Small
Price
THOUGH the reasons for
taking the extraordinary step of declaring a state of emergency are not lost on the common
Nepalese people, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has done well to explain to the public
the justification and necessity of that measure. In a message to the nation Tuesday
evening, Mr. Deuba spoke about various developments on the government's efforts to solve
the Maoist problem in the recent past. The main point of his message was that since all
the good intentions and honest efforts of the government were dashed by Maoists'
unilaterally backing out of the peace talks and resuming violence, the government had to
take the hard decision of imposing a state of emergency and deal with the security
situation with all the resources at its disposal. Indeed, it could not have escaped notice
of the common Nepalese people that the government had demonstrated a good amount of
flexibility to bring the Maoists into political mainstream. In this endeavour, the
government had the full backing of the public which had been sick and tired of this
mindless violence since early 1996 that had claimed close to 2000 lives. The war waged by
Maoists had defied general comprehension as the multi-party polity that Nepal embraced in
1990 allowed for all kinds of political parties.
By going back to the
path of violence by breaking the ceasefire, which was in fact punctuated by Maoists'
continuing reign of terror, the Maoists gave a clear message that they would not entertain
"the possibilities of peace and building of a violence free civilised society",
giving space to which, Mr. Deuba said, the government was making efforts to. It is an
acknowledgement of the sincerity of the government's efforts that Nepalese people and
Nepal's friends have extended their full support, to the latest step. India on Tuesday
strongly condemned the widespread violent attacks by Maoists after unilaterally
withdrawing from negotiations and said the declaration of emergency was a necessary step
by a democratic government to preserve order. In Kathmandu, Mr. Deuba was told by heads of
diplomatic missions, also Tuesday, that they extended support to the steps being taken by
HMG. As to concerns on civic rights following the emergency measure, the people could be
expected to take heart from Mr. Deuba's assurance that the government was fully alert on
the civic liberty though the new situation may cause some discomfort to the people. This
is a small price compared to the cost of seeing unchecked terrorism taking place in the
country.
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