Did palace plot against Indian JV in Nepal? Kathmandu - The end of King Gyanendra’s absolute rule in Nepal has brought to light how the monarchy misused its authority to persecute a leading Indian joint venture in order to help a royal relative. Records show that United Telecom Ltd (UTL), the first private operator to provide telephone services in Nepal in 2003, was steadily persecuted from February 2004 till the last days of the royal regime to promote the telecom venture of Raj Bahadur Singh, the king’s son-in-law. Singh was chairman of Spice Nepal, which became the first private mobile telephone service provider in Nepal. He held 18 percent shares while Delta Trading, headed by non-resident Nepali Upendra Mahato, owned 17 percent and India’s Modi Group five percent. Visor Holding, a Kazakhstan company, owned the remaining 60 percent. UTL is a joint venture with Indian partners Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd, and Nepali company Nepal Venture Private Ltd. Since UTL also had permission to issue limited mobile phone connections and had a head start over Spice Nepal - which could start operations only in September 2005 - the latter first tried to stop the Indian JV by filing a case. In February 2004, lawyer Kamal Prasad Khanal filed public interest litigation on his own, saying the government had acted illegally by allowing UTL limited mobility, since it had not defined limited mobility. Khanal is the current legal advisor of Spice Nepal. The then Surya Bahadur Thapa government, appointed by King Gyanendra, formed several committees to define limited mobility. Under pressure from the palace, the committees went on dawdling to give Spice Nepal time to start its operations. It took two years for a succession of panels to come up with a definition and finally, on March 24, 2006, UTL was allowed to start mobile phone services in Kathmandu Valley. As it began an aggressive campaign with attractive incentives, a little known company, Nepal Satellite Telecom Private Ltd, filed another suit April 4, 2006, contending that by allowing UTL limited mobile connections, the government had hurt its business interests. The chairperson of the Nepal Satellite board is the wife of Spice Nepal’s managing director Ajeya Raj Sumargi, who also holds shares in the company. While Nepal Satellite sells SIM cards for Spice Nepal, its case was fought by Khanal once again. After the king was forced to step down in April, the case came up again May 17, and a stay order on UTL on issuing new connections was lifted. Soon after that, Spice Nepal, probably realising the undesirability of having a royal kin on the board, reached a pact with the royal son-in-law, who sold his shares and quit as chairman. Currently, Aidan Karibzhanov is the new chairman of Spice Nepal. ‘We hope the government will act fairly,’ Karibzhanov told a local daily. The comment comes even as Nepal’s two main telecom unions are alleging that Singh used his royal connections to shut down the pre-paid mobile phone services of the state-owned Nepal Telecom for long periods to help Spice Nepal’s business grow and caused the nation a loss of millions. - http://indiaenews.com/2006-06/12344-palace-plot-indian-jv-nepal.htm