One little item of news two weeks ago escaped the notice of most people: the Home Ministry's announcement that the number of Nepalis killed in the past nine years of the 'People's War' had crossed the 10,000 mark. That this is now a five-digit conflict, in itself, shouldn't make it any more serious than it already is. But it is a milestone that underlines the point that this has always been a senseless and unwinable conflict. Adding another zero to the total toll just drives the point home.

At the rate we are going, with 30 reported deaths a week on average, it won't be long before we hit 20,000. Then, 30,000. And then, what? Will the Maoists be any nearer to a republic? Will the Royal Nepali Army be any nearer to wiping out the Maoists? All we will achieve is more Nepali deaths, thousands upon thousands will be orphaned and widowed, millions will be forced to leave their homes. What kind of Maoist utopia commands that sort of a price in blood and misery? The comrades have to ask themselves this question and find an honest answer.

The Maoists gave their revolution an ethnic edge with the declaration of seven autonomous zones in January. It is now in danger of going the way everyone feared: turning a class war into a caste war. The Maoists have enlisted the support of their wavering allies in the east by announcing the Kirant Autonomous Region, and crowned it with a major attack on Bhojpur. The Tambuwan and Tamasaling are blockading highways to strangle the towns.

It is now getting more and more difficult to believe that this revolution is moving along a pre-determined game plan. It looks seriously out of control. Giving the struggle an ethnic tint smacks of desperation, pointing to fatigue at its political centre. In any civil war, hardline militant or ethno-separatist elements gains supremacy when the political part of the struggle erodes or gets sidelined.

Lately, we are seeing signs of a movement that needs to invent new ways to stoke social anger for support. A political call for revolutionary transformation doesn't seem to be enough to carry the momentum forward. That may be why the Maoists don't seem to see a need anymore to consider public opinion. It doesn't seem to matter what the people think, in fact the strategy now seems to be to punish the people by assassinating anyone still left in the villages, declaring multiple bandas and blockading urban areas to inflict pain and panic on the public. Cold-blooded murders of innocents, ambushing dairy tankers, torching buses, lynching six people in Saptari and leaving their bodies to rot by a school all indicate that violence has now become an end in itself.

It is the responsibility of our current rulers, the underground comrades, the political parties who represent the Nepali people to take immediate steps to stop this slaughter before many more thousands die. Why should the people be made to suffer any more for their endless power struggle? Announce elections, agree on a ceasefire, and let the people decide who they want to be ruled by.