Delayed peace talks

The government and the Maoists have blamed each other for delay-ing the peace talks. Minister Narayan Singh Pun has attributed the delay to the new demands made by the Maoists which, among others, include the release of their central leaders, and the withdrawal of court cases - something which the government is not prepared at least before the so-called "good-will" peace talks. On the other hand, the Maoists say that the government for backing out from its earlier commitments and that there are conflicting views within the government, which has created the hurdle in the peace process. It would appear that the Maoists are not happy about the influence the Royal Nepal Army is probably exercising not only in the government decision-making, but also in the manner they are keeping a vigil on their activities. This is strange because the Maoists themselves proudly claim that the basis of their present legitimacy is their own military might acquired and developed in the course of their "People’s War". In a latest statement, the Maoist supremo Prachanda himself reprimanded the government negotiator for displaying a shallow conduct and resorting to one-sided publicity about the dialogue agenda. He also revealed that the Maoists had agreed to the cease-fire only after the government formally wrote to them agreeing to negotiate on their three demands, namely: the round-table conference, the constituent assembly and the interim government.

Confirms suspicion: This new development indicates several things. Firstly, the early post-cease-fire phase marked by "you scratch my back and I scratch your back" phenomenon between the two sides seems to have ended. Remember the days when the Maoists were showering praise on Mr Pun for his role in breaking the long stalemate and the latter’s justification on the merit of the Maoist insurgency. The government seems to be realising the limit to its policy of appeasement. Just a few days ago, the Royal Nepal Army issued a statement detailing instances of the violation of the code of conduct by the Maoists. The confirmation of the large-scale violation is coming from independent sources also. Reports compiled by a prominent newspaper says cases of abduction and extortion, holding of mass meetings under the shadow of guns, besides threatening people, are common in 46 of the 75 districts in the country. The report says the Maoists have threatened and abducted people, particularly, families of security personnel, extorted money and organised mass meetings with arms. Secondly, the new revelation confirms the generally held suspicion about the lack of transparency in the peace process to date. There is a general belief that there is more than what meets the eyes and that various deals have been reached behind the scene, notwithstanding the repeated denials from the government side.

The Maoists were readying for talks for some time, as evidenced from their letters to political parties in mid -May last year in which they offered not only to arrive at a negotiated settlement through talks, but also requested positive response to the letters immediately. The letters, however, were not responded presumably because the government was not ready for talks at that time. The royal action of October 4 and the subsequent legitimacy crisis faced by the Lokendra Bahadur Chand government changed the political scenario, which strengthened the bargaining position of the Maoists. In the face of all-round criticism and the belligerent mood of the major political parties against the royal move, they found the new regime not only ready for talks, but in its eagerness to establish legitimacy, too willing to agree to their extra demands. Hence, the commitments were fulfilled and unfulfilled. The Maoists have smartly exploited the soft spot of the present government to their full advantage.

Niceties: Certain questions, however, remain. If the Maoists are sincerely committed to finding a negotiated settlement as soon as possible, why are they insisting on the fulfillment of demands like the release of detainees, and withdrawal of court cases, repealing of anti-terrorist laws, etc even before the start of the peace talks? Such issues normally form part of the agenda for talks, and can easily be addressed in the subsequent peace package. The insistence on these demands early on would mean one of the two things. By forcing the government to agree to these demands, the Maoists would like to sit for talks with high morale and strengthened position, which will give them advantage while negotiating the political demands. Or, the Maoists are using the cease-fire period to consolidate their position as they did when Sher Bahadur Deuba was in power, and they are keeping the option of backing out from the negotiating table for renewed violence, if the peace deal does not go according to their terms.

On the government side, one fails to understand why they promised to release the detainees prior to the peace talks. If they were really convinced about the justification for the early release, then why wait until the "goodwill talks" which is presumably only a formality. There is no time now to waste in such niceties. What the country needs now is serious and substantive talks as soon as possible. The country is not interested in just "sitting for talks", but in "sitting to arrive at a lasting settlement". The high publicity, and on and off the scene bargains will make sense only in the context of final settlement leading to sustained and permanent peace.

Expediency convergence: A question is often asked at the national level as to why the Maoists are ready to sit for negotiation with an unconstitutional Chand government - a creation of the Royal action, which most people consider it outside the constitutional boundary. This point is particularly made because the avowed mission of the Maoist movement is a republican state. In the wake of the royal massacre in 2001, did not they say that a "republican state" was born in Nepal? Furthermore, is it not that the Maoists condemned the October 4 action as being retrogressive, but stressed the imperative of joining hands between the Maoists and the political parties? CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal even called the relationship between the government and the Maoists as "illegitimate" and "mysterious".

He wondered why the Maoists are showing soft corner towards a government, which is not recognised by political parties. In my mind the answer is very simple - expediency, a word very familiar in the game of politics. It is always easy to strike a better deal with a weak government than with a strong one. Furthermore, there is convergence of interests between the two sides on one issue, albeit for different reasons. The present establishment is hell-bent on proving that the present constitution is unworkable. The Prime Minister and prominent ministers are publicly saying that there can be no going back to the political order of the last twelve years, which makes their abhorrence to the present constitution very clear. In their scheme of things, which was probably being cooked for some time, parliament was the main obstacle. With the dissolution of the House of Representatives, the stumbling block was removed. On the Maoist side, the strategic objective of their movement is to destroy the constitution. The foundation of the present constitution is the successful People’s Movement of 1990, which the Maoists consider incomplete. The legitimacy of their violent movement can only be fully established by the replacement of the present constitution by a new one, which they say would "reflect the dynamics of current power balance", where the Maoists represent an important force. It is for this purpose that they are insisting on constituent assembly to write a new constitution, although the end product, in terms of the content, could be the same even through suitable amendments to the present constitution.

(The author is former finance minister)

Dry taps and empty tanks

By KAMANA SINGH BASNYAT

Every morning people pray and for different reasons, but the content of the morning prayer in my locality is quite strange. We, including our neighbours, pray every morning for water supply in our houses.

It has nearly been a month since our taps and tanks have become dry. Not a single drop of water falls either in the kitchen or the bathroom. Although there is an alternative to piped water system in our house, it has not helped us overcome water scarcity.

The water pumped from underground stinks like a rotten fish. It has also made my white nails slightly purple. I have to paint my nails to hide those purple stains. The white bathroom tiles are turning yellow, and so are the white clothes. When I once washed my hair with the ground water it looked as if I had an electric shock recently. Ekes, the stains on the cookery! Why don’t we have a trend of eating on paper plates or perhaps on banana leaves?

I sometimes wonder why early people named our place Dhobi Dhara (washermen’s tap). Although there is a tap on the roadside, it takes another hour to fill even a gallon of water. People gather there not only for water but also to bathe and wash their dirty clothes. By looking at this scene no one will believe that Nepal is the world’s the second richest country in water resources. I have never been to Brazil but I hope there is also a similar scene. The story of the water scarcity of Nepal is like that of a queen who lives in a golden castle, but she does not have a single gold ornament to decorate herself.

There is a strange phenomenon in our neighbourhood. In the winter season, when cold water becomes a nightmare, our tank is full. Sometimes, there is even excess supply. But with the onset of summer season, taking shower with fresh water is now a lofty dream. The plants of my garden are also waiting for that day when they will get fresh water instead of stinking pump water.

Nowadays, I hardly smile because of the pale colour of my teeth. My dad wears the same shirt to his office everyday and my brother makes arrangement outside the house to clean himself. Mom and my maid usually make a trip to our cousins’ place to wash a bundle of dirty clothes.

Every morning my neighbours call each other from the window to inquire about the expedition for fetching water. Whenever I see tanks overflowing I feel like collecting every single drop of water and pouring into my tank. On top of that we have to pay the bill for water supply every month, which is high enough. When will we be able to drink every single glass of water without worrying about another glass? Do all of us have to dance as Amir Khan did in Lagan? When will our trips to our friends and cousins’ place end with a bag of dirty clothes, surf powder, soap, towel and shampoo? God! Please bless the dwellers of Dhobi Dhara, and other drought-hit areas, with abundant water, all for the sake of happiness.

Highjack vs lowjack

At a press conference, a spokesper- son for the newly formed ministry of lowjacking briefed the media about the latest steps taken by the government in its efforts to combat the hijacking menace. Regrettably, the government’s proposal to put armed cops on board flights was vetoed by the pilots’ association on the plea that the pilots would rather be terrorised by professional terrorists than amateur ones. The spokesperson said the veto was most unfortunate as hundreds of applications had been received from policemen from all over the country eagerly volunteering for anti-hijacking duty. As one such volunteer from the Delhi traffic police put it: "Arre, if I can make three times my official monthly salary collecting hafta from murderous bus and truck drivers, how much more hafta I’ll be able to make from murderous fellows who hijack an aeroplane! Chaloji, this is what is called upward mobility!"

Though these upwardly mobile aspirations were nipped in the bud by the pilots’ refusal to have armed cops on board aircraft, the lowjacking spokesperson said that several other schemes were on the anvil to stymie hijackers. In fact, some of these measures have long been part and parcel of regular Indian Airlines services. The lowjacking spokesperson briefly enumerated these:

1) The Indecipherable Flight Announcement Gambit. Indian Airlines flight announcers were already being given special elocution lessons (by putting marbles in their mouths) so that their announcement of flight details were totally unintelligible to even an expert linguist. The expectation was that would-be hijackers would get so confused by such gibberish that either several teams of them would all end up in one plane and try to hijack each other, or that in sheer disgust they’d give up their air travel plans and decide to go instead by a train — which, of course, would promptly suffer a derailment/collision.

2) The Muzak Soporific. All IC flights were already programmed to play renditions of Lara’s Theme/Come September in raag Yaman in the Agra style which was specially designed to put the most chronic insomniac into a catatonic trance before take-off. It was hoped that even tone-deaf hijackers would succumb to the muzak-induced charms of Morpheus and fall into a deep coma, in which state they would be easily overpowered. The only trouble was that those entrusted with the overpowering would also be out for the count, courtesy IC’s musical ensemble.

3) The Sticky Sweetie Gobstopper. Before take-off, the cabin crew was trained to dole out to passengers sweets and toffees of such jaw-clamping adhesiveness that a potential hijacker biting into one of them would be unable to open his mouth to voice any threat or demand, thus rendering null and void the entire nefarious exercise.

4) The Shrieking Infant Deterrent. All Indian Airlines flights mandatorily had on board as standard equipment at least four small infants in arms who howled and wailed incessantly, pausing only to upchuck energetically by way of punctuation. Would-be hijackers would, correctly, interpret these midget banshees as sophisticated biological/psychological weapons and promptly surrender.

5) The Veg/ Non-Veg Existential Dilemma. When an on-flight meal is served, a member of the cabin crew would ask whether you wanted Veg or Non-Veg. Whichever you chose, you would be told that your choice was unavailable. "Alright, I’ll have the other", you’d say. "Ah" would say cabin crew "so you want to change your first choice — but to do that you should have informed the airline 36 hours in advance." "But 36 hours in advance I didn’t know you wouldn’t have my first choice," you’d plead. "Too bad, rules is rules," would say cabin crew, ungrammatically but irrefutably, wheeling away the meal trolley. Leaving you to swallow your bile. Or cyanide capsule, if you were a terrorist.

6) The Nam-ke-vaste Defence. This was the most effective lowjacking stratagem of all, as this audio-visual presentation of a hijacking attempt demonstrates: Cockpit of plane, with pilot, Enter hijacker, with gun.

Hijacker: Hijack!

Pilot: Hi to you too. But my name’s not Jack. It’s Rakesh.

Hijacker: Shut up! The name of this thing I’m holding is a gun. Take this plane to Calcutta!

Pilot: Sorry, can’t. Calcutta doesn’t exist anymore. They’ve changed its name to Kolkata. And don’t ask me to take this plane to Bombay, Madras or Phalanadhikra either. They’ve changed all those names too.

Hijacker: Where’s Phalanadhikra?

Pilot: Don’t know. It doesn’t exist as yet, but they’ve changed its name anyway.

Hijacker (desperate): Take this plane back to where we came from!

Pilot: Can’t. They changed its name after we took off and have yet to give it its new name.

Hijacker (pleading): Take me to jail!

Pilot: Can’t. They’ve changed the jail name.

Hijacker (lying on floor and kicking his heels): Maa-aa-aa!

Pilot (shrugging): They’ve changed her name as well.

Hijacker: Let me off this plane!

Pilot: This plane is no longer this plane. They’ve changed its name.

Hijacker: OK, OK, I give up. I change my name too. I’m no longer a hijacker, I’m just jacked! Now let me out, will out, please?

Pilot: Can’t. They’ve changed the name of ‘please’.

Hijacker: Why are we like that only!?

Pilot: We’re not. They’ve changed the name of this column as well.