On Sunday, they could be seen singing and dancing on the streets, not to the traditional blood-roiling Raktakranti ko jwalamukhi ma but to a more easy-on-the-ear Le kali ho choya ko doko. Although the crowds pouring into the Open Air theatre were no match for UML Kathmandu rallies a decade ago, the people on the march spanned across all age groups: Clean-shaven boys in crew cuts; plump women in salwar kurta, the fat perhaps accumulated sitting on plush government chairs; middle-aged men clanging cymbals; the elderly waving white miniature pennants with the famous red sun.
The party establishment hopes the Council meeting will ´rejuvenate´ its grassroots, literally torn in two halves following the narrow victory of Jhalanath Khanal over KP Oli in the party´s general convention three years ago. Indeed, after Oli was given the third highest position in the party hierarchy recently, the animosity between the two factions seems to have cooled a bit. But it is far too early to believe the divided house of UML can mount a credible challenge on the left to the well-oiled Maoist machinery in the near future. The UML grassroots has been constantly eroding as rifts in the party have grown and, as its critics allege, its ‘middle of nowhere’ policies have as much confused people as they have illuminated things.
It is true that the party has often, by taking a middle road, facilitated crucial political negotiations. For instance, the UML position that 6,000 ex-PLA combatants be integrated helped settle the number at 6,500; NC had pitched for 4,000; the Maoists, at least 7,000-8,000. Much more questionable is the party stand that through its successive government leadership it made significant progress on peace and constitution.
At this point it is unclear how UML can make its presence felt in an increasingly polarized national polity: With NC and right-leaning parties on one side and the Maoists on the other. Khanal and co. have their task cut out: Of convincing people that its middle approach is still the best course in the current scheme of things; that the old divisions are well and truly healed; that the party´s diminished yet still potent grassroots all over the country can be rejuvenated by a strong message of unity and tangible commitments on peace and constitution.
Sunday´s color-filled demonstrations, replete with brass bands and jhankis, certainly seemed to herald change. The next few days should clarify if the enthusiasm for change has filtered down to the top party honchos engaged in crucial political negotiations with nothing less than the country’s future as a peaceful, federal republic on the line.
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