Kathmandu
Siddharth Varadarajan writes that “the anti-monarchy protests planned for April 6-9 will be the first test of strength for the new partnership between Nepal’s Maoists and parliamentary parties. The King says the joint action will be treated as an act of terror and the U.S. is also opposed to the protests. India is still reluctant to take a public position but unless it comes out in favour of popular sovereignty, the situation in Nepal will continue to deteriorate.”
When I read about Nepal, I thought of something I had read just a few days ago, a brief mention that my friend Suketu Mehta had made about that country in his talk at the India Today Conclave:
Shortly after India Today invited me to represent power machismo, the feminist playwright Eve Ensler invited me to write a monologue for V-Day this June, to fight violence against women. I accepted, because I love women. I came out of one. And because there are truly violent things happening against women in the world today. Under the Taliban, women whose ankles showed under their burkhas were whipped by the religious police. In Pakistan, there’s an epidemic of honor killings. Every day, little girls are brought from the hills of Nepal to the brothels of Bombay to be raped for the rest of their working lives.
