With neither side ready to step back, Nepal seems to be entering a long period of anarchy as several parts of the kingdom spent third-day under curfew.
KATHMANDU: With neither side ready to step back, Nepal seems to be entering a long period of anarchy as several parts of the Hindu kingdom spent third-day under curfew. Thousands took to the streets to defy the curfew, while reports coming in speak of the movement for democracy spreading deep into the interiors of the rugged nation.
Security forces fired rubber bullets and used batons on the agitated crowds which shouted anti-monarchy slogans and several were injured in various parts of the country. About 100 have been taken into custody during curfew, which was declared in at least four cities including Kathmandu. The Maoists extended their support to the seven party alliance for indefinitely extending their strike, while launching their own programmes to dislodge the King.
The Maoists announced that they would “defy all restrictive and curfew orders, capture highways and set up roadblocks, and destroy statues of Nepal Kings, remove signboards saying His Majesty’s government.”
With government employees and professionals like doctors, engineers and journalists joining the agitation, it looks like a fight to the end. For the political parties a compromise at this point of time doesn’t seem to be an option. The royal regime is “prepared for a long drawn out struggle. Let us see who exhausts first,” says Information minister Shirsh Shumshere Rana.
Ram Sharan Mahat, a former minister and the author of a recent book titled In Defence of Democracy told DNA that the political parties would carry on the strike until King Gyanendra agrees to their demand.
Facts about Nepal crisis
- The latest crisis was triggered on February 1, 2005, when King Gyanendra sacked the government, declared a state of emergency and assumed absolute power, saying the move was needed to crush a Maoist revolt in which more than 13,000 people have been killed since 1996.
- In September 2005, Nepal’s largest political party, the Nepali Congress, dropped a 60-year-old written pledge to uphold the constitutional monarchy. The same month, the Maoists announced a unilateral ceasefire which the government refused to match. The truce was called off four months later.
- The Maoists, who want to topple the monarchy and set up a single party communist republic, entered into a loose alliance with the seven main political parties in November 2005.
- In February 2006, the government held local elections but turnout was low and the polls were condemned by the UN. Later that month, the king offered the political parties talks on reinstating democratic institutions but the overture was turned down.
- The political parties called a four-day general strike from April 6 and have announced that they are extending the campaign indefinitely to pile pressure on the king to restore democracy.
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