The Parliament should focus on Nepal's twin problems, namely, the failure to spend the development budget and flight of youths to foreign lands
The lawmakers of both the government and opposition, otherwise caught napping on several occasions in the Parliament, were up on their toes when the Secretary of the Unified Marxist-Leninist, Yogesh Bhattarai, labelled the Peoples War waged by the Maoist Centre as unfortunate violence. He said that the country had been pushed back by a decade in the development trajectory due to the disruptive activities of the Maoists. It was triggered by the vituperative remarks of former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Pushpa Kamal Dahal that the coalition of the Nepali Congress and the UML was formed hastily at midnight on learning that his government was about to put the corrupt leaders behind bars. He also alleged the government for its dismal performance. It was against the recognised honeymoon period of 100 days during which the opposition is expected to just observe the government's proceeding and remain silent. The opposition lawmakers objected to this remark of violence, requesting the Speaker to delete it from the Parliament's proceeding.
The coalition with its tail up after successfully getting the accent of the Truth and Reconciliation Bill from the President, when it had remained virtually in a state of coma all these years following the signing of the comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government and the Maoists back in 2006, has been highlighting the recently concluded successful Indian visit of Foreign Minister Arjoo Deuba as yet another feather in its cap. She was welcomed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the earlier touring foreign ministers were not accorded such a privilege. The parroting of the opposition about the disastrous performance of the coalition had already reached a tipping point, which ultimately led to this bedlam in the Parliament.
It might be remembered that the Maoist rebellion began in 1996 with protests against parliamentary democracy, which was restored as a result of the People's Movement in 1990. The uprising was against corruption, poor governance, political instability marked by the change of government too often. The objective was to establish people's democracy putting an end to multi-party democracy and the monarchy. It began from the hill districts of Gorkha, Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan, Sindhuli and Jajarkot, which later proliferated throughout the whole country.
The government perceived it as a law and order problem rather than a political rebellion. As a result, it launched Romeo and Kilo Sera Two operations, which led to innumerable deaths in the Maoist camp. The Maoist offensive had begun with attacks against isolated police posts, kidnappings, assassinations and the use of explosive devices against targets regarded as legitimate, such as the civilian police, armed police force and the army. These isolated events later culminated into battles involving hundreds of rebels. However, honours were shared by both the sides by registering a convincing victory in far off Pili by the rebels but again incurring huge losses in a similar assault at Kara in Rukum district. If the rebels went short of resources, the government forces lacked coordination. As a result, a peace treaty was signed between the government and the rebels, which agreed to annul the monarchy, establish republicanism and draft a constitution by an elected Constituent Assembly based on proportional representation of the people drawn from diverse ethnic and gendered backgrounds.
The loss was, however, simply staggering. It is said that some 17,000 people lost their lives with the disappearance of around 1,500 people. The displaced population were placed at about 80,000. What was worse? About 260 children under the age 19 were killed and 2,000 had lost at least one parent. If this was the physical loss, the social and cultural losses were simply staggering. For example, the monetary loss was equal to about 5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product of the country.
Women are said to have faced the worst of the situation as they were raped and their male counterparts killed. As a result, they had to raise the children on their own. It was alleged that women cadres had to fulfill the sexual desires not only of their own level cadres but at times even of 12 of them per night. People were forced to feed the Maoist rebels, leaving very little for their children, leading to their malnutrition. They had to flee their native place and take shelter in the urban areas. The girls in particular had to work as cabin girls as well as sex workers for survival.
It is because of this untold suffering that the Maoist insurgency is at times dubbed as violence even though it has now become a useless argument because the Constitution of Nepal has already recognised it by euphemising it as an armed struggle. On the basis of this constitution, several elections have been held and an equal number of governments already formed headed by the rebels as well as the parliamentarians.
This is not to say that such conflicting notions do not exist in other countries. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa is hailed as a successful undertaking. But it also faced challenges. For example, the top echelons of the military did not initially cooperate with the commission by not applying for amnesty. Only the low order police and military did so. The members of the liberation movement also did likewise as they thought that they had conducted a just war and they did not violate any human rights. Only after much pursuance did the top military personnel apply for amnesty.
The Parliament has thus wasted time in opening a debate about a settled issue rather than focussing on the problems facing the nation. It would be much better if they could target on the twin problems tormenting the country, namely, the failure to spend the development budget and unsuccessful bid to stop the youth fleeing to foreign countries for a livelihood.
