Emergency
Justified
THE declaration of the State of Emergency was
necessitated by the need of the moment and is directed to bring peace to the country where
the Maoists and their sympathisers had been creating havoc and anarchy for the past six
years. In this context, Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad
Gupta, speaking in an interview on Dishanirdesh programme broadcast over Nepal Television,
the other day, has underlined the point that the main thrust of the declaration of
Emergency was to curb terrorism and to maintain peace and security in the country.
Minister Gupta was clear on the point that as the nature of the emergency was
constitutional there was no question of violating the rights of the civil society. This is
a valid statement coming from a senior minister in Prime Minister Sher Bahadur
Deuba’s cabinet. It has been able to tackle very carefully the issue by making it
plain that the declaration of emergency was the need of the hour in order to make the life
of the people peaceful and rid the country of the violence perpetrated by the terrorists
in the garb of Maoism. With all the avenues for finding a peaceful outlet to the Maoist
problem having failed and the Maoists themselves attacking and killing security personnel
including the army and looting arms and, equipment and other accessories, the government
had no other option but to mobilise the army so that the Maoists’ spree for taking
others life and property for granted would came to an end. Though he agreed that the State
of Emergency was ‘a sign of difficult situation’ for the country, its nature is
different than what some people are trying to interpret it as. The State of Emergency has
been welcomed by the people as they can now take a sigh of relief after having endured the
Maoist threat for so long. In the course of the Maoist violence, hundreds of people
including security personnel and innocent citizens have been killed. If it had been a
problem of political nature, it could have been resolved through peaceful dialogue but it
wasn’t so. The Maoists themselves opted for violence taking advantage of the
government’s liberal attitude so it was but natural that for the maintenance of peace
and security in the country and to provide the people protection, the government had to
act firmly. The State of emergency is no way to curb total freedom of press, but Minister
Gupta wanted the media not to highlight or justify the terrorist activities. The positive
response that the declaration of the State of Emergency has received countrywide shows
that the Nepalese want peace and an end to terrorist activities at all costs.
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