Wednesday, June 14, 2006

A Lion when left in peace causes no injury to any body. However, if the same lion is aggravated or teased to an undesirable extent by some individual or for that matter a group, the lion prefers more often than not to strike back in a much violent fashion causing greater damages than expected. This is the rule of the jungle.

Bids are afoot to irritate the Lion, we guess. Such presumptions are based on what is being given to understand to the media by Nepal's present day rulers through their fiery speeches and countless interviews.

The language of abhorrence that they have been using in their lectures and interviews for the Maoists all make it sufficient evidence to presume that the Maoists will sooner or later will pounce on them.

The new rulers apparently have concluded that whatever gains they have achieved through the April Revolution were theirs only and thus what they decide through the parliament should become final one, which must be accepted in total by the insurgents without a grudge. This is unfair.

However, the fact is that it was the Maoists' insurgency which gave a final blow to the last regime and that the political parties simply cashed in on those gains by default. The political parties have nurtured an illusion that they remained instrumental in bending the King and his men and that they must be recognized as the Messiah of peace and tranquility in the country. The fact is that the political parties were having a marginal role in the said movement. When the Maoists provided a clear and visible boost to the already sinking movement through their physical presence, the said assemblage catapulted the entire politics and thus the entire political scenario changed for the better. This should mean that the agitating seven must not harbor any illusion that they gave final shape to the today's changed order. If they think that way would be a matter of cruel joke indeed, to which the real revolutionaries deserve the right to retaliate.

Bids are seen in some quarters to prolong their rule through the unnecessary involvement of the all-sovereign parliament thus challenging the very agreement which have had it that after such a change of regime the parliament would last only for a week or so.

Had this been not so then why Comrade Prachanda is all-furious over the manner the political parties have been using the parliament to bag favors at a later stage presumably at times of the constituent assembly elections. It is this fear that perhaps has alerted the Maoists insurgents who too have increased their frequency in demanding the immediate dissolution of the parliament. Rumors have it that the parliament is going for a deep slumber to avoid the Maoists threat that is always there hanging like a sword for the political parties. Admit this fact.

Well, if there had been some sort of tacit or even undocumented agreement in between the Maoists and the agitating seven for the dissolution of the house of the representatives within a week or so then this must happen now. If the political parties wish to bring the Maoists to the mainstream politics then they must heed to the Maoists demands.

The fact is that the political parties have been snatching some of the core and critical demands of the Maoists, which if left unchecked by the insurgents might impact the voting patters at times of the constituent assembly. This is what appears to have been worrying the Maoists of late. They too want to bring into effect some tangible and epoch making decisions after they come to power. This is only but natural for a revolutionary party to declare some far-reaching decisions for the declaration of that they have had to wage a relentless struggle against the State for so long. However, what seems on ground that the agitating seven have been thoroughly making declarations through the parliament, which the Maoists would have loved to do that immediately after coming to the Nepali power corridors in order to project their own revolutionary image. On the contrary, the corrupt lot of the not so distant past has suddenly become more revolutionary that what Prachanda claims for himself. It is this cunning attitudes of the parliamentary parties that has sensitized the insurgents to the extent that they have made it abundantly clear that if such politics continued for long then they will have to change their stratagem vis-à-vis the political parties in the coming days.

For us as analysts, who does what or who should do what is not of our concern. However, our concern lay in the maintenance of peace for long time to come. We presume that if the sleeping lion were disturbed by any act of intimidation, the lion possess every right to "give as good as you get". It would be not a surprise then if we unfortunately listen through media reports one fine morning that the insurgents being fed up with the parliamentarian's behavior meted out to them have decided to take up the arms again. After all every one has a limit for tolerance. It would be advisable to the new rulers in Singh Durbar that they also listen to the Maoists genuine political demands and acted accordingly in order to avert the greater threats they can pose to the state if they were pushed to the wall this time by the concerned quarters.

A word to the wise should be sufficient or else face the music.