Nepal: New uprising builds against governmment

November 6, 2009
Issue 

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) has initiated a nationwide "people's movement" to topple the government and anti-people forces.

Dipak Sakota, a journalist with the pro-Maoist Janadisha Daily in Kathmandu, told Green Left Weekly: "This is quite serious. This is not just a movement but it's a kind of decisive battle to decide who will hold the real power in the Nepali state."

Sakota said most central UCPN-M leaders, including UCPN-M chairperson and former prime minister Prachanda, are in the field leading the movement.

The UCPN-M waged a 10-year armed struggle against the feudal monarchy and won the largest number of votes in the 2008 constituent assembly elections that marked the end of royal rule.

In May, the UCPN-M resigned from the government it led after an unconstitutional coup by foreign powers, the political opposition and the military.

The chief of the military, a royalist called General Katawal, refused to implement parts of the peace accords that ended the civil war and helped pave the way for Nepal to become a republic. When the UCPN-M government sacked Katawal, he refused to accept it.

The US and India backed Kawatal and no other party supported the Maoist position — essentially granting the military authority over the government.

The root cause of the conflict is the clash between the established elite and the poor majority.

After the overthrow of the despised king in 2006, a process of transforming Nepal was initiated. However, when it came to challenge the old state to try to create new, democratic and pro-people state structures, the forces of the status quo sought to derail the process to protect their own power and privilege.

This was revealed when the conservative Nepali Congress and the social democratic Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), both of whom had opposed the monarchy to varying degrees, chose to back the royalist military heads over the civilian government led by the party that won the most votes in a fair election.

Sakota told GLW: "The king had been removed, but his power has not yet been filled by another force.

"The Maoists are trying to turn the Nepali state in favour of the majority of the poor and oppressed."

After leaving government, the Maoists spent an extended period reaching out to the communities across the nation. Now, the UCPN-M has launched a new mass movement to advance the revolutionary process of transforming Nepal by seeking to bring down the illegitimate government.

The UCPN-M, which controls nearly 40% of assembly seats, is refusing to pass the new budget until civilian supremacy in government has been restored.

Ministries have already run out of funding and the state is crawling to a stop for lack of resources.

People are pouring into the streets. There are already blockades and occupations of local administration offices across the country. In some areas, there are reports of alternative local administrations being established.

The protests will climax with a blockade of Kathmandu and the seat of government, Singha Durbar.

The United Nations has proposed to the Nepalese government that it accepts a government of "national unity" involving the Maoists as a peaceful way out of the crisis.

The government, a CPN-UML-led coalition government in which diverse groups are united only by opposition to the Maoists, has slammed the propsal.

Instead, it has put the police and military on high alert.

A meeting of government members on November 3 declared that the Maoist protests breached the 2006 peace agreement and "bypasses the jurisdiction of the Constituent Assembly".

Information minister Shanker Pokarel said: "The government is determined to ensure law and order with the help of the police force."

Prachanda denounced these threats, which he said mimicked the actions of the former king. He said, even with the use of the military, the government could not suppress the mass movement. He said popular support for the government was too low.

A colossal clash of interests is unfolding in Nepal. The outcome of this struggle will help determine the direction of the new Himalayan republic.

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