What do Maoists really want? Or to put it aptly, what does Prachanda really want? His recent interview with BBC has erased any doubts people had about his existence and “Prachana†being a pseudo name. However, it has also brought in light about how elastic Prachand has become in his demand in nepali politics and society. It was only few years ago during Deuba’s government that the peace talk failed between them and the Maoists mainly due to the Maoists’ hard stance in turning Nepal into a communist state which is not feasible due to Nepal’s geographical location making it dependent on one side through terrain of rugged mountains to a country that is slowly becoming a free, capitalistic market economy and on three sides to a country that has for over five decades become a republic democratic society. And it was high time for the Maoists of Nepal to realize this fact or rather truth.
Though Prithivi Narayan Shah united Nepal firstly by getting rid of easier and smaller peripheral estates and moving slowly into core or Kathmandu, the same strategy did not seem promising for the Maoists. They realized that getting a hold of kathmandu was not as easy as gobbling down Rukum, or Jaggerkot. The King would fight until the end to save his neighborhood. And if the end was ever met, it would only be with exponential growth in the numbers of people killed in this conflict of power or ideologies that had engulfed Nepal and Nepalese. And thus, Maoists finally realized this bitter truth.
So after so much of realization they have shaken hands with the political parties who Prachanda claims scrapped their demands when they were in parliament and whose political activists Prachanda’s army frequently abducted, tortured, decapitated, and killed. It was the political parties that labeled Prachanda and his army as terrorists. It were these political parties that at first ignored the rising of Prachanda and are now turning a blind-eye or deaf-ear to the atrocities committed by Maoists. And now with the alliance with the parties, Maoists who were just a riff in rural areas have now become a major political force and have almost legitimized their stance.
But what makes one wonder is this sudden change in the ideology and approach that Maoists have adapted. Political, ideological beliefs are not like food cravings that one day you crave for something sweet and next day for something spicy. It is neither like changing underwear. And if such belief has already taken so many lives then changing or giving up on it almost seem redundant not unless you are a chameleon. So what guarantees that once this chameleon reaches a safe spot, it is not going to change to its desired or original color? More so if this chameleon can change from what it actually believed in while coming into existence?
So could it be right, now to say that Prachanda is nothing but a power hungry mongrel that would do anything absolutely anything to have it? If not then what does Prachanda really believe and what does he really want? And is he sure this time? May be not before seeing few thousands death.
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