By IANS
Kathmandu : Realising that their battle on the floor of parliament Thursday to oust King Gyanendra is likely to fail, Nepal’s Maoist guerrillas are now seeking a new weapon to vanquish the king: a referendum for the nation to choose between monarchy and a republic.
The new plan is part of the strategy chalked by the Maoist leadership after they forced Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to call off the November election without setting a new date. The election was to have determined the cornered king’s fate.
The fear that they would fare badly at the poll made the rebels shy away from the election they themselves had been clamouring for in the past and instead block it by making new demands.
Last month, the guerrillas quit the coalition government and warned they would oppose the Nov 22 election unless the government agreed to abolish monarchy immediately and change to a fully proportional election system, which would boost their sagging chances.
However, when Koirala resisted both demands, in a bid to force his hand the rebels called for a special session of parliament where a vote by MPs can resolve the dispute.
Nepal’s constitution allows the parliament to scrap Nepal’s 238-year-old dynasty of Shah kings if two-thirds of the MPs agree to it.
But now that the prime minister has called a special session of parliament Thursday, the rebels face the uphill task of winning over 200 votes in a house where they have only 84 MPs and the support of three more MPs from like-minded communist parties.
The parliament fight is likely to result in a smarting defeat for them since Koirala’s Nepali Congress, the largest party with 132 legislators, will vote against their proposal.
Maoist supremo Prachanda Sunday met Koirala in an attempt to reach a face-saving compromise.
The rebels are proposing a referendum, asking people to decide if the king keeps his crown and if the election should be held using a fully proportional representation system.
But Koirala reportedly turned down the proposal on the ground that a referendum could result in public support for the king and foil the Maoist campaign for a republic.
It would also cause a major delay in holding the constituent assembly election, which would enable Nepalis to write their own constitution.
The proposal reflects the desperation in the Maoist camp to buy time and salvage its image, which has been severely tarnished by the string of vandalism, abductions and attacks carried out by its youth wing, the controversial Young Communist League.
As a mollifying measure, Prachanda Sunday pledged that his party would surrender the public properties it had seized during the 10-year guerrilla war.
As a reciprocal measure, Koirala has also agreed to pay salaries to Maoist soldiers who have been confined to barracks since the rebels signed a peace pact last year. The barracks have been described as primitive.
The prime minister has also agreed to disclose the fate of over 1,000 people who have been missing in the course of the Maoist war and compensate the families of those killed by security forces.
All the promises however ring hollow as the leaders have been mouthing them since the signing of the peace pact last year.
Unless a miracle happens at the parliamentary session beginning Thursday, the crisis gripping Nepal is likely to escalate with greater deterioration in security, economy and trust in the government, both at home and abroad.