Kathmandu: The unnecessary delay seen in the resumption of the talks between the “old regime” under Thapa and the “new regime” under Comrade Prachanda is causing panic among the peaceloving population of the country.
The men belonging to the new regime have been ventilating that their counterparts in the old regime could be playing foul against them and hence suspect the very hidden motives of the government side in delaying the talks.
Surprising though it may appear, the Maoists of late have been targeting the Royal Nepali Army and the United States of America for dilly-dallying the talks for reasons best known to the accusers only.
The fact is that the Maoists consider the RNA to have their number one enemy for understandable reasons. The RNA of late has been visiting remote parts of the country and providing free medical services to the needy one which is being taken as an act of “spying” by the Maoists. Such acts of the RNA have met with fierce resistance by the Maoists causing sporadic tussles in between the two guns.
The RNA, however, denies the Maoists allegations and maintains that they were there out in the villages as part of their social duties. But then the fact is that the RNA is mainly concentrating their medical services in areas where the Maoists rule the roost and claim that those area fall under their “political sovereignty”. The government in Kathmandu has taken a silent posture to these sporadic skirmishes perhaps thinking that any retaliation to the Maoists overtures might dampen the prospects of talks.
Unconfirmed reports have it that the Maoists continue to collect arms and ammunitions from their original sources to meet any eventualities should the talks fail unfortunately.
On ground, the Maoists have never told that they would abandon the talks if they were invited for the third round.
In the process, the government, the State in its truest sense of the term, is also accumulating arms to face the threats of the Maoists should the talks go to the dogs.
While the Maoists suspect the US hand in the delay of the talks and opine that the US—the lone super power on earth—has been spreading its tentacles in Nepal which, according to them, could pose a security threat to Nepal’s immediate neighbors—China and India.
This is the first time that the Maoists have spelt out the name of China for unknown reasons or else they used to see the US presence in Nepal as a threat to India only.
Is it that they wish now to seduce China for their own strategic reasons? Or is it that they have altered their stance considering the changing Sino-Indian relations?
The Maoists have to yet spell out as to how the US could dampen the talks? They have also to convince the people at large as to what political benefits the US will bag by interfering into the existing scheme of political things in this country?
Or is it that the insurgents have been expressing their reservations on a list released by the US side which possesses no good words for the insurgency?
Be that as it may, Mr. Ram Bahadur Thapa alias Badal has expressed that as yet their insurgency does not consider the King’s moves as an act of regression. This should come as a solace to the monarch indeed.
However, what is interesting is that comrade Badal has hinted that they would very much wish to see the King face to face in order to get the mind of the King regarding the existing political situation of the country and of the now stalled peace talks as well. This is news because it is some thing very exclusive coming as it does from a “military commander” of the “new regime”.
Whether the King complies with their request or takes some more time to understand the insurgency better will have to be watched. But then what is the harm if the King meets the leaders of the insurgency? After all, the rumor is that it was the monarch who seduced the insurgents to come to the talks.
Nepali politics is definitely taking interesting twists.