After remaining underground for over a decade, Prachanda has finally emerged out of the "jungle" and dropped into the houses of Nepalese people through Kantipur Channel. There was nothing extra-ordinary about the man and that, I thought was extra ordinary. As expected he had better eloquence power than most of the top leaders of Nepal (without such skills he wouldn't have been able to convince/brainwash such a large number of people). His expressions were certainly better than Girija Babu's "ma happy chu" interview, after his return from the visit to India. But Prachanda certainly lacked decency. His way of addressing past and present Kings and political leaders including Girija Pd. Koirala, present prime minister of Nepal, was simply disdainful. He should understand that longer it takes him to transform from a rebel to a politician, longer the nation, including them, will suffer.

Prachanda responded to every question, put forward by an amateur journalist, without any apprehension but there was a fear hidden into his strong voice... fear of people. He knows that he and his comrades will not be treated by people the same way once they will not have any weapon. In fact, there are already few cases where the families of Maoist Rebels were attacked and killed by people. That is the reason why Prachanda never promised or even mentioned of surrendering their artillery. It was almost unbelievable how easily he presented an analogy between the Nepal government and his own. During elections, he wants both Maoist and Nepal army to be locked under the supervision of UN or any other impartial international organization. He suggested that Nepalese police and Maoist militia should safeguard the elections. Similarly, he plans that for each district; there should be a committee of SPA + Maoist + civil society people, instead of an individual representative.


Maoist torments continue


A friend of mine returned yesterday from his home village, in the far western corner of Nepal. He recounted me about his horrendous experiences at his village as well as on the highways. Maoists had installed an arms and ammunition factory near his village and they are strengthening themselves during this state of anarchy. He told me that on his way back to Kathmandu, a group of maoist rebels (few of them were in uniform) tried to loot their bus but were made unsuccessful by the prudent bus driver.


In fact, I recently heard from my relative that a local Maoist leader of my village was telling – "Who are Prachanda and Babu Ram to decide our fate? They can not restrain us of our activities."