In all this high drama one thing the Maobaddies seem to have forgotten about is the 40-point demand that they presented to PM Deuba way back in February 1996. They handed in the laundry list and without even waiting for a reply while Deuba was away in Delhi, launched their janajudha which ended up costing 15,000 Nepali lives over the next ten years.
The same comrades are now in government heading key ministries and don't seem to want to be reminded about the 40 demands. Among other things, they wanted to scrap the 1950 treaty, ban Hindi movies, stop Gurkha recruitment, impose work permits for foreign workers, end monopolistic capitalism in the banking sector, etc etc. The party that went to war to scrap the Tanakpur treaty is now ready to sign away Pancheswor. So what was the war for?
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During the war years you could be killed for selling moonshine. Gamblers were executed. Now that they are in power, the Maoists have got their revolutionary trade union to put pressure on the home minister to lift the ban on Nepalis gambling in the nation's casinos. Not that the ban ever stopped us from even sneaking in pretending to be Indians, but a revolutionary government that has bravely imposed a curfew in Thamel's night clubs, banned smoking in public places, evicted sidewalk vendors, plans to tear down all royal statues, and has licensed booze shops is now about to allow Nepalis to legally play Russian Roulette.
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It is getting more and more difficult to say whether Comrade Dumb Dev is eh-Male or Mau Mau. Even though the man lost the election, the UML put him on the PR list and then made him a minister. But our Homily Minister is so beholden to the baddies for having pulled strings to make him minister that his public pronouncements of late make him sound like he is a spokesman for Awesome.
The other day he said: so what if Pasang becomes commander in chief? If a guerrilla chief can be prime minister, Comrade Nanda Kishore can be COAS. Fair enough. But then at Bharatpur airport the other day he said he saw nothing wrong with the government using tax payer's money to compensate people whose property had been confiscated by the Maoists. Come again? You steal from me and then you reach into my wallet to pay me back?
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Kudos to the Maoist-appointed head of the National Planning Commission for having put his foot down on inducting various relatives and cronies of Maoist ministers as new members of the NPC. PKD seems to have realised his boys had gone too far and rescinded the order. Alas, other nominees in parastatals and corporations like Water and Sewage, NIC, NAC and NOC don't seem to have the cojones to stand up to their baddie benefactors and are busy turning their new fiefdoms into employment agencies for cadre. The only thing we can say for the Maoists is that all this is nothign new: the UML and NC did exactly the same thing.
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Would-be foreign minister Com Gaurab was recently in Caracas at a Hugo Chavez do, rubbing shoulders with lefties from all over the Americas. The question arose whether it was the Senderos who inspired the Maoists, or Prachanda Path that inspired the Shining Path. Whatever the real story, Gajurel Sir reportedly went off on a doctrinaire tangent instigating the Senderistas to rise up again and overthrow the elected Peruvian government. This had quite a few of the Latin American delegates squirming in their seats. An Indian eye-witness said it sounded like Naxalite rhetoric from his college days in the 1960s.
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Before he left for Caracas, Gajurel Sir let some cats out of the bag. 'Prachanda' was originally supposed to be his nom de guerre and PKD's war name was actually Comrade Biswas. But Lotus Flower thought 'Biswas' didn't have that certain zing and decided to call himself 'Prachanda' and told Gajurel that henceforth he would be called 'Gaurab'. Gajurel has never forgiven Comrade Terrific for taking away his name.
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So Chitwan has declared itself a band-free zone. Shame on the capital for not being able to do it also, and letting YF hoodlums compete with YCL goons to bring the capital to a halt even though their mother parties are both in government. Not even the embarrassment of ex-prez Abdul Kamal getting stuck for two hours on the Arniko Highway by accident victims blocking the road has woken up a government that is pretending to sleep.
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