Kathmandu: Organizational politics over five decades old in Nepal make possible the gleaning of street strategies. The “peaceful agitation” against “regression” has turned violent. The partisan media covers the violence as part of government repression. Even the BBC now covers the agitation “for the restoration of democracy”. The government can’t but use the police to stop the agitators from breaking the security cordon. This is where the violence begins.

And so we are amidst a predictable round of violence and counter violence. Lost in the process is the bankruptcy of demands that the agitators have put to restore democracy. The five political parties that held sway over organizational politics in the past decade of democracy are in effect shunning calls for elections as impossible and are courting Maoists counter-violence to add to their waning strength. The focus now will be on police brutality to court a reluctant public whose participation the agitators’ have failed to otherwise woo.

That the five parties’ have cadre strength to demonstrate them on the streets was never lost on the public. But the media appears to have forgotten that their leadership had promised participation in hundreds of thousands. Sagging numbers made it imperative for their declared bundh to be enforced by visible show of presence by the burning of tyres and the use of threats in stark contrast to valley bundhs that happen merely on the basis of rumors these days. Government appears aware that continued disruption of daily lives might bring in Kathmandu participants that may add to depleting numbers of imported participants.

The crux lies here. What will defuse the agitation that is bound to be violent for sake of continuity? Are the parties cashing in on coordinating with the Maoists who have already announced their bundh in Kathmandu? Or will the government preempt the violence with arrests?

Predictable again, the arrests will be highlighted as proof of undemocratic governance. Preemption lacking again violence from the Maoists would seem inevitable. As of the moment, however, these inevitabilities of Nepali mass politics, however, leave little room to predict its course. As yet, government merely relies on the administration and politics is surely the agitators’ initiative.