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Here is an article is Kantipur in this issue:
‘INTERMISSION’
Surendra Phuyal
On
a sunny afternoon this past week, just as the scorching heat gave a
hard time to peasants waiting to plant rice paddy around the country,
Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal Prachanda welcomed Nepali cinema
celebrities into his party. Abandoning the party of the proletariats
not-so-long ago, Rabindra Shrestha joined the CPN-UML and is now a
minister. Mani Thapa started a new underground outfit called the
Revolutionary Left Wing. Matrika Yadav opened his own CPN-Maoist. And
many of his cadres reportedly deserted the 'PLA (the People's
Liberation Army)'.
So what?
With the grand entry of former
“royalist” Kollywood stars like actor-cum-director Neer Shah,
villain-cum-fight-director-Rajendra Khadgi, actress-cum-producer
Mausami Malla, songster Anju Pant and many technicians and comedians,
Prachanda's party looks even better today, doesn't it? While welcoming
the celebrities into his party, Prachanda put auspicious vermillion
marks on their foreheads, and adorned them with garlands and Himalayan
khadas.
And
he got emotional. “Now that all of you have joined us, I feel like I am
still the prime minister,” Chairman Prachanda said. He gave a long rant
about his “people's war” and the ongoing peace process. “When I ponder
over things today, it seems to me like we are currently in the
INTERMISSION (of a movie).”
Sensing a kind of déjà vu, the cine
artistes smiled. Prachanda, which roughly means the “Fierce One”, went
on and hypothesized the Second Half. Portraying the Maoists as the
Hero, he added, “In the end, all the villains, all the foreign stooges,
all the local and foreign brokers … all of them need to be swept away.
In the end, these villains will be crushed.”
Laughing out loud, the artists nodded.
When
his turn came, actor-cum-director Shah said, “We are the Maoists of the
film-making world.” After he got vermillioned and garlanded,
fight-director-Rajendra Khadgi flaunted his biceps and punched his fist
in the air. Throughout the function, as television cameras panned
across the hall, the stars looked awed. Probably dreaming of an even
more glittering and spectacular career ahead.
To observers, it
seemed like the once-royal artistes have now embraced the republican
reality — in which the Maoist leaders are talking about Jana-Andolan
III or somehow capturing state power. More realistically, it seemed
like the Kollywood stars have realized that the Maoists are indeed a
force to reckon with, that they are here to stay and that they are
going to shape the future of Nepal — brighter or darker, whatever may
be.
The First Half
Let's flash black. Four years ago, when King
Gyanendra was desperately seeking international legitimacy to his
direct rule, Nepal's political leaders flocked to the Indian capital,
New Delhi. Academics, members of civil society, journalists and party
cadres followed. That must have been the biggest informal congregation
of Nepali politicians in Delhi after the 1950 exile of King Tribhuvan —
whose homecoming, one year later, marked the end of the 104-year-long
Rana oligarchy and introduction of democracy in the forbidden Himalayan
nation.
After innumerable meetings with Indian officials,
politicians and academics with close links to Raisina Hills, the top
Nepali politicians zeroed in on a brand new plan: the
12-point-understanding between the then Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and
the then CPN- Maoist. As the nervous Delhiwallahs — who initially
adopted a wait-and-watch policy vis-à-vis Nepal — watched, that accord
finally saw the light of the day and was released on Nov. 22, 2005.
To
many, the 'New Nepal' was already born. The agreement clearly outlined
steps to end the bloody conflict: everything from declaring a ceasefire
to mobilizing the masses against King Gyanendra, signing the peace
agreement to holding the Constituent Assembly elections, and
integrating Maoist combatants into the security forces to writing the
country's first “truly people's constitution”.
Fast-forward pace
Nearly four years on, the SPA and the ex-rebel
Maoists have come a long way. The UN came in. The peace agreement is
now nearly three years old. A little over a year ago, the “free, fair
and independent” elections elected a 601-member Constituent Assembly
(CA). Its first meeting converted Nepal into the world's newest
republic. The Shah dynasty (1700-2000AD)'s last king, Gyanendra,
evacuated the Narayanhiti Royal Palace. Because his ex-rebel party
emerged as the largest, once-feared and elusive leader Prachanda became
the first prime minister, soft-spoken Nepali Congress' Dr. Ram Baran
Yadav became the president.
For nine months, Prachanda ruled the
country fairly democratically — although there were widespread
complaints and concerns that his party cadres chiefly the CL (Young
Communist League) continued with their “rampages” while others went
ahead with their land-grabbing sprees. As the touchy issue of
integrating the UN-verified 19,000 ex-combatants got even touchier, the
ego clash between the two former enemies — the Maoists and the Nepal
Army (NA) turned even worse.
Matters came to a head in early May.
Then Prachanda accused Army chief Rookmangud Katuwal of defying
government orders and sacked him. In came President Ram Baran Yadav,
the supreme commander, and told Katuwal to stay on. Protesting what
they described as military supremacy as opposed to civilian, Prachanda
stepped down as the prime minister, deepening the crisis. Soon, the
non-Maoist parties in the CA came together, and CPN-UML leader Madhav
Kumar Nepal, another architect of the Delhi agreement, took over.
The Second Half
This past week, a confident Nepal told the Al
Jazeera TV: “We are going to get the Maoist onboard. This government
will last for another year and a half years.” Concurrently, the Maoist
politburo meeting has decided to go ahead with a “united national
government” under their own leadership. It's unclear how they are going
to make up with the “puppet” government.
But until the parliament,
which doubles as the CA, debates what on earth civilian supremacy
means, the lingering deadlock is unlikely to taper off. Until then, the
two important tasks of the peace process — integrating or
rehabilitating the Maoist ex-combatants and gifting poor Nepalis their
new constitution will remain incomplete. Until then, expect more chaos
and pandemonium.
Much of the Second Half is yet to unfold.
(The author is a BBC Correspondent. He covered the events leading
to, and the aftermath of, the 12-point understanding from New Delhi)
Posted on:
2009-07-01 03:43:06
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