While Hisila sings the glories of 10-year long People’s War, the nation now reaps the fruit of the seeds sown then—abduction, murder, extortion and threats. When walking through a village in the Tarai recently, I didn’t dare talk to children for fear of being lynched as a kidnapper.
Why this discourse on kachila? Four articles Didi Hisila Yami dished out in a national daily immediately reminded me of the kachila I tried to relish but failed. Positively, Hisila claims that the Maoists have the greatest internal democracy. Recently, their central committee decided on collective leadership. Only the future will tell if the Maoists will seriously put this into practice. Still, it’s a welcome move and we look forward to hearing Pushpa Kamal Dahal roar as the lone leader less often.
Hisila says that the Maoists haven’t yet split into splinters but forgets that Matrika Yadav and company have walked out of the parent party. Scores have joined the CPN-UML. Even so, we agree with her that the split hasn’t been as severe. She credits her husband, Dr Baburam Bhattarai for collecting “Rs 110 billion in revenue in nine months by taking stringent action against tax evaders.” A great achievement.
There my agreement with her ends. As with kachila, I didn’t grow up on success stories of gun-toting, violence-advocating communist leaders that Hisila represents. I’ve yet to come across one autocratic, communist country that has kept its people happy. Some have ushered in a measure of development but by trampling on human rights. Thus, our Tibetan friends prefer prisons to authoritarian, Chinese-engineered, material progress.
In one of the articles Hisila claimed that regional, ethnic and women’s awakening came because of the ten-year long People’s War. She credits her party with the removal of the king and feudalism and consolidation of the federal democratic republic. According to her, by having supported the Chief of the Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal, both the NC and the UML have proven to be regressive and are losing international goodwill. The Maoist Party on the other hand is “gaining acceptability and credibility in the international arena”!
She scores more points in another article. “The Maoists fought for establishing a republic, democracy and federalism while the non-Maoists stuck to the monarchical parliamentary system.” The Maoists have all sort of experiences, also that of “playing the role of the opposition in the legislature”. She claims the Maoists resigned three times for good purposes, the last being to uphold civilian supremacy.
In yet another write-up, the UML gets a thorough bashing. UML comrades are status-quoists and they covet wealth.
What are we to make of all these? When the Maoist government came down after nine months, Dr Surendra KC, an expert on Nepali communism and an author, made an interesting comment. He said that the Maoists fell for the same reason as the UML government under Manamohan Adhikari—sheer arrogance in thinking that they didn’t need other parties. That UML administration then also collapsed after nine months for acting as if it had the majority. In reality, it was a minority government. Hisila Yami pretends that the country can’t do without the Maoists. She should remember that other parties contributed to the nation even before the Maoists were born.
Actions speak louder than words. As the minister for Water Resources, Hisila deselected the British company, Severn Trent. Whatever nationalistic fervor she managed to stir then has all evaporated as water supply in Kathmandu remains just as haphazard. All expected that under foreign management, the capital would have more water. Hisila didn’t allow the British firm an opportunity. Instead, she filled posts in the concerned offices with her sisters and relatives. As the former tourism minister, she reminds us of her bungee diving but not much more.
Recently, we’ve seen Maoist hands in the Singha Durbar civil revolt, the filthy garbage politics (Hisila gloated about the government’s difficulty, thus encouraging the Maoist ringleader Ramesh Paudel), the two-day closure of schools affecting 6.5 million students, seizure of more land, beating up of industrialists, and the threat of another revolution. How Hisila can call her party progressive in midst of such a background defies all logic.
While Hisila sings the glories of 10-year long People’s War, the nation now reaps the fruit of the seeds sown then—abduction, murder, extortion and threats. When walking through a village in the Tarai recently, I didn’t dare talk to children for fear of being lynched as a kidnapper. Who taught criminals to abduct and murder? First the Maoists, then the security forces.
The Maoists have resigned from the government three times but that’s nothing to write home about. Instead of shouldering national responsibility with courage, the Maoists have quit when the going got tough and then found scapegoats, like the president or the commander-in-chief.
Hisila and her husband deride the UML for not being true communists. Having discarded violence (we hope Youth Force’s muscle-flexing at Tri-Chandra Campus was an exception) and the establishment of one-party rule, UML is more socialist. By being such, UML is truly progressive and in tune with the times. Maoists resent this.
Is the Maoist party entirely home-grown? Yes, as much as Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, the grey trousers and coats! And are the Maoists gaining more international acceptance, as Hisila thinks? She forgets that the World Bank has refused financial help to the PLA after the Shaktikhor video and the US hasn’t yet removed the “terrorist” tag from her party. As long as the Maoists don’t abandon their aim for a People’s Republic (a one party, totalitarian communist regime), Hisila’s smooth talk just arouses suspicion.
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