There was a lot of anticipation in the air. How he, will he look like? The man, who was ‘waging war for them’ for a decade, was known only through a single photograph of him taken in 2001. There was jubilation as, people could positively walk in the streets after a decade long civil war. They said, “he is the one we need.” On June 14th 2006, the maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal known by his nom de guerre “Prachanda”(which means the fierce one) made his first public appearance in Kathmandu after 25 years underground.
He later recollected: “that day I first appeared in Kathmandu, I wore a light blue suit. I like light blue colour the most.” There was hope. People saw Prachanda as a harbinger of a fecund economy and peaceful life. Reporters who first interviewed him described that he looked more like a popular neighborhood “uncle” than a maoist-guerilla.
Two days later he, with the other parties, Prachanda’s Comunist Party of Nepal(Maoist) --CPN(M)-- formed an interim government. Prachanda lavished praises on the Nepalese Congress(NC) chief and former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Many were surprised. Such was the exhilaration during the time that lot many cadres of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)—CPN(UML)-- deflected to CPN(M). Amid all the ruckus and celebrations people continued to wonder who he was? The party he headed told something and his demanour something else.
A couple of days later the government headed by Koirala signed a comprehensive peace agreement with Prachanda, which promised to keep the soldiers of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Nepalese Army in cantonments or barracks and their weapons locked in containers. The United Nation’s Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) will over-see the whole process.
Analysts were proved wrong when the Maoist won the constituent assembly elections in April 2008, after the insurgency that left almost 13,000 people dead. In fact, the Maoist won more seats than the NC and CPN(UML) combined. Prachanda headed the Constituent Assembly(CA), which was to draft the constitution of Nepal in two years Skeptics, who considered his beliefs redundant and his war an old world war, were clueless when he shook hands with the chief of FNCCI (Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries) and when he himself intervened to halt trade union strikes.
In fact it appeared that it was the arguments of the skeptics that were redundant. Prachanda’s homegrown form of Maoism, called “Prachanda Path”, does away global supremacy of China, inhumanness of Peru’s Shinning Path at the same time incorporating the tolerance of democracy.
Prachanda says “communism being a science, it deserves continuous and consistent development.”
Prachand’s singularity of character and a ceasefire were a good reasons enough to impress people in the constituent assembly elections, but not the opposing parties. They wanted this political party with an army to be fenced.
Then there was the planning for presidential election. This is where the people’s mandate will boiled down to. Maoist or not, everyone for the time being seemed to believe that power emanates from the muzzle of a gun. (Though President is the ceremonial head he will hold the reigns of the armed forces.)
Now, Prachanda said he wouldn’t form the Government if Koirala were NC’s presidential candidate.
This, Prachanda said, “this dishonours the mandate of the people.” He knew well that Prime Minister and President from two different parties would create lot of pushes and pull in the administration.
To make a long story short, after of long drawn out altercation of 55 days, the election was held. Ram Baran Yadav of the Congress assumed presidency--Kingdom Nepal became Republic of Nepal and the King became a common man. CPN(M) sympathiser, Ramraja Prasad Singh was swamped; 23 out of the 25 parties in the CA voted against him.
“Dual power”(a term coined by Lenin during Russian revolution) is how Prachanda describes the present coalition of Nepal; the Maoist bloc pitted against the Nepalese Army supported by the opposition parties and the royalist.
This translates to ground reality that tough-talking Chief of Armed Staff (COAS) General Rookmangud Katwal , who is the foster child of King Mahendra, won’t accept the integration of the Maoist force into the Nepalese Army; not even a few thousands who pass the requirements of the army, as said in the CPA. And that other political parties will support the army.
What is more unsettling than the “dual power” in Nepal is the dual nature of Prachanda himself. What he calls “socialism and communism” in centrist circles becomes “people’s war and maoism”, in extreme-left circles. “Democracy” ” in centrist or right- media becomes “an unfinished revolution” in left-media. And “policy” is used interchangeably with “tactics,” depending on the audience. If this is the hotchpotch called the ‘Prachanda path’ then it tastes a little weird; he forgot to add salt. (Read “trust”)
Prachanda may look as a bamboozling politician to an outsider. But analyst say that it is to keep his cadres within the party fold and the confusion is more within the party than with the NA or opposing political parties. Ninety per cent of his cadres comprise farmers who will understand only the lingo of “people’s war.”
The footage released by a private channel of Prachanda speaking to the PLA combatants in Chitwan district (where there is one of the seven cantonments) more than an year ago, must be seen in this light. He tells them how he befooled the UNMIN by showing them less number of combatants and how their numbers have actually increased.
“You and I know the truth, but why should we tell others.” He quipped.
People joined CPN(M) for a different reason than they would join any other party. Caste equations are not present in the party, women could participate freely, and they could live without the repression of the police and army. Noga a twenty six year old women in the Rolpa district says,
“The Maoists would come and just ask for food and shelter. But when the army came, they would kill and torture people. This happened every day.
“For this reason I joined the Maoists.”
“There were always problems with the police and the army. But I didn’t just join because of that. The Maoists had visions for the future, for liberation.”
The Maoist had vision. At least, that was what they thought or is still thinking. But the vision is as seen through the barrel of a gun.
“The war has encouraged and spread a culture of intimidation and violence,” admitted a Maoist reclusive leader.
Prachanda seems to have realized that running a government is difficult than leading a revolution. Power-cuts were as high as 14 hours, businessmen were dissatisfied trade union strikes were rampant. Anarchy was let-loose, Prachanda watched helplessly.
He pointed them the way, but they stare and sniff at his finger. Nanda Kishore Pun aka Pasang, who now heads the PLA after Prachanda assumed the post of Prime Minister, had made had spoken about the intention of the Maoist to downsize Nepalese Army to 50,000 men. He considers the present strength of 90,000 too much for a small country of Nepal. There is a growing disenchantment of PLA with the army.
General Katwal also got impatient with the ambiguous number of people enlisting as PLA at the cantonments. He began recruitments in December 2008 citing the reason that they were not new recruitments, but filling in posts that were vacant. He became more vocal about not including “indoctrinated” people in his army.(Prachanda calls them “politically aware”.)
Massive upheavals caused by relatively insignificant events. The two events that directly led to the current political turmoil are trival:
The army had requested the Defence Ministry an extension of service of eight brigadier generals, by three years, whose term were to end by mid-March this year. Earlier the Moaist Defence Minster Ram Bahadur Thapa had approved the extension of service of one brigadier general. But this time the ministry refused to approve. Things took a serious turn when the General Katwal got a order from Supreme court quashing the ministry decision. The other one is even more trivial—the army refusing to take part in the national games, because PLA is participating in it.
Prachanda send an ultimatum of 48 hours asking for an explanation from the defiant general. The prime Minister impeached the general saying his explanations were not satisfactory. But President Ram Baran Yadav, asked General Katwal to continue in his position. Prachanda felt insulted and resigned.
There was lack of restrain on both sides. Prachanda’s actual show of grit lies in tiding over this crisis. He must see that the people of Nepal are not exactly happy, his own men and women in cantonment can’t be kept happy for long and that in Nepal besides Maoist, and men opposing him, there are normal people without any affiliations--people who look forward for peace. He must do a tight-rope walk. On the left is the chasm of self-contradiction, that will tear his efforts apart and on the right is danger of sterility and ineffectiveness.
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