YCL ATTACK ON US ENVOY MIGHT CATAPULT POLITICS

N.P.Upadhyaya

Kathmandu: Comrade Prachanda appears to be having rough weather these days for him and his party as well. While unsubstantiated reports have it that he and his deputy-Dr. Bhattarai are in minority in the party’s 35 member central committee. This is definitely a bad omen for Prachanda and his deputy. Add to this the unrestricted jungle dwellers militias of the not so distant past now have been confined to cantonments with inhumane conditions. Reports leaking in Kathmandu from various cantonment sites suggest that the confined militias are not that happy with what has been managed by their party for them at present.

Some even have begun talking in a rebellion mood against their own party top-hats who say that their leaders’ should have comparatively provided due attention to their plights at the cantonments. In saying so the militias indicate that they disapprove the manner their leaders enjoy a life that usually the capitalists possess. This means that the poor militias upon whose strength and prowess Prachanda and his comrade-in-arms have been enjoying the materialistic lives in Kathmandu can go to any extent should their living conditions at the cantonment sites does not improve.

“We are not the paid workers of the government which has offered us rupees 3000 a month as perks or salary”, said a disgruntled militia at one of the cantonment to one vernacular weekly last week. Add to this Comrade Prachanda’s own plight. His own routine duty has been at the moment limited to knock Koirala doors each day and he returns empty handed. It appears that Koirala is buying time in order to expose the Maoists to the extent that their popularity or for that matter fear wanes among the denizens of this country. Whether he is doing so on his own or under instructions is, however, not known. Nevertheless, the manner the Maoists have been losing their political weight and credentials in the eyes of the population, it appears that by time of the CA polls, the people might forget their names even.

The GUN factor might leave some room and space for the Maoists by then but that too, analysts say, will not last for long. “Any party that believes in the bullets is sure to go to the dogs ultimately”, says one political analyst at the TU’s political science department. In the process of losing, Prachanda must have begun sweating. The reasons of his sweating are countless indeed. He is being greeted by failures after failures and that too in series. No wonder that he is under tremendous pressures from his own party’s rank and file. Clearly, the Maoists’ party upon its participation in the government is divided in to two equally powerful groups. The first believes in the theory that the Party must not forget the “nationalism” aspect and hence sees the need to strengthen the nationalism through whatever means were available to the party. India has already sensed the mood of the Maoists when they talk of Nationalism. The word nationalism means anti-Indianism to India. How the Indian establishment takes up the Maoists new slogan in favor of nationalism in this country will have to be watched.

As a matter of fact, if past experience was any guide, those who cry about nationalism in Nepal are either branded anti-Indian or at best thrown to the oblivion. Now to come back to the point! The other set of the Maoists conclude that the party did a blunder by participating in the government and thus concludes that the “people’s war” stood aborted half-way. This group suggests the party to think twice over the recent appeal made by a senior Indian Maoist leader, Ganapathy, who suggested the Nepali Maoists to continue with the people’s war by scrapping its relations with the current Nepal regime. Yet another group inside the party prefers the YCL to create terror and panic more so that the State under Koirala automatically and unconditionally yielded to their non-ending “fear-psychosis”. The fact is that the YCL acts of terror have exponentially gone up in the recent days.

Reliable sources close to the Maoists say that Prachanda and Dr. Bhattarai are in a “minority” in the party which means that one fine morning the leaders in minority might be either expelled or suspended or even overpowered by the majority faction. Maoists leader Mohan Baidya alias KIRAN is talked to have garnered majority in the party. Sources further say that Prachanda and Bhattarai possess only nine supporters. This in itself a cause for Prachanda’s sweating. Add to this that a clear set back to Prachanda and his party has had to endure when tired of Hisila Yami’s misleading evaluation of the ADB and the Seven Trent British company, the ADB appears to have already decided to say good bye to the mega Melamchi water project. The Japan government too appears to be in a similar mood. Others might follow the suit.

His hurried meeting with the ADB officials in Kathmandu last week was a move to calm down the ADB so that Melamchi could be flown to Kathmandu in order to quench the thirst of the Kathmanduites. The ADB remains undeterred. Nevertheless, the Maoists supremo has decided freshly that he would take a “brave step backward”. Leninist theory appears to have come into action. That he is still sweating came to light when he and his comrades had to rush to the German Embassy last Friday afternoon to “express” their sincerity towards the system and to “assure” the EU envoys that henceforth his erratic YCL cadres will not exceed their limits. German Ambassador Franz Ring is currently the Head of the EU presidency. High placed sources say that though Prachanda wanted to assure the powerful envoys from the European Union, the envoys appeared reluctant in digesting his words. The EU envoys told Prachanda and his team that the Maoists words and deeds must match in action and behavior.

However, around the time Prachanda was busy in convincing the EU Ambassadors residing in Kathmandu, Friday, about his changed political credentials, almost around the same time American Ambassador James F. Moriarty was stoned by the YCL cadres in Damak, Jhapa district, while he was returning to the UNHCR Office in Damak upon the inspection of the Beldangi refugee camp. Naturally, this YCL activity angered the American envoy which might force Prachanda to sweat more in the coming days. Ambassador Moriarty must not have taken the YCL personal assault on him in a good taste. The YCL acts against the UNHCR-Abraham Abraham and the Ambassador of the “lone super power” is sure to bring more sweating to the Maoists supremo-Prachanda in the days ahead. In what form the US and the UNHCR retaliate is yet to be known. However, foreign ministry sources say that the US has already expressed its “grave” concern over what happened to its Ambassador in Damak last Friday.

Reports say that those who vandalized the UNHCR vehicle that was carrying Ambassador Moriarty to Damak have been apprehended and kept under police custody. The Damak incident does speak that no diplomat or for that matter Ambassadors from any country are safe in Nepal, not even the Indian viceroy-Mukherjee. Analysts say that had it been Mukherjee the YCL target that fateful afternoon in Damak instead of Ambassador Moriarty, the regime by now would have changed and the King installed. This also speak that Americans have nothing to grab from Nepal but India has. However, Mukherjee is advised to remain in Kathmandu until his departure for anti-Indianism is on the increase more so after the Maoists have officially decided not to overlook the nationalism aspect at CC Meet that concluded recently. As expected, the EU, Nepal government plus some parties of the liberal have already issued a statement denouncing the YCL activities which must have caused more sweating to Prachanda.

That Prachanda had begun sweating much ahead of these events came to light when the telegraphnepal.com was informed by its sleuths that Comrade Prachanda have had a forty five minutes telephonic conversation last Thursday, May 24, 2007, with King Gyanendra’s personal/private secretary Pashupati Bhakta Maharjan. The million dollar hair-raising revelation is that it was Prachanda who rang Mr. Maharjan but not the otherwise as it should have been or expected. When asked by Prachanda as to what King Gyanendra thought of the Maoists, Maharjan is reported to have said that the King viewed the ex-rebels political overtures as “normal”. Politics is a dynamic game. Politics is the art of the “possible”. Neither a permanent enemy nor a permanent friendship!

This does indicate the first heavy impact of the sweating deity-Bhimsen- at Dolakha district some days back had its tremendous political impact on Prachanda but not the King as suggested by some analysts. At least this much is visible for the moment. How Moriarty causes Prachanda to sweat more will have to be watched. High placed sources say that Moriarty is determined to bring all the liberal forces together prior to his departure back to Washington upon the completion of his Nepal tenure. All put together, what comes to the fore is that the time ahead are topsy-turvy for Prachanda and that he will have to sweat more if he fails to tackle the emerging politics carefully. The message is loud and clear. May 29, 07

Source: Telegraph Nepal, May 29, 2007