Nation heading towards a disastrous course!

April 4, 2001
5 MIN READ
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Kathmandu: The otherwise peaceful Kingdom is becoming more and more dangerous and chaotic to live in due to the increased incidents of violence initiated by the Maoists insurgents. A sort of total panic has gripped the entire nation well after the Rukumkot killings of the policemen by the Maoists insurgents last Sunday early morning.

A total of about forty police personals have sacrificed their precious lives during the encounter with the insurgents this Sunday morning at Rukumkot in Rukum district.

Rukum and Rolpa are considered to be totally under the control of the Maoists since long.

The Sunday encounter in between the policemen and the rebellions is talked to be the most dangerous of all the clashes that have happened after Dunai incident that took place a few days before last year’s Durga Puja festivals. Some even say the present sad event at Rukumkot was of much greater dimension than that of Dunai killings of the policemen by the revolutionaries.

Likewise the Dolkha incident which also took its tall on both the sides that is the policemen and the rebellions Sunday morning too has contributed to the increased panic among the national population.

That the security system in the country is totally nil or is very close to that gets reflected from the very explosion of a very high powered gelatin at the very private residence quarter of the former Inspector General of Police Achyut Krishna Kharel early Sunday morning. If the state of the security-system in the heart of the capital is such then it could be guessed fairly as to what would be its position of the same in the districts more so in those areas wherein the Maoists have their stronghold, for example in the remote western regions of the country.

Undoubtedly, the former IGP was tentatively the declared target of the Maoists for it was he who preferred the use of excessive force to tame the Maoists rebellions during his tenure. May be the fresh target at his private residence could be attributed to his hard posture taken against the insurgents when he was in power. A guess work only.

Now the question arises as to what would happen on April 6-the day declared by the Maoists as a nation-wide bundh- when some days in advance the insurgents have created havoc in the country?

The fresh Rukumkot attack on the policemen by the Maoists has come immediately after Chairman Prachanda through a statement preferred a dialogue with the representatives of all major actors of the Nepalese political scene and hinted that their party too could join the government thus formed after the all party meeting came to a conclusion of having a different sort of government other than the present one.

The fact is that the Maoists had declared in advance that they would initiate penal action days prior to observing the nationwide bundh on April 6.

The question now automatically arises as to why the government did not take their warnings or declarations seriously and acted accordingly. “Had the government taken their words seriously, the lives of the policemen would have been saved”, commented an ordinary citizen.

Yet another panicked intellectual said that looking at the major offensive and the calculated attack on the policemen in Rukumkot, Dolakha and in Kathmandu on Sunday morning what could be guessed in advance is that the nation will either go soon in the total control of the Maoists-insurgents or this event in particular will prompt or even press the constitutional monarch to step in to bring back to normalcy the already deteriorated political scene of the country.

High placed sources in the government and in the diplomatic community, however, opine that the King will not interfere into the obtaining scheme of things in Nepal and would wish to see the wisdom of the leaders of the nation manning the government and the system itself.

” Yes! The constitutional monarch appears pretty worried at the unfolding events in the country”, said a diplomat with this scribe last week.

Rumors have it that the monarch recently asked Prime Minister Koirala as to “why the parliament was not allowed to do business”?

A nervous and dumbfound Koirala, however, told the monarch that the entire opposition in close collaboration with a section of his own parliamentary party members had created the stalemate in the parliament who have been seeking his resignation over his alleged connection in the Lauda air procurement. The prime minister is supposed to have sought the support of the monarch for yet another ordinance to reactivate the sinking bill in the parliament.

Be that as it may, the situation in the country has gone from bad to worse. The politics is under tremendous strain. Security system has gone to the dogs. Add to this the chaos that would follow the bundhs sponsored by the communists and the radical ones of the sort of the Maoists in series that is to begin this Wednesday and onwards.

The government led by Girija is thus advised to resume dialogues with the insurgents if it really wishes peace to prevail in this nation. Let the sons of the soil be not killed any more. Failing to do so will undoubtedly invite ‘events’ of much greater frightening dimensions.

Telegraph adds: While writing this story, a news received says that at yet another attack by the Maoists on the policemen in Palpa district Tuesday morning, some policemen have been killed. Unfortunately, a contingent of policemen who headed for Palpa to control the situation there met with death as their vehicle fell down a mountain parapet.