“It would be good if he peacefully, voluntarily leaves the palace after the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly decides to abolish monarchy. If he does not do so, the government will treat him just like any common criminal and use the army or other force to oust him from there.”
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That was Ram Bahadur Thapa “Badal”, the chief military strategist of the Maost party during the insurgency. Badal is also considered the leader of the radical faction withing the Maoist party who was until recently trying to take the party to the street agitation rather towards the more compromising political settlement. He was speaking at an interaction organized at the Reporters Club Nepal today. He said that as far as possible the Maoist party would try to resolve the issue through peaceful means.
Badal made it clear that the Maoists were not in favor of retaining “cultural king” or any other form of monarchy, affirming that their “struggle against feudalism” was also aimed at destroying all the remnants of the institution of monarchy, according to Nepalnews. “If in case any leader of our party had given an impression that the party wants to keep some of monarchy then the party doesn’t subscribe to that view and it is certainly not the official viewpoint of the party,” he said, clearly referring to the statement his party’s No. 2 leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai that while removing monarchy the party could provide the outgoing King with “economic, social and cultural rights and benefits.”
In an interview with Bahas talk programme of Kantipur TV yesterday, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai had said, “We want to bid farewell to the King in an honorable and respectful manner. He can be given economic, social and cultural rights.” Dr. Bhattarai did not elaborate what kind of cultural rights could be given. But he hinted that the King could be provided with ‘allowances.’ He also added that the Maoist leadership was ready to hold talks with the King to facilitate the ‘graceful exit’ of monarchy.
Saying that the party’s top leadership is soon going to hold an one-to-one with the King, Badal, however, clarified that they were doing so not to express their allegiance to the king like other parties had done in the past, but only [to find ways] for his “graceful exit” from the palace. Badal also admitted that they had met with a few royalists recently, but it was done so to oust the king.
Interestingly enough, when a reporter asked whether his party would consider granting the party’s membership to the king if he is to seek it, Badal said that if he accepts democratic values and express commitment to fight against the foreign interventionist forces then he would certainly be given the party’s membership.
Regarding the army integration, Badal said that as the issue is already mentioned in the peace accord it would be finalized by the Constituent Assembly. “Our mandate is to establish peace in the country and for that integration of Nepal Army and People’s Liberation Army is crucial. So we will integrate both the armies to make a new national army,” he said. Furthermore, he said the party believes in making military training mandatory to all citizens, adding that this would also help in downsizing the army.
For the record:
Indian Ambassador Shiv Shankhar Mukherjee today held consultations with CPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda on the lately developed political situation of Nepal. he duo are learnt to have discussed on coordination among the parties and India’s support in the new government led by the Maoists, during the meeting at Prachanda’s residence at Naya Bazaar in the capital at around 7 this morning. According to Kantipur, a source reported that Ambassador Mukherjee and Prachanda also discussed on the issue of King’s graceful exit for the implementation of republic declaration through the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly (CA). The duo also discussed the strategy of the Maoists, which established itself as the biggest party in the CA elections, to lead the new government, the source added.
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Comments
15 responses to “Maoists on King: Badal the Radical Snubs Baburam the No. 2”
You seem to be a determined guy Badal. I salute you. It’s for the reasons that while other senior Maoists leader have started to be turncoats now, you seem to be sticking to Nepalese people’s verdict.
My point of view regarding Monarchy is that any form of monarchy ain’t acceptable. The king should be ousted without showing him any form of generosity in the form of allowance, cultural, economic rights etc. He already has loads of money by sucking enough from our tax. Through Janaandalan 2 we have demonstrated that we want an end to all of this. Now that Maoists have secured a stronghold in the Nepali politics, you guys make sure that you don’t get off our mandate.
You guys can consult any number of foreign diplomats because it’s upon u guys to maintain a healthy international relationship. But when making comments about abolishing monarchy, do it in a serious way and don’t make people starting to doubt about ur motive.
Badal u r the guy. U need to give some speech training lessons to Prachanda and Baburam.
With all respect to Dr Baburam , I seriously object to his plan for the King’s exit. Few meetings at Indian Embassy and few others should not let him forget his fallen comrades who gave their life . He must also fairly appreciate the verdict of majority of the people in this election which is contrary to his plan ?
I salute you Comrade Badal. Just be around there and get the life out of that Brother Killer – Gyanendra. You must born a king to rule. You cannot kill your elder brother and his entire family for it Mr Gyanendra.
Badal has it right – I personally think a monarchy in some form is altight BUT the republic is what was agreed on, and that is what should happen.
But then the end to YCL atrocities was also agreed and that has’nt happened as yet either.
The maoists have to realise that ending the monarchy is just one of their ideas, they have others which are more urgent- if they don’t fulfil them maybe just getting rid of the monarchy maybe to their own peril.
“Cultural rights” does not mean ceremonial monarchy. This is hardly a snub, though it might be a clarification.
I think the Maoists are playing this about right, they are allowing him a golden parachute that he doesn’t deserve for the sake of the country. He’s lucky they aren’t putting him on trial, and if he starts making trouble that might be what he gets.
Its amazing that other political parties have been silent in this issue. Only Maoists raising this issue lately. How could they overthrow the king without other parties help? This is going to be tough task for Maoists.
“cultural rights” also does nt mean no monarchy either. In fact we really don’t know what it means. As for placing the gyanendra on trial only naive people would suggest such a thing and the maoist leadership is’nt naive – as they could be the next ones pn trial as well.
frankly whats all the fuss with we’ll talk to gyanendra etc etc, he should leave “gracefully” and voluntarily – why – just sit in the first ca assembly pass the republic agenda and send him a letter to vacate – why all the fuss. there definitely is something as the indians would say “daal mey kuch kala hai”.
The political and semi demoratic maturity displayed by maoist is highly appriciable. It not good to be doggy with the same barking always. What Baburam said in the present context is emperical and rational and outcry of Badal is dogmatic. Now the maoist are supported by the people for not creating disorder but for making the mess ordered. But, what Baburam meant , is not in the favor of king but to razor him tactfully without using the razor.
wow nepaleswor, please keep telling us what baburam etc mean – because i for one dont have a clue, but u seem to know it al l, so please keep posting. it goes for all out there who think they know what they are talking about as if they said it themselves.
Hi, realyy,
Let’s see and watch what Baburam meant. R U JOOKING? sorry joking?
Baburam is the man made of technical mind. He does tactfully and technically.
lets see how does king leave the palace like the mouse in rain.
howdy neplsewr,
yes he is a wily bugger so it could work the other way ass well. who knows what goes on behind the scenes. we are told that we have arepublic so why the gibberish and slanted talk? king does not need to go like a mouse in the rain -ha ha thats funny he can just leave – but whats up?tactfully and techncally…
by the way,
what was my joke – u got me there??????
man, i cannot agree more with comrade badal when he gracefully pinpoints that all nepali should be trained for combat. If any of the maoist comrades read this blog i would like to provide them with certain suggestion.
1> Nepal just like when you started should have a standing army for each ethnic group. Bahun army, Chettri army, Newar army, dalit army, magar army, gurung army, bhojpuri army, maithali army, tharu army and so on and so forth.
2>All the students, workers(both blue and white collor), non nepali residents should be taxed to maintain the army, for ex i am an student in the us, i payed 56 dollar of federal tax last year, i would be deeply satisfied if that money went to my government. Of course the case for the non residents is different but the can be provided with enough incentives.
3> Now since the doors for investing in nepal is clear nepal should and since the americans are apologising for tagging the maoist as terroisists, nepal should faclitate fed to invest in nepal and instead of sending our troups to stupid places like somalia and lebanon we should tell the un to send it to iraq.
4> All of the king gyanendra’s property should be confiscated and used to build barracks, intelligence and various army command centers.
5> All the people living in kathmandu should be taxed for privileges they enjoy over the rest of their country men, not just kathmandu but all the major cities. You could start with house tax, water tax, petrol tax, communication tax, private school and college tax,entertainment tax.etc and etc.
6> Nepal should renew it’s bilateral relation with india and england and increase the number of army personnel in both these countries by 50% in the next year.
7>Chinese government needs to invest in Nepal. I think it’s been too long since they have ignored us. Now since we have borrowed their infamous ideology they must at least acknowledge our achievements. So the chinese are very good at construction, they must be given an objective to connect every farm in the country, whether in the mountains or in the plains, to a network of roads that connects to kathmandu.
8> All the religious institutions in the country must actively contribute to the cause of building national army of all ethnic representation.
9> Nepal should start death penalty. Death penalty to the corrupt, to the drug mafia, to the rapist and to all those who try to start ethnic conflict in any part of the country.
10> Nepal should have the most transparent defense budget in the world, as a matter of fact show the nepali people what a true democracy is. Privatise all the defense contract. Let the nepali people decide who they want to buy the arms from.
11> Restructure the bureaucracy, kathmandu based system is not working. There is no place for government in Kathmandu anymore.The space is not big enough any more. Privatize everything in Kathmandu. Let the people of Kathmandu buy their own oil and water.
12>Let Nepal Rastra Bank have complete autonomy. Let them lower the interest rate, let them set their economic agenda without any fear form any one. Let Rastra Bank actively seek judicial precedence.
Finally i would like to suggest that all the nepalis in the world should pray for the nepali lives lost during ten years of revolution. Let their be no other time when a brother loads a gun and sets away to kill a brother. And let no nepali die because he had no gun to protect himself.
I do not think there is anything like snubbing one by another. It is mao’s tactics to lure king to leave palace voluntarily. This can be better than forcing him to leave which may entail more bloodbath. I do not know what King G is waiting. Still, he can garner some love from Nepali People if he bids goodbye to monarchy and palace.