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March, 2004 |
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Political |
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King in Red Area While
the main political parties were complacent that the students’
activities were somehow keeping alive the wobbling opposition against
what they call as “regression”, the king spent most of February in
mid-western development region attending civic receptions held in his
honour at various parts of the region including the districts identified
as the strongholds of the Maoists. Though the
King's schedule to attend similar civic reception at Kalikot, one of the
five districts in the remote and backward Karnali zone, had to be
delayed due to a trouble created there by the Maoists, the royal tour of
the region was successful to show that the Maoists were not as
formidable as they are normally regarded to be. The Maoist base at
Kalikot was destroyed by an army attack in which, the army claimed, 60
Maoists were killed. The one day general strike that the Maoists had
called in Nepalganj to foil the civic reception there was clearly
unsuccessful in its objective. Addressing the
Nepalganj reception, the king reiterated his commitment to multiparty
democracy and promised to hold elections to hand over the power to the
popularly elected representatives, though he did not give any idea about
the timeframe for the elections. But he conspicuously omitted uttering a
word about constitutional monarchy, which is being interpreted as
expression of his interest to be a powerful king. Preparations
are reportedly underway for a similar civic reception in the Western
Development Region, though the date is not yet fixed. he Maoists
were, however, able to show their presence in the capital, while the
king was away. They called a general strike in the capital on February
17 and it was successful to a large extent to close the schools and
shops. However, the vehicular traffic was not disturbed as much as it
used to be in the earlier strikes. Vehicles of the diplomatic community
were plying the road in significant numbers. Also some public transport
vehicles, microbuses and taxis in addition to the government controlled
trolley buses and SajhaYatayat buses, were available in good numbers
though the private sector operated buses were concealing their number
plates. But a 5-day
strike called by them in the last week of February was very much
rejected by the people. The effect of the strike was so weak that the
rebels called it off on the third day. But the terror
tactics of the Maoists were not relaxed. On the eve of the February 17
strike, they killed the leader of the organization of the Maoist victims
at the capital. While the capital was reeling under the strike, the
Maoists killed a former MP in the Terai district of Nawalparasi. This
was the third instance of an MP from Terai community killed by the
Maoist in the last one year. They had killed another MP from eastern
Terai only last month. The two days
of the month end strike saw some bomb blasts at a number of places. But
the life went as usual and the student union elections in the colleges
went undisturbed. In a very
import development of the month, India arrested and handed over to
Nepali authorities two senior leaders of the Maoist outfit – Matrika
Yadav and Suresh Ale. Yadav, who was a member of the Maoist team that
was negotiating peace a few months ago with the government, is described
by Maoists as the chief of the People’s Government of the Madhes (Terai)
Region. Ale is said to be an alternate member of Maoist party’s
central committee. As CP Gajurel, another Maoist senior leader arrested
by Indian authorities last year is not extradited yet as Nepal and India
have no extradition treaty, the handing over of Yadav and Ale is being
interpreted as an effort by the Indian authorities to mean many things. Meanwhile, the
government has extended the time, till April 12, for the Maoist rebels
to surrender to the authorities to avail of the amnesty and get the
opportunity for rehabilitation. According to the government sources, 344
rebels had surrendered till February 12 under the scheme made effective
since mid-December. Due to the success of CPN-UML affiliated students organization ANNFSU in the student union elections in the colleges and the serious indications of general elections being held toward November this year, GP Koirala-led Nepali Congress has started showing signs of bringing into its fold the break-away faction of Sher Bahadur Deuba. Also the imminent split in Rastriya Prajatantra Party of Prime Minister Thapa has been averted, at least for the time being. |
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