 KIRAN PANDAY |
There is a sense of desperation in the Maoist strategy. The whole idea is to disrupt life, spread chaos and a sense of total breakdown so that a fed-up populace will say ok, let's put them back into office and get it over with.
There is no doubt that being the largest party, the Maoists deserve to be in the coalition. In this paper we have repeatedly called for a national government made up of all large parties, because it is 'unnatural' (to borrow Pushpa Kamal Dahal's phrase) for it to be any other way. But the Maoists have been their own worst enemy by being unable or unwilling to rein in their violent vanguard units and their use of terror and by making no attempt to hide their end goal of totalitarian control of the state.
Whatever is holding up the power-sharing agreement, these strikes and disruptions are pressure tactics to improve the Maoist bargaining position. It is a time-honoured tactic practiced by past masters of this art, that is the NC and UML since 1990: you punish the people by ordering stoppages to harass your political opponent.
Take the threatened hotel strike. The party's central union has directed its units to go on strike demanding salary increases commensurate with the civil service pay hike earlier this year. That increase was announced after many years, whereas the hotels have been hiking staff salaries almost every year and the lowest salary of a hotel worker is more than double the minimum wage.
The Maoists have chosen a soft target to make a populist move against rival unions. It is no coincidence that they have chosen the hotel owned by the president of the Hotel Association of Nepal, Shangri-La, and two hotels where the state has shares: Radisson and Hyatt. They have threatened to harm the children of mid-level managers in these hotels to force them to join the action.
There are indications of a major split between the top union bosses in the Maoist party and their second echelon, mainly over the spoils of extortion revenue. The hotels, the petrol stations, and the Nepali people are ensnared by a revolution that is now beginning to devour its own children. We can't do much but endure the next two weeks of turmoil the best we can.
The ideal outcome would be a deal that gives the Maoists a face-saving exit from an agitation of their own making so they can rejoin the political mainstream. But as long as this party continues to believe in violence and refuses to stop sowing terror there will be no space for it in this or any future state mechanism.
