Chura Thapa
May 2, Hong Kong
Nepal's Maoist Party has taken out massive protest rallies across the country on Saturday to celebrate the International Labour Day, reports say. According to sources, the rallies attracted tens of thousands of people in major cities across the country, the biggest ever organized by a single political party in the political history of Nepal. Observers claim that about half a million people turned up in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal alone.
The protest rallies are also reported to have been the most peaceful ever, contrary to what the ruling parties had tried to propagate prior to the rallies.
Hundreds of international human rights organizations and UN monitors observed the rallies across the country and termed them to be the most peaceful ever recorded in the political scene of Nepal, given the number of people participating.
Demanding the current coalition government dissolve in order to pave a way for a national government of consensus, massive protest rallies were held in at least a dozen other cities accross the country.
Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) is the largest party in the current Constitutional Assembly and has been sidelined by twenty two other small coalition partners from the government. Since the constitution making in the country is impossible through the current numerical game plan, Maoists have demanded that a government of national consensus comprising all the political parties be formed in order to write a new republican constitution of Nepal on time.
However, the ruling
parties have turned their deaf ear on the demand creating a fear among the people that the country will plunge into into a never-ending civil war by the attitude of the ruling parties. Constitution writing and lasting peace seem to have been totally out of their agenda execept clinging on to the power by whatever means.
Maoists have called for an indefinite general strike beginning from Sunday until the current corrupt and numerical government paves way for a broader and nationally represented government.
In order to fail the peaceful rallies across the country, the coalition government mulled several strategies including mobilization of country's army, among others to suppress the demonstrations. Maoist Army and Nepal Army are confined to their barracks under an peace agreement signed some three years ago between the then government and the Maoist party.
Prior to the mass rallies, the ruling coalition were trying to create panic among the ordinary people spreading rumuors and lies through their mouthpiece media that the Maoist were trying to capture the state power from the street with violent means.
Maoist chairman Prachanda alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal termed the rumuor of the ruling coalition as an attempt to provoke the protesters and impose violence on them. Maoist leaders have also accused the current coalition staying on power only through the blessings of Indian establishment.
Analysts warn that an unpredictable political scene is forcast ahead in Nepal given the negative attitude of current coalition government towards constitution writing and lasting peace.
Observers say that the current coalition parties have totally lost their support base across the country. Almost the whole population seems to have sided with the Maoists. If the coalition parties conclude the peace process and write a new constitution on time, a parliamentary election is to be held which will surely give an overwhelming majority to Maoists, something the monarchy era parties would not want. Their only strategy in order to weaken the Maoists, as it seems, has been to impose violence on people and push the country into a civil war which will finally destroy the whole nation, according to analysts.
Photo courtesy: Kantipur
