From http://nepalitimes.com/issue/2... Cow slaughter to buffalo worship Deb Shankar Poudel in Rajdhani, 21 February KIRAN PANDAY On the concluding day of discharge process, the disqualified PLA combatants received flower garlands in a customary farewell from their supreme commander in Dahaban, which they threw away angrily. The combatants, still young and enthusiastic were bitter about being asked to leave the cantonment after dedicating their lives for the revolution. While children of their leaders whiz through Kathmandu?s streets in slick cars, they were?disqualified?. Those who fought for equality were startled to find the reality. Prachanda then went to Sunsari in the east. Before the disqualified combatants had even got home, astrologers discovered scientific facts about the Chairman being under the negative influence of Saturn, the planet of bad luck. He worshipped a female buffalo to appease the enraged god, then announced that religion and astrology had a scientific basis. This was the same leader, who had ordered his cadre to slaughter cows and forced people to eat beef during the conflict. He doesn't seem to see the irony in worshipping a buffalo now. Those who slaughtered cows were given a couple of thousand rupees and sent home. The worst thing in human life is to be disqualified. In the presence of their revered leaders, the combatants were declared disqualified in front of the Nepali people, political parties and the UN. It is because they survived the war. Had they been killed, they would have been declared ?great martyrs?. Worshipping a buffalo to appease the planets is a new dimension in communism. Had they found this enlightenment before and told their cadres, thousands of books of the Sanskrit University would not have been torched, people in mourning would not have been killed and priests would be spared. Pundit Narayan Prasad would be alive. Thousands of cows would not have died in vain. Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the masses. Our Maoists were inspired by Marx, but they forgot to take into account that there should be a different political system in a multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country like Nepal. Senior Maoists leaders have been hobnobbing with many holy men lately: the high priest of Gorakhnath, Manakamana Mata, Pilot Baba, Yogi Kamalnayanacharya, Chandra Swami. If only Babaji and Swami Maharajas would indoctrinate the disqualified and qualified combatants, it would be a fusion of spiritualism and materialism assuring the great leap forward in the revolution.