Exactly a year ago today yet another round of movement against king Gyanendra’s regression and coup had started, and fortunately, that turned out to be the final and decisive. Tired of not getting as much public support as they would have like to have, political parties had announced another phase of movement against regression from April 6, 2006. The alliance of seven parties (SPA) was energized by the 12-point agreement they had reached with the Maoists a few months earlier. The Maoists had postponed their plan to hold nationwide protests and extended their support to the peaceful programs to be launched by the SPA. That Maoist decision added more energy to the SPA led movement.
Exactly a year ago today in Kathmandu.
[Here is a video of the April Uprising posted by Roshani Dhungana on Google Video. The link of the video was sent to UWB by Jason Andrews, Yale University.]
“Rallies, protests, arrests, campaigns and imposition of curfew marked Wednesday [5 April], the day before the four-day long General Strike,” UWB reported on 5th April. “This morning a number of leaders were arrested from their home. 37 professionals including lawyers, journalists and doctors were arrested in the morning when they tried to rally peacefully.” We knew that from the 6th of that month, April Uprising had begun. Under the title “On Photos: April Uprising I“, we posted several photographs: “The first-day of four-day General Strike saw closures, protests and police clampdowns. It was a story of make and break. The only debate was who were trying to make and who were trying to break. Protesters were burning tyres, policemen extinguishing them; protesters were chanting slogans, policemen were chasing them and protesters were putting disturbance, policemen were clearing them.” Then there was a diary of the first day that detailed the life in Kathmandu. Maoists were still continuing their violent activities against the royal regime. They attacked, UWB reported, on 6 April Magalawa, the district headquarters of Sarlahi, kidnapping a few including Chief District Officer Bodh Raj Adhikari. “An Army helicopter was ‘crashed/gunned’ down.”
And yes, we also remember that article of Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai in which he had predicted about the April Revolution. Under the headline “Maoist Expects ‘April Revolution’ in Nepal”, UWB wrote: “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.”
April Revolution Blogs:
1. On Photos: April Uprising I
2. General Strike Day I Diary
3. Maoists Attack on Sarlahi
4. The Eve of General Strike
5. Patan Meet in the Eve of April Uprising
6. Maoist Expects ‘April Revolution’ in Nepal
United We Blog 
Comments
14 responses to “Remembering the April Revolution of Nepal”
Nepal is going only one direction …DOWN…..that is if it has not hit the bottom already.
A movement of Mob and Goons spread by Indians. Go and sell your defunct crap to someone else. Ask Prachanda for reality cause he has well accepted how India instigated the violent mobs.
You stupid royalists should not be cursing India. You might be going there soon, to join your beloved King.
Manan, if India wants, it can piss on you and you will drown. What you were was becasue of INdia, what you are is becasue of India and what you will eb is becasue of India. The people who rule you, who make your law, who control your money, who cook your food at home are all favors of India.
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF NEPAL AS DISCLOSED BY MAHARA WILL BE MADE AS FOLLOWS:
Complete ban on “Miss NEpal Paegant Show .”
Ban on women’s work outside the home, which also applies to female teachers, engineers and most professionals. Only a few female doctors and nurses are allowed to work in some hospitals in Kathmandu, that is to treat only those supporting the Maoists.
2- Complete ban on women’s activity outside the home unless accompanied by close male relative such as a father, brother or husband, who is a Maoist cadre.
3- Ban on women dealing with male shopkeepers.
4- Ban on women being treated by male doctors.
5- Ban on women studying at schools, universities or any other educational institution.
6- Requirement that women wear a red bandana with the Maoist symbol, which covers their forhead and sindoor.
7- Whipping, beating and verbal abuse of women not clothed in accordance with these rules, or of women unaccompanied by Maoist comrade.
8- Whipping of women in public for having non-covered ankles.
9- Public stoning of women accused of having sex outside marriage. (A number of comrades at higher polit bureau are exempt from this, especially if their wives live outside the valley).
10- Ban on the use of cosmetics. (Many women with painted nails will have them cut off as they need to be trained to pull triggers.
11- Ban on women talking or shaking hands with non-maoist males.
12- Ban on women laughing loudly. (No stranger should hear a woman’s voice).
13- Ban on women wearing high heel shoes, which would produce sound while walking. Only cloth and rubber boots as worn by other Maoist women cadres.
14- Ban on women riding in a taxi without a maoist cadre.
15- Ban on women’s presence in radio, television or public gatherings of any kind except for propaganda organized by the CPM (Maoist)
16- Ban on women playing sports or entering a sport center or club, except rifle shooting.
17- Ban on women riding bicycles or motorcycles, except for those who are part of the YCL and militia.
18- Ban on women’s wearing brightly colored clothes. Only in Army uniform, and males to dress like Mahara. NO nepali daural suruwal will be allowed as No Maoist cadres has ever worn them. The daura suruwal attracts Royalists.
19- Ban on women gathering for festive occasions such as the Teej, Dashain, and especially the Chaath celebrated in Madhesh.
20- Ban on women washing clothes next to rivers or in a public place.
21- Modification of all place names including the word “women.” For example, “women’s garden” has been renamed “spring garden”.
22- Ban on women appearing on the balconies of their apartments or houses.
23- Compulsory painting of all windows, so women can not be seen from outside their homes.
24- Ban on male tailors taking women’s measurements or sewing women’s clothes. Inlcuding no daura suruwal.
25- Ban on female public toilets. Its either hold it in or pee in the saree.
26- Ban on males and females traveling on the same bus and vikram tempo.
27- Ban on flared (wide) pant-legs, so all the guys going clubbing think Lungi to attarct other males in the non-alcoholic clubs.
28- Ban on the photographing or filming of women, No remixed videos, no pictures of models on cybernepal.com.np.
29- Ban on women’s pictures printed in newspapers and books, or hung on the walls of houses and shops. No devi’s photos or any goddesses.
– No Banning listening to music if part of the proft from royalities received by the artist funds the CPM.
– No banning of movies, television and videos, for everyone as long as the shows are censored and are all non-American.
– Ban celebrating the traditional Diwali and Holi. The Maoists have proclaimed the holiday un-secular.
– Proclaim Labor Day (May 1st), because it is deemed a “communist” holiday for the party-workers.
– Order that all people with Hindu names change them to secular ones.
– Force haircuts upon Nepali youth.
– Order that men do not wear daura suruwal and a cap.
– Order that men not keep or grow their beards or moustaches, this would be resemblace to the Royalist regime and prevent from security identification.
– Order that all people attend khula manch when prachanda is speaking once a month.
– Ban the keeping of pigeons and playing with the birds, describing it as un-secular. The violators will be imprisoned and the birds shall be killed. The kite flying will also be stopped.
– Order all onlookers, while encouraging the sportsmen, to chant Long Live Prachanda and Death to Royalists and refrain from clapping but rather use the traditional CPM Salam.
– Anyone who carries objectionable literature against the Maoist will be executed.
– Anyone who converts from secularism to any other religion will be executed.
– All boy students must get army training and spend five year in Maoist Cantonements learining life skills.
– Non-secular minorities must distinct badge or stitch a yellow cloth onto their dress to be differentiated from the majority secular Maoist population.
– Ban the use of the internet by both ordinary Nepali and foreigners, except while visiting UWB weblog to post and praise the CPM and defame other political forces and help in spreading the democratic messages of the Prachanda path.
Jai Nepal
matribhumi
you have too much time. where did you think of all that? i hope no mobadhis were reading this blog because i am sure you just gave them alot of new ideas.
Mr Pundit, what do u mean ideas? Did you not think that this was coming with these guys in power?
Why no SIM cards in Kathmandu ? Read on about the Conspiracy:
It was why no SIM cards when Mahara came into power, basically because I had the proof of a video in my mobile phone of Prachanda doing a one horned rhino and claiming “Rana haru le tadha bata banduk le hanthe mane maile mane ta mero tala ko le hane.” To prevent the cirulation of this video there are no more SIM cards. I will burn it in CD and show it in the parliament.
Just wondering that guy who came to the parliament with a gun, does he sleep with his gun too ? If he did his wife and she had a kid, would he not be the son of a gun ?” Sorry just passing time.
“Maoists! Come to your senses, do not torment Nepalis anymore.”
Many women of villages of Kushmishera VDC in Baglung district, leaving their household chores, joined the ‘exposure programs and people’s movement’ organized by People’s Front Nepal (PFN) by chanting anti-Maoist slogans (like the one above) on Sunday.
Such programs have been spreading like wildfire in the villages in the aftermath of the Maoists’ acts of brutality when they cruelly tortured two dozens PFN members, including men and women, by piercing their bodies with drilling equipment last Monday.
The ‘exposure campaign’ has been further stepped up in the district with the backing of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Center-Masal).
The party’s politburo member Chitra Bahadur KC arrived in the district in order to mobilize the party activists toward this end.
Speaking at a mass meeting here in Kushmishera, Sunday, KC said that the Maoists were defaming the communist movement.
“What politics are they practicing by piercing their rival’s bodies?” he questioned.
“It is already getting late, and we have to work together against their atrocities,” he added. He also reiterated that his party would not rest until it spread the present movement countrywide.
Speaking on the occasion, various PFN leaders said that they would retaliate the Maoists’ atrocities as they are going over the limit lately.
“We are fed up with the Maoists now ,” a woman from Kushmishera said, while adding, ” we just want our leaders’ support to expose the Maoists’ vicious acts against civilians and PFN members.”
Several PFN activists who were tortured in Maoist captivity have challenged the Maoists to face their ‘ideological war’. “We fully support the current movement against the Maoists since they are engaged in such heinous acts after failing to win the people’s support,” they said.
KC also informed that similar protest programs in all the 75 district headquarters are also in the pipeline.
Various human rights organizations have already reached the place to probe into the Maoists’ atrocities against women and PFN cadres.
We don’t need Prachandapath. You can’t kill people anymore.” These are the anti-Maoist slogans the people of Dailekh have been shouting for the last two weeks. Young and old, men and women, they protested openly against the rebels. Once sympathisers of the Maoists, they are now protesting spontaneously. Not too long ago, they had applauded and carried Maoist flags, but things have changed. The rebels didn’t show fear when the Royal Nepali Army attacked their villages but now they have to hide from the rebellious public. They are facing the consequences of having taken the people for granted. It is time for them to acknowledge that the sickles of the mass are more powerful than the AK-47s of a few armed militants.
The Dailekh rebellion will spread across the country if the Maoists do not apologise. The mass protests are staged with very good intentions and both the state and the rebels should create an environment where the people can breathe in peace. If injustice against the people continues, mass fury will not be contained. It will lash out at both the state and the Maoists. The Royal Nepali Army indicated provision of security if the elections took place. This will only lead to an authoritarian rule, what the people need is peace.
Anti-Maoist uprising in Dailekh owes much to the women who did what the men did not have the courage to do. To rebel against the Maoists is not easy but such was the desperation of the mothers, who though illiterate, rose up to protest. When politicians feared going to villages, teachers fled, schools closed down and men migrated, the women defied the gun.
This guy matribhumi is very funny. Man make a blog out of these funny comments, I will like to spend my time laughing around rather biotching around here.
Let’s not forget our past.
who had lost their life so that we could live this current life.