|
Happy New Year 2063
The Nepali people got in a mood to really celebrate a happy New Year just before the midnight of April 24, the 11th day of the Nepali New Year, when the King made a second proclamation on television restoring the parliament which was dissolved four years ago. While doing this, he also promised to go by the roadmap of the seven political parties, which means he agrees to honour a new constitution to be prepared by the elected constituent assembly. The King made his first proclamation on April 21, after meeting with a special envoy from India, asking the parties to name a prime minister whom he promised to hand over all the state powers. While that announcement was immediately welcomed by the foreign powers including India, USA, UK, EU, UN and China, it was rejected by the political parties and the street agitators (as well as by the Maoists) branding it as a mere ploy to dampen the movement.
 |
The cost of the achievement was a heavy one. At least 16 people were confirmed dead as a result of heavy use of force by the security forces to suppress the agitators who repeatedly defied shoot-at-sight curfew in the capital and other parts of the country. At least seven more are feared dead and scores are reported missing in the course of the movement that started on April 6.
The prevailing mood of the agitators was to establish a republic by abolishing monarchy. As making Nepal a republic is the Maoists' main agenda, the King's ministers were claiming that Maoists were infiltrating the movement, thus justifying heavy use of force to crush the agitation. The people on their part used the word "loktantra" (the new Nepali word for democracy as the other Nepali word "prajatantra" indirectly makes the people subjects of a King) to denote the system of their demand. However, the Maoists did not violate the unilateral ceasefire for the Kathmandu valley that they had declared during the period of the people's movement under the leadership of the parties. While the agitators repeated vows to win loktantra by fighting for it on the streets, the King did not want to grant it. The New Year message from the King did not offer any carrot that would win away some of the agitators. Instead, he repeated his old call to the political parties to join in a dialogue to activate multiparty democratic polity. As the message did not recognise the popular movement at all, it further infuriated the agitators who had calmed down a bit during the two days before the New Year message.
Intensifying the preparations for the agitations, the government had brought out the revised antiterrorism ordinance incorporating stricter provisions. To help the agitating parties, the Maoists had announced unilateral ceasefire for the Kathmandu valley. They lived by the announcement for the valley though they made attacks on security forces in a number of districts including the district headquarter of Sindhupalchok on the night of April 23.
As one part of their preparations, the agitating parties approached also the business community by holding separate meetings with the FNCCI and CNI. Both of the business associations remained neutral to the movement. But following pressure from different member chambers (who came out openly onto the streets in favour of the movement) they issued vague statements after some days of the agitations calling for an end to all types of activities including the strikes and curfews. For the first time in the history of Nepal, tourists demonstrated against the government in Pokhara and Kathmandu and nine tourists were arrested in Kathmandu.
 |
Another major development before the start of the agitations was the announcement by SIDA (Swiss government agency) withdrawing its commitment to provide funds for the implementation of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project. Norad, a Norwegian government agency had made a similar announcement recently. Only Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Nordic Development Fund remain donors now for this multibillion dollars project. However, Nordic Development Fund too was reported likely to announce its withdrawal from the project as its involvement in the project was tied with the involvement of SIDA.
The latest news is that Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala is selected the leader of the seven-party alliance to be the next prime minister when the parliament convenes on April 28. While the parties go on with their roadmap, it is to be seen how they are going to reconcile the wide range of groups of the people with differing vested interests who so actively helped in the agitations. It will be a really challenging task if these groups started demanding different sops for themselves from the new government as the state coffers are almost empty.
|
