Thursday, a nationwide strike has been called. The morning streets near Maharajgunj was quiet, and I guess so is the case all around the Ring Road. A few Nepal Yatayat buses were running, but not on the route to my work, which meant that I had to walk for more than half an hour to reach work. I would have liked to show my support for the strike too by not going to work. But I work in a suffocatingly corporate office. Last time that I missed work was last Friday, when there was a curfew. I was given a leave slip to fill.
The end of the ceasefire has been calamitous for both the Maoists and the RNA. The end of the ceasefire might have been the royal government’s doing for other ends, but the common armyman are the ones suffering. I know a guy called ‘mama’ who works for the army. He dresses in casual uniform and goes to ‘gather information’. He says that whenever a small group congregates, the talk is inevitably anti-monarchy. And he hasn’t found any Maoist so far. He wants to quit his job and go to Bahrain to work as a security guard, but is afraid he might be swindled by the manpower agencies. During one drunken conversation with him, he said that if the King continued to hold power after the three years he has said is necessary to solve the Maoist problem, Mama will quit the army and join the popular movement. Of course, he isn’t serious.
It would be interesting to take an anonymous opinion poll among the police and army men. I am sure they would be overwhelmingly pro-monarchy. It would, however, let us gauge the propaganda mechanism of the RNA.
Below is a list of wars that have been fought (or in one case, is being fought) and the rough (sic) number of casualties in recent days.
Dhangadi – Two way gun battle, no casualties reported so far.
Dang – Maoists bomb district traffic office.
Nepalgunj – Two way gun battles, 8 dead according to official counts.
Palpa – Fierce operation by the RNA, claim 25 Maoists dead.
Nationwide – more than a hundred activists arrested.
Two weeks left for the Municipal polls, and Pashupati Samser’s RPP has finally taken the decision to boycott elections. Sher Bahadur and MKN have both released statements urging people to ‘actively’ boycott the polls. I wonder what being ‘active’ entails. The Maoists have made it clear what they mean by taking ‘action’ against those who participate – murder.
The end of the ceasefire has been calamitous for both the Maoists and the RNA. The end of the ceasefire might have been the royal government’s doing for other ends, but the common armyman are the ones suffering. I know a guy called ‘mama’ who works for the army. He dresses in casual uniform and goes to ‘gather information’. He says that whenever a small group congregates, the talk is inevitably anti-monarchy. And he hasn’t found any Maoist so far. He wants to quit his job and go to Bahrain to work as a security guard, but is afraid he might be swindled by the manpower agencies. During one drunken conversation with him, he said that if the King continued to hold power after the three years he has said is necessary to solve the Maoist problem, Mama will quit the army and join the popular movement. Of course, he isn’t serious.
It would be interesting to take an anonymous opinion poll among the police and army men. I am sure they would be overwhelmingly pro-monarchy. It would, however, let us gauge the propaganda mechanism of the RNA.
Below is a list of wars that have been fought (or in one case, is being fought) and the rough (sic) number of casualties in recent days.
Dhangadi – Two way gun battle, no casualties reported so far.
Dang – Maoists bomb district traffic office.
Nepalgunj – Two way gun battles, 8 dead according to official counts.
Palpa – Fierce operation by the RNA, claim 25 Maoists dead.
Nationwide – more than a hundred activists arrested.
Two weeks left for the Municipal polls, and Pashupati Samser’s RPP has finally taken the decision to boycott elections. Sher Bahadur and MKN have both released statements urging people to ‘actively’ boycott the polls. I wonder what being ‘active’ entails. The Maoists have made it clear what they mean by taking ‘action’ against those who participate – murder.
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