NEPAL: Dundhejhari Encroachment Incident: Maoists violate CPA- Update No. 211

NEPAL: Dundhejhari Encroachment Incident: Maoists violate CPA- Update No. 211

By Dr. S. Chandrasekharan

One of the “Agitprop” tools of the Maoists is mass mobilisation. In fact, this has been built into the theory of ‘Prachanda Path’ where simultaneous mass mobilisation/ insurrection is envisioned in the final stages of the People’ war. The Maoist manifesto for Nepal explained by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai (full text given in an earlier update) has also indicated that the People’s War by other means will continue until the Maoists reach their final objective of taking over Nepal.

It is not known whether the non Maoist parties have realised the seriousness of the final objectives of the Maoists. Only one person in the Nepali Congress, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat has openly come out on the deviousness of the Maoists. One other, former Home Minster K.P.Situala of Nepali Congress now bemoans that the Maoists are not adhering to the agreements between the parties and the Maoists though when he as Home Minister gave in too much in his time and was very much responsible for paving the way for the Maoists to come to power!

The incident of encroachment of the community forest area in Dundhejhari , in Kailali is a typical example of how the Maoists operate to mobilise the masses.

Mass mobilisation would require “causes” to be taken up and whip up the masses for the “injustice” and there are causes galore in Nepal today. Where causes do not exist, the Maoists could look for causes but what must have shocked the people and the non Maoists parties is that a “cause” is deliberately created to mobilise the people and when things go wrong, blame the government and then go one step further to declare that the government should have gone for a dialogue not with the misled squatters but with the Maoists themselves. This is what happened in the Dundhejhari incident.

In the last week of November, the Maoist affiliated All Nepal Squatters Association, had collected over 15,000 people from Kalikot, Surkhet, Dailekh, Acham and Kailali and encouraged them to occupy large tracts of forest land in the area around Dundhejhari.

The Police administration issued several warnings to the squatters to vacate, by printed notices and even over the local FM radio. The encroachers ignored the call. The Police had to move in to clear the squatters as the latter were well prepared to face and confront the Police. In the clashes that lasted two days 5 squatters and 2 Policemen were killed. The Maoists have renamed the area as “Sarun Martyr Nagar” and are demanding that those civilians killed should be declared as “martyrs” and given the benefits!

The Maoists called for a nation wide bandh for the killing of 5 “innocent” squatters, notwithstanding the fact that one of the dead had carried a PLA identity card with the name Narendra B.K. A 2000 strong youth have been assembled in the area by the Maoists to confront the administration if the latter goes ahead with the eviction.

The Home Minister for once acted tough and declared that encroachment of forests and seizure of private and public lands will not be allowed. The Home Minister also criticised the Maoists for inciting violence and trying to tear the social fabric by posing themselves as “true vindicators” of landless squatters. Rightly, he pointed out to the Maoists that land seizure is not in line with the comprehensive peace agreement. (CPA)

But the Maoists turned the whole issue upside down! First they demanded that action should be taken against the Policemen who did their duty in removing the squatters. Their standing committee meeting on the 8^th concluded that the Dundhejhari incident was planned by the government and executed by the Home minister with the intention to derail the peace process!

The Standing Committee also opined that if the intention of the government had been good they could have called the UCPN (M)- the Maoists for talks at the central level to resolve the problem!

On 4^th December, the Party chairman Prachanda accused the government of using extreme force to control protests in Kailali and described the incident at Kailali as more to breach the CPA- ( By whom?)

The Kailali incident has come in handy for the Maoists to declare bandh after bandh every day. This involved the students, teachers, Dalits, Muslims, Industrial houses, business houses and transportation (exempted at the last moment on the insistence of the public).

Fed up with the bandhs there was also a “bandh on bandhs” by the students of Birgunj who found the gates of the schools padlocked in anticipation of the call and complained that their study has been hampered by frequent bandhs.

The Maoists opened another front in threatening to run a parallel government and declaring the autonomous provinces suggested by them earlier. Even the dates for the inauguration was announced starting with Limbuwan State on 11^th of December and ending with Madhesh State on 18^th of December. This had the desired effect on other political parties. A jittery Sushil Koirala of Nepali Congress said that the declaration of autonomous states would spark a civil war and that it will provoke different ethnic communities and caste groups to go against each other.

Even before the announcement, one over enthusiastic unit of the Maoists led by Gopal Kirat seized Dhankuta Municipality and declared it an autonomous state. Had this continued, there would have been state wide clashes between the government and the PLA cadres leading to a civil war.

Good sense prevailed on the Maoists to call off the programme at the last minute. Prachanda declared that the plan to declare the autonomous states was only meant for publicity! ( At what cost?) He said “We had declared different autonomous states during the war and we only wanted to let people know that UCPN- Maoist is still committed to federalism.

Good sense prevailed again earlier when the Maoists allowed the Parliament to convene for three days to pass the budget. The issue reached critical proportions as 35 development projects were stalled due to lack of funds. The hospitals had run out of funds. Civil servants numbering 450,00 including teachers, police men and the army were not paid their salaries. 200,000 pension holders were also affected.

Prachanda declared that they had decided to let the government pass the budget after taking into account their responsibility towards general public, bureaucrats and the personnel of the security agencies. What he did not mention was that his PLA cadres in the camps also benefitted by this benign act.

Amidst all the problems created by the Maoists and even by his own party men and the coalition partners, Madhav Nepal’s government has survived and has continued beyond six months. These problems did not seem to deter Madhav Nepal to make some symbolic acts like holding summit meeting at the base of Mount Everest at Kalapathhar at a height of 18192 feet on the 4^th of December. The idea was to bring the attention of the international community on the vulnerability of Nepal to global warning on the eve of the Copenhagen summit!

The Maoists seem to be under the notion that it was India that is propping up the Madhav Nepal Government. One can see then anger of the Maoists leaders when they constantly refer to foreign intervention, support of reactionaries by foreign powers etc.

The pressure is also on India. On 2^nd of December, Dr. Bhattarai led a demonstration before the Indian Embassy against the now forgotten “Sugauli treaty’ between India and Nepal. Bhattarai described the treaty as a treacherous one imposed on the Nepalese people by foreign powers. He also attacked the government’s decision to revive the Pancheshwar project.

He not only wanted the Sugauli treaty to be reviewed but all other subsequent treaties entered into between Nepal and India!

Perhaps it is time for the GOI to go back to those sponsors in India who facilitated the 12 point agreement of 2005 and see what has gone wrong.

A veteran professor known for his moderate views and a friendly disposition- Dr. Lok Raj Baral was forced to say on the politicians of Nepal and I quote “After studying their political behaviour, I have drawn a conclusion that the democratic system has no future in Nepal.” If this is so, Maoist take over in Nepal is only a question of time!