Prachanda's fresh interview crisscrossed!

Last week I had an opportunity to go through a written interview of PRACHANDA alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal-the man who is controlling the Maoists' insurgency in the country since all along five years or so. I have never seen Prachanda (except his moustache-photograph, which is in general use in the Nepali media,) but I'm told that he too is incredibly intelligent like Dr.Baburam Bhattarai. Some even say that he attended his primary school education in and around Syangja district where he was every time a topper). Prachanda hails from Chitaun district currently and has his family still there. His parents are settled in Chitaun. He is blessed with two daughters and one son. Prachanda suddenly left his studies some thirty years back and went underground as per the instructions of his party as he recently claimed. No one had expected then, not even his own parents that a graduate in Agriculture science, Prachanda, would go this way and create troubles of this sort to the establishment for his declared avowal. Prachanda is a name heard by many but not so many people have seen him. However, I've a strong desire now to see this leader who has become a bete noir for the establishment in Kathmandu. Will you, Mr. Prachanda listen to me as a journo at your convenience?

Going through his fresh interview conducted by Li Onesto and released on 20th February 2000, what I found was that he is reiterating the same things, which my newspaper has been highlighting over the years. At one point he says, "Geographically, there are no transportation facilities, there is no electricity, and communication is also very weak for the ruling classes. All these factors led us to the conclusion that the West is the main region for the People's War".

The manner Prachanda has portrayed the gloomy picture of the development of the Western part of the nation is absolutely correct in the sense that it is this West that has ever remained neglected from the establishment at Kathmandu. Since 1950s till to date, every successive government(s) in Kathmandu thought of developing the eastern chunk of the nation. Even if we had a handful of Prime ministers from the West, statistics reveal, they did less to develop their own part of the region. The cumulative effect has been that the people of that part felt humiliated and brazenly neglected and hence perhaps joined the ranks with the revolutionaries. Prachanda's interview also implies had speedy developmental efforts initiated in that part the area for them would have been less fertile to operate. Going bit further, what could be inferred from the interview that the place where there is no development or less development the Maoists' have made their base. It is here that the establishment should extract meaning from the interview. In my opinion, Prachanda must be thanked by the rulers in Kathmandu for having made them aware of their bounden duties towards the West. The people must feel that the government in Kathmandu too belongs to them.

At yet another level, Prachanda talks, (sic):" More than 72 percent of the Nepalese people live below poverty line. This is a grave situation. We have always explained the people that nothing can be achieved from this multi-party system that is false, it is imperialist, it is feudal. After three or four years, the masses saw that, "Yeah!, what the Maoists' have been saying is really correct".

Well, I do not have the idea as to what percentage of the Nepalese people fall below poverty line. Statistics differ from head to head. However, this much is for sure that if it is not up to the level what Prachanda claims, it should not be either very down as is being claimed by the rulers in Kathmandu. This means that the growing poverty in the rural areas is also one factor that has not been taken well care of by the center since decades and decades. Presumably, this could have also alienated the masses from the government. Party tussle and intra party fight has become the order of the day. Predictably, under such conditions the government in Kathmandu found no time to effect solid measures for the alleviation of poverty. However, donor money perhaps continued pouring in meant for the poverty stricken people about whom Prachanda talks in his interview. A point that must attract attentions of the sensible donors.

Regarding the viability and the suitability of the multi-party system, the manner the system has been functioning or has been made to function over these years, it is not only Prachanda but others "above the ground" too have been airing their grievances through the media more or less in the same fashion. The degree and the intensity might be different. Sometimes even the leaders manning the present system too have opined this and they were on record to have bluntly admitted( G.P. Koirala has made such harsh comments in the recent months) this crude reality. However, in my opinion the system is good but the implementation part is miserable. Sorry, dear Prachanda here I beg to differ with your contention regarding the system now in place. The men manning the system through their corrupt practices perhaps have lessened the credibility of the order. This I agree in toto.

Finally, it is time that the government becomes serious and talks with the Maoists'. The killing spree from both the sides must come to an end, as whosoever is killed definitely is first a Nepali. Be it the policemen or for that matter the Maoists' even, both were the sons of this soil.

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