A Seshan of their own

The Maoists, who ended their more than 12-year-long armed insurgency, are participating in the election. But they have sent out mixed messages about their future course should the electoral outcome go against them — a scenario that most political analysts have predicted. At least the top four leaders of the party, including Prachanda, have said they will move towards capturing power if the outcome is not in their favour.

The Maoist cadres are adopting two simple and noticeable campaign methods. They are telling ordinary villagers that a vote against the Maoists will mean sending them back to the jungle again, and in that case, “you all will have to feed them like you did in the past”. At this stage of the campaign, the Maoists are also mostly targeting not the candidates of potential rivals — UML and the Congress — but their active campaigners so that rival candidates are demoralised.

This is why T.N. Seshan is remembered in a distant land for his perceived efficiency. Bhojraj Pokhrel — his local counterpart — retired as chief secretary of the government, but is perceived to lack the courage to confront political parties, especially the Maoists, for repeated violations of the code of conduct.

While the commission’s soft and ineffective response towards cases of serious violation of the code of conduct cause frustration among the people who fought on the street and snatched power back from the king through a decisive movement in April 2006, there are also fears that the Maoists may still spoil the polls if their terror tactics are not enough to assure them a respectable presence in the constituent assembly.

Already, the Maoists and the Nepal Army are inching towards major confrontation — only verbal, mercifully — with the latter stating that it will not bow before any force that adopts extremism, militancy and terrorism in the name of democracy. The statement issued by the army followed a Maoist claim that at least two of its cadres were killed by the army, and that the chief of the Nepal army and Prachanda had a meeting a few days ago to ‘work jointly to thwart the threat to Nepal’s sovereignty from external forces’. The army says this is mere propaganda to defame it.

All this has led to a situation where an extreme reaction from any side can endanger Nepal’s halting march towards political stability. The absence of a local avatar of T.N. Seshan may or may not have performed magic, but it does seem that options are running out in Nepal, given the way the EC has conducted itself so far.

ghimire.yubaraj@gmail.com