Kathmandu: Four political parties are still in the streets fighting against what they call, regression.
When this move against regression will yield positive results will have to be best predicted by astrologers of international repute.
Conversely, yet another set of four political parties are at the helm of affairs of the government backed by two independent candidates supposedly the King’s nominees.
The parties in the streets and in the government, as a matter of fact, appear a balanced one with slight advantage going in favor of the establishment.
Thus the fight is on in between those who see the regression still in force and those who conclude that regression has at least partially been corrected with the stepping in of the Deuba government in Singh Durbar.
The four party alliance in the Katmandu’s open streets against regression has decided to shake the establishment, read the King by implication, in a much more energetic manner so that the King ultimately is compelled to yield to their demands for the restoration of the parliament which would later form a consensus government that would finally initiate dialogues with the rebels. The presumption is that the moment parliament is restored even for a single minute, it would correct the acts of regression and that the supposed derailed constitution would get a new lease of life. Yet another thinking is that the formation of a new government after the parliament is restored, the government thus formed would command more credibility and legitimacy, which certainly would benefit the government at time of the talks with the Maoists.
The King appears to have been listening to the grievances of the four-party alliance but has so far not even given any inkling that he would in the near future oblige the street campaigners.
The street agitation is even being ignored by the men in the government to the extent that no body in the establishment talks in private about the street agitation but instead the Deuba government is all set to finalise the details of the agenda to be taken up in New Delhi during the impending Sher Bahadur Deuba’s India trip.
The government under Deuba apparently is giving an impression that for the regime the top most priority is the restoration of peace in the country by inviting the rebels to the talks. Though conflicting reports emanate from government quarters regarding the possibility of the talks with the insurgents in the immediate future, still, if one were to believe” what the DPM, Bharat Mohan Adhikari told a gathering Monday that his government was “receiving” positive “signals” from the other camp and that the “rest of the things he can’t divulge for exclusive reasons”.
If it is so then what could be concluded is that the government, though charged with acts of dilly-dallying with the peace process, should have already made some headways vis-à-vis the talks with the insurgents.
Minister Adhikari went to the extent to assert that it was upon the government’s sincere requests that the Maoists lifted the indefinite embargo on Kathmandu and its periphery.
Sounds interesting indeed.
But DPM Adhikari has yet to explain his government’s failure in managing the reopening of some industries closed by the Maoists for an indefinite period by convincing the rebels.
While the industries under Maoists threat continues, the rebels have revealed that some more industries were in the list of closure. The Maoists threat to close the industries with American investment is a matter that has puzzled many a brains in Kathmandu’s political circles.
Why only the US investments are being made the target by the Maoists is yet to get plausible answers? Dr. Mohsin, the government’s spokesman, the other day too expressed his surprise over the Maoists decision to make the American investments their target? What of others?
The Maoists nevertheless, have said that they were making the UN companies their targets for they don’t like the manner the American officials have been influencing the functioning of the government in Kathmandu.
Analysts opine that the Maoists understand well that so many countries here and there have been influencing the country’s politics their way but yet their investments were not being made targets? This is puzzling indeed.
But then yet the Maoists made their target to one company with not an American investment. It was indeed an Indian investment, The Nepal Lever Ltd. that instantly invited scathing criticism from Indian government wherein it said, “The Government of India calls for an end to the targeting of business enterprises and strongly urges that business ventures be allowed to operate freely, without fear of violence in the interest of the people of Nepal”. The Indian government has appealed the Nepal government to apprehend the culprits and penalise what is due to them.
Observers here see not so many American investments in Nepal comparatively speaking but yet get surprised over why the Maoists have made their investments its targets?
All in all, the lifting of the imposition of an embargo on Kathmandu valley by the Maoists is a positive sign indeed. Analysts see in this move the Maoists’ love and sincerity towards the Nepali people, their own brethren.
Observers hope that the Maoists keep up this spirit and come to the table keeping in view of the larger interest of their own motherland which is equally near and dear to them all undoubtedly.