Why Prachanda not interested in talks?

February 14, 2001
4 MIN READ
A
A+
A-

Kathmandu: The Maoists celebrated their sixth anniversary Monday evening rather in a restrained fashion contrary to what had been given to understand by the media close to the Maoists quarters prior to the event.

This notwithstanding, the insurgents kept themselves engaged in two way firing with the police men at various places in the country say media reports.

The districts that saw the two-way firings in between the rebels and the police men Monday evening were Solukhumbu, Rolpa, Rukum, Pyuthan, Jajarkot, Salyan, Gorkha, Kalikot, Nuwakot and some sporadic events of clashes could be noticed in the Kathmandu district as well.

At some places in western region, the insurgents held torch demonstrations to mark their sixth anniversary. However, no major casualties so far have come to notice albeit some precious lives were lost in Achham district when an explosive explodes early morning of Monday.

Two sets of equally powerful theories are abounding with regard to the violent explosion that occurred in Achham district. One set believes that the policemen spread the ambush themselves to take care of the Maoists rebels. However, the police sources deny it to have been done by their men.

Be that as it may, on the eve of the sixth anniversary of their declaration of the People’s War, the Maoists supremo Prachanda has issued a statement in which he “highly evaluates the gains achieved by the insurgency over the past five years”.

The Maoists supremo in his statement has vowed that the revolution that is on will continue for long.

However, what is surprising in the statement this round is the conspicuous absence of the Maoists’ desire for a meaningful “dialogue” with the government. To recall, Prachanda’s previous statement had stated that his party was “ready” for the talks with the government provided some of their minimum conditions were met with prior to the proposed talks.

Intellectuals here remain surprised over the sudden change in tone and the content of the message released by the insurgents on the eve of their sixth anniversary.

Some intellectuals wish to analyze this change in their own fashion.

Firstly, it could be that the Maoists have concluded that their insurgency was becoming popular among the common massess.

Secondly, the government with which they intended to go in for talks is being pressured from all directions and hence the establishment under Koirala had become pretty weak. The Maoists might have concluded that since the establishment has already become weak so it was simply futile to initiate talk with those who were already counting their last breath.

Thirdly, the Maoists leaders also might have felt that since the Ordinance Bill brought for the formation of the Armed Police Force tentatively aimed against their insurgency were being properly taken care by the opposition parties in parliament and hence nothing to panic.

In fact, the whole of the opposition parties has stood against the bill mentioned above. An added advantage for the Maoists albeit that came indirectly in their favor.

Summing up all these factors, what could be safely said that Comrade Prachanda deliberately avoided reiterating his favoring “talks” with the establishment in order to come at an amicable solution to the overly stretched imbroglio that has taken thousands of precious Nepali lives.

Does this mean that the insurgency has gained in strength in the recent days? Apparently yes. An indication to this effect has been stated in the statement that those camps, which acted like their “base” in the districts now, would be given permanent status, which means that those bases and the surrounding areas will be totally under their command.

What is interesting is that Comrade Prachanda has expected the “same sympathy and encouragement” from the masses which they received in the previous years.

What is for sure is that the crises in the ruling party have emboldened the Maoists leaders and their insurgency, to say the least.