Nepalis’ Excitement Dying due to Leaders..

The Nepalis always ruled by feudalistic monarchy historically rose up against it in April 2006. Their uprising was unprecedented. It was unique in the sense that the majority of grassroot rural masses took out to the streets continuously for 19 days defying royal military curfews imposed every day and night. Their uprising could be calculated as street sea storms. Their target was not to reinstate the same morally bankrupt political leaderships that ruled them previously under the fake banner of ‘democracy’. Their target was to abolish monarchy and its feudal structures to the roots and to establish a new setup of the country so as to create an environment for political, economic and social transformation. Their primary slogan was for ending the monarchy. Contrary to this people’s slogan, status-quoist parties and the palace at the advice of US and Indian ruling classes restored the dissolved House of Representatives generally disreputed for their moral disintegrity.

The motive behind the House reinstitution was to facilitate the continuity of monarchy despite people’s street verdict for its immediate abolition. It was Maoist insurgents’ blunder to accept the House reinstitution. As soon as they accepted the House reinstitution, they fell into the traps of multiple forces hostile to them.

The House restoration meant the reinstitution of royalist forces as well. For example, King’s representatives under the banner of different parties have also been restored. Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJP) headed by Surya Bahadur Thapa, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) headed by Pashupati Shumshere Rana, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal headed by Kamal Thapa, and Nepali Congress (Democratic) headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba were the transparent royalist forces in the restored House. Equally, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala himself is deliberately working to preserve monarchy. He firmly believes that monarchy is the foundation of the history of Nepali Congress and the abolition of monarchy may erase the history of Nepali Congress itself. Because of this belief of his, he has not accepted people’s verdict issued during the historical movement in April 2006.

The interim legislative born out of the restored House has not shown any revolutionary spirit tallying with the norms of the rare mass movement. The tortoise pace of the interim legislative has further discouraged ordinary masses. The tortoise pace is the product of the dominance of regressive elements in the legislative. They wear democratic garments and work for regressive forces. Morally most unreliable leaderships are at the helm of political parties that preach democracy and human rights. Their efforts are centered on barring changes and de-focusing people’s agenda.

Had Maoists rejected the restoration of the corrupt House of Representatives, the agitating people would proceed towards ending monarchy and changing the power structures. But as Maoists accepted the House restoration, people’s movement proceeding to declare Nepal a republic was re-directed to keeping the issue of monarchy under consideration. One particular thing the restored House did in opposition to people’s mandate for ending monarchy was to define the successor to present king and prince. Defining the king’s successor indicates the motive behind the House restoration.

Even after 14 months of the fall of the autocratic regime, many things remain still undefined in the country. Especially, grassroot level people, the majority in Nepal, do seem extremely doubtful regarding the genuine orientation of the current political efforts. People have felt difficult to internalize that the current political exercises are aimed at ending the rule of status quoism and beginning a new era with new perspectives. People are seeking differences.

The Nepalis are more tolerant than their objective situation defines. Their reactions are too slow and superficial. Perhaps because of this psychological setup of the Nepalis, their political leaderships have also developed some kind of misperceptions about themselves and about the people they represent. Consequences often confirm that the more intense people’s reactions are, the quick-thinking the political leaderships become. It is true to a greater extent that leaderships are grown out of people themselves. Therefore, a sound foundation of people’s education, their thinking patterns and the development of their participatory and responsive attitude are vital to build up more capable leaderships. But this is something of a long-term nature. However, immediate orientation towards replacing corrupt leaderships with people-accountable leaderships is a pre-requisite in this context.

As part of corrupt and criminalized politics, certain political criminals hiding inside political parties have been using the current state of vacuum as the greatest opportunity to revenge against Maoists who have deposited their arms and soldiers in the cantonments supervised by the UN. Reports are coming in that Nepali Congress Koirala and Deuba groups and Sadbhawan Party have been covertly engaged in cultivating armed counterinsurgency against Maoists in the Terai. The Nepal government has shown a mysterious passiveness even though armed groups have been targeting at Maoists who have accepted peaceful politics and joined the government. On the one hand, attacking the political party that is currently under UN supervision has a clear motive of derailing the very peace process and on the other, government’s passive attitude towards such anti-peace process attempts indicates the influence of counterrevolutionary and regressive forces within the state power structures. Recent meetings of senior Nepali Congress leaders with Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), an armed group that has been killing unarmed people in the Terai and escaping to India through the easy border, indicate some kind of collaboration against the Maoists. There is no doubt that Maoists have to adapt to the realistic world for the sake of pragmatic politics. For this, it is necessary for them to establish a good rapport with the public by means of their good public relations. If they misbehave people and stress on using force, they will ultimately fail politically in the long-term political career. Yet, organizing a continuous series of armed revenge against a force that has pledged to recontinue peaceful politics is directly against the peace process.

If armed counterinsurgency against Maoists shapes up on a national scale, the whole peace process will automatically get translated into a renewed and more advanced type of civil war. Have politicians and nation-loving think tanks ever thought of this possibility?

At present, Maoists are engaged in expanding their political organizations and influence in the country. For this purpose, they are trying to increase the number of their workers and supporters. In this process, there are complaints that many new entrants in Maoist organizations are troublemakers and that Maoist leadership has ignored this fact. It would benefit them if they could rectify or educate their workers and supporters with priority.

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