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The figure is so astronomical that we had to check with the Central Bureau of Statistics which came up with the correct total: a lump sum of nearly Rs 9 billion. So, you if you killed a whole lot of people the state will pay you Rs 7 laks each, or allow you to join the army. Sheer genius. But soldiers and police who also killed a whole bunch of people will rightfully ask: "Hey, how about us?" Just a thought: if we had got Nordic taxpayers to give guerrillas 10,000 dollars each in 1996, perhaps there needn't have been a war in the first place.
The only thing "historic" about the seven-point deal is that it's just a continuation of history. The "Radissson Agreement" actually follows up on the "Gokarna Summit" a year ago and the CPA five years ago in which Com Sitaula had got leaders to nearly agree on exactly the same points. In Gokarna, Makunay and Awesome had crossed the t's and dotted the i's on the number of fighters to be integrated and the compensation package to those opting for rehabilitation, and were ready to sign the documents after lunch break. But then PKD got a longish phone call from somewhere, and suddenly told MKN he couldn't go through with it. That is how we lost one year on this agreement. The moral of the story is that henceforth all mobile phones should be banned during summits.
What we tend to forget is that this was just an agreement on decommissioning of the Baddie camps, the larger issues of the new constitution remain to be resolved. And what we haven't seen are the sub-points of the seven point agreement that were stealthily written with invisible ink. Even Bauram hasn't denied that besides the note of dissenters, the agreement has footnotes which stipulate the sequence of power-sharing. Under this "ladies and gentlemen agreement", it looks like Awesome will once more become primordial minister on or around November 30 so that he is head of government when the constitution is finally written. The Kangresis have agreed to wait, and will be given the helms to oversee elections when they are finally held. Those who believed in revolutionary leadership have agreed on rotational leadership, which must be a sign of progress.
It's a win-win for everyone. BRB cements his statesmanlike image of a dealmaker who delivered on his promise of rescuing the peace process. PKD who sorely missed being in Balu Water not just gets back to being PM, but even regains the trust of his handlers down south. The Kangresis get their pound of flesh. And the UML doesn't get anything, they just get to show that they are still players.
Even though the party leadership smoked the peace pipe, war has broken out between the chauffeurs of the various ex-prime ministers in the Balu Water parking lot. A long simmering dispute between drivers over priority parking slots broke out into an open fist-fight even while the leaders were signing on the dotted line on Tuesday night. Makunay has been trying to launch a club of ex-PMs to build bridges and take a perspective outlook on issues of national importance, and the group has met a couple of times. Ironically, it was MKN's own driver and PKD's YCL flunky who first got into the skirmish and others joined in. There is another peace process that needs to be saved on the parking lot.
