Dedicated to Daniel Pearl

Nepalgunj incident once again revealed the fact that the retrogressive forces are still active in causing unrest and sabotage the achievements of April movement. The retrogressive elements who felt defeated by the April movement, spread the fire of communal animosity. They are trying to create uproar and foil the Constituent Assembly elections. They are also trying to nip the budding Interim Constitution. These elements are planning to destroy the entire process of loktantra. So all political parties; including CPN-Maoists, civil society members, human rights defenders and individuals must remain vigilant to such conspiracies. They should remain united against such conspiracies and promote communal harmony among Nepalese people. Nepalese people, irrespective of their separate culture, language, religion, caste, color and class are brothers and sisters. There shouldn’t be any enmity among the brothers and sisters. Once people are united, the nation gets united and we can go further. Nepal has just come across a huge political transformation and it is the political transition.

Nepalese people should feel the retrogressive elements always seek an opportunity to cause unrest to fail the government during transition period. It’s indeed a very difficult task for a government to stand tough during the transition period. Therefore, it’s the duty of every Nepali citizen to feel they are first Nepalis and it is much important for them to gear up the development process. We are far behind in development. The 11-year long Maoist insurgency further pushed us back and it is high time to promote mutual harmony and join hands to steer the development process of the country. 

As Nepal has stood on the verge of political transformation, many incidents purported to break the public harmony and create unrest across the country have occured. Those who were ignominiously defeated by the April movement have their active role in escalating such incidents. The recently escalated violence in Nepalgunj has taken the form of communal nature. The conflict now has changed into Pahadia versus Madhesi. A serious fear is that the violence may escalate to other parts of the country and it will create unrest. The seven political parties should immediately take initiative and address the problem. The representatives from the seven party alliance and the CPN-Maoists should immediately visit Nepalgunj and try to find out who are those involved in the violence. Once the parties convince their cadres and stay away from such communal violence, the conflict will scale down. Otherwise, it will spread like wild fire and it will ultimately destroy the achievements of the April movement. The miscreants should not be given chance to cause terror in the country. Such elements are seeking an opportunity to cause uproar and sabotage the achievements of the April movement. People have high aspirations and expectations over the political parties and the Maoists. They shouldn’t let the peoples’ aspirations down.

Of late, it looks as if the Maoists have resumed their atrocities against innocent people. They have recently closed down both the Pepsi and Coke factories. Similarly, they are exercising their high-handedness everywhere. They forced the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal leaders to chant slogans against monarchy. They even smeared black the face of four mayors and deputy mayors, who were elected during the king’s direct rule. Although the RPP-Nepal men were against democracy and always supported the autocratic king, the democracy doesn’t give permission to anyone to harm others physically just because one has a different political ideology. Democracy allows criticism and protests. So the Maoists should have criticized but not physically punished the RPP-Nepal men. Not only this, Maoists have continued extortion and intimidation in villages. They want the people live under the sword of terror. The Maoists want to continue the sense of fear in the people. Once the people feel fearless, they can explore their talent in Nepal itself. So nurture fraternity and develop friendsip among all. 

It’s a good news to hear that the Maoists have decided to transform their military-based party organizational structure into political one. The Maoists’ decision has marked a significant transformation in their ideology. The Maoists, who used to think that the power comes through the barrels of a gun, have decided to enter parliamentary system. The Maoists’ decision also highlights their preparation to enter election system. Nepal will soon enter constituent Assembly elections process and the Maoists are planning to capture maximum number of berths in the elections. The Maoists have formed District and Village Committees, with a view to operate its party policies in local levels during the elections. The Maoists have also formed variou committees to coordinate between the local and national-level oragnisations.

It’s a ver good news to hear it.