By IANS
Kathmandu : With 92 days remaining for a crucial election, Nepal’s turbulent politics took another simmering turn with Maoist guerrillas warning of shutdowns, reprisals and other protests from mid-September if the multiparty ruling alliance failed to abolish monarchy before the polls.
Maoist supremo Prachanda said his party would start a three-pronged movement — in the government where his party has four ministers, through parliament where there are 83 MPs, and through street protests to create a “conducive atmosphere” for the Nov 22 election that will write a new constitution for Nepal.
Prachanda said in a statement late Monday that the king as well as “foreign forces” were fomenting violence, especially in the Terai plains in the south, to sabotage the election.
Last year, when the Maoists signed a peace pact with the government and ended their decade-old guerrilla warfare, they had agreed to take part in the election and leave it to the voter to decide if Nepal should keep its 238-year monarchy or become a republic.
At that time, while expressing confidence that people would vote against King Gyanendra, who became increasingly unpopular after he tried to rule the country with the help of the army, the Maoists agreed to accept the people’s verdict even if it decided to keep the crown.
Now, however, the rebels have changed their stand, demanding the abolition of monarchy through parliament before the election, on the ground that free and fair polls would not be possible as long as the king remains.
Besides the abolition of monarchy, the rebels are also calling for the state takeover of the property Gyanendra inherited after the assassination of his elder brother, late king Birendra.
To appease the rebels, who have also warned they could quit the government and eventually take up arms again, the government Monday formed a ministerial team to take over the slain king’s assets within 15 days.
The government has also conceded the Maoist demand to withdraw the cases started against their leaders during the insurgency and release political prisoners.
However, the rebels still have more demands, which include withdrawing the troops stationed at the royal palace, and bringing to justice the royalists who abetted King Gyanendra’s regime and caused the death of 25 unarmed protesters.
They are also reiterating their long-standing demand to disclose the fate of over 1,000 people missing since the insurgency, mostly from the detention of security forces.
Prachanda warned there would be mass meets and campaigns by his party in support of the demands this month.
From Sep 18, which marks the start of the Nepali month of Ashoj, the rebels would start a string of shutdowns and “action”, Prachanda said, without specifying the nature of the action or its targets.
The Maoist rebellion comes at a time two groups of former Maoists have threatened to disrupt the election.
The Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha, led by former Maoist Jwala Singh, this week said his underground organisation would start protest programmes, which too include shutdowns and reprisals.
Soon after the warning, its splinter group headed by former veteran Maoist leader Jay Krishna Goit, said his band would oppose the election.
Both the factions have their bases in the turbulent Terai plains and the government has not yet been able to engage them in dialogue.