Democracy For Nepal

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Janajati, Madhesi: Too Vague, Dalit: Not Assertive Enough

The women will be well served by the 33% reservation for them at all levels of government. That is a great formula. Now we just have to make sure it gets implemented. That 33% formula is the best thing to have come out of the April Revolution so far. (Bidya Bhandari: Power Woman)

I am really curious to know how it came about. That was a master stroke. For that one act I would put Bidya Bhandari in the same league as Madan Bhandari, in her own right.

But there is a danger all those reserved seats might end up going to the urban, Pahadi, Bahun women. And so there is a need for reservations for the Dalit, Madhesi and Janajati within that 33%.

All Members To The Constituent Assembly Must Be Directly Elected
Interim Parliament: 101 Members Total

Nepal Federation of Indigenous Peoples
Nepal Sadhbhawana Party-Anandidevi
Dalit NGO Federation

These three organizations are at the forefront of the fight for social justice on behalf of the Janajati, Madhesi and Dalit respectively. And so one has to follow and critique the utterances of these organizations to get a feel for the progress or lack thereof.

For the purposes of this blog entry, I am depending on this table formulated below by the Conflict Study Center.

I am alarmed the Sadbhavana has not taken a clear stand for a republic. A Madhesi could end up president. The Janajati group has done one better. The Dalit group is silent on the issue. Holding direct elections for president will cause political fermentations that will speed up the political consciousness in the country. It will speed up social change.

Proposed Constitution

The Sadbhavana talks of an inclusive army, but that is not specific enough. The party is going to have to face some basic questions. What should be the size of the army? What should be the composition? The Janajati and the Dalit groups are also going to have to get vocal on this issue.

Monarchy, Army, Federalism

Both the Janajati and the Madhesi groups have been vocal on the federalism issue, and the Sadbhavana does have a map, Eastern Terai, Western Terai, Eastern Hills, Western Hills, and Kathmandu. What is the Janajati map? I have a feeling they might like the map put forth by the Maoists. And even the UML has been talking of states demarcated along ethnic lines. So right now the Maoist map is winning the day. And I actually don't dislike that map. But that is my second choice map.

My federalism is designed to ensure rapid economic growth for the country.

Sumit Pokharel: Maps
Interim Federalism
Critiquing Pitambar Sharma's Federalism
Pitambar Sharma's Federalism
Federalism: Competing Maps
RPP For Federalism Ahead of UML, NC And NC(D)
My Federalism Is Economic, Scientific, Not Ethnic
UML Inching Towards Federalism
Monarchy, Army, Federalism

The 45% reservations in the state bureaucracy for the DaMaJaMa and the disabled is another positive step by the seven party alliance. But the key issue about state restructuring is to do with the three basics: Monarchy, Army, Federalism.

I say abolish the monarchy, disband the army, and move towards a three state federalism.

My Federalism Is Economic, Scientific, Not Ethnic

The next constitution should be short, simple and specific. After that politicians should be competing with each other in terms who can provide the best education and health and micro credit. I call them the magic three. It is with the magic three that you lift families out of poverty and on and on to prosperity.

Another federalism that has been suggested is to have more states, and do away with districts. So you move from the village/town/city to state to federal, for a total of three layers of government.

That is a thought, but in my proposal I have retained the four layers because that is my response to the nine or more states by others. If all 75 district chairpersons are directly elected, members of all ethnic groups will stand a good chance of getting into positions of executive authority. The larger groups will get many such offices. Some of those 75 will end up the three state Governors, some of which will go on to become president. So I argue to keep the 75 districts. Each should have a district budget supplement from the state that is directly proportional to the district's population. In addition there will be the local income tax base, the local sales tax base. And the 25 poorest districts will get federal supplements.

Executive is a different skill set than the legislative. Nine or 10 are not enough. Let's create 75 executive positions.

50-30-10-10: Four Layers Of Government

And if also all mayors are directly elected, now we are talking.

And all members of the Upper House have to be directly elected. It is called people power.

The Sadbhavana And My Proposal For Federalism

The Sadbhavana folks who I personally know do not like my map. They want two Terai states so two Madhesi Chief Ministers can be guaranteed.

In my proposal, there is a strong possibility of there ending up Madhesi mayors in all the big Terai towns, Madhesi district chairpersons in the 16 Terai districts that will together control at least half the budget of all 75 districts, perhaps more like 60%, since they are so vibrant economically, and they will have the option to form a Terai District Chairpersons' Association, and there will be a 50-50 chance that the Governor in all three states will end up Madhesi, and a 50-50 chance that a Madhesi will end up president.

My proposal empowers the Madhesi more than the Sadbhavana proposal does. It is because my proposal is closer to the one person, one vote ideal.

Families want to make more money more than anything else.

Various Stages Of Political Consciousness

(1) Claiming the identity. For much of the 1990s, the big parties did a good job of avoiding use of the word Madhesi. The 2001 census uses words like Yadav and Muslim but not Madhesi.

(2) Seeing the injustice. That takes some effort. That takes some political literacy. It is actually easy to do. You compare the Madhesi share in the population to the Madhesi share in the state. The disparity is the injustice.

(3) Vocalizing, Organizing. You have to articulate the grievances. And based on that you have to get the Madhesis to come together.

(4) Plan of action, Agenda. This is about having specific goals and a plan of action to get there. Federalism is one such goal. It helps to keep the list of goals short and simple.

Coalition Building

Any Nepali can join the Sadbhavana. But for all practical reasons it has been a Madhesi party. I think there is a need for a similar Janajati party, a similar Dalit party. Or the Janajati and Dalit groups could bargain for a restructuring of the Sadbhavana to get their share. The Maoists have done a pretty good job on the Janajati, Dalit issue. But they also fall short on getting the Janajatis and Dalits to leadership positions.

The DaMaJaMa groups are best served if all parties compete for their votes. I don't think there is any one party that is salvation. It is the beauty of the marketplace of votes that the resultant fermentation brings forth progress.

Leadership Matters

No matter who agitated you get as a group, ultimately the work of progress gets done through a few leaders. Leaders matter. We have to have a soft spot in our hearts for the emerging DaMaJaMa leaders.

Some Basics To Rememer

Transparent party finances.

State funded parties.

Direct elections for all seats.

Reserved seats for the DaMaJaMa.

I fear the Sadbhavana and the other parties are about to fall into the trap of the proportional election thing. They have it in Israel and they are not happy about it. The power shifts from the people to the political party leaders. A few party leaders will write up the manifesto on which the people will vote. A few party leaders will decide who gets on the list. The favorites of the party leaders without mass base will get elected. That is not democracy, that is deviation.

Who Will Tie The Bell Round The Cat's Neck
Proposed Constitution

For Dalits Buddhism Is Salvation

I reach the same conclusion that the most famous Dalit Ambedkar reached. The Hindu caste system can not be reformed, and there is no point trying. All Dalits should convert to Buddhism en masse.

Source: Conflict Study Center
Issues of Janajatis, Madhesis and Dalits pertaining to Interim Constitution

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Nepal In 2006 Is Not Russia In 1917

There are numerous differences between Nepal in 2006 and Russia in 1917. The Nepali Maoists are dogmatic nobodies and not communits if they can not appreciate the fundamental differences. Communism is supposed to be scientific. Facts have to be brought into play. You can not let the ideology drown out the facts.

1917 Was Before The Social Welfare State, Before Fascism, Nazism

The world has seen the horrors of totalitarian states. The world will not stand by. The Nepali people will not stand by. A lot of water has gone down the Bagmati since 1917. The global per capita income has gone up dramatically. The global population has grown dramatically. The world has witnessed 1917 taken to its logical conclusion. Lenin's experiment failed in the form of the collapsed Soviet empire.

After Franklin Roosevelt came to power in 1933, he introduced massive social welfare programs in the US that would be an envy to the communist idealists. Lenin was not around to witness all that. Capitalism responded to the communist criticism. The result was the welfare state. There was this acknowledgement that the market works much of the time, but not all the time, and when it does not work, the state has to step in.

Lenin himself acknowledged the role of the market in his New Economic Policy. He realized the importance of private ownership and the profit incentive soon after coming into power.

Russia Was At War

Russia was involved in World War I in a major way. Nepal is not involved in war. Russia got engulfed in civil war soon enough. There is no civil war in Nepal. There is a ceasefire in place. Lenin made a concerted effort to get the Russian soldiers to desert the regime and come along with him. The Nepal Army has not been penetrated like that.

This lull in the storm in Nepal makes a lot of difference. When the country is at war, especially at world war, the water is murky. It is easier for rebel armies to fish in murky waters.

Russia Is A Big Country

It is the biggest country in terms of geography. It could stand isolation if it had to. If the Nepali Maoists were to come to power - a big if - by waging an armed revolt - another big if - they would face total isolation, from India, from China, from Europe, from America.

Russia Did Not Have A Strong Democratic Base

The country went from Tsarism to communism. In Nepal you have more than seven mass based parties that are entrenched in the country's life. The people on the ground do have options. If push comes to shove, they will come out into the streets all over again. A people that did not put with a ruthless, royal dictatorship is not going to put with Maoist dictatorship.

No To Royal Dictatorship, No To Maoist Dictatorship

A Military Stalemate Is The Best The Maoists Can Hope For

The Nepal Army is intact. Major foreign aid would flow to the Nepal Army should the seven party alliance decide to go for the war option with the Maoists. I don't think the Nepal Army is in a position to crush the Maoists militarily, no matter how much foreign arms aid flows in, primarily because the Maoists are a political party that happens to have an army, they are not just an army. On the other hand, I don't think the Maoists are in a position to take over militarily. The Nepal Army is capable of holding ground. In Russia that was not the case. The state army's loyalty did not securely rest with Lenin's enemies.

By Their Own Admission

The Nepali Maoists have committed themselves to multi-party democracy, human rights, and rule of law. The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights did not exist in 1917. The UN did not. Lenin never thought in terms of a multi-party framework.

A democratic republic is a revolutionary enough goal in Nepal's context. The Nepali Maoists have been taking the lead on that one, sure. They get credit.

New Thinking Needed

Nepal Communist Party (Progressive)

This is 2006. This is not 1917. The April Revolution has given both the Maoists and the seven party alliance a unique opportunity to design a democracy that does not exist anywhere else on the planet.

Transparent party finances.

State funded parties.

The idea of a multi-party framework in which the political parties are state funded, now that is revolutionary. That is what the Maoists should shoot for.

In that new framework, many wonderful things are possible, like land reform, plentiful education and health. But all that has to happen through rule of law. You contest elections. You win by yourself or a coalition, you form a government. You pass bills to the effect. And you go out and do implement.

Power flows through the ballot box.

Nepal is one state. It will have one army. It could end up having no army. It will have one police, or at least one federal police. One tax collection agency. It is entirely possible some Maoist could get elected president and end up Commander In Chief of that single army.

Political Synthesis Nepali Style

Also, Lenin talked against imperialism. Nepal could talk in terms of reorgnizing the United Nations so as to establish rule of law between nations.

Reorganized UN, Proposed Constitution, Methods

Many good things are possible. But not through the barrel of a gun. The new buzzword is non-violent militancy. Words are your bullets.

Parallel Governments Of Maoists And Moriarty
Conflict Study Center
Baburam Bhattarai On The Impending Peace Talks
Girija Prachanda Brinkmanship
No To Royal Dictatorship, No To Maoist Dictatorship
Arguing With The Maoists
Need To Revive The 12 Point Agreement Spirit
The Maoists Have A Right To Peaceful Assembly, Peacefully Protest

In The News

Summit meeting likely this week, says Sitaula NepalNews no date had yet been fixed but “let’s hope” that they would take place this week. .... mounting pressure from the Maoists, civil society groups as well as the allies of the SPA for early summit talks to settle the political issues.
Probe commission will soon interrogate King: Rayamajhi
Moriarty reiterates stance on disarming Maoists
Guardians of missing kids warn of stir against Maoists
Govt. proposes army to be out from business; Army Welfare fund has Rs 12 billion prohibition the army to spend the Welfare Fund on business ventures, but agreed to let it deal in stock market with the amount. ...... for the first time the army revealed that its Welfare Fund has over Rs 10.29 billion, the annual interest on which works out to be Rs 720 million ...... The Welfare Fund, raised by 12 per cent contribution of the soldiers serving in the UN peacekeeping missions, came into existence in 1975. ...... being utilised in operating schools, training troops going to UN peacekeeping missions, providing health services to the soldiers’ families, providing economic assistance to the soldiers and constructing soldiers’ family quarters. ..... bringing the army under the ambit of the CIAA, introducing a provision for moving the civil courts against the verdict of military court, and fixing the tenure and age limit for the officers
Far left, far right - By Alok Bohara
Six government attorneys file petition challenging the appointment of Judges
Congress unification process will start soon: Deuba

Indonesia reaches out to Nepal over Security Council seat People's Daily Online, China
State-run media to be privatized in Nepal suggested People's Daily Online, China privatize the state-run Gorkhapatra daily and to operate the state-run broadcasting services as public service broadcasting services. .... The commission suggested to categorize government advertisements into three groups -- commercial, public information and public interest -- and provide the latter two groups of advertisements to all media houses in a proportional manner. .... advised that the government media agencies employ at least 33 percent women in their workforce. ...... After receiving the commission's report, Koirala ordered the Minister of State for Information and Communications Dilendra Prasad Badu to implement the recommendations.
Nepal: Media Commission Submits Report OhmyNews International
Commission recommends 49% foreign investment in Nepal media Zee News
Nepal UN chief says government control in countryside eroding Raw Story, MA
Nepal army to be barred from business ventures DailyIndia.com, NY
Nepal government's control in countryside eroding: UN Telugu Portal, India
Nepal mulls 49 percent FDI in media Telugu Portal, India
New Nepal Gov't Resumes Rounding Up Gays 365Gay.com

Rayamajhi dissatisfied with govt, says commission would strongly recommend for action against guilty Kantipur Publications the government has helped protect those who were in the commission's suspect list. ....... "I am not satisfied with the government's modus operandi, especially when it is encouraging the suspects by promoting, transferring and appointing them to better places." ...... now it was the king's turn to record his statement and added that there was no need to extend the commission's term to do so. ..... there lies no obstacle for the commission to question the king for his role in suppressing the April uprising as the then chairman of the council of ministers. ...... the commission would not take any action against anyone but would not be intimidated to recommend even if the king was found guilty.
Hetauda Cement Factory resumes operations
Maoists beat up dairy entrepreneurs
FNCCI warns of protests if Maoist extortions continue
US expresses concern over breach of ceasefire code of conduct
Nepali student in US pleads guilty in fellow student’s death
Oli meets with presidential advisor for Cyprus
Maoists abduct, kill teenager
Locals protest against Maoist atrocities LAHAN, Sept 16 - Locals of Dhangadhi VDC of Siraha district disrupted traffic on Dhangadhi stretch of the Mahendra Highway for more than five hours on Saturday morning protesting against yesterday’s Maoist cadres' assault. .... The locals also called for a market shut down today. .... The Maoist cadres had beaten a local trader Karna Shrestha of Dhangadhi VDC-2 Friday night at around 9. Shrestha received severe injuries on his head ..... a group of 4-5 Maoist cadres took him under control last night and injured him with some sharp weapons. ..... a meeting is scheduled to be held later today between the Maoists and market management committee members to resolve the issue. ......
'Summit talks will be held within next week'
Funds disappear from NT pre-paid accounts
Govt's hold further shrinking: Kahane The presence of the state is further "shrinking" due to increased Maoist influence in the countryside. ..... the rebels were also becoming more organized, blocking government activities in the countryside. ..... "It (government) was ineffective before (during the armed struggle), but it's shrinking now (after the ceasefire took effect in April)" ...... quoted some Maoist leaders as saying that though the rebels would allow development activities of "the United Nations and other bilateral donors, but no government activities". ...... "What we see is the absence of effective presence of government institutions in the countryside." ..... "It's a confused situation, and in a confused situation, it's the most organized - it's the best organized- group that usually comes out ahead" .......

Parallel Governments Of Maoists And Moriarty

Maoists

The Maoists claim to be running a parallel state. And that state is being run through the dictates of classic Maoism. There is dictatorship. They have taken over. It is the threat of force that runs that state.

Moriarty

Moriarty has been making the rounds of the Nepal Army barracks like he were defense minister. Under normal circumstances this would be totally uncalled for. After all, he is a foreign ambassador.

Moriarty's entire thrust is that the Maoists in Nepal are trying to do what Lenin did in Russia and Mao in China. And Prachanda's utterances do not help in that department. The guy casually talks about how his vision is not of a parliamentary democracy.

Moriarty has been wrong before. (Moriarty Was Wrong On The 12 Point Agreement) He is more in tune with the neocon talk in Washington DC than the ground realities of Nepal. The Maoists are no Al Qaeda.

What If The Worst Fears Are True

I don't fear an all out civil war. I don't see that on the horizon. There will not be a repeat of Russia and China. So Moriarty's arguments are out of step.

My worst fear is already on the ground. It is in the form of anarchy, in the form of lawlessness, in the form of the parallel Maoist state gone berserk. The Maoists are looting money.

Political Solution

That is where the emphasis has to be. That is the point Moriarty does not get. He has a major blind spot. In his zeal, he does not appreciate the structural deformities of the Nepal Army, the need for its fundamental democratization.

New Maoist Thinking

If the Maoists truly are not dogmatic, and if they truly have made an ideological shift towards multi-party democracy and peaceful transformation of the state, they should exhibit that newness in their so called parallel state. Talk of the transformation can not be a bargaining chip with the seven parties. The transformation has to be genuine.

In a hypothetical situation where the seven parties melt away, the Maoists should still think of a multi-party framework.

Seven Party Failure

The seven party Bahuns have been dragging their feet. They have been refusing to do homework. That has lead to political confusion, that has lead to the lawlessness in large parts of the country. They were pushed towards the constituent assembly by the two extreme forces. That shows.

If Moriarty Is Wrong

If the Maoists are not attempting Russia and China, they have nothing to fear. Moriarty's alarmist talk only has relevance if the Maoists indeed are intending to play dirty. So Moriarty's irrelevance is very easy to prove. Get the gun out of the picture. Focus on the political homework.

Don't Shift The Goalpost

I want the monarchy to be ended today. But that can only happen through an eight party consensus. If that consensus is not forthcoming, the issue goes to the referendum during the constituent assembly elections. And the Maoists have no business complaining. That is what was agreed upon in the 12 point understanding.

Militia, Army

If the 100,000 Maoist militia give up their arms, and the 36,000 Maoist soldiers go into barracks, that is all it takes. On the other hand, if the 100,000 Maoist militia refuse to disarm, there is no point in considering the constituent assembly elections. Elections have to be free and fair to be meaningful.

Parliament Will Be Dissolved

The Congress came up with this idiotic stand somewhere along the way that this House will stay undissolved. That was a major political mistake. Another mistake was Girija on the monarchy. He should have said all along that is for the constituent assembly to decide.

Eight Party Governments

At the center and at the local levels.

New Thinking

Transparent party finances.
State funded parties.

If the Maoists do not push for these two, I am going to think all that money they have looted has made them corrupt. Their claim to class warfare will ring hollow.

Conflict Study Center
Rajendra Mahto: नागरिकता विधेयक खोतल्दा
Baburam Bhattarai On The Impending Peace Talks
Girija Prachanda Brinkmanship
No To Royal Dictatorship, No To Maoist Dictatorship
Arguing With The Maoists
Need To Revive The 12 Point Agreement Spirit
The Maoists Have A Right To Peaceful Assembly, Peacefully Protest

Deciding Now On Monarchy And Army
All Members To The Constituent Assembly Must Be Directly Elected
Prachanda, Madhav, Devendra
100,000 Maoist Militia Must Disarm
Hamas, Hezbollah, Maoist
How To Avoid An October Revolution
Janadesh: Rumblings Of An October Revolution?
Arms Management, Money Management
Prachanda: Not In Tune With The April Revolution

Critiquing The Interim Constitution
Prachanda: Frank Or Scary?
Interim Parliament: 101 Members Total
My Work In The Ideas Department Is Complete

On The Web

Mao Zedong - MSN Encarta In 1945, shortly after Japan surrendered in World War II, civil war broke out between CCP and KMT troops. The CCP, who had mass peasant support and a well-disciplined Red Army, defeated the KMT in 1949. On October 1 Mao declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Mao Zedong - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia During the Sino-Japanese War, Mao Zedong's strategies were opposed by both Chiang Kai-shek and the United States. The US regarded Chiang as an important ally, able to help shorten the war by engaging the Japanese occupiers in China. Chiang, in contrast, sought to build the ROC army for the certain conflict with Mao's communist forces after the end of World War II. This fact was not understood well in the US, and precious lend-lease armaments continued to be allocated to the Kuomintang. In turn, Mao spent part of the war (as to whether it was most or only a little is disputed) fighting the Kuomintang for control of certain parts of China. Both the Communists and Nationalists have been criticised for fighting amongst themselves rather than allying against the Japanese Imperial Army. In 1944, the Americans sent a special diplomatic envoy, called the Dixie Mission, to the Communist Party of China. According to Edwin Moise, in Modern China: A History 2nd Edition: Most of the Americans were favourably impressed. The CPC seemed less corrupt, more unified, and more vigorous in its resistance to Japan than the Guomindang. United States fliers shot down over North China...confirmed to their superiors that the CPC was both strong and popular over a broad area. In the end, the contacts with the USA developed with the CPC led to very little. ....... Then again, modern commentators have refuted such claims. Amongst others, Willy Lam stated that during the war with Japan: The great majority of casualties sustained by Chinese soldiers were borne by KMT, not Communist divisions. Mao and other guerrilla leaders decided at the time to conserve their strength for the "larger struggle" of taking over all of China once the Japanese Imperial Army was decimated by the U.S.-led Allied Forces. ........ After the end of World War II, the US continued to support Chiang Kai-shek, now openly against the Communist Red Army (led by Mao Zedong) in the civil war for control of China. The US support was part of its view to contain and defeat "world communism." Likewise, the Soviet Union gave quasi-covert support to Mao (acting as a concerned neighbor more than a military ally, to avoid open conflict with the US) and gave large supplies of arms to the Communist Party of China, although newer Chinese records indicate the Soviet "supplies" were not as large as previously believed, and consistently fell short of the promised amount of aid. On January 21, 1949, Kuomintang forces suffered massive losses against Mao's Red Army. In the early morning of December 10, 1949, Red Army troops laid siege to Chengdu, the last KMT-occupied city in mainland China, and Chiang Kai-shek evacuated from the mainland to Taiwan (Formosa) that same day.
TIME 100: Mao Zedong His ruthless vision united a fractured people and inspired revolutions far beyond China's borders.
Chiang Kai-shek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 1945 .. The countryside in the north was already largely under the control of the Communists, whose forces were better motivated and disciplined than those of the KMT. ..... guerrilla organizations extending throughout rural areas ..... The Nationalists initially had superiority in arms and men, but their lack of popularity, poor morale, and apparent disorganization soon allowed the Communists to gain the upper hand......
TIMEasia.com | TIME 100: Chiang Kai-shek | 8/23/99-8/30/99 Like Mao Zedong, Chiang had dreams of national glory informed by the harsh ... But unlike his predecessor, Chiang Kai-shek left behind a prosperous economy

Vladimir Lenin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia On April 16, 1917, he returned to Petrograd and took a leading role within the Bolshevik movement, publishing the April Theses [3], which called for an uncompromising opposition to the provisional government. Initially, Lenin isolated his party through this lurch to the left. However, this uncompromising stand meant that the Bolsheviks were to become the obvious home for the masses as they became disillusioned with the provisional government, and with the "luxury of opposition" the Bolsheviks did not have to assume responsibility for any policies implemented by the government (Christopher Read: From Tsar to Soviets pp151–153)....... After a failed workers' rising in July, Lenin fled to Finland for safety. He returned in October, inspiring an armed revolution with the slogan "All Power to the Soviets!" against the Provisional Government. His ideas of government were expressed in his essay "State and Revolution" [5], which called for a new form of government based on workers' councils, or soviets. In this work, he also claimed that ordinary workers should, in principle, be capable of running a factory or government. He emphasized, though, that to be able to govern the state, a worker should "learn communism." He furthermore insisted that a member of the government should be paid no more than the salary of an average worker....... On November 8, Lenin was elected as the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Russian people to read and write. ....... by the Russian Soviet Congress. ... He was very concerned about creating a free universal health care system for all, the emancipation of women, and teaching the illiterate........ After the Bolsheviks lost the elections for the Russian Constituent Assembly, they, with the backing of the overwhelming majority of the workers in both of Russia's major cities, Petrograd and Moscow [7] [8], used the Red Guards to shut down the first session of the Assembly on January 19. Later, the Bolsheviks organized a counter-Assembly, the third Congress of Soviets, which gave them and their allies over 90% of the seats [9], arguing that "the dictatorship of the proletariat" was first and foremost an act of the proletariat itself: "Of course, those who thought that it was possible to leap straight from capitalism to socialism, or those who imagined that it was possible to convince the majority of the population that this could be achieved through the medium of the Constituent Assembly—those who believed in this bourgeois-democratic fable, can go on blithely believing it, but let them not complain if life destroys this fable," [10] further arguing that "the chief reason why the 'socialists' (i.e., petty-bourgeois democrats) of the Second International fail to understand the dictatorship of the proletariat is that they fail to understand that state power in the hands of one class, the proletariat, can and must become an instrument for winning to the side of the proletariat the non-proletarian working masses, an instrument for winning those masses from the bourgeoisie and from the petty-bourgeois parties." ..... The Bolsheviks formed a coalition government with the left wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries emancipation and democracy (workers' control through the . However, their coalition collapsed after the Social Revolutionaries opposed the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and they joined other parties in seeking to overthrow the Soviet government. The situation degenerated, with non-Bolshevik parties (including some of the socialist factions) actively seeking the overthrow of the Bolshevik government. Lenin responded to these efforts by shutting down their activities and jailing some of the members of the opposing parties. ...... Though Lenin advocated and helped to form a "Soviet democracy," it is often argued by Lenin's opponents on the right, like Kautsky, and on his left, like Kollontai, that he countermanded proletariansoviets or workers' councils) by force. [The Mensheviks' Political Comeback - The elections to the provincial soviets in spring 1918: Vladimir Brovkin. Russian Review 42 (1983) pp 1-50] Anti-Communist historian and ultra-conservative politician Richard Pipes has argued that policies such as handing sweeping power to the state, enforcing rigid party discipline, using terror as a means of political intimidation, and requisitioning grain paved the road to Stalinism. Although many of these decried institutions and policies—such as secret police, labor camps, and executions of political opponents—were practiced under Lenin's regime, these techniques were all commonly used by the Tsars long before Lenin and were long since established as the standard means of dealing with political dissent in Russia. However, the scale was different: three times more political prisoners were executed in the first few months of Bolshevik rule than in over 90 years under the Tsar......... However, this is most likely due to the sudden and dramatic revolution and change of government, not to mention the approaching civil war and intervention by 21 foreign nations...... Defenders of Lenin assert that these criticisms ignore many central events during Tsarist rule, such as the Russo-Japanese War, Bloody Sunday (1905), and World War I. They also mention that the scale of the circumstances which surrounded the Bolsheviks was different as well: a country ravaged by an unprecedently destructive world war, a mass of people kept historically illiterate by Tsarist autocracy, an oppositional force that fought to oust the Bolsheviks from power, etc. Moreover, Leon Trotsky claimed that a "river of blood" separated Lenin from Stalin's actions because Stalin executed many of Lenin's old comrades and their supporters, grouped in the Left Opposition. This was indeed to include Trotsky himself. ...... From early 1918, Lenin campaigned for a single, democratically accountable individual to be put in charge of each enterprise, contrary to most conceptions of workers' self-management, but absolutely essential for efficiency and expertise. ....... During the civil war, democracy would become concentrated within the Bolshevik party and later the politburo of the CPSU. ...... She immediately fired three shots, two of which struck him in the shoulder and lung. Lenin was taken to his apartment in the Kremlin, refusing to venture to a hospital since he believed that other assassins would be waiting there. Doctors were summoned but decided that it was too dangerous to remove the bullets. Lenin eventually recovered, though his health declined from this point. It is believed that the incident contributed to his later strokes......... According to Orlando Figes, Lenin had always been an advocate of "mass terror against enemies of the revolution" and was open about his view that the proletarian state was a system of organized violence against the capitalist establishment. .......... the terror, while encouraged by the Bolsheviks, had its roots in a popular anger against the privileged........ Eventually, the more organizationally proficient Red Army, led by Leon Trotsky, won the civil war, defeating the White Russian forces and their allies in 1920. ...... Lenin was a harsh critic of imperialism. ...... After an uprising by the sailors at Kronstadt in March 1921, Lenin replaced the policy of War Communism with the New Economic Policy (NEP), in a successful attempt to rebuild industry and especially agriculture. Of Stalin, who had been the Communist Party's general secretary since April 1922, Lenin said that he had "unlimited authority concentrated in his hands" and suggested that "comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post." Upon Lenin's death, his wife mailed his Testament to the central committee, to be read at the 13th Party Congress in May 1924. However, because the will criticized all of the most prominent figures in the central committee: Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin and Stalin, the committee had a vested interest in not releasing the will to the wider public. The central committee justified this by claiming that Lenin had been mentally ill in his final years and, as such, his final judgments were not to be trusted. Disregarding the words of Lenin is often perceived to have been a fatal error. Lenin's Testament was first officially published in 1926 in the United States by Max Eastman........ Under the policy of NEP, private ownership was restored to small parts of the economy, especially farming (but not to the land itself)....... To explain the NEP, Lenin had said "We are not civilized enough for socialism", referring to the fact that Russia was still a primarily agrarian nation, with a very small urban population and a weak industrial base, and thus it did not meet the economic criteria necessary for full socialism. Lenin further justified the introduction of the NEP by declaring that the "commanding heights" of industry, that is, the large factories producing coal, iron, electricity etc., would still be under state control. The NEP also loosened trade restrictions, and tried to regain alliances with foreign countries....... This allowed peasants to lease and hire labor, which is more capitalistic than socialistic and they were allowed to keep a surplus after paying a certain proportion of their tax to the government. This has also led to the Fundamental Law of the Exploitation of Land by the Workers, which ensured that the peasants have a choice of land tenure........ The NEP succeeded in creating an economic recovery after the devastating effects of the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the Russian civil war. By 1928, agricultural and industrial production had been restored to the 1913 (pre-WWI) level........ They saw the NEP as a betrayal of communist principles, and they believed it would have a negative long-term economic effect, so they wanted a fully planned economy instead. In particular, the NEP benefitted the Communists' so-called "class enemies", the traders (Nepmen), while being detrimental to the workers, whom the Party claimed to represent. On the other hand, Lenin is quoted to have said "The NEP is in earnest and long-term".......... State and Revolution is a pamphlet written by Vladimir Lenin in August - September, 1917. It describes the role that the state plays in society along with the necessity of proletarian revolution. Written for a Marxist audience, Lenin spends much of the pamphlet criticising the actions of the social democrats that dominated the communist movement at that time as well as elaborating on the role of the dictatorship of the proletariat following revolution. The pamphlet is commonly regarded as one of Lenin's most important works and much of it forms the basis for today's Marxist thought. ...... In both a witty and intelligent language he deconstructs the arguments of "Anti-Authoritarians", Anarchists, Social Democrats, and Reformists. The various stages of the progression of the revolution are discussed - the Revolution itself, the setting up of the socialist commune which he also called the "Lower stage of communist society", and then lastly the "higher stage of communist society" in which cyclic stabilization is achieved, and individual freedom is allowed to be expressed at it's fullest. ........... Lenin also talks extensively about the State and its nature in itself. He says the state, at all times, is a tool for class oppression, which is where he agrees with the anarchists. The State was a creation out of the desires of groups of people to control each other, when their disputes and desires could not be halted in any other way. The State, whether it is a dictatorship or a democracy, will always remain a tool for the ruling class. Using Dialectics, he says that even in a democratic capitalist republic, the ruling class will never lose power as it will mantain a complete stranglehold on the state, using "Behind-the-scenes" actions instead of open actions in these stages. Universal Suffrage, he says, is the best form of cloak for the ruling class, as it mantains a idealistic shade of freedom and democracy when in truth it isn't.........
TIME 100: VI Lenin Driven by ideological zeal, he reshaped Russia and made communism into a potent global force. ..... the October 1917 coup ..... Lenin who disbanded the last vestige of democratic government, the Constituent Assembly, and devised the Communist Party as the apex of a totalitarian structure; Lenin who first waged war on the intelligentsia and on religious believers, wiping out any traces of civil liberty and a free press.....

In The News

संविधानबारे शीर्ष नेताले टुंगो लगाउने सहमति Himal Khabar दलहरुबीच राजाको स्थान, अन्तरिम विधायिका, अन्तरिम संसद, नागरिकता, माओवादीको हतियार व्यवस्थापनका विषयमा सहमति भएको छैन। .... सरकारका मुख्यघटक नेपाली काङ्ग्रेस, नेकपा एमाले र नेपाली काङ्ग्रेस प्रजातान्त्रीकबीच ति विषयमा सहमति भएपछि सरकार–माओवादीवीच शिखर वार्ता बोलाइने बताइएको छ।
प्रचण्ड, अध्यक्ष नेकपा (माओवादी) नेपालमा गणतन्त्रको स्थापना भएपनि आफूलाई व्यक्तिगत रुपमा राष्ट्रपति बन्ने इच्छा नरहेको बताएका छन्। उनले चितवनको माडी घट्नालाई १० वर्षिय सशस्त्र द्वन्दको सबैभन्दा दुखद र पीडादायी घट्ना बताए। माओवादीले थापेको विद्युतिय धरापमा परी बसका करिव ४० जनायात्रुको ज्यान गएको थियो। उनले सो समाचार सुनेपछि ३ दिन खाना नखाएको र नसुतेको बताए। ....

माओवादीद्वारा पत्रिकाको कार्यालय बन्द
सिंहदरवारमा अल-कायदा आतंक

राजसंस्थाद्वारा राप्रपा सिध्याउने प्रयासः राणा

उपत्यकाको चक्का जाम र बन्द हाम्रो होइन : महरा
सात दलको सरकार असफल : राणा
काङ्ग्रेस एकतामा पारिवारिक 'सेयरहोल्डर' को खेल अहिले पनि पार्टीमा संगठन सञ्चालनमा अस्तव्यस्तता, आन्तरिक प्रजातन्त्रको अभाव, नातावाद–कृपावादको विगविगी, भ्रष्ट नेता तथा कार्यकर्ता र असलका बीचमा स्वार्थको टक्कर छ। काङ्ग्रेस फुटाएर दरबारको नजिक बन्न लालायित देउवा र कोइरालाको राजनीतिक उद्योगका 'पारिवारिक सेयरहोल्डर' हरूबीच सत्ता–संघर्षको फोहोरी खेल कायमै छ। यस्तो अवस्थामा टाउको मात्र जोडिया, भावना तथा सिद्धान्तको परिमार्जन सहित एकीकरण भएन भने त्यो झ्नै प्रत्युत्पादक हुनसक्छ।
'माओवादी सेना समस्या होइन' नेपालमा यतिबेला दुई सेना र दुई सत्ता विद्यमान छन्। ......मुख्यतया यसको संरचना, परिचालन विधि, यसको दृष्टिकोणमा नै समस्या हो। तसर्थ, त्यसको लोकतन्त्रीकरण अहिलेको प्रमुख समस्या हो। ..... दुवै सेनालाई अन्तरिम सरकारको मातहतमा अलगअलग स्थानमा स्थायी र अस्थायी क्याम्पमा राखेर एकीकृत कमाण्डद्वारा निर्देशित गर्नाले नै जनताले भयमुक्त वातावरणमा मतदान गर्न पाउँछन्। त्यस अवस्थामा फेरि राजाको सेनाले भोलि के गर्ला भन्ने पीर जनतालाई हुँदैन। ........ तत्कालै जनमुक्ति सेना विघटन भएमा यसपटकको संविधानसभा पनि २००७ सालको जस्तो वा निर्वाचन नै भए पनि २०३६ सालको जनमतसङ्ग्रह जस्तो नहोला भन्ने के ग्यारेन्टी छ? नेताहरूले सरकार देखाउलान्, संसद देखाउलान् ती त त्यतिबेला पनि थिए के गर्न सके तिनीहरूले? ......... अन्तरिम सरकारको मातहत हुनुको अर्थ अन्तरिम सरकारमा सहभागी सबै दलहरूको हुनु होइन र? जनमुक्ति सेनाले पनि अन्तरिम सरकारकै आदेश मान्ने न हो। ....... एकीकृत कमाण्डमा दुवै सेना राख्ने कुरा संविधानसभाका लागि मात्र आवश्यक नभएर यसले संविधानसभा पछि नयाँ गणतान्त्रिक राष्ट्रिय सेना निर्माणमा पनि बलियो आधार खडा गर्छ। ...... जनताको म्याण्डेडलाई स्वीकार गरेर जनताको साथमा शान्तिपूर्ण बाटोबाट अगाडि बढ्ने कुरा बाहेक अब माओवादीका लागि अर्को विकल्प हुन सक्तैन। यसको अर्को आधार के हो भने, हामी हतियार नभएको स्थितिमा युद्धमा गयौँ। हतियार भएको बेला शान्तिका लागि तयार छौँ। ......... भोलि कस्तो शैन्य संरचना बनाउने, कति सङ्ख्या राख्ने, योग्यता र क्षमता केलाई मान्न ......... यी विषयको निर्धारण संविधानसभाले गर्नेछ। ...... जनता अग्रगमन विनाको शान्ति भन्दा अग्रगमनका लागि आन्दोलनकै पक्षमा छन्। ........ हामी उहाँहरूको पूरै सहयोग लिने छौँ तर अफ्रिकी मुलुकहरूमा झ्ैँ फेरि विद्रोह शुरु हुने गरी नभई स्थायी शान्तिका लागि।

Far left, far right Nepali Times Alok Bohara Outperformed by Pushpa Dahal, SPA leadership seems is in disarray. ..... They might be laying the groundwork to follow Maoist China’s post-revolutionary purging. To do this, they will cajole people, appear on call-in shows and, importantly, change the goalposts often. ...... They don’t expect an outright victory in the constituent assembly election without their armed militia policing the polling stations. Their eyes are on the ultimate prize, and backup—a PLA unit within the national army. This is how Mao came to power, by banishing his political rivals, with his People’s Army, led by children of his revolution. ....... The rebel commander did not mention rehabilitation and reconstruction, or truth and reconciliation using the UN. He seemed irritated when asked about the educational aspirations of children under 20 in his rebel army (70 percent), especially by the suggestion that they should be free to go to school to be doctors and engineers, not forced into his army. He focused instead on reformulating the rebels’ role within the national security arrangement, emphasising that a merger was not enough.......... Many people, including me, will remain sceptical about the Maoists’ intentions as long as they run a parallel government and break the agreement made with the SPA and UN, and ramp up extortion, parallel taxation, kidnapping, and killing. Worse, the extreme right may be using this as a chance to slowly build strength for another showdown with the extreme left.
Non-Government Kiran Nepal We travelled along the highway for ten days starting1 September, and every day, and along every stretch heard stories and saw Maoist intimidation, as well as extortion, kidnapping, smuggling, turf wars between the rebels, ‘democrats’, and dacoits. ...... Police and the local administration can do little to ensure security amid all the lawlessness, and in many places the Maoists have taken law enforcement into their own hands. On and around the highway, there appears to be a complete breakdown of the state. ....... The extortion takes different forms, such as forced ‘voluntary’ contributions of Rs 100,000 to support Maoist ‘cultural events’, protection rackets, checkpoints, tollbooths, and ‘taxation’. No businessperson we spoke to would dream of refusing, because they're faced with guns. Maoist-condoned smuggling and illegal felling of timber have resulted in suddenly-sparse forests in Samling, near Urlabari. ...... Toll booths and blockades are everywhere, some openly run by the Maoists, and others in the name of ‘pujas’. The price of a 45km bus ride has almost doubled to Rs 145. Trucks ferrying goods between Birganj and Urlabari pay 300 percent more than a few months ago. In ten days we saw five chakka jam, and disturbances and shutdowns in Butwal, Hetauda, Itahari, Mechinagar, Kakarbhitta, and other stops along the way........ There are PLA camps along the highway, particularly between the Koshi and Kamala rivers, and the soldiers are out in full force, conducting march-pasts, armed and in full battle regalia. Students are taken for forced militia training, as we saw in Bharatpur and Manahari. Local residents are forced to attend rallies and local political party working committees are subject to intimidation........ In Rautahat, when the rebels were asked to join a village meeting, they said they had no ‘central directive’ to work with other parties and instead asked for half the development budget to carry out projects themselves. ....... Face-offs between the Maoists, party members, police, and dacoits play out in crowded marketplaces and private homes...... People are fed up with the anarchy. The feeling along the 1,100 km we travelled was that whether or not dacoits were responsible for much of the mayhem, the Maoists will have a lot to answer for if and when they are disarmed.
Big gamble CK Lal Katuwal received the official insignia of his post from the man he had done everything to deride, defame, and denigrate. ...... military dominance leading towards protracted civil war, anarchy and loss of sovereignty. ...... a quest for stability seems to have prevailed over the need for retributive justice ...... For any transitional government, it’s quite difficult to pursue perpetrators when there are too many to convict and when most remain socially, culturally, and materially powerful........international meddlers as donors and loaners play an exaggerated role in the country’s internal affairs while remaining traditionally soft towards the military’s adventurous tendencies ......

Peace process fails to take speed in Nepal People's Daily Online, China - Sep 12, 2006
Maoist rebels drive a hard bargain Samudaya.org, AZ - Sep 4, 2006 Nepal's armed Maoist rebels are upping the ante, refusing to honour a recent United Nations-brokered agreement and calling instead for full resolution of overarching political issues ahead of promised disarmament. .... Ian Martin .... is finding it difficult to move the process forward in the face of Maoist and government intransigence ..... Indian officials fear that rebels joining the government without disarming would send the wrong message to the numerous insurgent groups within India, and could destabilize the entire region. "We cannot allow a political party to keep arms" ...... The threat of an urban uprising is worrying the government and international donors. Any miscalculation by either side could likely damage the peace process permanently and resume fighting...... The fight now is whether the country should wait till the election, or declare Nepal a republic in the interim phase before the elections. The rebels are pushing that it be done now, but the government vehemently disagrees. ...... The Maoists know that their arms are their main bargaining chip and are in no mood to give it up unless political issues are decided. ......

PM asks not to suspect his intention; HLMC submits report to Prime Minister NepalNews
Congress unification process will start soon: Deuba Deuba has refuted that unification between the two congress will start soon. ..... after participating in the conference of Asian political parties in Seuol of Korea, Deuba said the party unification depends on the act of Prime Minister ..... unity between two congress party is not possible unless there is conducive environment for dignified unity of the party from the district level to the centre. ...... alleged that Koirala is of trying to split NC (D) and attract a section of people. ...... "I am not an astrologer to say when would the party unite but it will."
Rana calls for early summit talks to move the peace process forward
Growing use of children in demonstrations, rallies worries UNICEF
Illegal sales of drug increasing: Report
Give top priority to economic issues: Dhakal
Maoists propose PM to be the president: Acharya the Maoists had proposed to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to be the nation’s first-ever President. ...... King is no longer a political force, Acharya said there was no need for giving space to the King ...... the government has not been able to work at the pace required to conduct constituent assembly elections

Nepal prime minister rules out split in government Hindustan Times, India
Martin meets PM and Nepal Kantipur Online, Nepal
Army generals, Indian MP march for Hindu Nepal Telugu Portal, India Sachit Shumsher Rana .... Bharat Keshar Simha .... Yogi Adityanath, an Indian parliamentarian belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from across the border in Gorakhpur. ..... The march began near the palace and continued without any intervention by police though rallies are prohibited in the area, and ended in Naxal, a little distance away. ...... The rally included a large number of women, some in designer glasses, and yogis dressed in saffron ...... Though the rally in the capital was peaceful, it was able to effect a shutdown in Birgunj town in southern Nepal, near the Indian border.
US Envoy Sees Rebel Arms as Chief Barrier in Nepal Peace Process Nepal human Rights News, Nepal
Moriarty’s Barrack Journey: Sabotaging Nepal’s Peace Process? United We Blog, Nepal he was in north western border district Darchula. He said- “I fear Nepal might leave the path of democracy.” ...... he is in a country wide rush and is active more than the leaders of SPA or ministers. There is not separate defense minister in the country but Moriarty is moving around the army’s sensitive barracks like a defense minister and interacting with the field commanders. He is not alone; a special team of Washington is busy roaming in Nepal. ....... It was in Chairtra 2058 [five years ago] that Girija Prasad Koirala had gone to Delhi directly from Beijing to initiate a solid effort for peace by meeting Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai. At that time, the then American ambassador Michael E. Malinowski was visiting one barrack after another and provoking for war. He said many times, “There is no difference between Maoists and Al Qaeda.” ....... the extremist American policy wasn’t changed. Moriarty, the new avatar of Malinowski, came. Whatever the idealistic talks he gives, every steps of Moriarty aimed at disrupting peace process and democracy. ........ Immediately after the February royal coup, he put leaders in suspicion by saying that the king should be given a period of one hundred days. And he ran to Delhi to not to let happen the 12 point agreement at a time when Girija Prasad, along with Maoists, was trying to wage a decisive movement against royal regime. ...... Moriarty was trying hard to break the SPA-Maoists alliance even before the April revolution. Had leaders followed his moral lectures, the country would have been under dictatorial regime till now. When the parliament was restored, Moriarty again started saying that Maoists shouldn’t be included in the government until they surrender the weapons. That was the continuity of his campaign against the 12 point agreement.......... “I have told Americans, ‘don’t make Nepal part of your ‘global strategy’, let Nepal be open, independent, and prosperous’.” ......America’s world strategy in our land directed toward the rising power of China. ..... as Moriarty came out of helicopter in Nepali Army’s Samsher Barrack, they handed him a memorandum: “Nepalis must decide the fate of Nepali politics, you don’t interfere.” ....... the frequent remarks of the Maoist chairman Prachanda violate the spirit of the ongoing peace process ...... “Nepal outside Kathmandu is different and I came here to understand it.” During his visit, the US ambassador held discussions with political party leaders, businessmen, industrialists, lawyers and human rights activists. ...... Moriarty also expressed his hope to meet Prachanda. “I hope we will meet after the Maoists come to mainstream politics after laying down their arms.”
NEPAL: Rebels accused of running parallel government Reuters AlertNet, UK Maoist leader Purna Subedi is regarded by local residents as the most powerful person in Nepalganj ...... Subedi has the power to shut down businesses, close down schools and colleges, has the authority to allow or prohibit the building of roads and bridges, and can cripple life easily in the city by marching her rebels on the streets to forcefully organise strikes ..... She has her own economic policy to randomly levy taxation on businesses and individuals in whatever way her Maoist cadres desire. ....... the parties are concerned that the rebels are already trying to govern most of the parts of the country outside the capital even prior to the elections. ....... they have violated all the agreements reached during the last three rounds of peace talks. ....... the Maoist leaders have told IRIN in Nepalganj that they have the right to govern as they control nearly three-quarters of the Himalayan kingdom. "We are the parallel government and will not stop acting as such" ..... The Maoists are finding it easy to collect taxes from vegetable and livestock markets, forestry, transportation, hotels, schools, colleges, and individuals, and even collect customs duties near the Nepal-India border ..... "We control all the borders in west Nepal and the people bringing in supplies from India pay tax to us and not the interim government" ..... Sunil's Maoist office also controls the big contract agreements to build roads and bridges. .... even the fishermen and the boatmen in the Babai and Rapti rivers had to get permission for leases from them rather than from the seven-party government. ..... Maoist attempts to interfere into the country's judiciary system by running their own 'People's Courts,' to help to find justice for people who lost their cases in the real courts. ..... Anil Chettri, who is the chief judge of the 'People's Court' in Kohalpur village, 50 km from Nepalganj. Chettri did not attend university and has no formal training in law, although he says he has enough practical experience........ this judge has often ruled in favour of his own Maoist supporters ..... "You have to be a Maoist supporter to win the case. The innocent people who are not supporting their rebellion will be victimised," said a landowner requesting anonymity as he was leaving the Maoist court after losing his case over a land dispute with a rebel farmer. He explained that many people have lost their lands to farmers backed by the Maoists after filing cases in the rebel court. ...... the courts are still being run in most of the urban and rural areas ......

Koirala Only Attracting a Section of NC (D) : Deuba Himalayan Times
Widening SPA-Maoists Schism Worries Rana lamented the way the rebels are making it difficult for other party workers and leaders to enter the villages for peace political activities. .... This is against 12-point agenda. Rebels are handing out party membership to those who belong to other parties already .....
Youth Dies While ‘Fleeing’ From Maoist Custody
Govt to Recognise 41 Towns as Municipalities
Locals Threaten to Disrupt Melamchi Project
Govt to Recognise 41 Towns as Municipalities

When rebels want to rule the army

Yubaraj Ghimire

Posted online: Friday, September 15, 2006

Yubaraj Ghimire

How much say should a rebel outfit have in the choice of Chief Of the Army Staff (CoAS)? The government appointed Rukmangad Katwal as CoAS, overruling objections from Maoist supremo Prachanda and some human rights groups. Prachanda had conveyed his objection to Katwal’s elevation through Home Minister K P Sitaula — who also heads the government committee that has been negotiating with the Maoists. Cleverly though, Prachanda apparently didn’t indicate his choice of candidate instead of Katwal.
Both the Maoists and the human right groups were opposed to Katwal on the because he was head of the operation of the Nepal army that led the unified command of the security forces. The security forces were first used against the Maoists in their ‘terrorist’ avatar. And have also been charged with using excessive force during the movement for democracy that lasted for 19 days with king renouncing power on April 24. The government, especially Prime Minister G P Koirala, was adamant that while the probe into misuse of force to suppress the movement for democracy continued, the chain of command in the army shouldn’t be disturbed. The government, however, chose to apply a different yardstick in the appointment of chiefs of the police and the paramilitary force.
Maoists are clearly playing a smart game. The absence of government, certainly the visible erosion of its authority, has made the Maoists’ job easier. Last Sunday, Maoist guerrillas knocked the doors of about two dozen homes in the Gyaneshwar area and said they’d occupy the ‘house top’ for security reasons: Maoist leaders were to address a party programme here.
The rebels are now claiming that at least 50 per cent of the districts’ development funds, phone and electricity department revenues besides tax collection along highways be theirs. This, they claim, is needed to raise their army - the amount required for the purpose is over a billion a year.
That means the Maoists have already started regulating law and order, collecting tax and have their own army. Also, the home minister has instructed the police and army not to obstruct Maoists even when they move with arms — a common sight these days. The government has surrendered to the rebels.
Yet, Prachanda’s warning the government against appointing someone as the COAS may have been a well calculated tactical move — once Prachanda is able to drive home the point that his say prevails even now in the matter of appointing chief of the army — earning loyalty from the forces becomes easy. It would also mean that the rebels are closer to causing defections in the forces. Such a risk has been averted for the moment, but the fear that the state might collapse continues to haunt the most people here.
On September 4, Maoist spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara announced that Prachanda wouldn’t be participating in any ‘public functions’ as he fears threat from the government. The rebels also protested against movement of the security personnel on Kathmandu’s streets when pro-Maoist groups were agitating before the army headquarters and the prime minister’s office; their demand was that the government make public the status of the people ‘disappeared by the state’ during conflict. Again the home minister pleaded to ‘Maoist friends (to) not misunderstand us as the security movement was to maintain law and order, and not against Maoists.’ He didn’t ask them to either stop with ‘display of arms’ or move as armed cadre in Kathmandu.
The Maoists have rightly measured the government’s depleted strength, and are using it as their strength. They are also thinking of launching a peaceful movement in cooperation with friendly parliamentary parties, or armed revolt in the capital alone. While they may have enough strength in creating anarchy resulting in the fall of the government, they are still not sure about ‘capturing power’ by guns. In their assessment, prolonged anarchy could also either lead to civil war or a foreign intervention or both - which they feel wouldn’t be in their interest. But the rebels would definitely need to further weaken the existing political parties which are identified as ‘democratic forces’ and the ‘army’— an institution that represents state’s authority despite all its shortcomings — for their political success. And Maoists seem to be counting on government’s weaknesses rather than on its own strength.

yubaraj.ghimire@expressindia.com

Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky in 1914
Alexander Kerensky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia a Russian revolutionary leader who was instrumental in toppling the Russian monarchy. ..... Kerensky, the son of a headmaster, was born in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), the same town as Lenin (then Ulyanov). At one point Kerensky's father, Fyodor, had taught the young Vladimir Ulyanov at Kazan University..... A brilliant orator and skilled parliamentary leader, he became a member of the Provisional Committee of the Duma opposition to the regime of the ruling tsar, as a Socialist Revolutionary and a leader of the socialistNicholas II. ...... When the February Revolution broke out in 1917, Kerensky was one of its most prominent leaders ........ The Russian army suffered heavy losses and it was clear - from many incidents of desertion, sabotage, and mutiny - that the Russian army was no longer willing to fight. ...... Kerensky was heavily criticised by the military for his liberal policies, which included stripping officers of their mandate (handing overriding control to revolutionary inclined "soldier committees" instead), the abolition of the death penalty, and the presence of various revolutionary agitators at the front. Many officers jokingly referred to commander in chief Kerensky as "persuader in chief" ........ at the end of August and the resignation of the other ministers, he appointed himself Supreme Commander-in-Chief as well. He retained his other posts in the short-lived Directory in September and the final coalition government in October 1917 until it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks. ...... Lenin and his Bolshevik party were promising "peace, land, and bread" under a communist system. The army was disintegrating due to a lack of discipline, which fostered desertion in large numbers. ........ Kerensky's inconsistent and impractical policies further destabilized the army and the country at large. ...... Kerensky adopted a policy which isolated the right-wing conservatives, both democratic and monarchist oriented. His philosophy of "no enemies to the left" greatly empowered the Bolsheviks and gave them a free hand, allowing them to take over the military arm or "voyenka" of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. His arrest of Kornilov and other officers left him without strong allies against the Bolsheviks, who ended up being Kerensky's strongest and most determined adversaries as opposed to the right wing, which evolved into the White movement...... Lenin was determined to overthrow Kerensky's government before it could be legitimised by the planned elections for a Russian Constituent Assembly ....... Kerensky's government in Petrograd had almost no support in the city. ...... It took less than 20 hours before the Bolsheviks had taken over the government - in what is known as the October Revolution. until 1940, engaged in the endless splits and quarrels of the exiled Russian democratic leaders....... ...... 1946. Thereafter he returned to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life. .... When Adolf Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Kerensky offered his support to Stalin, but received no reply. ..... Kerensky eventually settled in New York City, but spent much of his time at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California, where he both used and contributed to the Institution's huge archive on Russian history, and where he taught graduate courses. He wrote and broadcast extensively on Russian politics and history........ Kerensky died at his home in New York City in 1970, one of the last surviving major participants in the turbulent events of 1917. The local Russian Orthodox Churches in New York refused to grant Kerensky burial, seeing him as being largely responsible for Russia falling to the Bolsheviks. A Serbian Orthodox Church also refused. Kerensky's body was then flown to London

Issues	Janajatis¹ (Nepal Federation of Indigenous Peoples)	Madhesis² (Nepal Sadhbhawana Party-Anandidevi)	Dalits³ (Dalit NGO Federation)	Key Political Parties
Monarchy/ Head of the State	Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-religion, multi-lingual and multi-cultural Independent, indivisible and Sovereign and secular Democratic Republic State	Sovereignty, state power and governance shall be vested in the people, and the representative institution shall use people’s supremacy		NC⁴: decided by the CA; currently as per HoR decision 2006 NC(D)⁵: decided by referendum or CA CPN(UML)⁶: decided by referendum together with CA elections Maoist⁷: Declaration of a Democratic Republic
Security		Nepal Army shall be restructured as per inclusive dimensions		NC: Cabinet controls inclusive Army, NC(D): Demobilization of arms of political organizations and special security for free and fair CA elections CPN(UML): National Security Council formed by IP⁸ controls NA⁹ and responsive to Cabinet, Maoist: NA and PLA¹⁰ restrained into barracks /camps during CA elections monitored by national and international mechanisms, both under IP and Government (PM as Supreme Commander), High Level Army Commission (Chairperson appointed by IP) formed jointly by SPA¹¹ and Maoists for Interim security management and restructuration of both Armies into New National Army SPA and Maoist: Arms and combatants of NA and PLA confined into barracks/camps monitored by UN
Interim Constitution and Parliament	State council shall use the legislative powers selected through extensive political conference The issues relating to distribution of natural resources and to critical national importance shall be decided by referendum	IP shall be formed thru consensus of SPA, Maoists and civil society based on caste/ethnicity and regional proportional inclusive principles. IP should be oriented to inclusive CA elections Elected representatives shall be repelled deferring vote to concerned party IC shall address the issues of gender, caste/ethnicity, Madhesi, Dalit, religion, language, culture and region	Ensure proportional representation based on inclusive democratic principles A sovereign alternative legislative with proportional representation of Dalits, women, indigenous, ethnic groups, Madhesis based on inclusive democratic principles and 8-pt Accord between SPA and Maoists instead of incumbent HoR	NC: Incumbent Cabinet submits IC¹² to incumbent HoR and passed by two-third majority, consisting of elected HoR¹³ and National Assembly selected through political consensus forms IP, which is dissolved upon the first meeting of CA NC(D): incumbent HoR continued till alternative arrangement through Political Consensus after Arms management, an inclusive IP formed through political consensus with balanced representations of SPA, Maoists and Civil Society, which is dissolved upon the first meeting of CA CPN(UML): present HoR continued till alternative arrangement, legislative rights handled by the IP Maoist: inclusive IP formed thru Extensive National Political Conference (33.3% for each of SPA, Maoists and Civil Society), present HoR automatically dissolved upon Proclamation of IC
Executive or Interim Government (IG) and Local Governance (LG) or Restructration of State	The PM shall be elected by the State Council and the Cabinet shall be formed by PM and the cabinet shall dissolve upon approval of PM’s resignation PM could appoint ministers from outside State Council PM including cabinet shall be responsible to State Council During Interim period, PM shall tenure resignation to Speaker No question shall raise in judiciary regarding political decisions made by cabinet The political and administrative units shall be restructured based on historical topographical regions, caste/ethnicity and linguistics consisting of two types of autonomous bodies. The Caste/ethnic autonomous regions shall consist of district, municipality and village levels with legislative, executive, judicial and religious authorities Indigenous nationalities shall have special privileges in the bodies of caste/ethnic autonomous regions and proportional representation shall be meted to other castes/ethnicities Legislative, executive and judicial bodies shall be headed by Indigenous nationalities Local autonomy denotes ethnic administrative unit of the ethnic autonomous province	Federal Structure of the State based on Territory and culture The center takes care of monetary, foreign policy, security and coordination with federal states and the rest by federate states with full authority A regional council shall be formed by the federal state on the issues of caste/ethnicity, linguistic and culture. IG shall be formed thru consensus of SPA, Maoists and civil society based on caste/ethnicity and regional proportional inclusive principles.	Ensure proportional representation based on inclusive democratic principles	NC: IP forms and dissolves IG¹⁴, basis of restructuration of state based on interrelation of geo-political, population, language, economy and identification of cultural community NC(D): 33% participation of women in all levels, inclusive democracy and federal structure government CPN(UML): IP elects PM, who forms Interim Cabinet thru political consensus and ensuring structures and rights for local self governance Maoist: IP elects PM, who forms Interim Cabinet; Federal Republic divided into nine AR¹⁵ based on ethnicity, geo-political and linguistic regions (Kirat, Madesh, Tamang, Newa, Tamuwan, Magarat, Tharuwan, Bheri-Karnali, and Seti-Mahakali) and formation of nine AR governments and Interim Local Authorities at District, Municipality and Village in consensus of SPA and Maoists
Judiciary/Constitutional Court	The judiciary of the kingdom shall consist of Supreme court, constitutional court, Appellate court, and District Court but special courts or judicial commissions shall be formed to deal with special cases, but no such special courts or judicial commissions shall be formed for individual case All the courts except Constitutional and Military Courts shall be under the jurisdiction of Supreme Court	Proportional representation in both central and federal structure constitutional bodies	Independent and autonomous judiciary Special policies and programs to develop skilled judicial officials from Dalits, women and other marginalized communities/classes who lack access to law	NC: N/A NC(D): Formation of Constitutional Court formed to CA election impediments CPN(UML): All courts of the Constitution of 1990 continued in IC, Constitutional Council under the PM inclusive of Chief Justice and Speaker of HoR and Formation of Constitutional Court formed to CA election impediments Maoist: formation of Interim Judiciary consist of Supreme Court, Appellate and District Courts, and People’s Courts at the rural areas; all the justices and judges appointed by Interim Legislature or relevant representative body
CA Electoral Process	An Election Commission shall be formed for CA elections, the Chief and other commissioners shall be appointed by State Council Constituency Delineation Commission shall be formed The CA shall consist of 300 representatives; 250 from community lists based on caste/ethnic population on the proportion of 1:100 thousand and 50 from general lists “popular votes.” Each community list shall consists of caste/ethnic proportion and be publicized in parallel and Collective list following Ethnic Autonomous Region or Linguistic Local Autonomy. They are: Indigenous nationalities Hill Khash high caste Madhesis (excluding nationalities and Dalits) Dalits Religious minorities and others All the lists shall consist of 50% women All citizens above 16 years of age shall cast their votes	Multi-member election delineation system shall adopt to represent territorial, social and cultural diversities CA election based on proportional representation shall be inclusive Fixed poll list shall be used for inclusive electoral system Election Commission shall decide on proportional number of representation of caste, ethnicity including priority on gender based on socio-cultural structure of the population and act accordingly 200-250 CA members shall be directly elected thru adult franchise All citizens above 16 years of age shall cast their votes CA shall finalize New Constitution within one year thru two-third majority The issues not materialized in CA shall be decided by referendum The CA acts both as CA and IP	Proportional representation of marginalized and disadvantaged groups based on population Create special electoral constituencies to ensure proportional representation of and through competitive process of Dalits and other marginalized communities/classes Proportional representation of Dalits, women and other marginalized groups at all levels of political parties	NC: CA elections within one year of IG Proclamation consisting 50% each of direct and indirect representations; indirect composed of women, dalits, indigenous/ethnicities, Madhesis, minorities, differentially abled, backward areas, professionals and civil society NC(D): CA elections within one year of IP Proclamation consisting 50% each of direct and indirect representatives, ensuring women, indigenous, ethnicities, Madhesi, dalits, Karnali, including remote areas and 10% from professionals and civil society CPN(UML): Electoral procedures defined by act, ensuring inclusive and proportional election system Maoist: CA elections within one year of IC Proclamation; 225 CA members comprising 90 from nine autonomous regions; and 125 from 200-thousand population each; and 10 from marginalized and experts, ensuring inclusion and proportional representations of women, disadvantaged castes, ethnicity, differentially abled
Certification of Constitution		Approved by two-third majority of CA Proclamation of new Constitution by Chair of the CA		NC: National Commission of experts to draft of CA by National Commission submitted thru Interim Cabinet to IP and approved/amended by two-thirds majority of IP NC(D): The CA announces new constitution within two years of CA formation CPN(UML): N/A Maoist: IP approves and Interim Cabinet proclaims
Guiding Principles of State	Fair distribution of country’s economic resources without discriminating caste/ethnicity, gender, class, region, and person, abolishing control and use by limited central elites Promotion of international relations keeping sovereignty, integrity and freedom of the nation Autonomous provinces shall formed restructuring state in terms of caste/ethnicity and language Basic livelihood of people e.g. education, health, transportation, housing and employment shall be developed and distributed fairly	Ensure inclusive proportional representation of all classes/groups at all echelons to policy formulation of State	Guarantee proportional representation of all classes/groups at all echelons to policy formulation of State Ensure representations of 20% Dalits and 33% women in all state’s policy formulation infrastructures Special provisions for Dalits, Janajatis, Madhesis, women and differentially-abled for discrimination-free peaceful and developed state Formation of Dalit Development Council elected directly by Dalits for overall development of Dalits	NC: Special proportional provisions shall be endowed to women, Dalit, dalits, Janajatis, indigenous, Madhesis, differentially-abled, labors, peasants, remote areas, poor; policy of 33% representation of women; trade union rights; conflict-affected persons shall be compensated and transitional justice shall be provided; etc NC(D): Multi-party democracy; special programs to martyrs and families of wounded during People’s Movement II; at least 33% women representation in public and party positions; federal state with inclusive democracy; etc CPN(UML): One-third women shall be included; Special programs shall be conducted for dalits, Janajatis, indigenous, Madhesis, differentially-abled, labors, peasants, disadvantaged areas and below the poverty line Maoist: Establishment of Democratic Republic abolishing monarchy and feudal autocracy; competitive Multiparty systems, adult franchise, periodic elections, rule of law, human rights, fundamental rights shall be guaranteed; democratic values promoted in economic, social and cultural spheres; Right to self-determination; Establishment of federal structural autonomous governance; Secular nation; End feudal ownership and right to the tillers; Special management to labor , poor peasants, landless, Kamaiya, haruwa, charuwa, etc.; Formulation of appropriate policies on industrialization, trade and business; Peaceful coexistence with all countries; repel all unequal treaties and agreements; etc.
Citizenship/Nationality	Citizenship shall be based on descendents through father, mother and five generation, no one shall be deprived from citizenship Each citizen or linguistic group has the right to education on his/her mother tongue Any individual born after adoption of the Constitution will be a Nepali citizen if his/her father or mother is a Nepali Citizen Any child with unidentified paternity or maternity shall get citizenship upon recommendation of an institution or a lawyer Concerning Terai, citizenship shall be awarded based on the voter list for referendum of 2037 Bikram Sambat¹⁶ Any male/female from abroad having matrimonial relation with a Nepali citizen and discarding his/her native citizenship shall be awarded Nepalese citizenship Honorary citizenship may be conferred to International figures of distinction	Conduction of census prior to CA elections thru inclusive representative team to make CA inclusive and proportional representative Prior to collection of voter’s list for CA elections, arrangements for awarding citizenship to all people deprived of citizenship shall be made by IC On the recommendation of a citizenship holder, concerned authority through citizenship distribution team, shall distribute citizenship to all individuals residing in Nepal before IC After commencement of IC, citizenship shall be acquired by birth, either father or mother born in Nepal, and matrimonial relationship Central government confers citizenship to foreigners on the recommendation of Federal government	Guarantee the birth right to citizenship based on descendency and clan devoid of discrimination Madhesis, landless, Badi, etc groups to be awarded citizenship immediately	NC: Persons born or residing permanently prior to proclamation of constitution 1990 shall be provided citizenship; citizenship shall be hereditary of father or mother, etc. NC(D): Citizenship shall be defined as per Permanent residence, heredity, birth, matrimonial relationship, acquisition, and honorary; Special provision based on inhabitance shall be guaranteed to those without citizenship; All-Party Citizenship Identification Commission shall be formed to distribute at the local levels; etc CPN(UML): citizenship shall be awarded based on the voter list for referendum of 2037 Bikram Sambat; citizenship shall also be provided on the basis of mother Maoist: Citizenship shall be provided to all; Citizenship shall be provided either from father’s or mother’s identity; A high level commission to provide citizenship to Madhesis of Terai inhabitants prior to CA elections shall be formed
Fundamental Rights	All individuals shall be equal before and under law No one shall be discriminated based on religion, caste, gender, language, ethnicity, and ideological conscience Special provisions to protection and development shall be made to women, children, elderly, differentially-abled, and socio-economically deprived indigenous nationalities, Dalits, Madhesis and other disadvantaged groups No one shall on the basis of caste and ethnicity be discriminated as untouchables or be denied access to any public place or be deprived of use of public utilities. Any act in violation of this provision shall be punishable by law All mother tongues shall be national languages. For public affairs tri-linguist policy shall be adopted: first shall be concerned regional language, second is ethnic neighboring community based on social, trade and culture, and third is international language Non-discrimination to education, health and employment Freedom of thought and _expression, to peaceful assembly without arms, to form unions and associations, to mobility and domicile, to choose any profession and trade Freedom to press and publication rights Right to intellectual property Right against all kinds of exploitations	All citizens shall enjoy internationally recognized and unrestricted fundamental rights including personal property and press freedom The state shall adopt Multi-lingual policy Non-discrimination to religion, culture and dress Reservation in the fields of education, health and employment to the disadvantaged groups for instance Madhesi, Indigenous nationalities, Dalit, women.	Ensure FR of citizens based on UDHR and international norms Protection and promotion of universal rights of Dalits, minorities, Janajatis, Madhesis, //differentially-abled, children and women Penalizing as crime to those practicing of untouchability and caste discrimination Nepali people being the source of state immediate abolition of bonded labor like Haliya, Khali, Balighare and so on discriminatory systems under feudal state structures, and develop special programs for their social and economic development	NC: Keeping all rights to incumbent constitution, extensive rights shall be provided to women, Dalits, nationalities, indigenous, Madhesi, differentially-abled, including disadvantaged areas and trade union, etc NC(D): N/A CPN(UML): Rights to life, health, education, security, compensation, rehabilitation, minorities, indigenous, differentially-abled, children, intellectual, employment, food security and equal property in addition to the incumbent FR Maoist: Right to equality, union and association, vote and candidacy, mobility, assemble, parental property to both sexes, and press, publication and freedom of _expression, along with, matrimony, property, divorce, abortion etc. No one shall possess property above the sanction of the law. All are free to accept or refuse religion. Locals shall have rights on water, land, forest and mines of their territories

Pages

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Janajati, Madhesi: Too Vague, Dalit: Not Assertive Enough

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Nepal In 2006 Is Not Russia In 1917

Parallel Governments Of Maoists And Moriarty

Yubaraj Ghimire

Posted online: Friday, September 15, 2006