DAMBAR KRISHNA SHRESTHA

It will be some time before we find out whether Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, whose only aim is to grab power, actually sacrificed the PLA for the sake of democracy, peace and constitution building or for the post of prime minister. If he has taken the step for the country, he will be remembered in history as a great statesman. Otherwise he will be branded as a traitor in the history of communist movement.

It is up to him how he wants to be remembered as, a hero or a traitor. There are those who say that what Madhav Kumar Nepal did in Shaktikhor was just making up for the mistakes of Girija Prasad Koirala. If the peace process and constitution building does take off in the right way the events that took place in Shaktikhor may be termed as great steps. But there is also a grave danger that those events would only accelerate the so called people's revolt. After all, revolt was what the plenum in Palungtar had decided upon. There is a huge difference between what the Maoists say and do. If the other parties that are engrossed in power play are not sensitive to this reality, Shaktikhor's 'great events' will only end up pushing the country further down the cliff.

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