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Parmanand Jha (Nepali: परमानन्द झा) (born 1944)^{[citation needed]} is the current Vice President of Nepal and a former Supreme Court judge. He was born and brought up in Darbhanga, Bihar, India.^[1] Jha resigned as a judge in December 2007 after he was not proposed by the Judicial Council as a permanent judge at the apex court, following allegations of involvement in drug smuggling. Later, Jha joined political life and became a member of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum.^[2] On 19 July 2008, he was elected the vice-president of Nepal by the Constituent Assembly.^[3] He was nominated by the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum.^[4] After the election, Jha vowed that he would work in an independent manner, free from party interests.^[2]

Term of Office[link]

He took his tenure on 23 July^[5] after taking the oath of the office of the Vice President from President Ram Baran Yadav at Shital Niwaas.^[6] Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, among others, was also present.

Oath in Hindi and Aftermath[link]

He came into controversy after he took the oath of office and secrecy in Hindi,^[7] which is the mother tongue of less than 1% of the Nepali population^{[citation needed]}, but a language spoken as second or third language by majority. Mother tongue of Mr. Jha is Maithili. He is fluent in Hindi, Bengali and English.This led to a widespread agitation throughout the country.^[7][8][9] The media gave a good coverage to this.^[10][11][12] Many news sites and blogs were suddenly filled with comments on this issue. The views expressed in the sites were mixed. While many people expressed that the swearing in was unconstitutional,^[8] leaders of Jha's party came up with a view that this act was permissible.^[13]

Writ Petition against Jha[link]

A writ petition was filed by Bal Krishna Neupane at the apex court claiming that the oath was unconstitutional as it was taken in a language not recognised by the interim constitution.^[7][14] In response to this, the Supreme Court on 28 July 2008 asked the government and the Vice President Parmananda Jha to furnish written explanation regarding the oath taken in Hindi^[15][16]

Court order to retake oath[link]

Even after a deadline of 7 days,^[17] V. P. Jha had been ignoring the court's order for his written clarification^[18] but he once expressed regret^[19] via a statement clarifying that his taking oath in Hindi language was not to pinch at sentiments of any Nepali citizen.^[20][21] After a year long court procedure, the Supreme Court issued order to Vice President Parmananda Jha to take oath of office and secrecy for the second time. The verdict was issued on 24 July 2009 after the court concluded that taking oath in Hindi language is not constitutional as per prevailing laws of Nepal.^[22]

However, VP Jha has objected to the Supreme Court verdict accusing the court verdict being biased and influenced by conflicting interests. He wanted to decide whether or not to retake the oath after consulting political parties and ‘the people he represents.^[23]’ Some news sources also reported that VP Jha was speaking in Nepali while he claimed that he 'politically' does not understand Nepali language.^[24][25]

Even as the Cabinet has urged him to take oath of office and secrecy as per the orders of the Supreme Court, Vice President Parmananda Jha said that he can only consider re-taking oath after all the languages spoken in Nepal 'are given due respect'. The Supreme Court's verdict on the deadline for retaking the oath expired on 30 August 2009.^[26]

VP's position becomes defunct[link]

Paramananda Jha's position as the Vice President became defunct from 31 August 2009, with his refusal to take oath in Nepali. According to the Supreme Court's verdict, Jha could not perform any duties in capacity of the VP and was not entitled to special security and privileges given to him as the VP.^[27] Jha was then in a situation where he had been elected as the VP by the parliament, but hadn't taken oath. A person elected to public office is not allowed to use national flag in his residence and vehicle and is not entitled to VVIP security until he/she takes oath.

VP's position reactivated[link]

After six months off duty, Vice President's post was reactivated from 7 February 2010, after he took a fresh oath of office and secrecy.^[28] It was speculated that there would be no protests against his oath that time as he took the oath both in Nepali and his mother tongue Maithali. Taking oath in mother tongue other than Nepali is permitted after a recent amendment in current Constitution letting President, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ministers to take oath of office and secrecy in their respective mother tongues.^[28]

References[link]

This section needs sorting out as virtually all of the references appear to be inaccessible.

External links[link]

• Interview Video: Nationality is not in crisis, says VP Jha
• A blog post in a popular Nepal based blog.
• A blog entitled "We Love Parmanand Jha"
• Video of oath taking, second half of the video has Jha's oath
• Protests

Arunkumar is an Indian film editor and director.

Biography[link]

Arun Kumar is the director of Cocktail and Ee adutha kalathu^[1][2] and , owns to his credit a span of 11 years experience as a Film Editor in this industry. Arun, who hails from Thiruvananthapuram, had done his schooling in the prestigious St.Thomas Residential School, graduation from M.G.College, Trivandrum and later on moved to Chennai to master visual effects from Pentamedia.He started his career as visual effect artist in Pentamedia ^[3]

Arun Kumar has been director Priyadarshan's,^[4] principal editor from ‘Vettam' (2004) onwards] before he turned to filmmaking with Cocktail. He edited Kanchivaram which got National Award for the Best Film in 2008. He had also worked with other well- known directors like T.K Rajeev Kumar, Shaji Kailas, Suresh Krishna.^[5]

Arun had also been nominated for Shantharam Award and National award for best editing (Kancheevaram). Arun is the winner of 2011 Asianet Ujala Film Award & Mathrubhumi-Kalyan Film Award for the Best Editor.

Filmography (director)[link]

Filmography (editor)[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Arun Kumar at the Internet Movie Database

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Dev Gurung (Nepali: देव गुरुङ) is a Nepalese politician, belonging to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Gurung became Minister of Law and Justice on August 22, 2008.^[1] In 2002, B.S., Gurung became the president of the All Nepal National Free Students Union.^[2]

After the party had declared People's War in 1996, Gurung was arrested. Following the arrest the party killed a village committee chairman in Gorkha district, accusing him of responsibility for the capture of Gurung.^[3]

Gurung was released by the state, in exchange for a police officer, Thule Rai, who had been captured by the Maoists.^[2] During the last phases of the war, Gurung formed part of the Maoist talks team during peace negotiations.^[4][5]

After the fall of King Gyanendra's direct rule in 2006, Gurung was nominated to the interim legislature of Nepal.^[6] Gurung became the deputy leader of the Maoist legislative group.^[7]

In December 2006, as the CPN(M) leadership was reorganised, Gurung was included in the 11-member central secretariat of the party. Gurung was assigned to lead the ethnic front work of the party.^[8]

When the Maoists joined the government in April 2007, Gurung was included as Minister for Local Development.^[9] Along with the rest of the Maoist ministers, he resigned from his position in September 2007.^[10] In December 2007, the Maoists rejoined the government and Gurung again became Minister for Local Development.^[11]

In April 2008, he won the Manang seat in the Constituent Assembly election, defeating the sitting Nepali Congress MP Palten Gurung. Dev Gurung got 1652 votes whereas Palten Gurung got 1209 votes. The CPN(UML) candidate in the constituency, Mangal Gurung, had withdrawn his candidature in order to enable the victory of Dev Gurung.^[12] After extended power-sharing discussions between parties, Gurung was appointed as Minister of Law and Justice in a Cabinet headed by CPN (M) Chairman Prachanda and sworn in on August 22, 2008.^[1]

References[link]

Upendra Yadav (born 1960) is a Nepalese politician and chairman of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), a political party in Nepal, that has its electoral base primarily in the plains (Terai) of Nepal. His political party first came to notice after it burnt the Interim Constitution of Nepal in 2007, Upendra Yadav was also involved in the actual burning of the Constitution. In in March 2007, dispute between MJF activists and United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)regarding the site of gathering of their respective parties activist in Gaur, lead to violence, which left at least 27 people dead. According to the field report prepared by the OHCHR office in Kathmandu, MJF activists were primarily responsible for the gruesome murder of the Maoists cadres. However, no criminal charges were ever filed against Upendra yadav or other leaders or activists of the party. Before creating the Forum, Upendra Yadav was a Maoist cadre.

He and his party have demanded autonomy for the Terai Region of Nepal, in addition to a proportional electoral system and an end to discrimination.^[1]

Following the April 2008 Constituent Assembly election, the MJF agreed to join a government headed by Prachanda, the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Yadav was subsequently appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs and sworn in on August 22, 2008; he was one of four MJF members included in the Cabinet.^[2] He served as Foreign Minister until the end of Prachanda's government in June 2009.

See also[link]

• Yadav
• India
• Nepal

References[link]