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Prachanda et al, after their recent tours to India and America, in my opinion, have been liberalized to some extent ideologically. Him and few other top brasses of the party seem to understand that the advancement of a communst republic agenda is no longer a fruitful business. As expected, we all saw the ideological clash brewing in the party who still dream of a commnist paradise in nepal. As long as those elements remain that are willing to advance their agenda by hook or by crook, more of these threats will surface in the coming days. I just hope Ashu dai and all of us who think freedom cannot be compromised, continue to advance the agenda. Its an ideological war . As Gunyucholi said, the enemy is unethical yet I believe defeatable.
Good luck to Ashu dai and all who have held their ground.
Thank you all for your thoughts and wishes.
Today's (Sat.) Kantipur daily reports that more than 50 companies in Hetauda have been shut down due to the activities of Krantikari Labour Unions.
Let's hope that better judgment prevails at the Labour Ministry (श्रम मन्त्रालय) in HM's case.
Here's a contextual update:
http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2008/11/29/StrictlyBusiness/15420
oohi
ashu
UPDATE:
EVENT:After dithering for a few days, the Labour Office (Sram Karyalaya at Teku) has given a formal certificate of recognition to the Maoist Union, despite there being -- as stated earlier --inadequate (as per the law) support for the formation of such a Union at HM.
BACKGROUND: With the Labour Ministry under a Maoist minister, and having observed how Maoist Unions have muscled their way into many companies (including private banks) in Nepal by using all sorts of political pressure, this Labour Office decision was NOT exactly unanticipated.
MOVING AHEAD: In theory, we can take the Labour Office to court for having violated the Trade Union laws of Nepal to score a political point.
But, in practice, with every administrative entity and corporate machinery in Nepal under definite Maoist grip and control in a step-by-step manner, the task of making an honest and legally valid living in Nepal is getting very, very difficult.
Then again, to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill, one must "keep buggering on" in these times in our payro matri.bhoomi (who, alas, seems to have stopped loving back her children, no matter how intensely they love her!)
oohi
ashu
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Be aware of these two "media captains"
Himalmedia
Himalmedia, established in
1998, has five founders – Ambika Shrestha chairperson and Kanak Mani Dixit,
Kunda Dixit, Rajiv Raj Bhandari and Sajib Raj Bhandari directors. The three
publications of Himalmedia – Himal Khabarpatrika, Nepali Times and Wave — are
being published under the involvement and direction of Kunda Dixit and Kanak
Mani Dixit, who are brothers by blood relation and journalists by profession.
While Kanak is the
publisher and editor of Himal Khabarpatrika, Kunda is the publisher and editor
of Nepali Times and Wave.
Himal Khabarpatrika covers
politics, economic sector and other areas, Nepali Times is targeted diplomatic
crop and Wave covers youth and entertainment.
Besides serving public, all
the three publications are being published to aid their own other businesses
and are making good profits alone from advertisement with Rs 50 million
standing profit every year. However, the expense is only around Rs 30 million. High
prices of the three newspapers have also been significantly contributing to the
company.
Listed as "Number 1"
three years ago, Himal Khabarpatrika is ranked at Number 2 on circulation basis
and Number 3 on news content's basis. But the Dixit brothers, on the pretext of
incurring losses, have been collecting grants from several donor organizations.
On various occasions and
pretexts, they have also been collecting around Rs 10 million from the
government.
Similarly, threatening
businessmen of publishing negative news, some Rs 50 million have been amassed.
On the other hand, some businessmen provide advertisement on the condition of
not publishing their news.
The Dixit brothers are
active being wolf in sheep's clothing, but the other partners stay mum.
The list of their
malpractice continues. They also gain various benefits from I/NGOs on the
banner of Himalmedia.
The Dixit brothers, who
also claim themselves the leaders of civil society, have sowed a seed of
dispute between Dr. Devendra Raj Pandey and Krishna Pahadi. It is due to their
ill act, Pandey has to cut off relation with Pahadi.
Himal South Asia has also
become a breeding ground for them to launch sordid acts of gaining advantage
illegally.
Himalmedia at present:
Ever since the inception
of the company, employees have been working permanently at Himalmedia. However,
suddenly Dixit brothers introduced new system and made staffers work on
contract. This gave them a ground to treat workers as servants and lead a life of
landlords. On numerous occasions, they sacked workers and hired new ones.
Without serving their
interest, no worker could be their employee. Evident is the case of editors. No
editor was employed for more than a year. However, Rajendra Dahal's case was
exceptional. This is because Dahal was their family brother-in-law, so he was
able to work for more than a year.
Time-bound salary and
facility were a far cry for workers. Those staffers, recruited on 5000-7000
salary per month five years ago are still drawing the same scale. Repeated
pleas of workers to hike salary and facility fell on the Dixit brothers' deaf
ears. In this way, fours years went down the drain.
Irked workers, hoping for bright
fate, established a non-political union for their welfare. However, the Dixit brothers shattered their dreams
when they refused to meet them recently after the union was established. The
workers got a shot in the arms after Ashutosh Tiwari, who was later nominated
as the Chief Executive Officer, pledged to fulfill their genuine demands. He assured
to act on the commitment with in a month.
However, even though a
year passed, the demands were gathering dust. Worst, the Dixit brothers did not
even hand over the permanent letters to working journalists and other staffs.
This proves that the Dixit brothers always cultivate false promises.
Media Workers'
Baneshwor,
mediaworkeralliance@gmail.com
The news on Himalmedia published on
various newspapers:
"We will
close the company if we were to add facility to workers and made their status permanent."
n
Saghu
weekly, Shrawan 20, 2065
Resignation of 16
journalists and employees sought on the ground of Rs 10 million losses.
Threatened to publish names with photos if failed to put in papers.
n
Saghu
weekly, Bhadra 2, 2065
35 employees
ousted ahead of Dashain.
n
Saghu
weekly Bhadra 9, 2065
Trade unions flay
Himalmedia's unilateral act to sack employees flouting the Working Journalists'
Act
n
Janaastha
weekly, Bhadra 18, 2065
Maoist union
declares to interfere in Himalmedia against the management's act of ousting
workers violating the Working Journalists' Act and Labour Act.
n
Saghu
weekly, Aswoj 13, 2065
Himal
Khabarpatrika Editor is going to be sacked after Kanak Mani Dixit's seat in the
Constituent Assembly from the CPN-UML was not guaranteed
n
Saghu
weekly, Aswoj 6, 2065
Sacking workers by
Himalmedia ahead of Dashain agitates trade unions, demand immediate
reinstatement
n
Gorkhapara
daily, Aswoj 18, 2065
Federation of
Nepali Journalists flays the Himalmedia management's act of torturing journalists
and employees. FJN General Secretary Poshan KC demanded the government punish
the management if failed to act as per the Working Journalists' Act
n
Janadisha
daily, Aswoj 15, 2065
Trade unions,
civil society, rights activists urge Himalmedia not to sack 16 workers, working
at its customers section
n
Naya
Bimarsha weekly, Kartik 8, 2065
Himalmedia
announces vacancy immediately after sacking three dozen employees on loss
ground.
n
Saghu
weekly, Kartik 11, 2065
The Information
Department directs Himalmedia to reinstate the sacked employees and issues a
show case notice for announcing fresh recruitments
n
Saghu
weekly, Kartik 25, 2065
Government summons
Himalmedia to prove whether the company is at loss
n
Budhabar
weekly, Kartik 27, 2065
Government directs
Himalmedia management to present before the Information Department along with its
audit report
n
Roadmap
weekly, Kartik 28, 2065
Himalmedia is trying
to present fake audit report after the government summoned its management
n
Sambodhan
/ Naya Bimarsha weekly, Kartik 29, 2065
The Labour and
Information departments put stamp on decision of civil society leaders Kanak
Mani Dixit and Kunda Dixit to sack employees flouting the Working Journalists'
Act and Labour Act
n
Dishanirdesh
weekly, Mangsir 1, 2065'
Trade union flays
act of torching Himal Khabarpatrika copies, slams management's act of accusing the
union workers of their involvement in the incident, urges media not to publish such
fake news
n
Kantipur
daily, Mangsir 4, 2065
The so-called
Himalmedia's claim that its copies were torched by masked men is doubtful. The
management claimed that 5,000 copies were burnt down, however only 1,000 copies
were found torched.
·
Budhabar
weekly, Mangsir 11, 2065
Our concern has
been drawn towards the Himalmedia's claim that the sacked employees had torched
its copies. The rigidness of Kanak Mani Dixit and Kunda Dixit over the
formation of union in the company has also raised our concern. All can exercise
the constitutional-guaranteed right to open and run trade union. So they are
merely trying to violate press freedom by themselves.
·
Janadharana
weekly, Mangsir 12, 2065
Employees at
Himalmedia are trying to open a union. However, the management is learnt to
have trying its every bit to crush their attempt.
·
The
Himalayan Times daily,
The Media
Marketing Association has flayed the Himalmedia's act of sacking its two
staffers without any reason.
·
Kantipur
daily, Mangsir 15, 2065
The Information
has directed the Himalmedia management to reinstate the sacked 16 employees in
its sales department.
·
The
notice sent by the Information Department to Himalmedia management on Mangsir
16, 2065
According to a reliable
source, the following organizations were found assisting Himalmedia directly or
indirectly in various ways.
They
are follows:
Hi dd_sh,
I also received that email in my inbox yesterday.
There is no such thing as Media Workers' Alliance. In these cyber-times, anyone can set up a gmail account, in any name, and start spreading malice against those one does not like.
What more can I say, except to declare that this is a brazen yet anonymous attempt at charitra hatya or character assassination of the named two individuals. This is indeed sad.
That said, since I tend to see the best in other people, I trust that all reasonable readers who look at all sides of an issue will see the content of that email for what it is (i.e. rubbish), and leave it at that.
Finally, every problem presents its own opportunity.
As such, I am happy to note that, at the company, all these Maoist Union-related disturbances have helped strengthen the sense of organisational solidarity between all editorial and non-editorial staff against these types of cyber/physical/telephonic/emotional/psychological/political attacks from the outside.
oohi
ashu
I do not have any sympathy to partisan unionism, be it students’ union, teachers’ union or labor union. Unions should be non-partisan and should purely represent itself and nobody else.
In a democratic society, everybody is free indeed to have political life, but such life should be outside the professional life. This is a very basic premise that, to our misfortune, never took root in
Purely professional and responsible unionism at work place and a political understanding and consensus at political level that a rapid economic growth is an overriding need of our pyaro garib desh Nepal is what we need and what we must have.
The bigger the size of the pie, the bigger the size of a slice. This should be our mantra.
And based on the international experiences, I think a somewhat subdued or at least un-radical unionism is what looks compatible with the economic growth systems that we have in this era and civilization of mankind.
So reject radicalism, shun partisanism, demand professional and responsible unionism, promote the rule of law, long and sacrifice for economic growth of the country, ignore negativism, think positively, do small small things patiently and resiliently are what seems to be everyone’s duty at this point.
So I am with Ashu and his fight for his business, professionalism and principles. I would just caution that he should not let it appear that he is fighting against this or that party or ideology. He should make it absolutely clear that he is fighting for justice, principles and pure professional sense. Every sensible person will be behind him and his effort.
I would strongly suggest that the case should now be taken to the court. No matter what, it will serve the cause. At least the case will be on the record and we will know how our justice system really is. This will be one hell of a show-case and an useful call for all reform longing and reformist people.
Nepe
P.S. Just to let all know that I have been privately communicating with Ashu and supporting him all along.
Maoist ministers are (probably) encouraged / forced to decide in favor of those ill-intended people, whom Ashu dai has already exposed to us as the killer-virus in the HM organization. Those, whoever wants to see the rule of law in Nepal are undoubtably against such ill-intended action and are standing for HM in this case. Some have expressed it on Sajha, and some others might have done elsewhere. However, I am not clear yet how would such sympathy or online-support change the situation. We all know that the problem was created by maoist goons for their political interest. They are playing with such a low level tactics everywhere, see what happened to cable car, and other dozens of industries, casinos, etc. etc.. I have heard from a friend that the maoists are trying to capture every sector of society. The problem is spreading so wide that even the religious organizations, bhajan mandala, local clubs etc. are facing maoist pressure. Their strategy is to enter, influence, capture and coerce. If they are not allowed to enter, then they try to dismantle the organization anyhow, impose fear tactics, injest problems whatever they could (including character assassination of personal life). Social clubs, sporting circles, NGOS, midium size business organizations, established enterpreneurs etc. are on their prime target list. HM, being itself in the media business, is perhaps the only one of them which vehemently tried to stop the coercion and the whole story came out on media . Rest is just unheard.
Can we put any pressure to maoist sardars to stop it? I think, NO. The only way we can contribute in this case is to stop pampering maoist goons, which some of us have done in the past for any of their good or positively contributing acts. All the progressive acts or good-looking activities of maoists are nothing more than their attempt to suger-coat their wrong doings. It is shame for an educated person to jump supporting maoist groupe when they do / show a little good works, but unfortunately many has done that in several occasions. The events have proved enough "
गधालाइ धोएर गाइ बन्दैन ।"Ashudai,
Considering that I am still not plagued by Alzheimer, I recall a similar thread originated by you not too long ago. While I was deeply sorry about whole incident and was exceedingly critical about the extremely partisan yet combative unionism in
Before I rant further, I have few questions for you? Why did you wait so long to start this thread when these incidents occur almost everyday? Did you just scream bloody murder because you assumed it could never happened to a Harvard laureate like you? Now that you just survived an attack does it make you more special than other victims in the past?
Perhaps my allegations are wrong; perhaps I must have completely misconstrued the purpose of your thread. But help me here, I found enough room for criticism. Again, as a media ambassador that you are, I would have wanted you to present a model that could possibly negate such socialist uprisings (if they are leftists at all, proclaiming oneself Maoist can bring back any hoodlum’s heyday). What you delineated in your thread is something we already know. Tell us something new.
I did not want to muddy the water, the respect remains intact.
Nepe,
I take your point well. That's a good piece of advice on caution. And thank you for your email.
Saroj, BC, Copycat, Usofa and Bhusan,
Many thanks for your postings, and for your thoughts here. I appreciate them.
Jet Favre,
When I decided to post these Union-related troubles on Sajha, I was acutely aware of what the famous baseball coach of LA Dodgers, Tommy Lasorda, had said on a different occasion: "Eighty per cent of the people don't care about your problems, and the other 20 percent are glad that you are having them."
But since I am the chief executive of a company AND a long-time contributor to Sajha, I decided to go ahead and bring these two personas together here to share my real-world, Nepal-specific observations and experiences because I wanted others to learn from my experiences and mistakes in Nepal so that, under similar circumstances, their results may be better in future when and if they become a part of corporate Nepal.
If you think this sort of sharing is NOT really necessary, well, then, let us agree to disagree.
Onto your questions:
1. Why did you wait so long to start this thread when these incidents occur almost everyday?
ANS: Because I was not here earlier, you probably think that I should spend all my time condemning all sorts of bad happenings in Nepal on Sajha. But that's not how I spend my time.
Last year, I wrote this article (please see the Web link below) as an advisory guideline to CEOs of Nepali companies, some of whom have since called on me to ask for further advice and suggestions. For sometime now, I've also been teaching a course to young Nepali managers, and the course deals with how to negotiate honestly, openly and strategically with Union leaders in Nepal. I have used the lessons of my own course to sign an agreement with the designated Union at my company that enjoys the written support of 85 per cent of the staff. And I was able to do that while letting 34 staff members to depart from the company in these times in Nepal on amicable terms without a single day of shutdown or strike.
Presently, I am in the process of creating a loose coalition of lawyers, industrial relations expert and others to figure out ways to address labour union issues in Nepal.
I'm NOT sure how successful or effective my (these small, small) efforts will be, but the fear of results have not really stopped me from trying to do my best re: things I see as right in Nepal.
http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2007/10/05/StrictlyBusiness/14023
"2. Did you just scream bloody murder because you assumed it could never happened to a Harvard laureate like you?"
ANS: I fail to see what my university's got to do with me now or with the present problems that I am trying to address. So, the answer to your this question is: No.
The truth is, as a Nepali manager in Nepal, I am as vulnerable to and worried about Nepal's larger problems as anyone else in my shoes here. So, I am quite wide-eyed about this.
3. "Now that you just survived an attack does it make you more special than other victims in the past?"
ANS: No.
I've never thought of myself as a victim in any sense. Like I said, I share these issues here so that there is better awareness and education and information and knowledge about these sorts of things out there.
Besides, quite frankly, I can't afford to lose hope and feel victimized: after all, every single day, I need to muster enormous energy to boost the morale of so many staff, and I greatly enjoy that aspect of my job.
I hope I have addressed your concerns. Thank you for your questions.
oohi
ashu