Positive signals from Maoists camp

October 6, 2004
3 MIN READ
A
A+
A-

Kathmandu: The government is ready for talks with the Maoists.

The government concurrently sends the message to the other camp that it is also prepared to face the Maoists if they opt to go in for a battle with the state.

This means that the government has both the carrots and the stick for the Maoists.

The Maoists have yet to react to the answers sent to the insurgency by the government in response to Prachanda’s six point questions sent in the name of the government.

Prachanda had hinted in his questions that if the other side sent logical answers to his questions then his party can think of the talks with this government.

However, the Maoists are left presumably with one single option: either coming to the negotiating table or face the joint wrath of the establishment which is now equipped with the open support from the lone super power and neighboring India.

Both India and the United States of America have hinted the Maoists in no uncertain terms that they preferred talks but would not shy away from supporting Nepal if the insurgents opted a violent clash with the state.

India of late has concluded that if the Nepali Maoists were left to proceed their way might endanger its own security concerns. India also has in the meantime arrived at a conclusion that since the nepali Maoists have had already developed a sort of strong linkages with similar insurgencies in India through a red-corridor that links Nepal with Andhra Pradesh. That India has already taken the Nepali Maoists as a common threat gets reflected from the fact that India’s home minister recently held a meeting in Hyderabad wherein the chief ministers of those Indian states were present who were facing the brunt of similar insurgencies. The meeting also decided to break the linkages of the Nepali Maoists with those of the Indian Maoists.

This means that India has already tightened its belt and appears determined to curb the threat of the Maoists here and there through the use of force come hat may.

The recent arrests of Nepali Maoists in India also testify that India will now pounce on the Maoists either for safeguarding its own security interests or for extracting some “tangible” gains from Nepal, which is what India does more often than not.

It is not surprising therefore that Prachanda has already authorized Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai as coordinator for the talks with the government. This also means that Prachanda is convinced from the answers sent to him by the government