PSC, Here is a conversation of mine with two fellow posters (in Nepaldemocracy@googlegroups.com ) on the same topic we are discussing- whether Republicanism is a political solution to the Maoists problem or not. I have answered to two skeptic fellow posters who cited the Maoist insurgency in Bihar/UP to cast doubt on whether republic Nepal will be safe from the Maoist. Blue text is my reply. Hope you find it interesting. This will also give some idea to Nemesis why Nepe's darshan is so rare. ;-) > To me Nepal becoming a republican state is not more important >that Nepal becoming a peaceful democratic state where the chief > contenders for power reconcile and compromise wround some >fundamental "peoples' " democratic agenda. Peace is indeed our first need. However, are you suggesting that peace will come faster if we keep praying (ok doing whatever is in your mind) to force Maoists to surrender to the monarchy than if we sacrifice monarchy to bring the Maoists to democratic framework ? Maoists surrendering (ok, reconciling) with the Monarchy ? That too faster than the [hypothetical] time that will take if we go for getting rid of the monarchy ? Are we talking about realism or dreams ? >Bihar and UP are republican states in a nation where the constitution >came about through a 'constituent assembly" exercise. this has not >stopped maoism, violence, or ended bad governance, or brought >about an environment of minimum threat and maximum opportunity >for democracy to flourish. You are not suggesting to make Bihar and UP kingdoms to solve the problems they have then, are you ? As far as whether republicanism of Bihar and UP has or has not stopped their Maoists to do what our Maoists are doing, oh yes, it has. Here is what, why and how. Indian Maoists are never going to be more than similar nuisance (terrorism) other countries have been comfortably living with. The reason is simple. Indian Maoists' raison d'etre can all be fulfilled by Bihar and UP's republic democracy, all they have do is to make it work better. No revolution is necessary. Nepali Maoists' case is quite different. Nepali Maoists' raison d'etre, the major one in particular, is such that it can not be achieved without getting rid of the monarchy. In fact it is the legitimacy of this raison d'etre (or call it an excuse) that helped the Maoists to grow this way, this big, this fast. When we have a republic, Maoists don't have this particular raison d'etre to remain a realistically threatening force. Mind that the growth of the Nepali Maoist was not due to the popularity of their second raison d'etre- establishing a communist regime ! Now you do the math. *** *** **** >XXXXji has a point that India is not free from >Maoist type insurgency (e.g. in Bihar and UP) >despite its republican political structure - so >there is no guarantee that republican structure >in Nepal will solve the Maoist insurgency. It is not the "insurgency" that we should be worried about, it is "the insurgency getting powerful enough to threaten the state" that we should be worried. Nepali Maoist got powerful because it espoused a raison d'etre (republicansim) that no party would take. They grew like a monopolist trader would grow. Had the cause of Republicanism taken up by the parliamentary parties, Maoists wouldn't have grown to become how strong they are today. Their insurgency, if at all, would have remained as insignificant (to threat the state) as Indian Maoist insurgency. Indian Maoist insurgency is not only weak and never going to be strong enough to force us reconsider republican democracy (as implied in YYYYji's and XXXXji's posting), in fact whatever 'churi-furi' Indian Maoists are showing is very much a SPILL OVER effect of Nepali Maoist. If you remove Nepali Maoists from the map, Indian Maoists will become nobody. So, how can this non-threatening Indian Maoist insurgency appearing in Indian republic can be something for us to doubt republic democracy in Nepal ? We are mixing up apples and oranges and only to feed monarchists to their hearts content. Ma ta logic sogic kehi dekhdina hai yahan. ----