Spread Love, Not Hatred





It makes me kinda disturbed to see what is going on with the Nepalese
populace right now. There are distinctly divisions - divisions of
ethnicity, and divisions of political beliefs. The Tharu revolt hadn't
subsided when the political rivalry between the centrist forces, and
the ultra-leftists took the center stage.



For me at least, the Maoists were clearly at fault after the leakage of
the video. It's another thing that the leakage might be a conspiracy,
but it does not change the words that Prachanda spoke in front of his
cadres. What I'd have liked to see was some sort of a conciliatory
statement from Prachanda during his press conference a few days ago.
That was not to be.



Prachanda looked adamant about what he had spoken, and tried to defend
his statements. Though we can still understand the hardships he might
have to go through dealing with most of his cadres who have the violent
urge in them to turn over the system of the country, he, as a leader,
and as a person who was elected with such huge margin, should have
shown some ethical standards. He should have had the courage to ask for
forgiveness, and explain clearly that this was something that had
happened long ago, and that this was not how the Maoist strategy of the
present looked like.





However, Prachanda took a different step. He labelled the video as
true, but tried to rationalize everything that he said. That is not a
sign of a good leader, at least in my book. Furthermore, despite his
statements about Katuwal in the video, and his expression of hatred
against Katuwal which emerged as a result of Katuwal trying to prevent
the politicization (Mao-ization) of the army, he still wants to see
Katuwal fired. Anyone sensible enough, anyone apart from the
brainwashed lot of people that Maoism has produced in our country,
would be against the Maoists' proposal of sacking Katuwal. Still,
Prachanda acts without any shame.





Though I've been critical of the Maoists fearing their agendas, I'd
also been respectful of them because some of the things they have
accomplished in Nepal is nothing ordinary. I still remember, back in
the day, when I was in my village, the rich and the "upper-caste"
people would mistreat the others in ways unimaginable. Many people talk
nostalgically of peace because they were not the victims of that
system. The Maoists grew with this very aim to destablize the
status-quo and achieve something significant for the country and for
the proletariat - it was their end aims that helped them garner support
for their movement (aside from the forceful abductions and everything
else, of course).



However, this time the Maoists were clearly at fault. The civilian
supremacy argument did not have enough grounds, and even if it did, the
video completely destroyed any pro-Maoist argument that could be made.
Still, the Maoists do not realize this. They have directed their cadres
to go out in the streets and protest. Their district-chiefs have
threatened the Nepali Congress and the UML activists to leave the
district or else face life-threatening consequences. When asked about
this, Prachanda did not give a clear reply in his press conference.



There is also another group that seems to be growing highly
dissatisfied with Prachanda. The group consists mostly of the previous
feudals, the status quoists, and the new generation of students, who
have had the opportunity to learn something different that was not
dictated by the Maoists. Their movement seems to be gaining ground on
different forums, and social networking sites, especially facebook.
People are cursing Prachanda, Maoists, and speaking of a new war. Is
that seriously the way we want to go now?



I think no. But, we need to do something about it. Many of us are
afraid to speak against Maoists in the streets. We just have taken this
anonymity that the internet has provided us and vilify them. At this
time, the Maoists cadres, and the YCL members, who are mostly of our
age are protesting in the streets. We don't give a f |_| C |{ about them in
our world, for we are far away and they can not harm us in any way. On
the other hand, they're highly intolerant of views expressed against
them and will result to physical violence at the slightest and punish
the non-believers and non-supporters of the Maoists.



How long can this continue? We've had dreams of peace after such a long
time - we can not see another war start out again. We have not had
strategists for peace and for the nation (vague words I know) - we've
only had strategists for some parochial interests, like Prachanda, as
we can see in the video, or any other leader for that matter.



I realize that my ranting is taking me nowhere. I am a critic of the
Maoists, but I do not want to see another civil war. Those of us who
are away from Nepal, shout in the forums and groups - kill Prachanda,
army take over, kill maoists and supporters of maoists, among many
other things. But do you think that is the solution? I've most of my
family members in Nepal, and I'm more worried about them, and the
nation as a whole to advocate for a war. I know that these chants of
war from the internet populace will be short lived, and that after a
few days they will be too busy in their own worlds to spare even some
minutes to read events in Nepal. Still these are the people clamoring
for a war. Have some sense people. We need to figure a middle way. We
cannot let our ravaged nation to go more downhill than it has already.



I would love to hear what might be the possible peaceful steps that
might be taken to restore confidence in between the different
stakeholders now. I know that my article does not have any
cohesivenessness and lacks coherence, so I'd like to thank you for
bearing till here with me, if you have.

Nice piece. kudos to the writer.

shit there are a few errors in this article. nevertheless thanks for posting this here.

also spread love, peace, and down with prachanda's press release.