By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : The battle Nepal’s Maoists began in parliament in a bid to unseat King Gyanendra and change the election system saw the tables turned on them with legislators cutting across party lines flaying them over the abduction of a journalist.
Instead of the king, the rebels themselves came under heavy fire in the house as well as outside with journalists assembling before parliament and demanding that the Maoists release Birendra Shah, a journalist from Bara district in the Terai plains some Maoist cadres abducted a week ago.
The journalists’ anger was echoed inside the house by MPs from various political parties who accused the Maoists of double standards, nurturing criminals and attacking the press for not singing their paeans.
Former culture, tourism and civil aviation minister Pradip Gyawali made a spirited attack on Maoist spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who Thursday tabled the two major demands of his party – the abolition of monarchy through a parliament vote and the adoption of a fully proportional election system.
Gyawali said while Mahara had been weeping over the number of people made to disappear by security forces, three Maoist members wearing masks and armed with guns abducted journalist Birendra Shah last week when he was going to work.
“Ask Shah’s eight-year-old son Vivek how he feels,” Gyawali said.
Gyawali also mentioned Daniel Pearl, the American journalist who was slain in Pakistan.
“In Nepal too we held meetings condemning Pearl’s murder,” he said. “But the government has still not made any effort to trace Shah’s whereabouts… to find out if he is dead or alive.”
There was an uproar in the house with MPs demanding a response from Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, whom they held responsible for the complete break-down of law and order in the country.
The historical session of parliament, that promised to be a long one, however, was not going the Maoists’ way.
Though Mahara pressed his party’s demand, saying it had evidence that the king was trying to sabotage the elections, the issue of the journalists’ plight at the hands of Maoist cadres continued to dominate the house.
The special session was called to hold, for the first time in Nepal’s history, a vote to decide the fate of the king who plunged his dynasty into oblivion after he tried to seize absolute power with an army-backed coup.
The vote was called on the insistence of the Maoists, who last month walked out of parliament and said they would oppose the November election.
According to Nepal’s constitution, the Maoists need to get the consent of two-third of the current 327 MPs or 218 votes to push their demands through.
They have 84 members in the house and the support of three more MPs from fringe Left parties.
To swing the vote in their favour, the Maoists need the support of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress – the largest party with 112 MPs, following the merger of its two factions last month.
However, the Nepali Congress Wednesday decided after the three-day meet of its top leaders that it would vote against both proposals.
Last year, when the king’s takeover united them against him, the opposition parties and the Maoists had agreed to hold a constituent assembly election.
The election was to have written a new constitution for Nepal and to decide the fate of Nepal’s 238-year-old monarchy.
However, Koirala is regarded as having delayed the crucial election deliberately to allow the anti-king sentiments to cool down.
Fearing the polls will now go against them, the Maoists have been trying to postpone the election.
Last week, the government indefinitely deferred the November election and called the special house session on their demand.
The session is expected to last till Tuesday, when the crucial vote will take place.
However, its outcome is almost certain, unless there is a last-minute miracle or catastrophe.
The rebels are likely to suffer a stinging defeat.
If that happens, their chief, Prachanda, has warned that his party could bring down the Koirala government and pull out of the peace agreement it had signed with the ruling alliance.
Though Prachanda has said the guerrillas would not resume arms, they would start a new street movement that is likely to paralyse the country, like it did during the last month of King Gyanendra’s rule.
The alarmed international community and the UN have been urging both sides not to snap off the pact and to announce fresh dates for the constituent assembly election.
The octogenarian prime minister is under immense pressure, with India warning him that his government was losing legitimacy.
The chief of the UN Mission in Nepal Ian Martin has also come down heavily on the government, saying it failed to implement its promises, and the European Union said it was concerned at the deteriorating security situation in the country.