Prachanda: A Profile

Prachanda: "My main thrust is that I hate revisionism. I seriously hate revisionism. And I never compromise with revisionism. I fought and fought again with revisionism. And the party's correct line is based on the process of fighting revisionism. I hate revisionism. I seriously hate revisionism."

The picture that emerges is of a person who prefers a few, simple broad strokes. He deplores "confusion" and "revisionism" and "intellectualism." He seems to have the mentality of the religious fundamentalists. Much emotion, little logic is involved. This can lead to "bold" action and a detachment from reality. Prachanda seems to exhibit the certainty of a stopped clock.

Prachanda might be the hardliner, and Baburam the moderate. Baburam is capable of nuances, Prachanda is not. When Baburam says Democratic Republic, he perhaps means it. He sees his work in the same vein as the French Revolution of 1789. But I am not sure Prachanda means the same thing when he says democratic republic. His could be the Kim Jong Il version.

Prachanda talks about the "intellectuals" like they were foreign tourists. Baburam talks about them as a group he belongs to.

But I would not stress this point too much. After all, the two have worked in close co-operation for quite a while. It is not possible there are such sharp differences between the two. But tough times require tough measures. Just like the king got rid of the politicians, it is possible Prachanda felt the need to sideline Baburam.

Prachanda is a total Old School Maoist. I am not sure he can even function in a democratic framework. I don't get the impression he is capable of going out to ask for votes. That might be too much "sunshine" for his mentality and thought processes.

That is why it is important to strengthen the Maoist moderates. Because if you humiliate them, like was done during the "peace talks," you end up with the hardliners.

I think the best option is to enage them in respectful dialogue as opposed to trying to divide and rule. They are so opaque, it is hard to figure out what is happening.

The central issue in dealing with the Maoists continues to be that the Monarchists are intransigent on questions like Constituent Assembly. The Monarchists are the number one impediment. February 1 has given more leeway to the hardliners among the Maoists.

Prachanda is for the Constituent Assembly idea as much as Baburam is. To me that is enough reason to take them seriously and treat them respectfully. This stand shows they are capable of reason and should be spared the caricatures.

But the "fissure" between the duo could be a serious "two-line struggle," as Prachanda mentions.

Also, distinctions have to be made between what the Maoists say in their internal deliberations and what they say at the negotiation table. Some posturing has to be tolerated.

1. Reporters sans frontières - Nepal .... runs the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) with an iron hand
2. RW ONLINE:Red Flag Flying on the Roof of the World .... in areas where the People’s War is the strongest — like the Rolpa and Rukum districts in the West .... spring of 1999, RW reporter Li Onesto ..... the main thing is ideological clarity .... every time when there has been mass struggle, this leadership has been able to confuse the masses, to make compromises with the ruling classes and to get some concessions for this revisionist group...... when the British left India, Nepal became a semi-colony of Indian expansionism ..... There was a big ideological and political debate for 10 years after the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and all our leadership team is a product of that ideological struggle...... 1986, I think, when we finalized Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as our ideology. At the time, only the Communist Party of Peru had said this ...... the main question in these types of countries is how to fight against revisionism ..... when a revolutionary objective situation develops, at that time, deal a big blow ..... it is not a small country. Geographically when you look at the whole country of India you can travel in one or two days to every part and corner. But in Nepal you have to walk up and down for many days ...... mountainous region is very favorable for guerrilla warfare ..... we are surrounded on three sides by this big Indian country ..... 20 to 25 different oppressed nationalities ..... We fundamentally depart from all the revisionist and bourgeois parties. We uphold the right of self-determination for the oppressed nationalities ...... The West is historically, geographically, and culturally the basin of the revolution. It is the main point for the revolution-the people here are more oppressed by the ruling classes, and the government in Kathmandu is very far from there. ...... in the last part of the 18th century, at that time, this part of the country was not totally captured by the central government. There was a kind of compromise...... you saw how all our comrades there look Chinese ..... These nationalities are so sincere and such brave fighters- ..... Even male domination in these places is weaker-it is not like in the dominating castes. And at the same time, our party has a long history of working in these areas, like in Thabang and Rolpa...... one other area where we should concentrate work is in India, because more than seven million Nepalese live in India. ...... More than 72 percent of the Nepalese people live below the poverty line...... Just before the initiation we organized so many big mass demonstrations and mass meetings..... We had already declared we are going to initiate the People's War. But the ruling class didn't believe it and thought, "These people are talking, only talking." ...... The revisionist parties and revisionist leaders always teach the people the question of reform, reform, reform. And reform is reformism, is revisionism. But the question of making leaps is revolutionary..... we had indirectly participated in the elections, and we had 11 members in the parliament, nine in the lower house and two in the upper house..... There was parliamentary work but the main party organizational mechanism was underground at that time-you should note this....... In one push, the party was established in a big and national way and it was in the center of debate-after only one month..... the enemy started to massacre the people. Arresting, raping, killing, looting ..... In the whole process of this final preparation...there was consistent international involvement. First and foremost, there was the RIM Committee (Revolutionary Internationalist Movement). There was important ideological and political exchange. From the RIM Committee, we got the experience of the PCP (Communist Party of Peru), the two-line struggle there, and also the experience in Turkey, the experience in Iran, and the experience in the Philippines. We learned from the experience in Bangladesh and from some experience in Sri Lanka. And there was a South Asian conference that we participated in. At the same time we were also having direct and continuous debate with the Indian communists, mainly the People's War (PW) and Maoist Communist Center (MCC) groups....... we made some investigation of the Bihar in India. We went to Andar Pradesh to look at the struggle there ..... there had been a big setback with the People's War in Peru [with the capture of the PCP's leader, Chairman Gonzalo ..... we also took help from all over the world ..... We thought that, possibly, more than 50 percent of our party members could fall away but that other new comrades and new people would come and join the party....... there were so many petty bourgeois tendencies, so much intellectualism .... if we are prepared mentally, then it will not shake us.... we had a military plan to attack the police force, the landlords, the local goons in the rural areas .... we did not have a big plan for sabotage in the capital city because, at that time, we did not want to create a situation where with one stroke the intellectuals would go away from us ...... In Rolpa, in one month, thousands of people went underground. Not only party members but also masses went underground-in Rukum, in Jarjarkot, in Salyan, in Kalikot...... in the cities where there are more intellectuals, the process of transformation was very, very low, and in some cases, we can say, unsatisfactory ..... And at that time, what happened in the city? Wherever we went people said, "You should not stay here, the police will come." ..... for 22 days we had to move about continuously in the city...... in the city, the intellectuals were vacillating so much ..... Women in Kathmandu were the other force who, in that time of terror, boldly supported us and gave us shelter and helped us move around. ...... it was mainly laborers, women and students who helped us. But the intellectuals, who had a lot of knowledge of philosophy, theories, etc., these people were wavering so much they could not help very much.... Some petty bourgeois revolutionaries, due to terror, fled to India, to Arab countries ..... Questions of marriage, questions of love, questions of family, questions of relations between people. All of these things were being turned upside down ...... We have worked to make new relations between men and women ...... there are comrades who cannot change their whole thinking. They think just like before ..... there have been more than 700 martyrs. But thousands have stepped forward. This process does not harm us, it helps us.... When the ruling class started their repressive Kilo Sera 2 operation ...... there is vacillation among some intellectuals. But there are also good comrades from among the laborers, women, and students ...... Peoples of the oppressed nationalities-the Mongolian peoples, the Terai peoples and the far western peoples ....... the Magar National Liberation Front ..... the Tharu National Liberation Front in the Terai region and the Terai National Liberation Front and the Rai and Limbu and Tamang. And in the capital city there is Newar Khala ..... The great Karl Marx stated that the working class would have to go through 15, 20, 50 years of civil war, not only to crush the enemy but also to transform itself, to make itself fit to exercise new power...... the process of People's War is not only to crush the enemy, but also to clean our own dirtiness and all our bad habits .... Without destruction there will not be construction ..... without destruction there will not be any construction ..... war is a great process of construction. War has a very big cleansing effect...... The intellectuals' instinctive tendency is that we have to learn all these things, we should read everything, we have to do all these things, and then we can make war...... The question is learning war through war...... the police would sleep outside the post. They would put a candle or lantern inside the post, and when the Maoists came to attack the post, then they would be outside in the forest...... at that point in the villages there were not any Village Development Committees and there were not any police...... our comrades tax the local businessmen, how there are people's courts, land distribution, and collective farming, divorce, marriage ..... we can distribute land, we have collective farming, we can divorce, we can make arrangements, we can break all the chains, we can tax the businessmen, we can manage the forests ..... thousands and thousands of quintals of grain have been captured and distributed to the masses .... In terms of land ownership, it will be private ownership by the peasant. But the production process will be collective..... How many work hours a particular family did on that land-the return will be in that percentage...... Private ownership, but farming collectively...... When all our families work together, eat together, sing together, dance together-then it is more communal...... We are not yet able, in the Terai, to seize the land. But we are able to seize stored grain....... Armed struggle with no vision? ... No vision, exactly. This line exists in India..... a particular national situation and international situation is also necessary. This means there are big contradictions among the ruling classes-they are fighting among each other-and there is also an unstable situation with India. Because for us, ultimately, we will have to fight with the Indian army...... When the Indian army comes in with thousands and thousands of soldiers, it will be a very big thing. But we are not afraid of the Indian Army because, in one way, it will be a very good thing..... they will give us lots of guns..... they will dare, they will be compelled..... when Rolpa, Rukum, Jarjarkot, Salyan become a liberated zone, then we will declare the People's Republic of Nepal ..... we can organize a big mass movement in Kathmandu and other cities also ..... at one point we will have to declare a new government and the president and the republic, the ministry and all these things .... The whole feudal and individualistic, sectarian culture that has prevailed has been changed upside down...... thousands and thousands of people will have to be prepared to be sacrificed...... Mao said, if there is a third world war, everybody cannot be killed. Maybe half the population will be gone and half the population will remain and a new world will emerge...... in the mountainous region, in the Western Region, as you saw, there are not so many temples. But when you go to Kathmandu there are so many temples-it is a capital of temples...... among the oppressed nationalities, there is not so much male domination. There is a kind of equality there. In some nationalities women are seen as more important-the wives are seen as more important than the men...... the party is discussing the question of how to organize collective childcare.... to not have a baby for five to seven or ten years because it will be a big practical problem ..... there was a big two-line struggle inside the party, and I continuously went with the revolutionary line .... economically and culturally imperialism is in deeper crisis than before World War 2 ...... we see that a new wave of world revolution is beginning .... just like Mao said, there will be 50 to 100 years of great turmoil and great transformation. ..... The People's War in Peru has done a good job of establishing Maoism...... Nepal is a small country, we are a small party-but we have a big perspective. Our People's War may be a spark, a spark for a prairie fire..... In every corner now in India the People's War in Nepal is the subject of debate..... exposing international revisionism, modern revisionism, revisionism in China and Russian revisionism. In Nepal there is a very big revisionist party and much revisionist influence..... without the help of the RIM and without the help of all the communist leaders and dedicated comrades who are keenly and seriously helping the People's War in Nepal-we will not be able to sustain and maintain the People's War in Nepal.
   
3. RW ONLINE: Statement by Comrade Prachanda, Communist Party of ... After the declaration of the ceasefire, the Royal Army not only mounted unnecessary checking and arrests, but it also continued killing our cadres in cold blood in Darchula, Makawanpur, Bhojpur and in other parts of the country, including encircling and forcibly arresting a People's Liberation Army contingent stationed peacefully in Kanchanpur....... brought an end to the relevance of dialogue, urging us to capitulate politically by handing over our weapons ..... It is obvious to all that our party is a revolutionary Communist Party fighting for a people's republic ..... we suspended the demand for a people's republic as an immediate issue to be settled at the negotiating table, and instead came to the universal method of solving problems through a constituent assembly. The slogan of a constituent assembly is not a communist revolutionary slogan ..... The paradox is, they would rather see the country get ruined than make the people sovereign through the election of a constituent assembly. The old state is ready to bow down to foreign powers and ready to drench themselves in the people's blood, but it is not ready to accept the people as sovereign.......
   
4. Nepal Quote from Interview with comrade Prachanda StrategyPage.com
5. Philosophical Concept of Prachanda Path Germany, which was backward compared to advanced England and France, gave Marxism. Russia that was backward compared to Europe and other countries gave birth to Leninism. China, which was underdeveloped and oppressed by imperialism, gave rise to Maoism. Today, the credit of giving birth to new ideas in the form of other height of Prachanda Path is going to Nepal, the third poorest country of the world. It is a matter of glory....... Gautam Buddha, a great thinker that gave message of atheism, dialectics and federalism ..... Prachanda has been specifically emphasizing on the concept of defense, application and development of revolutionary principle..... Prachanda has been standing for materialist dialectics against metaphysics...... Dialectics of development of each object and its phenomenon, which are interrelated with each other and exist constantly in a dynamic flow of changes, is such that, as Lenin said, does not take place in a straight line but takes place in a spiral form, that development does not take place spontaneously without notice and in a gradual way, rather it does in the form of a rupture in continuity, leap, catastrophe and revolution, in the form of transformation of quantity to quality and negation of negation....... In the course of struggling against the reformist and evolutionary concept of development prevalent in the Nepalese communist movement, the Party did sharpen specially the science of development of Marxist dialectics regarding collision, rupture, leap and catastrophe...... "Unity and struggle of opposites is the basic law of dialectics". .... "Unity is relative, temporary and transitional, where as, the struggle is constant and absolute." ...... "The bourgeois idealist cycle of idea, idea and idea that was dominant in the Nepalese communist movement has been shattered by the revolutionary theory through revolutionary practice. The door of the scientific process of developing and refining revolutionary theory through real revolutionary practice has been opened up." .... Mao has concretely formulated class struggle, struggle for production and scientific experiment as the source of knowledge. In its essence, Nepalese People’s War is the concrete expression of class struggle, struggle for production and scientific experiment...... the process of practice, knowledge, again practice, again knowledge is infinite...... He has been constantly emphasizing in the necessity of struggling against dogmatism and empiricism ...... If analysis is emphasized, it creates a danger of empiricism, departmentalism and regionalism..... on one hand, and the ideological struggle against modern, dogmatic and pluralistic revisionism together with the weaknesses of Stalin, on the other..... Comrade Prachanda, has further enriched and sharpened the Leninist concept on transformation of quantity to quality by presenting in the form of rupture, revolution, collision, qualitative leap and catastrophe...... the incarnationist concept regarding divine origin of the king has also been forcefully refuted here...... simple, innocent people struggling to live peacefully in steep slopes with their natural economic system and tribal culture ...... It is a matter of no lesser pride that even Karl Marx, the proponent of communist ideology and the leader of the world proletariat, too, had appreciated the sacrifice, bravery and skill shown by the Nepalese people in those wars...... "The centralized feudal state in Nepal has, by imposing Hindu feudal and Brahminist racial chauvinism upon the lingual, religious, cultural and traditional democratic concepts and right of different races, indigenous people and regions has obstructed the development of real national unity and strength and, it is necessary to establish today a foundation of strong national unity based upon equality and independence according to the right of self- determination in the present context of New Democratic revolution." ....... bureaucrat capitalism took birth in Nepal...... the necessity of turning this region into a new Soviet federation of the twenty-first century..... has guaranteed the acceleration of the people's consciousness to move from the world of necessity to that of freedom, by linking high technology with the cheap labor of the huge population of the masses...... with globalization to grab profits, unprecedented development in the field of information technology, mainly electronics, has narrowed down the world just to a small rural unit. Therefore, it is very likely that an event in any place will have a great positive or negative impact on the world as a whole, and vice versa...... has been preparing a revolutionary objective situation for 80 per cent of the people of the world ...... when the world in the process of globalization has been transformed into a small rural region? ...... national capitulationism ..... "Why all those parties that achieved victory by struggling, inside and outside of it, in the period of revolution ideologically against right, left and centrist deviations, being united with the necessity and interest of the masses and attaining unprecedented records of earth-shaking heroism, sacrifice in class war against enemy, turned all over the world into bureaucratic, revisionist, dissociated from the masses and counterrevolutionary ones relatively easily in a short span of time after seizure of power? ......... It is the problem of scientific application and development of the theory of continued revolution under two-line struggle inside the Party and dictatorship of the proletariat." ..... He has seriously embraced the universal significance of violent revolution....... the world has been narrowed owing to intense development of science and technology. He has regarded Nepal as a base area of world revolution....... The process of initiation of People's War, its continuity and development has taken place amidst innumerable series of people’s rebellions and shock-like military actions. In the task of bringing out originality, particularity and grandeur, the dialectics of Prachanda Path is very much militant, revolutionary and noble...... Without a goal of seizing people’s power through People's War, to talk of mass mobilization and mass line is revisionism...... If Nepalese People’s War by getting plagued with right capitulationism or left adventurism suffers a setback, in this or that form, it will play a big negative role in the development of world revolution...... to prepare for intense military offensive by establishing the accusation of terrorism is going to be the most effective way ...... Communist Party is a division of one into two ....... two-line struggle is not a process that appears and disappears in times but is the one that exists constantly, sometimes in high and sometimes in low level ...... When two-line struggle is not developed and expressed in higher form, then it is within the limit of non-antagonistic struggle and is resolved through the method of criticism, self-criticism and disciplinary action. But, when it develops and appears in higher form then that is expressed in antagonistic way, which is resolved through a qualitative method ......... carry out struggle constantly against factionalism, splittism and all kinds of non-proletarian thinking, trends and styles of work, advance the process of rectification campaign ahead ..... the dialectics of Prachanda Path has excellently succeeded also in struggles against liquidationism, anarchism, individualism, mean Alok tendency* and pluralism. It is in favor of unified and centralized leadership in all domains of idea, policy, plan, command and activities including organization and struggle....... ensure right to build another Communist Party by rebelling against if that goes wrong ..... discourage use of force in two-line struggle ..... ensure ally classes to participate competitively in the power and not confine to cooperative role only ..... the concept of consolidating proletarian dictatorship on the basis of development and wide democratization of the state power, an institution that can organize constant flow of revolution..... has hit hard with a strong theoretical blow upon those class enemies and revisionists, who while pretending to be great democrats and accusing revolutionary communists of dogmatism, totalitarianism and mono-partyism, are in fact the real killers of people’s democracy ...... Prachanda Path is now standing in a new turning point of history to make a qualitative leap in the process of becoming universal, not particular.
6. International Nepal Solidarity Network » Archive » Gyanendra ...
7. United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal » ‘Prachanda Hasn’t Been A ...
8. Prachanda, February 1, 2005
9. CHIP-INDIA KNOW HOW
10. The Rising Nepal

Special Mention

• Marla Ruzicka: Trekking In Nepal The story of Nepal is the same as many failed states. The situation reminds me of Iraq, when the US disbanded the army after the fall of Saddam and failed to create jobs, and what they have now is an ugly insurgency ....... Some say the Maoists control 70 percent. Although “control” is probably an overstatement. They operate freely on much of the countryside because the government is absent ...... Maoists enter people’s homes demanding food and shelter. Then, the government forces trouble the homeowners. The Security Forces have even taken food from poor villagers, claiming it was for the Maoists ..... At curfew I saw soldiers hanging around a house with beautiful young girls. For the girls, prostitution is their only way to make a wage ..... Jit Man Basnet ..... About a year ago he wrote an article about a military action where 16 unarmed Maoists were discovered meeting and subsequently killed. (They should have been arrested not killed on the spot, Amnesty International condemned the action). Two months after the article was published, Jit Man was enjoying tea at a friend’s shop near the airport, when three men in civilian clothes grabbed him, tied his wrists together and blindfolded him. He was then taken to an army base. He was told to sit on the cold floor and then they beat and interrogated him. For 251 days Jit Man’s wrists were tied and his eyes covered. He forgot what color the sun was and the sound of the human voice. With the intervention of Amnesty International and other human rights groups he was finally released. Almost a year later his back is still marked from the whippings. Jit Man has trouble walking and suffers memory loss. Every month he has to go back to the base to be questioned by the military. A couple of days ago another journalist disappeared. Jit Man does not want to be taken away again........ a union leader for teachers and member of the Maoist Survivors Association was recently shot in cold blood by the Maoists ...... He was the best and the brightest ..... Why do the Maoists claim they are for education and health for the masses when they murder teachers and destroy clinics? ..... Senator Leahy sponsored an amendment which is now U.S. law, which put human rights conditions on military aid to the Nepalese Army. (I am not against US military aid as we do not want a Maoist government). I have been talking to others about setting up safe houses for human rights activists who feel threatened and hotlines where people can report abuses on both sides...... There is so much more to tell you. I am still very much focused on Iraq and Afghanistan, but having been to Nepal I want to dedicate at least a few hours a week to this cause. The world needs to pay attention to this conflict. Nepal deserves peace.

In The News

• Geneva: Resolution Adopted INSN ..... appeals are mainly directed to His Majesty’s Government of Nepal as it is subject to international obligations; additionally gravely concerned at the serious breaches of humanitarian law committed by members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), which may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity ..... certain rights, in particular the right to life and the right to freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, are recognized as non‑derogable in any circumstances ..... condemns the recruitment and use of a large number of children into Maoist forces .....
  
• Former Top Nepali Diplomat Writes To The US President United We Blog Murari Raj Sharma, a former ambassador and Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations ..... your strategy to root out terrorism: smart use of force to weaken the extremists accompanied by a political process to isolate them ..... there are no signs that the king will roll back his draconian step. The United States, together with other countries, must do more
• The 5-Minute Briefing: Nepal's Maoist insurgency Independent, UK ....Nepal should be spoken of in the same breath as Somalia and Sudan...... students, many of whom said the King was forcing them into an alliance with the Maoists. Many say they are angry with the King's move but too scared to protest in the face of repressive measures from security forces. In the Maoist-controlled areas the King's coup has had little effect, since his power does not extend there anyway.
• If Nepal King seeks audience, PM likely to oblige in Jakarta Indian Express
• Nepal King leaves on first foreign tour since power grab : 123Bharath.com
• Nepal Must Restore Democracy, End Arrests, UN Rights Body Says Bloomberg ....people held at unknown locations and subjected to torture by security forces..... Under the agreement signed last week with the Nepalese government, UN monitors will set up regional offices to respond to human rights violations
• Blast in southern Nepal kills 4, wounds 5 Boston Globe The bomb exploded when the policemen were trying to remove sacks left by the rebels to block the roads. The bomb had been hidden behind the sacks.
• Geologists find a new active fault in Nepal, potentially links ... PhysOrg.com, VA
• Cabinet approves signing of extradition treaty with Nepal Hindu, India
• 18 injured in western Nepal explosion Xinhua A group of suspected insurgents hurled the socket bomb at a crowd gathered at government office premises
  
• Nepal to deepen relations with Asian, African nations: king People's Daily Online, China
• Commerce secy level talks of Nepal, Bangladesh begins Gorkhapatra, Nepal
• Ashok Menta: India Can Not Just Wait And Watch INSN (The Tribune) The King believes there is life after democracy — which is absolute monarchy ..... The Economist last month asked, “what’s the plan, Gyan”, the King does have one. .... RNA has claimed killing 195 Maoists for the loss of 15 of their own soldiers since February 1. .... He is not interested in a dialogue with the Maoists or reviving the democratic process ........ The RNA is short of 4000 officers at a time when it is rapidly expanding to double its size to 100,000 in the next two to three years to achieve a force ratio of 1:25 against the Maoists ...... that he required 100 days to restore the political process — which is holding municipal elections! He has skilfully skirted parliamentary elections..... He is defiant and confident as never before. His eyes are fixed on the elections in which monarchists secure the majority. He has ignored the sanctions and strictures of the international community ...... There is little pressure on the King internally. Dissent has been squashed .... the RNA is emerging as the real power centre ..... The RNA is being pampered. Four of the six ambassadors announced by the palace are retired Generals, and 52 Brigadier-Generals have been appointed. A salary hike is in the offing....... India does not have a fall-back position as it still hopes the King would roll back ...... The policy of wait and watch is not going to work with King Gyanendra. The squeeze on the King seems inevitable. India has done it before in the late 1980s. It can be done again but surgically ...... Internal and external pressure has to be applied on the King ..... an all-party resolution to revive the democratic process, intelligence agencies engaging the Maoists
• King, Maobadi And Democracy Express India ....Nepal’s socio-economic backwardness can largely be ascribed to the period of absolute monarchy under his father and brother .... Gyanendra, who remains opportunistically fixated on condemning political parties as the source of all evil. ..... a king who seems for the moment unbending but whose hold is precarious...... Knowledgeable analysts and army generals confirm the possibility of a rebel takeover is just not there....... Maoists have lost some of their best fighters over the last year ..... credible information of division within the Maoist leadership on matters of strategy ..... Guerilla leaders would know that there is no winning this war and it is important to try and bring them to a ‘safe landing’ before they fracture into warlordism. There are even indications that the leaders seek such a landing, but a palace bent on victory would not even be willing to call their bluff....... The political parties have not yet been able to mount a spirited campaign against the coup. They are meant to function under parliamentary structures, but the absence of Parliament since ’02 has made cooperation problematic, not to mention a palace working overtime to exploit inter-party differences. ...... internal power plays are in progress. There are also divisions between those who call for a fight-to-finish for a king-less republic, those who would like to see a ceremonial monarchy retained, and others who regard the army-backed royal palace as too powerful to confront...... the democratic interlude heralded rapid advance in social/economic indicators, and ushered the rise of ethnic and regional assertion against dominant elites, full media freedom, the doubling of the rural roads network, spread of telecommunications, and the opening up of overseas employment which has sustained the economy in these lean times ..... His choice of fellow travellers are ultra-conservatives from the earliest Panchayat raj....... democratic governments must stay the course and not provide any support/succour to the king. ..... they must not fall for the ruse that the rebels will win if the king is not allowed free reign.