A piece of advice to government and Maoists!

The Koirala establishment is now equipped with a law that allows it for the formation of an Armed Police Force or otherwise the APF through the massive use of which the regime wishes to contain the ever-growing threats of the Maoists' insurgency. However, responsible citizens of the country have questioned the very motive of the government for the urgency it saw in resorting to this back-door measure and bringing in this Ordinance Bill when it could have achieved the same from the impending winter session of the parliament. This practice undoubtedly has not been taken in good taste by the intellectuals of the nation who bluntly say that the government in doing so has cut a joke at the very norms and the values of the democratic order now in place.

Now that the government has already achieved the "weapon" what it needed, what could be best said that the Koirala establishment apparently has capped the future possibilities for a "meaningful and constructive" dialogue with the insurgents and that it is all set and determined to wage a sort of war on the insurgents come what may. In doing so, the Koirala government has summarily rejected the very valuable and precious suggestions that emanated from the responsible quarters including some political forces currently operating in the Kingdom which were all aimed at averting a direct confrontation in between the two warring sides. Having decided to use the method of force the government under Premier Koirala saw no political dimension in the ongoing Maoists insurgency but instead declared apparently that the whole affair were a terrorist one which demanded the use of force and nothing else. The fact is that there is a division seen in the country in defining the Maoists issue. The majority of the population apparently takes it as a socio-political issue and the rest consider it the government's way. Even in the ruling party hierarchy the majority takes this issue differently than what Koirala and his hard-core coterie have taken for granted the Koirala way. Perhaps this is the beauty of the system and one is free to interpret in his or her way that suited to one's political inclination or whatsoever.

Considering all these, what could be fairly predicted that a sort of fierce war in the jungles, in the district head quarters and most probably in the capital city of Kathmandu as well will take place much to the displeasure of those who wish peace to prevail as usual in this otherwise very peaceful Kingdom till a few years back. However, this is not forthcoming. The government is determined to crush the insurgents and a sort of retaliation with equal magnitude and intensity from the other camp can't be ruled out. The net result would be the continued prevalence of chaos, devastation and destruction and more so the loss of countless precious lives. The tragedy would be then that whosoever will loose his or her life would be the sons and the daughters of this soil. More frightening would be the loss of those lives who would be crushed by the government under the suspicion of the insurgents and vice versa. A chaotic and heart rendering scene is soon to follow and the Nepalese people will be forced to witness this blood bath. Recalling the past confrontations that have brought the two warring sides face to face and the heavy casualties that followed after each such confrontations, the impending fight to finish battle between the state and the insurgents would be naturally of higher dimensions and hence the results predictable in advance.

The use of force to contain equally powerful force is undesirable. The government under Koirala must understand the fact that when it came for a choice between the two, the people will definitely side with the insurgents for obvious reasons. The government under Koirala must understand the fact that this sympathy or for that matter the sympathies the people have already shifted in favor of the insurgents is not because the Maoists' have impressed the people with their violent activities, but because the people have rated the government's performance over the years as going below the mark. The people's sympathy have gone in favor of the insurgents only because the men in the governments formed after 1990 exhibited their lust for power, money and summarily neglected the people's grievances. The people in the remote far west who have observed poverty from close quarters and have remained ever neglected by the center since the 1950s do find a cause in supporting the insurgents. A hungry stomach, a frustrated youth due to unemployment, a family that looses its kids for want of a tablet of Para-Cetamol, a family that has never enjoyed two meals a day and the likes perhaps out of frustration and anger will opt willingly to support the insurgency without much knowing its consequences. And this they would do considering the old dictum which says, "my enemy's enemy is my friend".

To a greater extent this factor too has contributed in the ever-growing strength of the Maoists insurgency in the recent years. The fresh lot likely to join the bands of the insurgents is the young and the unemployed youths of the KAMAIYAS who only last July became free person(s) and came out of the clutches of their former landlords. The government is yet to take care of this whole lot who wish a piece of land and means for their livelihood which was not forthcoming.

Now a word to the insurgents as well. They too should feel that some of their activities have not been taken pleasingly by the national population. They must also listen to the voices of the millions and millions of the population and devise some schemes so that the now suspended talks with the government is resumed. In doing so many a precious lives could be saved. Confrontations could be avoided if wisdom prevails on both the sides. It is here that we appeal the Human Rights activists and responsible citizens of the country to take up the matter seriously and do the needful that brings the situation under total control. The government and the insurgents are thus advised to understand the gravity of the situation and come to terms and allow the people of this peaceful nation to breath fresh air that is free from the threat of war or for that matter any confrontation of high magnitude. For both should understand that if there is an all out war, the nation will instantly pay for that. In what form the nation will have to pay is still premature to predict.

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