Many questions have been raised about the 12 point agreement between the seven party alliance and the Maoists. I for one would like to see that turned into a more concrete eight party alliance. It is not that the 12 point agreement has deficiencies, it is not strong and concrete enough. The agreement has to be elevated to a whole new level and implemented with a gusto so far lacking.
The seven parties will be forming the interim government to hold unconditional peace talks with the Maoists. But first that interim governemnt has to be formed. And there has to be a roadmap for the movement such that it succeeds no matter what the king does or not. The goal of this movement is not to seek a private audience with the king, it is to introduce democracy into Nepal for the first time ever. This is about people power, this is not about royal kindness.
The Nepali Maoists are communists. That many people know. But what some people do not fathom is that these Nepali Maoists have managed to add new leaves to that communist doctrine such that in their communist worldview there is room for a multi-party democracy, rule of law, free speech and human rights and the rest of the nine yards. Their four month long ceasefire and their ideological leap from the goal of a communist repubic to that of a democratic republic have not been gleaned from the writings of Mao or Lenin. Those who fear a Cambodia style communist republic the most should most appreciate this ideological leap on the part of the Nepali Maoists. And if these Nepali Maoists are part of some kind of a global communist movement, that is good news. They are going to draw the rest of them communists to see the light they have seen after arduous analysis. The Indian authorities, for example, should be happy.
No serious analyst thinks there is a military solution to the insurgency, because the Maoists are primarily a political organization. And granted there is only a political solution, your commitment to peace and democracy is to be measured by your commitment to the attempts at a political solution. There are things one can do to aid that political solution, and things to hurt it.
Of course the 12 point agreement can be criticized. It is called free speech. That is one of the things we are fighting for.
But now is the time for the logistical details for the decisive phase of the movement. I don't see the slightest hints talks are in the cards. The king is like a stopped clock that is right two times a day. He has this thing called a roadmap. He intends to stick to it, come hell or high water. And he will get both hell and high water.
I feel there are two things the seven parties and the Maoists urgently need to do. It would be unrealistic to ask the Maoists to declare another unilateral ceasefire. But I think it is high time for an undeclared ceasefire such that they would go back to being on active defense. They would cease their offensives. That would create the political space needed for one final, decisive phase of the democracy movement. The idea would be to bring a few hundred thousand people out into the streets of Kathmandu to surround the Narayanhiti. At the peak you go ahead and declare the formation of a revolutionary parliament like in revolution era France in the late 1700s. Because that will be a revolutionary parliament, it will have super powers to deprive the king and his clowns of both liberty and property if need be.
This movement has to be concluded before monsoon sets in.
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