, and
penetrated by India's enemy agency, the ISI. Without the king, who
gives identity to the Nepalese, gives them a sense of nation, the
Chinese could carve out territories in Nepal producing fake Tibetan
maps, if anyone dared ask them to prove their claims, that is, the
Maoists will have the run of other areas, and the ISI and jihadis
will grab most of the border areas with India to press down on us.
Nepal's border areas with India are hot with jihadi fervour, and it
would surprise no one if the Ayodhya terrorists penetrated from
there. So, can we handle the situational crisis of Nepal without the
monarchy?
Soviet Russia lost Afghanistan, and broke up shortly thereafter, and
sooner or later, America is going to give up on Iraq. We set up a new
nation called Bangladesh, Indira Gandhi with her enormous energy,
vision, and dare, did so, but what a monstrosity we have created,
which kills our border troops, succours our North East terrorists,
and illegally migrates masses of its population into this country.
Are we upto taking the burdens of Nepal after this?
Nepal requires cool thinking and calculation, after the military aid
mess up courtesy Natwar Singh and the Left. On one hand, it is none
of our business, because like with Gyanendra's dismissal of an
elected government on 1 February, the drug trading of Nepal's royal
family and crown prince Paras are Nepal's internal affair. But at the
same time, subtly to begin with and more savagely as it progresses, it
is not, not Nepal's internal matter, but cause for our concern as
well.
But the important lesson from the last blunder is to weigh our
interests completely and entirely, and then proceed to fulfil it by
our light, and not depend on anybody to do so, beyond taking such
small international assistance as becomes unavoidable. But no
grandstanding, no Natwar Singh-type display of idealism and
pomposity, because they wear well on no one, especially together. It
is inescapable that we have to address the Nepal drug crisis, but let
us do it away from the limelight, and with nil media glare. Let us see
if we can do something sensibly after all.
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