 BASU KSHITIZ /ANNAPURNA POST |
Following Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai's return from Bihar where he was enlightened on development, Falgun Seven came to Nepal but Democracy Day didn't. The revolution of Prachanda and Bhattarai is circuitous and it is taking us back to the pre-1950 era.
Maoism and the Rana regime have a lot in common, the Maoists just want a new kind of feudalism. Along with the monarchy, the Maoists also discarded nationalism. And the last 16 years have been wasted because of the Maoist 'people's war'.
There were some important achievements of the 1950 revolution: it established the principle that the king and the rulers should always be accountable to the people. The concept that the King should remain the symbol of social unity was also established during this period. Modern institutions were required to set up rule of law, the administration and judiciary expanded after 1950.
Maoism has defined the relationship between the rulers and the people in a curious way. One year after launching the their armed struggle, Bhattarai used the Leninist concept of ethnicity to raise the intensity of war. However, despite the use of 'people' in theory, only centralisation has found place in Maoist practice. Questions are raised within the party that Prachanda, who has become the Napolean of Animal Farm, put Maoist ideology above people, and himself above ideology. In this way, if we analyse the last 16 years, we will see that the Maoists are accountable to Maoism, not to the Nepali people.
Maoism recognises the rule of party high command rather than the rule of law. Prachanda himself has stated that the Maoist 'people's court' is above the Supreme Court. The party, rather than the government, holds the reins over the state's administrative machinery. It is because of this that the Supreme Court has been forced to annul the decisions of the government one after another. The conflict between the Supreme Court and the government has arisen because the party's documents are above the country's constitution. On top of that, the fact that the government, instead of taking action against criminals convicted by the Supreme Court, is intent on rewarding them, has deliberately ridiculed the rule of law.
Whether it was by looting during the war time, or creating fake combatants during peace time, whether by creating people's government during the wartime or embezzling state funds during peace time, the Maoist party has been making a lot of money. Like in Mohan Shamshere's time, how much money the Maoist headquarter or Prachanda have, is a secret known only to Prachanda and a handful of businesspeople.
The Maoist 'people's war' is most responsible for weakening nationalism. Our PM had to go to Bihar to learn that the secret of development is rule of law and good governance.
If that is so, then why did we have to go through a 16-year war and transition and suffer the loss of 16,000 lives? Just so we could have a republic? If prosperity, freedom and nationalism are our goals, then why did the Maoists weaken all these three through the war and continue to do so?
