Kathmandu: Last week around this time the nation remained in a fix. A war like situation prevailed. The countrymen apparently saw dark clouds hovering over the country. The Maoists and the Government both perhaps had geared up themselves for a sort of civil war. Thanks the Thapa government modestly took up the political challenge that had come from the other quarter and very wisely averted the dangerous situation. Thanks the Maoists who too exhibited their keen desire, though reluctantly, the already deteriorated situation got better.

However, the fact is that though both have expressed their commitments for the third round of talks but still some reservations prevail.

The fact is that the Maoists have not yet completely said goodbye to violent activities. Sporadic events have been taking place across the country wherein they have been killing security personnel. The government is abreast of such events but yet has acquired a sort of utmost restraint fearing that the impending talks might not go to the dogs. The Maoists, nevertheless, have not stopped alleging the other camp for having violated code of conduct.

Thus a sort of subtle war is on but yet their promise for the talks remain intact. This is no less an achievement indeed.

The manner the Thapa set responded to fulfilling of Comrade Prachanda’s five point harsh conditions prior to the talks and the subsequent quick answers from the Maoists camp that they would come to the talks was simply superb which apparently gave the hint that both desired peace albeit on their own conditions.

The government had compulsions galore to heed to the demands of the Maoists. The fact is that the Thapa set was unable even to bring in the participation of political parties in the government. This was a grand failure indeed which had already been eroding the credibility of the Thapa establishment. Not only this, people within and without had been thinking that the Thapa cabinet was a total failure in the sense that it had not been able even to fulfil some of the instructions that His Majesty had told this government at time of its formation. Add to this, the Maoists too appeared not in a mood to accept it as a government. Not only this, Thapa as prime minister was being challenged by his own party colleagues for having minimized the role of the party at time of the formation of the government and many more others. To sum up, Thapa was a total failure both in the eyes of the Maoists and the agitating five parties.

Thanks that Comrade Prachanda’s last statement issued some five days ago saved his dwindling prestige when he accepted the offer of the government for the third round of the talks which tentatively is to begin by August middle.

The Maoists too had their own sort of compulsions. In effect, the rebellions used their known pressure tactics to press the government in order to extract greater concessions albeit political ones. Finally their tact did yield results and the government heeded to some of their demands and consequently released some of the Maoists leaders from prison. The other compulsion could have been that the rebellions thought that since the mood of the international community were not in their favor and hence very cleverly accepted the offer for talks. Secondly, the Maoists could have also thought that the RNA in the meantime must have enriched itself with new and sophisticated arms and weapons to deal with the insurgency should they back-out from the talks.

Thirdly, the United States factor. To recall, the Maoists had expressed their anger towards the United States and had demanded that they will attend to the talks provided the Nepali government told the US advisors to quit the country. The government politely rejected the Maoists claim and said that at the moment no US advisors were in the Nepali soil. Why the Maoists singled out the presence of the US personnel in Nepal is yet a mystery. However, the fact is that around the same time when the rebellions were expressing their anger towards the US, an editorial in the Times of India dated August 1 did talk about the US presence in Nepal. Coincidentally, the Maoists anger for the US matched with the content of the TOI editorial piece. Could be a mere conjecture.

Now that both the sides have agreed for the talks, one hopes that both express their political agenda and that too in clear terms. Let it be a give and take phenomenon.

For the time being, Thapa’s credibility remains intact. His political acumen will be watched how he convinces the Maoists and brings the insurgency into the mainstream politics.

But things will surely not proceed Thapa way.