Ten years after running the violent war against the state to topple monarchy for the communist dictatorship, top leader of the Maoist Party stresses the importance of unified non-violent movement to bring down autocracy in Nepal
So Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, revolutionary by some and terrorist for others, tries to convince us that the Nepal will see an “April Revolution” and that the peaceful movement against autocracy will successfully restore democracy in the country this time around. Writing an op-ed piece in today’s edition of Kantipur daily, Dr Bhattarai says, “It is felt everywhere that the pro-democracy movement has reached to the decisive turning point after the second understanding between the Maoists and pro-parliament forces and announcements of programs of strike and non-cooperation programs beginning from April 6.” He ends his optimistic and ‘the glass is half-full’ type of article with this warning sentence: “But there is only one condition that the party leadership should lead [the movement] firmly.”
It is indeed a refreshing experience to read an article arguing for peaceful movement from the man who is waging an armed struggle against the state for the last ten years. Dr. Bhattarai, second only to Comrade Prachanda, again the revolutionary for some and terrorist for others, in the Maoist Party, heavily defends the second edition of the 12-point understanding with political forces (and points out that the same is has “disappointed a large section of the pro-democracy movement by not being able to find the common slogan and solid agenda for the movement against autocracy”) saying that there is no need to fear the possible state-measures against the movement. It’s been proved, Dr. Bhattarai writes, from the experience of the 1990 movement that we can’t shake the 250-year-old roots of the autocracy without the unity among communists, non-communists, pro-parliament forces and non-parliament democratic forces. “It is absolutely necessary that these two forces be united to establish the democracy by ending the autocracy that both of the movements couldn’t achieve,” he writes.
Citing the examples of how the autocratic king was forced to declare the 1980 referendum after the movement spread and intensified from a small protest against the hanging of Bhutto in Pakistan and 1917 ‘February Revolution’ in Russia, Dr. Bhattarai concludes, “That is why the April 6-9 struggle bears the capacity and prospects of giving birth of an ‘April Revolution’ in Nepal.”
Everyone is talking about “Purna Prajantra” or complete democracy in Nepal these days but Dr. Bhattarai says that no body has come up with the exact definition of purna loktantra or complete democracy. There might be no differences with the conclusion, he writes, that complete democracy means democratic republicanism as there is a huge majority of people advocating for the democratic republicanism in major political parties.
Here is the original article in Nepali.
United We Blog 
Comments
63 responses to “Maoist Expects ‘April Revolution’ in Nepal”
don’t talk like indin ambassador,unique relationship.
worshiping indian growth, its place on the map of the world so and so forth will not going to help the nepalese cause. what matter is–what you can get out of her growth. it would be stupid to think that nepal will benefit naturally from indian growth. see india has just slapped extra tarrifs on nepali chow chow and some other product. it is clear that india will make us sweat to access its huge market no matter how small the quantity of export.
all india or china for that matter–sees is its security concerns and nothing else. as long as we protect indian security concern we are friends but when it comes to sharing indian market we are just another competitor.
even if we protect indian security concerns we will be bargaining hard to get something in return. you see nepal has wipped out the ISI agents from its land and what we get in return. very few.
other thing is indian communists allaince in present government is sheltering maoists and interestingly its india who declared nepalese maoists a terrorist group.
stop believing that worshiping india going to help nepalese cause, unless you are somthing else.
Gentalman:
No one is worshipping India’s success nor is anyone saying that just because India is growing it will automatically benefit us.
The argument first started because this Coke charater was implying that everything that is wrong with Nepal is India’s fault. This Girija/Deuba’s chumcha seems to think that we as Nepal do not have any control over our own destiny. Which is not true in the least bit. I was explaning to him that if we had good sensible leaders who can read and have a basic understanding of economics we could tapp into India’s success and devise ways to piggy back on its success. Everything from the damn encrachment to unfair trade policies get slamed on us because we do not have the civil beaurcrucy to contest these policies. Why are we not going to the WTO and making a fuss about the trade policies? why are we not raising the issue of damn encrachment at the UN? Look at Bangladesh and how they have managed to get India to change its tariffs on its exports.
For the last 12 years the agenda has always been to find ways to stay in power, get their relatives and firends into various positions etc. Before that the Royal Palace was engaged in a similar campaign.
I completely agree with what Mr. Kirat said.
No one is saying that India or China is going to go out of their way to help. Everyone including has their own national interest. Unfortunely for us there is no leader who is able to represent our national interest. And what ever this Coke fellow incorherantly tires to say is not India’s or anybody’s fault.
Hey Mr. Kirat
I was just wondering what you thought a Nepali identity means?
Jimmy Carter tries his hand at Nepal peace
From Sudeshna Sarkar
DH News Service
Kathmandu: He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, including mediation between Israel and Egypt that led to the Camp David Accords.
Now, 25 years after retiring as the president of the United States, Jimmy Carter is flying down to Nepal to try his hand at mediating among King Gyanendra, the Opposition and the Maoists.
The 39th US president will arrive in Kathmandu on May 4 for a short visit during which he will meet the king, leaders of the Opposition parties (that is, the few who would be out of prison by that time), and, in a major shot in the arm for the Maoists, their representatives as well.
This is the first time in the history of the 10-year insurgency that such a senior US statesman and international celebrity is engaging them in talks. The Carter Center in Atlanta, that turns 24 this year, has been trying for some time to be accepted as a mediator in Nepal.
Barring the Maoists, the other two sides have been declining offers for mediation or even facilitation by others like the United Nations, European Union, Norway and Switzerland. They, however, have expressed willingness to hold talks with the Carter Center.
Last year, senior Opposition leaders and a former minister, considered close to the Maoists, were invited to the US by the center for dialogue.
There were also plans to invite a team of Nepal Government officials and Maoist representatives separately.
It remains to be seen if Mr Carter can break the ice. Though King Gyanendra would be delighted to meet him, it remains to be seen if his chauvinistic aides and advisors would allow him to accept the offer of mediation.
Mr. Pundit,
That’s a sad question! Do you want me to sing “Resham phee ree ree” or will ” Laure dai ko really mai..” do? With all our different ethnicities our culture is so rich and yet you have a problem finding our Nepali identity?
according to baburam, long time ago his forefather help Ram Shah to cheat and overthrow poor magar King in liglige village–see kantipur article by baburam. he is proud that his forefathers has done it to magars. and now he is cheating poor magars and other janajatis to do it again. only diffence this time around is he wants throne for himself. that is what this April Action is all about.
who gives damn about Baburam’s bio or what his forfathers did or what he is doing
turn deaf ear to him and his boss Prachanda and make them nobody
turn them anonymous in Media
if you have to talk about their (wrong) doings
credit only their party, not them
they will wither away
unfortunately, the APRIL Rev. is no longer theirs as the 2nd meet of the 12-point concludes,
SPA has taken away from the Maoists
they are not even participating, not even as civilians, let alone leading the Movement
you are definitely working for KG as his man
and spreading rumor to stop the Strike’s success
just shut up and go away
SPA has snatched it from maoists? now that is a ‘rumor’, yes they can make us believe once they severe tie with maoist and denounce the 12-point garbage.
i havent really read the complete discussion but after around 10 – 15 i just wanted to inject in a few points
with india soon becoming the third biggest economy in the world after china, dont u think a country located in between the two would be an important real estate.
i mean see the suez canal was built to shorten the route between asia and europe and also the panama canal to shorten the route to the west coast of america and eventually a trade transit and maybe also an information transit (optical fibre bridge) will be built via nepal, because its only obvious; no point bringing goods all the way down the china sea to india, this way only the coastal regions of china can benefit not the central areas which has easy access to the oil from central asia and which if not developed economically and industrially will cause china lots of problems politically and also no point sending more satellites to space cause there is gonna be terabytes of data traffice every hr between these 2 countries
BUT who controls these canals, is it the egyptians or govt of panama.
do u think the big player will allow that NO WAY.
they want to control it. that answers y the americans are building a multi million dollar complex in maharajgunj they want to hold their control. also mr shyam saran the foreign secretary of india was their ambassador to nepal i mean such a big guy to such a small country only 1% the size of india economically y??? and the chinese they are building a bigger badder embassy in hattisar y?
see in real estate, three things determine the value, location location location. nepal in this term is prime real estate.
and ofcourse nepal is beautiful and its got lots of water and with the building of a trade transit the financial sector will also boom and so will our service sector
with all this we can with such a small population easily match indias 10% growth rate and our purchasing power parity will also sky rocket
but if all that happens and if we have a strong nationalistic govt no foreign country can control our country
thats y they need a weak govt in nepal
thats wat happened when the french built a canal through egypt and in panama there was a civil war when the americans built the panama canal.
i dont know wat games foreign powers are playing in nepal but all m saying is we cant be too naive
now more than ever because the chinese have almost completed building a broad gauge train to the border of nepal india already has one, and a plan for a fibre optic line from mumbai to shangai has already been signed
i request all nepalese to be careful and not let this golden opportunity to be a truely global player pass thru our fingers
bhai pute gawar lute
[…] Außerdem würden sie (sicher aus strategischen Gründen) von der reinen Lehre abweichen und nicht nur eine demokratische Republik, sondern auch Marktwirtschaftsreformen akzeptieren. […]
Don’t worry… India has their own Naxalites.
The bourgeoisie — and for our dear Indians, the upper castes — will not rule for long.
The great “progress” and “opportunities” you speak of is the bleeding of the countryside and the workers for YOUR economic miracles.
Coming soon to Bhutan, Bangladesh the Phillipines…. and China!
Lu…
…