Today, Thabang’s folks no longer believe in what the Maoist leaders say. They don’t see the UCPN (Maoist) as any different from other political parties whom they once loathed for being bourgeois, reactionary and regressive.[break]
“We’ve now realized that nobody cares for the poor,” says Dhanpura Roka Magar, a resident of Thabang VDC-5, adding, “They just care for themselves.”
Photo Courtesy: Hira Bahadur Ghartimagar
She recalls how the government sent the (Royal) Nepalese Army and Nepal Police personnel to Rolpa to crush the people of Thabang for sympathizing with the Maoist cause.
“The army barged into hour house,” says she, her eyes still looking frightened. “They pointed guns at me and my little brothers. My mother somehow convinced them that we weren’t Maoists.”
She adds she’s not excited about casting her vote in the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, either.
“Whatever will happen even if I cast my vote,” says she. “We couldn’t change the country even by fighting, for 10 years. Now I’m least enthusiastic about anything.”
Dhanpura also says she hasn’t had her name registered in the voters’ list. “I won’t do it,” says she, simply.
Bar Prasad Gharti Magar, who lives in Thabang VDC-2, feels that the Maoists just used them for their political benefits. Bar, with his nom de guerre of ‘Inkar’, worked as a Maoist whole-timer for 10 years.
“The Maoist leaders would often dub Thabang the Henan of Nepal,” says Bar. “We were highly hopeful that the Maoists would do something for the country. Now our hope has been shattered. We were used and thrown by the Maoists.”
Bin Prasad Pun Magar ‘Tarzan,’ a local UCPN (Maoist) leader, admits that Thabang people are frustrated and angry with their party.
“It’s true that our leaders failed to fulfill their promises,” says Bin. “But it’s not that our leaders didn’t try at all. They did. But it wasn’t possible for them to bring about radical changes in Thabang, given the country’s old structure.”
Santosh Budha Magar, who was elected as CA member from constinuency-2 of Rolpa, lashes out at the UCPN (Maoist) for dissolving the Magarat people’s government – a wartime parallel government formed by the Maoists.
“Prachanda dissolved our government without consulting us,” said Magar. “If the CA polls are conducted without our consultation, we will again form a parallel government, as we did in the wartime.”
Baidya, too, under suspicion
The Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist faction now enjoys a certain degree of people’s support in Thabang by virtue of not being with the UCPN (Maoist). However, unlike in the past, the Thabang folks are too cautious to lend their support to Baidya and his party. They believe that Baidya, too, can turn into an opportunist.
Jaya Prakash Roka Magar ‘Pratap,’ Thabang village committee in-charge of the CPN-Maoist, says, “Kiranjee (Baidya) is relatively honest. This is why Thabang people now support him. But they suspect that he may become an opportunist. We need not support him if he, like Prachanda, becomes selfish and power-hungry.”
Lal Chanda Roka Magar, a local Maoist leader, says, “Prachanda betrayed the Thabang people. So they are dejected. They don’t support any leader as wholeheartedly as they did in the past. Baidyajee enjoys support to an extent but the people have doubts over him, too.”
Former CA member Magar says that it is only natural on the part of the Thabang people to have doubts about Baidya.
“It’s understandable why the people of Thabang are suspicious of Baidyajee. They feel betrayed by Prachanda. They don’t want to be betrayed again by someone else.”
But Magar, somewhere deep in his heart, feels that Baidya won’t betray them like Prachanda did.
“He’s already 74 years old and yet as revolutionary as he was in his youthful days,” says he. “So I think he won’t betray us.”
Rebellious Thabang
Thabang is the place where the Maoists first launched their war against the state in 1992.
The people of Thabang have always been Communist. Almost all people of Thabang cast their vote for Nepal’s communist party in the general elections of 2015 BS. Since then, Thabang has always been regarded as a ‘communist village.’
In 2036 B.S., all the people of Thabang stood united to boycott the Referendum, which was conducted by the government to find out whether the people were for the partyless Panchayat system or multi-party system.
Jay Prakash Roka Magar, CPN-Maoist village committee chairman, recalls how none of them cast their votes on the referendum. “We returned all ballot boxes empty to the district headquarters,” he recounts.
The boycott by Thabang enraged the then Panchayat government which ordered the District Administration Office (DAO) of Rolpa to launch an operation to annihilate Communists in Thabang. Jay says the police then set fire to as many as 21 houses to discourage people from joining communist movement. But he says the operation backfired on the government, provoking more people to be Communists.
Baidya and Mohan Bikram Singh, another veteran communist leader, organized several programs to turn common people into communist in the Panchayat era. The Thabang people wholeheartedly subscribed to communist ethos.
Throughout the Panchayat era, Thabang was a communist fort. After the first successful people’s movement in 2046 B.S., Thabang’s people openly supported communist leaders. Two years later, in the first general elections, Barman Budha Magar, a local of Thabang, secured a landslide victory. In 2051 B.S., when the government called mid-term elections, Thabang again boycotted the polls.
In the following year, the Maoists announced a long-term war against the state by attacking police posts simultaneously in Rolpa and Sindhuli districts. Thabang was declared as the fort of revolt by the Maoists. Thabang’s people treated the Maoist war as their own. As a result, many were killed and mutilated.
In the first general elections, Thabang’s people lent their support to their party. They were hopeful that their revolutionary party would bring about positive changes in the country. But their party, instead of addressing the people’s genuine problems, split. With the split of their party, most of Thabang people have now tilted toward the Baidya-led CPN-Maoist faction.
What Thabang wants
During the war, the Maoists had developed a grand plan to develop Thabang. They often assured them that they would develop Thabang as their own capital. They had put up signboards across Thabang with attractive slogans on them.
The Maoists had disseminated a map on which Thabang was shown as a beautiful city with blacktopped roads, cemented houses, modern hospitals, and parking lots which instantly caught the people’s imagination. They really believed that the Maoists would develop their village into such a grand city. But Thabang looks exactly like what it was in the war.
The Maoists continued to make Thabang’s people dream even after joining open politics. In his election manifesto, Pushpa Kamal Dahal promised that his party, if catapulted into forming a government, would connect Thabang with Dang with a cable car. The Maoists won the first CA polls and led the government. Dahal himself became Prachanda. But none of his promises was fulfilled.
Three years ago, when Dahal flew to Thabang by helicopter to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the People’s War, he again made a slew of promises: development activities would be launched in Thabang, the people of Thabang would be provided with employment opportunities, the families of those killed in the war would be provided with compensation, wartime communes and cooperatives would be managed.
But none of them ever materialized
The Maoists led the government twice since the 2008 CA polls. But Thabang is yet to be connected with road network.
“They promised to build a blacktopped Ring Road in Thabang,” says Jay. “But they haven’t built even an earthen road.”
Amit Gharti Magar, a youth in Thabang who is now a student leader, says, “It seems like Prachanda has no shame whatsoever.”
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