Spirit Of Accommodation
IN its continuing effort to build an
atmosphere of trust in the run-up to the much-awaited talks with the Maoists, the
government has taken a further crucial step. An accommodative spirit seems to have guided
the government in announcing that it had decided to release all Maoists who were in
custody in different parts of the country. Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka disclosed
this in the House of Representatives Wednesday. In an apparent bid to dispel the
Opposition parties’ charges that the government may have intentions of suppressing
oppositional dissent through various measures taken to reinforce law and order, the
government on Wednesday also freed eight persons who were in detention under the Public
Security Act, thereby releasing all who had been in custody under the Act. Minister Khadka
also added his voice to what Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had said on Tuesday
regarding the Armed Police Force and Local Administration (Fourth Amendment) bills which
are under discussion at the parliament now. Seeking to calm the Opposition’s fears,
he said the armed police, which was a common feature around the democratic world,
Instead of trying to raise the imagined bogey
of law and order apparatus being exploited to the government’s advantage, the
Opposition members of parliament will do well now to focus their attention on the expected
talks between the government and the Maoists. This desire cuts across all sections of the
society which has pinned its hopes of peace on the overture for talks. As a further sign
of this desire, human rights activists and intellectuals at a programme Wednesday repeated
their call on both the government and the Maoists to start talking. The need of the hour
is to make the most of the congenial atmosphere prevailing, thanks in no small measure to
the government’s policy,-consistent since the new government was formed -of
demonstrating its sincerity for talks through release of detained Maoists. With the latest
announcement to free all Maoists in custody throughout the country, the government has
made it clear that it wanted to do all it could in taking confidence-building measures. If
all the political parties lend their support to such governmental initiatives, the job of
the government is bound to be easier in getting the Maoists to the negotiating table. The
Maoists, for their part, must show a reciprocal spirit and do their bit in adding to this
new, welcome atmosphere, and come for table-talks to resolve the long-festering problem.
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