Reading President Koirala' s mind!

President of the ruling Nepali Congress, Girija Prasad Koirala appears pretty grim this round. However, two meaning loaded statements released by him within a short span of barely two days gives inkling into the deteriorating state of affairs in the Kingdom. It is altogether a different matter that Koirala has formed a habit of assessing the scheme of things in the country in a very pessimistic manner albeit as and when he is not in command of power. Yet there are reasons to believe this time whatever Koirala has said regarding the state of Nepalese affairs, which is undoubtedly sliding towards the doom if not checked on time.

Of the two proclamations, in our own analysis, both of them were worth pondering over. Firstly he says that if the current Maoists' imbroglio were not dealt with firmly and on time stretching to three months at the farthest then it would go out of the hands of the ruling government and that under that critical and devastating situation it would only be the King who could bring the emerging scenario under control. Scrutinising President Koirala's first statement many things could be understood. For example, one could infer that Koirala's assessment talks of the grave situation existing in the country. This is what all the Nepalese people including the media men have been pointing out of late which for obvious reasons were being denied by the powers that be including the government in waiting that is the main opposition, the UML. He also understands now that the Maoists' issue too has become apparently very serious and that any delay in arriving at a solution to this overly stretched movement might push the country to gorge. Better late than never, President Koirala appears to have understood the fact that this issue demanded political solution as well instead what he used to call it a terrorist problem warranting state action of the highest order.

Thirdly, President Koirala also admits or say conceives the fact that the King will not remain a mere onlooker to the ongoing events, albeit sad ones, if the potential political actors of today's Nepal fail to sort out the Maoists' issue jointly on time. This also implies possibly that in one way or the other the Nepalese monarch has already hinted President Koirala through his own channels to proceed in the direction of containing the ever growing threats of Maoists' violence or else the latter might jump in to the scene. A guess work only.

Fourthly, Koirala's first communication also suggests that the King if intervenes into the Maoists' scheme of things, he could contain the revolutionaries' threat. However, Koirala does not say what would happen to the system now in place after the King intervenes? Koirala also has not mentioned as to what would happen if the King fails in this endeavour? Through the same statement, President Koirala slightly hints that if he were allowed to control the State authority which currently he is being denied by his old time Saintly friend K.P.Bhattarai, the Maoists' issue could be easily brought under control.

Summing up his statement what could be finally concluded here is the fact that President Koirala fears a coup de' e'tat in the near future if the ruling government fails to control the ever growing Maoists' insurgency. If one were to recall the Police rampage exhibited a fortnight back at Khara village what could be said that the Police' unwarranted actions against innocent villagers is more and more alienating the people from the government. The locales say the Police personnel were in essence Maoists in State uniform. The fresh police action of burning the village there came at a time when the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, US State department released the 1999 Country Report on the Human Rights situation in Nepal. The report scathingly criticises the role of the Nepali police force.

The second disclosure of Koirala is also very important. Here he says that the system has no threats from the King. Two contradictory statements perhaps.

When he says that the order has no threats from the constitutional monarch, he perhaps wishes primarily to please the monarch and remain in His good book for his future Prime ministerial posts. In saying so he also suggests that the order might go to the dogs through the faults and the fickleness of leaders, Koirala included presumably, manning the system at the moment. And this is precisely what the American scholar Samuel P. Huntington has anticipated in his book, The Third Wave. By way of reference, President Koirala subtly hints that if the impending three months could not bring good results in the sectors of law and order and good governance, the system would be in jeopardy due to the follies of Prime Minister Bhattarai. This again means bluntly that President Koirala should replace Bhattarai at the earliest if the system were to continue for long.

Whatever be the interpretations underneath Koirala's fresh statements, one thing is sure: the system is under serious strain. Our readers will perhaps best judge who has caused this strain to the system.

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