From BlogDai's Blogs http://nepalnow.blogspot.com/

blogdai estimated the crowd to be at 650,000--plus or minus (below).


Streets were blocked off. The entire Ratna park, including the off limits no-entry zone were filled to capacity. Kantipath from Ratna up to the palace and west to Asan Tole was full as well. Durbar marg up to the Royal Palace's "zone of safety" was also chock full of people.

Vendor's were doing a brisk business in jewelry, melons and corn, yet the atmosphere was far from festive.

blogdai stayed directly on the grounds about one hundred meters from the speaker's podium for over an hour. Something was not right. It finally occured to blogdai that the entire gathering was under an eerie pall of silence. I have never heard such silence from a group this large. No smiles no chanting, nothing. You expect the crowd to respond to the speaker from time to time, but again, nothing.

Only one word to describe it: repressive.

From the looks on the faces of those attending, no one wanted to be there, save the small minority of those zealous angry teen Maoists shepherd dogs (above) who handled gate entry and passed out literature. Overall, a very underwhelming "show of force" from the Maobadis. No wonder K.P. Oli was able to muster up the courage to publicly condemn maoist threats today in the Himalayan Times.

We saw it in the April protests and now we see it again at Ratna Park: The maoist's operating tactic of using a few agressive individuals to coerce a large multitude once again worked to a tee. They are masterfully leveraging a small force of activists against a peace-loving and compliant public.

Prepare for the peacetalks to break down. Prepare for more months of conflict. Prepare to be led to the slaughter, Nepalis, if you continue to act like sheep in the face of these violent little boys.

-=blogdai

" The maoist's operating tactic of using a few agressive individuals to coerce a large multitude once again worked to a tee. They are masterfully leveraging a small force of activists against a peace-loving and compliant public. "

BlogDai I liked the above lines. That is very accurate description of the state of politics and society in Nepal. Unfortunately.

When are nepalese people going to stop becoming Bhedas?????

Blogdai ( nepalnow.blogspot.com ) along with maila_baje ( nepalinetbook.blogspot.com ) are the kind of people we want in Nepal.

If HM G could have introduced people like these as leaders we wouldn't be having SPAM problems.

A comment found on Blogdai's nepalnow.blogspot.com:



Blogdai,

I was there at the rally. My estimate of the number of people is way below yours. Being an engineer by profession, I estimated the total number of people by the size of Ratna Park and the average space a human being takes to either stand or sit. by all my estimates, the total number of people inside the park could not go beyond 60,000. The number of people outside was much much less, maybe 20,000 all told. Even at the height of the jan andolan, the total number of protestors in the streets did not cross 500,000 and as you will remember it felt like the whole of Kathmandu was out in force in those days.
The way I look at it, if the maoists were able to bring only 60 odd thousand people to Kathmandu for such an important rally, maybe we are overestimating these chaps. maybe they are also desperate to be part of the democratic setup.

emyselfandnepal! How do you estimate Ratna Park (sahid manch) can not hold more than 60000 people? do you know the total area of sahid manch ? or are you just trying to underestimate maoist power?
I am not supporting maoist here. When Maoist started their war from Rolpa, nobody thought they will be at this situation now. So if you still think, they are not powerful enough to rule the country,then you are too late. Just look and see how they have been using the SPA as their puppet. its too late to think they wont come in Singhadarbar.

I did not comment. That was a comment found on Blogdai. Go crib with that person who wrote it and not me, you Maoist bhakta.