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VOL. 27, NO. 38, June 06 , 2008 (Jestha 24 2065 B.S.)
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Fair Or Fixed?
As major actors brace for a high-voltage power drama in the republican Nepal, the script ahead is too sketchy to predict.
By SUSHIL SHARMA
At long last, the monarchy is gone. A republic is born. A year after the country was turned into a monarchical republic, Nepal is now a ‘democratic republic’.
The journey is not complete yet, if one were to trust the Maoist leaders who claim to have pushed the country thus far.
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Prachanda : In power game |
“Only the battle has been won. The war, not yet,” said Baburam Bhattarai at home district Gorkha as he accompanied chairman Prachanda to king Prithvi Narayan Shah’s Gorkha durbar.
“The destination next is people’s republic,” thundered Stalinesque-moustached comrade, at Khulla mancha, as king Gyanendra prepared to pack his bag two kilometers away at the Narayanhity palace.
Provoked, planned or spontaneous whatever it was, the Maoist thunder was enough to send shivers down the non-Maoist camps. At home as well as abroad.
“A broader ‘democratic alliance’ is in the offing,” said a senior Nepali Congress functionary, “to take on the communist authoritarianism.” With the covert but solid backing of the democratic countries, of course, he added.
Having got the wind of it, apparently, the Maoists sent senior leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara on a private visit to China.
Not able to win the trust of Mao’s country yet, the desperation of the Nepalese Maoists is understandable, say analysts, notwithstanding the increase in the frequency of their meetings with the Lainchaur-based busiest diplomat.
Even as a powerful section across the southern border including the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party continue to raise alarm bells over the threat to national security from a Maoist government in Nepal, Mahara pledged “total support” to China on “the stance” of the communist neighbour’s most sensitive issue -- Tibet.
China’s Tibet stance is unambiguous: ‘the trouble in Tibet is the handiwork of the “Dalai clique’ comprising of foreign powers’. The Dalai may have been warmly received in Washington, London and Paris. But his shelter, the Dharmshala, is far closer to Delhi.
Clearly, Mahara’s statement in the north is unlikely go down well in the south. At a crucial juncture in a country standing in the middle. Following the emergence of new equations in the power games to fill the vacuum created by the demise of the 250-year-old power centre
As major actors brace for a high-voltage power drama in the republican Nepal, the script ahead is too sketchy to predict.
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