There is an eerie resemblance between the Maoists and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in Darjeeling. Agreed, it was at a different time, a different place with a different set of demands and at a different scale of things, etc. But it did involve us Nepalis or Gorkhalis as they prefer to call themselves. Whilst Supremo Subash Ghising and his top brass were trying to put their best foot forward and playing to the gallery, the soldiers of the Gorkha Voluntary Cell (GVC) were busy playing judge and jury. Providing quick fix and mostly violent solutions to all problems ranging from land disputes to adulterous husbands, levying taxes, extortion, extra judicial executions and more. Down below lurked the game of cloak and dagger, as soldiers muscled into each other's territory, personal grudges were hammered out in the guise of political differences, disillusionment felt, counter-revolution plans hatched and groups regrouped along ethnic lines. Never mind the scavenging psuedo GVCs at the sidelines. All it took was a disgruntled trigger-happy revolutionary in the form of Chatrey Subba to march straight back to the jungle tostart things all over again. Anything different happening here? Join the dots.

Yadav Bantawa,
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