The decision of the of 33 agitating parties to reconsider their planned 10-day general strike starting November 11 that was being organized with the sole goal of disrupting the November 19 vote is appreciable.
Although the CPN-Maoist-led alliance is yet to formally announce the withdrawal of the scheduled rolling banda, party vice-chair CP Gajurel disclosed on Friday that the strike was being reconsidered on the request of the common people. The alliance has been under tremendous pressure of late.
First the international community sent out a unanimous and unambiguous message that imposing a general strike to disrupt election was unacceptable. Of late, the business community has also been putting strong pressure on the agitating forces to call off the planned strike considering its enormous likely cost to the economy. According to informal estimates, the national economy loses as much as Rs 2 billion for a day of banda.
The major parties and the interim government were also weighing in. With pressure mounting by the day, the agitating forces were finding themselves more and more isolated.
We don’t see how imposing a prolonged general strike would in any way have helped the cause of the agitating parties. Would such highly disruptive activities have persuaded common people to rally to their cause? Unlikely. If anything, such a burdensome strike would have made people even more suspicious of the democratic credentials of CPN-Maoist after their boycott of the second CA election. Would the general strike imposed against the will of the people have been successful? Unlikely again.
People would have openly defined the unpopular banda that threatened to curtail their most basic democratic right to vote. Would it have disrupted election in a meaningful way? Again, very unlikely, given the level of isolation of CPN-Maoist and co in recent times. In any case, the public appetite for bandas has been steadily declining as CPN-Maoist has found out of late.
People have started to openly defy bandas. When CPN-Maoist cadres set alight a bus filled with passengers in Dhulikhel to show who the boss was, condemnations came thick and fast, from all quarters of the society. More than ever it appears that any party which calls for a banda is now inviting open confrontation with the people.
The time has come to ban general strike as a means of protest. This is easier than it appears. Theoretically, all major political parties are opposed to bandas. This is not surprising considering how unpopular they are with common people and businesses.
In the past the major parties have even signed on commitments not to call for bandas, only to go back on their promises whenever they found it convenient to do so. The failure of radical outfits like CPN-Maoist to impose a banda is a sign that the level of consciousness is steadily rising among the people. They are slowly beginning to realize that a banda cannot be imposed on them from above. We hope other parties have been closely following recent developments and refrain from this form of unpopular protest in the days ahead.
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