Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Niraj Aryal

Does he really exist? Or is he an imaginary figure? People had argued his very existence.

If he existed then how does he look like? People again argued he may look like the proverbial evan the terrible! many had said a person who is responsible for the deaths of so many innocents must look like a cruel one. Then the questions like this started coming, is he in the same mould as his ideals e.g., Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Polpot, who in the name of breaking the existing shackles for liberation butchered (would that be an appropriate word?) millions and millions? Is he a leader who thinks that death of thousands of innocents in the country does not bear any importance? In the recent inundated exposures that he got, it makes us feel that sparing lives over his ambitions are not very important. Did he mention about the deaths? I am obviously talking of Prachanda!

That’s all. Let’s move.

For others, Prachanda’s ultimate ambitions mean liberty. Someone who talks of liberation, equality and breaking the shackles of thousands of years of slavery and…inequalities and .. what not, perhaps is a demigod!

But in reality he looked like us, a Nepali, completely humane, logical and perfectly a gentleman. Neither a monster nor a demigod but if the pictures are not doctored! No, …No it can’t be that. C’mmon, we got to believe something!

But there are also a group of tainted and painted as well media men in the country for whom this is indeed a good opportunity to create few gods and in the process creating some monsters as well, who are obviously excellent at it. They have mastered the art of creating some thing anew something by destroying something else. Should we believe them? This now depends in the intellectual capabilities of a reader. Is he or she is capable of extracting truths out of the distorted facts? Certainly not in this Kingdom!

Bu the young men who suddenly left the capital( had they at all, many doubt in Kathmandu !) had a mission to fulfill. They had to bring the truth out by meeting the most wanted man in the country. They really met him. They did it. Really..! But….., ok fine! Let’s brush aside this argument. Absurd it seems at this moment.

For his existence though no questions are to be raised now onwards, thanks Kantipur and Kathmandu Post- the national dailies that so proudly covered a few flamboyant but recent pictures of all shining Prachanda and a beaming Baburam along with an excerpt of The Hindu interview. So there should be no question about his existence. The chapter is thus closed!

Forgetting their differences Prachanda and Baburam over the issue of pro-or-anti Indian or say Palace together really looked united . Jai Delhi mai! Teri lila aparampar! You can create, you can dismantle indeed. Hats off Delhi !

I smell rat again! Bad habit. It looks similar in content and inner meanings in both the interviews in the Nepali newspapers and the one in The Hindu. How come? So what did the young guns do and where did they all shot the guns? Stop being suspicious; rather be proud that our journalists were the first among us the cowards in Nepal to meet him in person and that too over Coke and Biscuits. What about the news that there was one already present there from the other side before they had arrived. How about that? Shhhh….ssshhh, it’s a secret not to be disclosed!

There are also questions on how they approached the leader; I mean both the Nepali side and the Indian one at the same time. What a coincidence? They almost reached at the same time. Unbelieveable!

First Vardarajan(The Hindu) might have arrived, he brought a packet of Sohan Haluwa , made in Desi-ghee from Delhi . Vardarajan knew it in advance that the leader really liked it. Then Prachanda offered him a cup of tea, which he had prepared himself for the senior journalist coming all the way from Delhi . He had come at the request of a Darbar in Delhi . Remember Vardarajan! we the Nepalese whether we live in Kathmandu , Lucknow or Delhi we are always hospitable. Even Prcahnada is the son of the same soil so he can't be an exception to this rule. You must have noticed that…. nahin?

Baburam was smiling as Prachanda was busy preparing the red-tea. In the meantime Vardarajan asked the second man-in-command about his health. Dr Bhattarai replied I am a diabetic. “This is a feudal disease Dr Bhattarai, you should be careful”, he questioned smilingly. Bhattarai grinned!

They had just started talking about the taste of Haluwa but…….someone knocked the door. Prachanda seemed not so happy this time. He might have thought that he had to share his Haluwa, with the unknowns, so lovingly brought by his friend from Delhi . Prachanda asked, who is it? The men replied, “We are from Kathmandu sir; we are here to take your interview!”

“Had they been invited? asked Prachanda. The two tired men were taken aback but timely the Doctor replied, Yes sir!, First I contacted Delhi and Delhi contacted Lainchour then ……., everything was arranged”. Ok, ……ok then, you are my guest… welcome ….welcome!

Yes this way it looks real. It was certainly a coincidence.

But a lot has changed since February 13, 1996 , when a new people’s war was initiated under his leadership. In between we have seen transformation of a leader into a politician. But at what cost? The cost is perhaps best explained like this; i n February 20, 2000 , Prachanda called it Indian Expansionism now in February 8, 2006 he calls it a friendly gesture. A lot has changed since then. In the process, the first four points of the forty point demands that were out and out against Indian hegemony in Nepal have gone to the dogs for all time to come. Good change Comrade Prachanda you have brought in yourself! Should we still believe that what the Maoists mean they stick to the end?

But what important remark did Prachanda made in the recent interview? Photographs in action, they said a lot.