Where The Maoists Lose Me
Paramendra Bhagat
September 12, 2002.

Forget the Middle East, forget Kashmir, forget Columbia. For now Nepal is it, the number one hot spot on the planet. Last year a crazy bastard of a prince made world news on behalf of Nepal. I was reduced to reciting lame excuses to people I knew: yes, I went to school with the guy, yes, he became king after having killed enough people to have served time for about ten lifetimes and would have remained so if alive, castrated, paralyzed, but alive. I am not particularly glad when Mt. Everest - call it Sagarmatha folks, I am not particularly fond of the British - makes world news on behalf of Nepal: I wish it were human achievements. And here come the Maoists.

If abolishing the monarchy would bring peace to the historic "zone of peace," the birthplace of Buddha, I am all for it. The idea of a Madhesis, a Janajati, a woman President I find greatly appealing, not to say at least two hundred times less costly than what we have in the second poorest country. It is just that there are other burning issues - like poverty, corruption, social justice - that are better candidates for political capital for now.

I also relate to the Maoist anger on corruption. Let the current, belated anti-corruption fever stay on forever. Let the corrupt be thoroughly investigated and punished.

Too few people in the country have too much of the wealth. That has to be changed, radically if need be. And there have to be lavish investments in human capital, a Cuba-like attainment in the education and health sectors for the poorest of the poor, provided as a right, if need be. So I say, kudos to the Maoists.

But where they lose me is with their violence. If you can organize thousands upon thousands of people to die for your cause - the ultimate sacrifice - you ought to be able to send forth at least that many people door to door working 25 hours a day, a metaphoric death, to convince them, to win their hearts, their votes, door to door. Bag 150 of the 205 seats, get rid of the monarchy through parliamentary action, legally arm the anti-corruption constitutional bodies to the hilt, and let them loose, implement major land reform, and provide education and health for the poorest of the poor. Oraganize a few thousand of your willing-to-die cadres to implement primary and secondary and adult education on a massive scale to move the literacy rate from 40 to 95 per cent in two to four years.

But somehow I just don't see that happening. Perhaps poet Bhupi Sherchan was right. "Marera shahid hune haroo/ jiyera ta hera/ jiuna jhanai garho chha." (Martyrs/ live and see/ it is harder to live than to die.)

And so one looks at the landscape with utter pessimism. The Maoist insurgency in Nepal is like one of those Colorado fires. It will eventually die, but not because the fire-fighters succeeded. There just was no more forest to burn.