In protest of the Chief Election Commissioner’s announcement that Constituent Assembly (CA) polls on June 20 was not possible, Maoist combatants in Chitwan and Nawalparasi came out of their cantonments yesterday. In Chitwan, Maoist combatants of third division main cantonment in Shaktikhor, came out of their camps to protest the postponing of CA polls. According to ‘Abiral’, Maoists’ spokesperson of the camp, some 4,000 combatants participated in protest programs. However, 2,000 combatants stayed back to guard the camp, he said. Likewise, combatants of neighboring satellite camps of Dinesh-Ramji and Kalyan-Anish Memorial brigade also took out similar protest rallies. The joint rallies passed through the market places of Jutpani, Chainpur, Birendranagar and Pithuwa VDCs before converging in a corner meet. “We came without our party’s prior consent,” said commander Bibidh, adding, “We will be forced to leave the camps if the problems worsen.” (more here)Pic by Binod Tripathi
In blatant breach of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to which they are a party, Maoists have started opening offices under their United Revolutionary People’s Council (URPC), a body parallel to local state institutions, in Lekhnath Municipality of Kaski. Despite their party’s decision to scrap all units of their parallel government, Maoist cadres have reactivated opening such offices in different wards of the municipality. According to local cadres, their party (including Maoist Ministers) has directed them to launch a nationwide campaign for opening such council offices. They also said the party’s central committee has directed them to open “parallel offices” at par with government offices at district, municipality and village levels. In the photo above, Biswo Prakash Baral, member of the city committee of the Maoist in Lekhnath Municipality of Kaski district, puts a signboard in their office on Ward number 4 of the municipality. Maoist area No-4 in-charge of the municipality “Darshan” said, “We will be opening ward, municipality and district level offices much the same as the government. We plan to open our offices adjoining government offices.” Pic by Ishwori Neupane
Meanwhile Maoist bullying continues
IDP gets life threat
Going against their earlier agreement of allowing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to return to their homes, Maoists in Gulariya threatened to kill Mukti Bahadur Swar of Gola-2 in Bardiya if he ventures to return home. According to Swar, who has been living at the district headquarters for five years, the Maoist cadres had threatened to “chop him into pieces” if he attempted to return home, reported our correspondent. However, Maoists allowed Trilokman Shrestha, former Manau VDC chairman and others to return some days ago. Meanwhile, scores of IDPs here appealed to local authority to help create an amicable environment for their safe return and for the return of their seized properties.
United We Blog 
Comments
50 responses to “CA Election Uncertainty: Maoist Reaction”
The authors of this blog need to stop referring to people by grouping them in certain categories such as this – Sher Bahadur ‘Royalist’ Deuba. The “Royalist” in between Deuba’s name is absolutely not necessary.
I believe currently in Nepal it is unpopular to support the king, but grouping people to degrade them is going down a path of bigotry, racism and divide.
Please write your editorials in an articulate manner or your colleagues in (scratch journalism) day job will lose any respect for your work.
“We came without our party’s prior consent,” said commander Bibidh, adding, “We will be forced to leave the camps if the problems worsen.”
We are feeding them to sit in their butt forgetting all their miss deed and they are threatening to come out and kill us, Kill Nepalese? Do they know who they are fighting for and what for? They got what they wanted (seat in parliament and ministries) and still threat innocent Nepalese people to bath with our blood.
If this is the attitude the CA election will never be fair.
By the UWB you should give up hoping the maoists are going to be democratic all of a sudden. It’s just not in their agenda. I new it from the start, and it would be better if you grow the brains to start relaising that they are not interested in multi party democracy. They want totalitarian rule. Trouble ahead that’s all there is. Get your war hats on.
What kind of a UN cantonement is this where the rebels can come out of the camps at will? Is this a lodge or a hotel or a UN cantonement? Why doesn’t Mr. Ian Martin speak something on this clear violation by the Maoists? Besides, the government is paying for their food and lodging.
Regarding polls deferring, I think, holding the polls in a hurried manner would have raised its credibility. What if there was 28 percent voter turn-out just like in the municipal elections?
PLA should not be coming out of cantonements and whining about conditions, the rest of the nation have been fending for themselves on their own and not with govt. (taxpayers) money. They have it easy compared to the rest of the country. It’s a ll BS, and like I said their complete unseriousness and disregard for democracy. They simply don’t know what it is. They don’t care and it’s not their agenda. It is time the rest of the “benefit of doubt” fools understand this and make democracy their agneda and fight for it while we still have a chance.
Shreeya: holding the polls in a hurried manner would have raised its credibility? Excuse me? Is that a typo or are you insane?
Whatever your views are regarding the Monarchy the future of the institution has to be decided by the people! How the hell is Prachanda ‘demanding’ that Nepal be made into a Republic without the CA elections? Firstly who is he to demand? And how does he know what the people want. I am frankly getting sick of the Maoists. I think it’s time to chase them back into the jungles.
Bhudai I am always amazed that you think that option is on the table. The problem with your thinking is that when military options were pursued the Maoists were winning. Also, Shreeya actually agreed with you. I don’t think He/she meant “raised” as in “made higher.” He/she meant “raised” as in “raised the issue.”
Here is the fundamental problem: The Political parties (particularly the Nepali congress) viewed the 12 point agreement as a way to get back into power and sideline the Maoists.
The Maoists viewed the 12 point agreement as a way to win with a political settlement instead of a bloodbath.
———————————
The Maoists don’t view their own government as illegitimate. They view the old government as illegitimate (parliament or not) and they see the entire point of the interim government being to hold the CA elections which they foresee themselves winning.
From their perspective, the old parliament had no legitimacy in the first place, and had no authority to call on them to lay down their arms (particularly after the agreement was made in the 12 point agreement to combine the two armies).
So, from the Maoist perspective: They have made concession after concession, (For instance, they let go of the deputy prime minister and accepted unimportant ministerial portfolios) all in order to hold the elections on the given date, only to find at the end that the government wasn’t serious about holding the elections after all.
Of course, from the perspective of most of the posters here, The Maoists are the illegitimate ones, and have no right to demand anything. Thats a legitimate position, but unfortunately it is unsupported by the current power dynamics. As an example, if the Maoists didn’t have 35,000 troops before, They certainly do now.
My prediction is this: If the elections continue to get delayed, the Maoists will simply continue to establish their parallel organizations until the interim government is rendered irrelevant. If they meet resistance from the government they will resort to urban insurrection. They will then, if they turn out to be serious about wanting a multi party system after all, organize the CA elections themselves.
Yes, this sucks. Sorry.
I Don’t think the maoists have much of a choice now but to go ahead with the postpontment of the elections.
They knew from the beginning that the CA was not possible but their leaders didn’t have the courage to break it to their party members. Now they are caught in a catch 22 situation.
regarding concessions, i don’t think they have made any concessions: they havent given back the lands, the still carry forced donations and still threathen people with guns and their YCL is still above the law, even when they are in the govt.
The whole of Terai is against them and even the business people are taking out rallies against them. In this scenario they would have fared badly in the polls. So the postpoment of the poll is a blessing in disguise for them. They have the time to improve their behavior and win the confidence of the people.
So the maoists should look at the bright side and should not resort to strikes and bands.
Horning:
Unfortunetly you have it wrong. Yes, it sucks. Sorry.
When the military option was being pursued the RNA made many many mistakes. They were ineffective at intelligence gathering, their was no check-balance mechanism which allowed RNA foot soldiers to abuse villagers thus creating resentment and just the general manner in which the RNA was executing this war was not highly effective. I don’t think the RNA was highly successful but its not to say the Maoists were ‘winning.’ Didn’t Prachanda himself admit that the Maoists were incapable of achieving a military victory? Also don’t forget that Gyanendra’s takeover also had negative reprecussions on the RNA – all of a sudden all military aid was stopped. With full support from the international community and reforms within the NA would remedy the past ineffectivness. Plus now the Maoists have lost major support in the Terai region.
Neil, everyone over estimated the strength of the Maoists! The power dynamics? What the hell are you taking about? Have the recruits have been coercied into joining the army. If the NA had a brain they could easily fight that propoganda.
Anyway the point is that the SPA will not declare a republic so I guess you are correct the Maoists will continue to crerat their parallel government. Let’s see what happens…
I agree Bhudai, if Maoists resort to such parallel government then we have to chase them back to the jungles and even if this means getting help of a bruised but not weak Nepalese Army. It needs a strong leader and unfortunately it may have to be someone from the Army, but what we need is a powerful entity against the Maoist. The only person they fear is the King which is why they demand the republic set up whether people want it or not.
I hope and pray that this balance of power and polarization remains and if the Maoists go back to forming parallel governments then the rest of the parties to save their sorry asses will join hands with the King.
Back to square one, but at least we will be saved from the atrocities of these terrorists.
Horning: I don’t see how terrorists can make concessions, what concessions have they made ? Oh the portfolios…hmmmm I wonder how long were these portfolios going to be in place anyway 3-4 months.
Also, whats the point of gathering high portfolios when u want the people to believe in your motives. Maoists wanted these potfolios for a reason and why am I explaining this to an American wanna be Maoist anyway ? Stop Farting around.
I wonder if those soldiers holding those signs can actually read whats written on them.
i have no sympathy on these types of hoax play card. i dont believe to maoist. they are trying to get lacuna to fire the gun ,to get ransom, to extort public and terrorise to people. lekhanath municipality indicates this. on my eyes they are terrorist nothing else to me.
If the Maoists don’t stop this BS then we should be all means go out for a war. It would be a highly justified ‘just war’ as well.
Prachanda is making noises to placate his base. They are thinking this: have we been sold?
Seriously, does anyone think Prachanda is ready to go back to the jungles? B.S. Its just a bargaining ploy. The SPA shouldn’t buy it.
You are right Bhudai, further need to add that Maoists lured youths to join PLA, saying PLA will be merged to Nepal Army and they will have better facilities and handsome salaries. But the hope of merging PLA is fading away.
Now those youths are nostalgic to their own confinement, as they have termed those cantonments as “Open Jail”.
As Maoists central members aware of these situations and uncertainity of CA polls, they opted to declare Republic.
Few people in this blog seem to be eager to go back to war, but the question is who is going to fight against the Maoists’ PLA ? The implicit assumption could be that the (R)NA is going to do the job, but I doubt if that will happen now. The political parties demoralized and humiliated the army. Now the army will only sit and watch. Now that they have been separated from the king they don’t care whether it is the Maoists or the political parties who will run the country. From army’s point of view they are the same, and on top of that Rukmangat is a ‘chakka’. So, Mr Bhudai Pundit I don’t see another war coming unless there is an alliance between the King and the political parties.
Neil,
Then what is the legality of Maoist Ministerial Positions?
Why not prachanda declare that his cadres are beyond his control?
We nepalese have lost almost 12 years in this bloody war, why can not his party wait for another four months for CA polls? are they afraid of CA Polls?
Why maoist can not adjust themselves in democratic procedures?
Lets wait for Indian response, they will react in few days. Lets not be surprized if Indians suggest ceremonial monarchy.
Shreeya,
UN means unlimited nonsense. Do not expect anything good from them. Ian martin ( a gay, I have seen him visiting gay bars in thamel) is working hard to maintain his own status. Why should he bother about other stuffs?
There are 4 goups who are happy with armed struggle in Nepal:
(a) India
(b) UN – Unlimited Nonsense.
(c) Human rights activists – where are they hiding now? Have not they heard about PLA soldiers leaving camps or are they about to raise voice against king’s recent new year message?
(d) People like Neil Horning, who are here to legalize maoists movement.
In their own country, people like Neil Horning sympathize with Islamic fundamentalists and bomb their own country.
An alliance between the political parties and the King? That’s not as unlikely as you think it is. Sher Badhur Deuba, Surya Badhur Thapa, Paspupati Rana are all closet Royalists. It took Girija and his congress quiet a while to remove the constitutional monarchy clause from the party manifesto. The King himself is desperate to save some face. Any prospect of an ‘alliance’ with the SPA will be great news for him.
Really AGAIN the ball is in the Maoists’ court. They are faced with 2 choices now. Either they can continue reinstating the parallel government, encouraging their PLA to come out of the camps etc. Or they can dramatically change these behaviors and that will put the ball back on the SPA’s court. Prachanda, the way I see it, is in a lose lose situation.
The Metropolitan Police has simultaneously raided the offices of Maoists’ Young Communist League (YCL) in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts on Sunday afternoon.
At the instruction of Home Ministry, teams of police raided the offices in Balaju, Gathhaghar and Balkumari in search of “unauthorised weapons” and “abducted persons”, according to Metropolitan Police commissioner AIG Deepak Thangden.
The police are said to have searched rooms and documents. They, however, did not find anything.
Valley in-charge of YCL Chandra Bahadur Thapa aka Sagar has raised objections to the police raid. He claimed that the organisation is involved in development and construction activities. He warned that if the police continued such behavior in future, they would be compelled to seize their weapons.
Finally some response to these bastards…we need more, wipe them off completely.
aka Sagar and aka other thugs can go to hell….
Well this Naya Nepal for the YCL.
At least Mr. Sitaula is waking up to control the law & order.
Metropolitan police must have made a mistake. It won’t happen again. That’s what Situala will tell Mahara.
…..i think great P is sane but its hard to control the cadres who may only understand gun power or a steady job…so he needs to shout something. The SPA is confused and lost at times…….With Giriza hiccuping along the way,,,,,the team gets more confused. And with the truth out from the EC…..some people are having diarrhoea, while some have hysteria, and some having euphoria…..
The solution to this is……keeping SANITY…with the sole objective to building this nation…all should come together without rabid thinking and merge into a single theme of people power, economic growth, development, peace and harmony among the people.
Nowadays, these maoists look pretty nervous because they know that they don’t have any hold in Terai, and without that their future is very dark.
je aye ni nahuni ghanta jasto………..raja ley bolyo temsai apatti, maobadi ley bolyo tesmai apatti, girija ley bolyo tesmai apatti……………….. chaini chai ke ho nepali lai………….
what ????????????????????????????? ask yourself ????????????????? what???????????????????????
He Replytoall,
What do you mean by what?????????????, thero tauko ma sisi pot
Horning is absolutely correct, the maoists do not view anything they do as illegitimate, the sooner the (again) “give them the benefit of doubt camp” realise this the better. They are not interested in joining the mainstream to practice multi party democracy which they will have all sorts of skewed up reasons to demean. They are interested in their rule over everyone else and yes they feel this is correct and everyone else is wrong. Basically their joining up with the SPA is just a road diversion as militarily they were going only so far again and again and again (Horning claims they were winning and in one respect they were – the same sort of winning that terrorists label themselves with in a hit and run war not winning in the traditional sense). I’m afraid the international community along with the SPA backed the wrong horse and yeah I’m sorry too, it sucks BUT I’ve been telling you again and again and so have several others over and over and over again. And yeah it’s going to starting sucking even more. Time to really put your thinking caps on!
Don’t forget a twist to this whole thing. This IDIOT called Gyanendra took over on Feb 1st. He didn’t change anything to make the RNA any more effective, he made major blunders and any hope people had soon dwindled in Gyanendra’s ability to get Nepal out of the woods. The SPA meanwhile were desperate for support because no one was coming out to the streets to support them. Remember the SPA protests? How pathetic they were – a handful of bribed protestors. Then the SPA joined hands with the Maoists! The Maoists in a way helped restore “democracy” and became this darling in the eyes of the international community.
Bange:
Nice one…..hahahaha
Fame comes and goes. The other day I got an empty seat in a full tempoe because it was next to a police man who was sitting there uncomfortably and nobody had wanted to sit next to him.
These guys are feeling bad.
Yes unexpected alliances are in the air.
Willl the King be maobadi?
ohm shanti
The way Bhudai rants and raves- gives you a feeling that this guy has too much time in his hands. No one holds the key in Nepal in regards to Nepal. If you believe that than half of the agony is gone.
Well, methepeople might be right. What if the maoists allied with the king or even the army. As far as Bhudai is concerned he has always been this insane. He hates the army, the king the spa and the maoists and lives in the us. He know everything about nepal. According to him, there is only one person capable of getting nepal outta this mess and that is bhudai himself.
CA was a pipe dream. The exercise to gain advantage was the only effort by championing CA by all. India misread the whole situation and most of the puppet politicians who are on beck and call of India also made the same mistake of their master- assuming ground reality from their blurred perspective from top of a hill called loktranta or shall I say Lokcircus. All we have is a circus built on a false permise that CA is be all and end all- not even by a long shot.
In the end what we have is a complete failure in all fronts. The next course of action will be infighting and disarry which will make citizen coin a phrase “never be born as a Nepali.” This is the lowest we can get and few still clap with vigor as they see their personal benefit in all this, damn care about a nation.
No single or two party will rule Nepal for a long time and this will mean instability will continue with pounds of flesh extracted by each and every party given a chance. And we the people shall bear it all which frown in our face.
Raj
Are you the same Raj that I have thrashed in the past? So did you finally graduate from college? Or did you just finish your freshmen year?
What gives you the impression that I live in the US?
“According to him, there is only one person capable of getting nepal outta this mess and that is bhudai himself.”
Well I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Now the 8 parties will bring back the 2047 Constitution, remove the 127 part make the King ceremonial. This will be supported by the Forum, Sadbhavana, Thapa Party, Rana Party the Janjaties. Then all the strikes & bands will be stopped and everyone will be happy.
I dont totally disagree with Niel’s analysis. In this power struggle, I dont find any party with enough credibility to assert moral rights over others. It is ture NC is trying to sideline Maoists and we must give Maoists some credibility for atleast willing to go mainstream.
But having said this, Maoists actions must be condemned, for they failed to keep up with many of their critical promises. In my opinion, what Maoists failed and NC succeeded in understanding was that during transition it’d have to be a proxy war, war of propaganda. But Maoists seem to be taking it too extreme which is making them look like sore losers, henceforth the devils.
Way to go Girija, looks like your death will be the happiest moment for Maoists. Just make sure you solve this Janjati, Madhesi, Dalit probs before you go. Else there will be little choice for these groups (except Madhesi) but to go support Maoists.
I am reserving my opinion (and my vote) for now.
“we must give Maoists some credibility for atleast willing to go mainstream.”
Patriot: willing to go mainstream? What choice did they have? Prachanda himself said that their struggle was impossible to achieve militarily and he was tired of fighting from the jungles. Now the Moaists no longer have the RNA breathing down their back, their cadres are sitting around being cloth and fed by the government, they are continuing their excessess without any reprecussions etc. so why would they not be willing to do mainstream?
Its a Tahlu ma aloo for the Maoists!
Agree with you Bhudai – but given the circumstances, we are really arguing abt who is the lesser evil here, who is the better of the worst.
If I recall, it was in the interest of all at that time that Maoist decided to team up with SPA, coz at that time G was really freaking out everybody. SPA was irrelevant and powerless before G and only with Maoists help did we force G to retire. Sure we did trade one monster for another, but at the time everybody seemed to think G was the bigger monster. Try to recollect Bhudai, wht choice did we have.
The protracted CA election is nothing but a mirage, just an illusion painted by Maoist and aided by 7 party. There is too much thing at play for anyone to decipher anything. Maoist for all their battle cry for CA are now moot, still in the gov’t, 7 party for all their sheen received form India has no clue and are waiting for a “advice” from the South Block. And we Nepali are pulling our hairs apart- trying to catch a ray of light which beams from all the directions but not from Nepal and Nepali. So in the end- all we are doing is throwing muds all around and trying our best to show by the comments we make as if it rests on us. IT DOES NOT.
So people keep on giving benefit of the doubt to SPAM and in the end you will gain the right to say “I told you so.” Nothing more, nothing less. In true sense Nepal is defunct, failed and has lost its sovereignty to govern itself. Time has come to throw away pretensions and perception as one Nepal. Sooner we learn this better it will be for all of us. Nation has no more identity or its core values intact- so free it is to free fall.
Dead: good point. Pessimestic but probably accurate.
DOA, I actually like you post there. But, would you mind telling us exactly what those core values that were lost are?
Have your say..
http://www.freenepal.com/newface/article.php?WTJGMFBXaGxZV1JzYVc1bGN5WnBaRDB4TkRnNQ==
DOA
If Nepal is a failed state and has lost the right to govern itself, then who is ruling nepal. The SPA, the Maoist or the King. Blaming India for our problems will not solve the present solution. When all Nepali leaders go to delhi to seek their advice, obviously, India will see its interest first and then that of Kathmandu. Whether we like it or not, International powers have a heavy influence in the goverance of Nepal.
Best option now could be that we have a round table to solve the present crises: The following people should be present in the round table: SPAM + King+Forum+ Rastriya Prajatantra Party+ India + USA+ England + China + Election Commission.
I don’t want to put any values onto someone else’s but I guess only Nepali’s can understand these values wich are all not easy to describe in foreign toungues. One I am sure we can all understand is the value of peace, peaceful resolution, respecting each other (of course the reaction to this will be obvious questioning whether we were really peaceful or were we oppressed, supressed etc. this is why I say only Nepalis can understand). Of course we had economic stagnation while population was rising, but then armed conflict came so soon after 1990 (reminder that the beginning of 1990 we did have real good economic growth) giving no chance for further progress with power hungry war mongers attempting to grasp power that is all. I have no patience for rhetoric from politicians because the plain truth is we were on our way despite hitches then came the most destructive phase in our history. And now again the majority craves the one thing that we had – peace, this is why we give these politicians a lot of space and the benefit of doubt. We hope they see this the way we see this.
it would better if current happenings would b more focused………
horning,
if i may, some of the core values which u may not undestand and even know that existed because your mao buddies tell u so are:
identity, sovereignity, peace, coexistence, love for the nation, honesty, etc. lost more and more from the people.
again i’m sure u will claim otherwise, just as do your masters the creators of this new nepal-
choas, disintegration, diunity, mistrust, shame, no sense of belonging, hate, crime, murder – i’m sure u get th picture my white friend.
Cet article est vraiment plein de vérités