KUMAR SHRESTHA

In his address to the nation as a "common citizen" last week, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal bemoaned that frequent strikes were scaring away investors. He said the tendency of Nepalis to hit the streets at the slightest pretext needed to be stopped once and for all.

That's what Citizen Dahal feels. But what is Prime Minister Dahal going to do about it? He must know it is goons from his own party who are undermining his efforts to woo investors. The head of the Maoist student wing publicly threatened last week to "break the backbones" of anyone daring to oppose his union. Since they have done it before, nobody doubts their ability to carry out the threat.

Union militancy has now become the single biggest worry of the private sector. It continues to create havoc in the Birgunj-Hetauda and Itahari-Duhabi industrial corridors. Many entrepreneurs have bought peace at prices that nobody knows about. Emboldened by the easy success of their technique of intimidation, Maoist labour is now targeting schools and hospitals. It is of no concern to the union mafia that these institutions already pay much higher wages than the minimum fixed by the government.

But then it is not really about wages, is it? It is about control and extortion.

When asked about the violent and brash behaviour of his foot soldiers, Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai actually replied that a planned chaos was necessary to wrest control of the state. That wasn't a slip of the tongue. It is looking more and more like the game plan is to unleash anarchy for forcible state capture.

If that is the case then restoring law and order is not a Maoist priority at all. It is now up to members of the coalition to up the ante and demand that Dahal publicly and credibly renounce violence as a political tool before they do any more deals with him.