The clutch of coincidences could not be missed. The US State Department’s announcement on Thursday that the US government was revoking the designation of UCPN (Maoist) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity and was removing the party from its Terrorist Exclusion List, coincided with the resumption of the stalled integration process after a two-month hiatus. Just a day earlier, Mohan Baidya, the chief of the breakaway CPN-Maoist, had declared that the party was ready to take up arms if the government failed to address its 70-point charter of demand presented to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Wednesday. Bhattarai for his part must have had a déjà vu at the eerie similarities between Baidya’s 70-point charter to the 40-point demand that he himself submitted to the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba ahead of the launch of the ‘people’s war’ in 1996.
The US clearly believes that the mother Maoist party is serious about its commitment to democratic polity after its participation in the 2008 CA polls and its growing distance from politics of violence. This is evident from the State Department’s statement expressing satisfaction that “... in recent years, the Maoist party... has taken steps to dismantle its apparatus for the conduct of terrorist operations, and has demonstrated a credible commitment to pursuing the peace and reconciliation process in Nepal.” The timing of the statement suggests the US had been waiting for the integration process to enter its final phase, signaling an irrevocable dismantling of Maoist army, before the Maoists were removed from its terrorist list.
We wholeheartedly welcome the American government’s decision. The designation of a party which was mandated by the people to lead the peace and constitution process, and one which has been at the head of the government for most of the post-2008 polls phase, as a terrorist entity sent a wrong message to the international community regarding Nepal’s image as a democratic country. But as welcome as this development is, we are also alarmed by the threat of the Baidya-led party to resort to arms. Baidya and Co must realize that following 10 years of a horrific conflict that cost the lives of 16,000 Nepalis, the vast majority of the people simply don’t have the appetite for more violence.
Nor does the vastly changed political situation, both within the country and throughout the region, seem conducive for another mass-based uprising. What Nepalis want instead is for the country to embark on the path of peace and prosperity on the back of an inclusive constitution of the federal democratic republic of Nepal. It is equally important for other major forces to try to reach out to the breakaway Maoist party and ensure it a respectable place on the negotiating table for the resolution of the current impasse. Politics of exclusion cannot be an answer to the country’s pressing problems. It will be in the best interest of all progressive forces to make sure that the gains made in the last six years on peace and constitution do not go in vain.
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