Maoists' terror tactics

Santosh Rai, a Maoist combatant, was arrested with hand grenades in Chitwan while he was on his way to Kathmandu. He was one among hundreds of thousands of Maoist cadres flocking to Kathmandu to participate in the protest program organized by UCPN (Maoist) on May 1 with the objective of toppling the Madhav Kumar-led government to replace it with a coalition headed by a prime minister from their own party. The Maoist leaders are planning to bring almost half a million people on the streets of Kathmandu on May Day.



Though we would like to believe the Maoist claim that the protest will be peaceful, the arrest of Santosh Rai with hand grenades and khukuri makes us seriously question their intention. We cannot be certain that other Santosh Rais with grenades have not already arrived in Kathmandu and waiting for an appropriate time to put their weapons to use. Moreover, media reports that Maoist cadres arriving in Kathmandu were provided with staff and khukuri training raises questions on the claim of the Maoist high command.



May 1 may still be a couple of days away but the Maoists have already stepped up their donation drive and the industrialists and common folks have been at the receiving end of their campaign. Additionally, to house their cadres arriving from other parts of Nepal, they have forcefully shut down schools on the flimsy pretext that the closure is to protest the fee hike in private schools. What is even more preposterous is that the valley residents are forced to house and feed their cadres. The repercussions of the influx are also already taking a toll on the already heavily populated city. Commodity prices are going up, making the valley population suffer—all for the ambition of one party.



The Maoists have every right to protest against the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government, but for that they need to use the appropriate channel i.e. parliament. Else, the other recourse is to opt for consensus politics. Applying terror tactics not only discredits the party’s credentials, it also sets a wrong precedent for other parties to follow. The sooner the Maoists realize that their protest program will lead to perpetual political instability, the better it is for the country. If the Maoist party believes in the values of democracy, which it has committed to many times in the past, then it has to immediately halt its terror tactics. Shutting down schools and bringing weapons and khukuri-wielding cadres does not befit a party that claims itself to be the ‘true representative’ of the people.

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