Opinion Balkanisation of Nepal
The Maoists are playing up ethnic and regional divides
Tika Bista,a 22-year journalist was brutally attacked and left for dead in Nepals remote western district Rukum on December 8. They first inflicted deep wounds in her hands saying these are the hands she writes with. Her laptop was damaged and some of her pieces that appeared in the local papers thrown around,confirming that it was her write-ups that landed her in trouble. Besides,it was also a be careful message to other journalists in the future.
Tika had recently written a piece in a local newspaper Jantidhara Why did Maoists need Tirthas Sindoor (vermillion)?,basically holding Maoists accountable for the death of many husbands during the ten years of insurgency that the Maoists had spearheaded. At least 27 journalists were killed during the period,mostly by the Maoists and the state. As the culture of impunity continues to grow and flourish,even identified suspects have not been arrested or brought to justice. Maoists have recently promoted two of those wanted in connection with the murder of journalist Birendra Saha in Southern Nepals Bara district two years ago,and assigned them the responsibility of the partys district secretariat.
Todays politics in Nepal is more based on hatred,intolerance and weapons. Political parties are getting more and more militant after the Maoists entry into mainstream politics and their control of Nepals political agenda. With the monarchy gone,Maoists could successfully arm-twist pro-democracy parties either to follow their agenda blindly without any public or political debate,or face the fate of Gyanendra. Major parties complied on crucial issues like federalism,secularism and republicanism without any debate. Now with Maoists and the government literally calling each other untrustworthy,they are inching towards confrontation more aggressively.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) has raised Youth Force like a paramilitary body that works like the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL). A senior leader of the Nepali Congress and three time Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka announced recently that even his party should be raising armed squads if that is what decides the countrys politics. Khadka was sore over the Maoists refusal to return the private property that they had confiscated,mostly from his party supporters during the years of conflict,despite the CPA making it mandatory for the Maoists to do so. Instead,Maoists have gone on a capturing spree afresh.
Apart from major parties,there are nearly 109 armed outfits of varied size,mostly operating from Terai,Nepals plain areas adjoining India. And most of them demand autonomy to their areas,on the basis of ethnicity,caste,language or region with the right to self-determination. The Maoists,who are the biggest party in the Constituent Assembly,have given legitimacy to such demands by unilaterally announcing the two autonomous provinces,stalling any possibility of a political consensus on the issue of federalism and state formation. Like in the past,Maoists are perhaps leaving other parties with a fait accompli. But it is not just a dispute over carving out provinces within a federal Nepal. Declaration of states on ethnic lines and without a consensus often become emotive issues. In fact,such an act in the past would have been taken as an act of rebellion against the nation and its integrity. But with parties divided over castes and ethnicity,and with dissenting voices including from the media being attacked,Maoists and the likes are getting encouraged to do what they have been doing,and are getting away with it.
In fact,political parties including the Maoists own and control the media in the country. The assault on Tika Bista sends across a message that journalism in Nepal should be more about servility and less about objectivity and professionalism. For the sake of short-term survival,even reputed media houses are aligning with the powerful side of politics,toeing their lines blindly.
Inside Nepal,people who supported the 2006 movement appear more frustrated with the latest round of debate: whether this country will remain one or fragmented into small caste and ethnicity based units? The collapse of central authority and inability of political institutions to fill up the vacuum that the monarchys exit left,has only made the situation scarier. Declaration of Limbuwan and Kochila provinces unilaterally by the Maoists,many fear,could bring Nepals disintegration,like what happened in Bosnia.
yubaraj.ghimire@expressindia.com
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