Nepal’s peace process at tenterhooks: ( part -1)
Krishna Paudel
It looks like Nepal’s four year old peace process
is dangling amid myriad uncertainties, worse than ever in its short life span.
Political negotiation process, hitherto smooth albeit with occasional jerks and
jolts, has hit a major road block and stuck in a limbo. Perhaps, this is the
point from where major differences among the political parties, hence the main
stakeholders in the process, have become more apparent and irreconcilable for them to go along carrying their separate baggages of divergent
ideological bickerings and power objectives
Background:
Nepal experienced the restoration of a banned multi-party political system from Nepal’s monarchy in 1989-90 after a popular and often violent uprising that extended and peaked in in two months. The then King Birendra uplifted a 30 year old ban on political parties revoking the notorious Panchayati Partyless political system imposed by his father Mahendra. A constitution drafting committee was formed and within a year , the promulgation of a new democratic constitution ensuring ethos like liberty, human rights and sovereignty of people formally ushered a New Democratic Era in Nepal’s modern history. However, amid all the euphoria of democratic inception and right to freedom perhaps the new constitution failed to take into confidence the expectation of the poor masses which accounts among the worst in percentage basis in the world. Democracy in a backward country like Nepal had to be endorsed also by the silent majority but the top political echelon failed to fathom its severity and neglected what could be its result.
Ever since Nepal’s political parties were banned in 1960s by king Mahendra , Nepal had seen a strong surge in popularity of Communists. Various communist factions championing the causes of the rural poor were becoming ever popular in Nepal even in the heydays of Nepalese monarchy. By 1994 , a major communist party ( CPN –UML) became Nepal’s main opposition party in parliament with a real strong presence to upset the Apple Cart at any attempt. Other radical Communist factions also made their strong presence both in and outside the parliament threatening the whole political system as most factions claimed that their objective was to set up a Communist Society under the much touted Dictator of Proletariat in Nepal as proclaimed in Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. The communist parties, including the main opposition, openly proclaimed their political objective and declared that their acceptance of the just implemented constitution of Nepal was a temporary commitment to it terming it to be ‘critical support’ to the constitution and under a broader long term strategy ( Rananiti). Another more radical Communist faction named United People’s Front ( UPF) which commanded 9 out of total 205 seats in the parliament was already threatening to wage a war against the government and the new political system if their demands were not met. Already further fragmented with a vertical spilt in the party, this front later on regrouped itself under the ‘Maoist’ banner and waged an insurgency against the Nepalese state declaring their agenda of establishing a Communist republic state in Nepal. Within less than one and half a decade, this new born insurgency Movement was able to launch a major threat to the state and system in Nepal. There were reasons and circumstance within Nepal and in its neighborhood for Maoists to grow as big as they eventually became.
The Rise of Maoists
During its modern history Nepal had experienced the family rule of the Ranas for 104 years as late as to 1951. A strong political movement led by Nepali Congress, the main political party adhering to western style democracy in the nation, over the last decades culminated in 1951 ouster of the Rana regime. The titular king, Tribhuvan(ruled 1911-55) , under the Ranas was restored to the throne with dignity . The imminent decade after the Ranas’ demise saw the rise of political ambition in Nepalese palace. Amid poitical squabbles among main political parties and their leaders, the king got time to strengthen his position and ambition. A general election was held in 1959 and Nepali Congress returned to power with an overwhelming majority ( 74 out of 109 seats) under the prime-ministership of their charismatic leader BP Koirala, the ego clash with King Mahendra (ruled 1955-72) eventulally ensued to unmanagable proportions. King Mahendra disbanded all political parties and jailed the main party leaders imposing a partyless Panchayati System in the country. He alligned more with China rather than Nepal’s traditional and more close southern neighbour, India. In order to counter and let the popularity of Nepali congress dwindle among people, Mahendra’s softening stance towards communism among the contry’s youth experienced a set of new ideological dynamics taking concrete shape in Nepal. By the time King Birendra had restored Multi- party system in Nepal Under popular pressure in 1989-90, if all factions combined together the communist block was the strongest political force in Nepal. However, not one of them were in very cordial relationship with the other.
The Maoists party claimed that they were the only true representatives to lead Nepalese poor and liberate them from the feudalistic power -mongers of Nepalese political establishment. They started their insurgency activities by attacking police posts, government offices banks and other institutions in the outlying areas of Nepal, mainly in remote north-western districts. They attacked police posts, killed government sympathizers and local party cadres or supporters who aligned with mainstream political parties in the parliament. At times, their actions and war techniques defied logic and went to the extent of brutality and savagery. The Maoists maintained that this sort of aberrations in their movement was caused by the infiltration of government security mechanism within the Maoists Movement and bore no true character of themselves. They claimed that theirs was genuine people’s war , their objective being to liberate Nepali people and establish a communist state in Nepal. Violence was not their choice but a compulsion to liberate and empower people. However, others viewed them as brutal killers in the garb of a political insurgency.
Since the government viewed the Maoists as a violent terrorist outfit, the party and their revolution functioned underground. The Maoist leaders were in the hiding and most of the Maoist top brass lived in and around New Delhi, the capital of India. They trained their militia, arranged weapons and logistics and worked through an extensive party network to launch a vicious war against the Nepalese state from inside India. Indian behavior during these flourishing years of Maoists movement was really mysterious. Because of this, some Nepali intellectual quarters even accused India of masterminding a proxy war against its little neighbor Nepal through the Maoists. In fact, Indian power establishment was believed in these times to be in not so cordial relationship with the Nepalese palace and therefore some believed that India was instigating the Maoists to see the end of Nepali monarchy as an institution altogether.
Democrey goes awry at the hand of political defaulters:
In the aftermath
of popular movemnet of 1989-90 and general election, Nepali Congress again
emerged victorious and formed a majoiry government to serve for five years.
Party infighting among its top leaders and factionalism led the GP Koirala led
Nepali Congress government after its three years in power. During these three
years , the main opposition party Nepal Communist party United Marxist Leninist
( 69 out of 205 seats in parliament) intensified its vicious campaign aginst
the NC led government’s liberal fiscal policies and also accusing it of
nepotism and corruption. According to the opposition, the NC led government had
undermined people’s expectation in the just concluded movement and was
unilaterally deviating from adopting pro-people policies and leading the nation
towards economic anrchy to benefit a handful few only. The people in the
government, on the other hand, were always on the lookout of their precarious
hanging onto the pwer never bringing their focus on country, people and the
longer term implications of governement actions or policies. This led to
disillusionment of people towards the democratic circus which only resulted in
frequent elections and toppling of yet another government. Eventulally , the
main opposition party NCP UML decided to transform itself into a Socialst
Democratic party with the adoption of People’s Multi-party dmocracy as its
party objetive trough its party convention in 1992.
( Continued---------------------------)
