At least five dozen cadres from both the sides were injured in the clashes that erupted since morning after opposition parties vowed to thwart the visit of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who they say is protecting those involved in the gruesome murder of a local journalist Dekendra Thapa some eight years ago. [break]The irate cadres of opposition parties not only created obstruction in the Maoist district convention, but also vandalized its district committee office in Dailekh.
As a series of attacks and counter attacks from the ruling and opposition parties are likely in the coming days, observers warn that this particular incident in Dailekh could further polarize the political forces in the country leading them to clash against each other in due course.
"The country is now headed toward a fresh conflict. The parties are now back to where they were after signing the 12-point understanding in 2005 and before the CA elections were held in 2008," argued political analyst Mumaram Khanal. He warned that entire political process in the country could derail if the parties continued to go against the spirit of the past agreements and moved ahead with their partisan agenda as seen after CA dissolution in May last.
Though the opposition parties had already reached the conclusion that street protests were the only way to oust the current Baburam Bhattarai-led government after a series of negotiations with the ruling UCPN (Maoist) failed to yield any positive results, they had shelved their protest programs after President Dr Ram Baran Yadav started issuing deadlines to political parties for consensus from November 23.
But as Prime Minister Bhattarai refused to quit and ceremonial President Yadav showed no sign of taking any ´bold measure´ in his capacity as patron of the constitution, opposition parties earlier this week announced their first-phase 20-day anti-government protest.
"We decided to take to the streets as we are now convinced that the UCPN (Maoist) is not willing to resolve the impasse. We don´t think that the impasse could be resolved unless the Maoists demonstrate willingness to break it," said NC leader Dr Minendra Rijal, who is also one of the key interlocutors of the NC in the inter-party talks.
A day after President Dr Yadav stopped issuing deadline for consensus to the parties after his repeated deadlines went in vain, the opposition alliance on January 15 announced its first phase of protests starting January 19. While the opposition parties have already held a rally in the presence of top leaders in Dailekh on the first day of their protest, they are now scheduled to hold protests across the country including in Kathmandu till February first week.
The opposition parties´ agenda includes protesting against growing impunity, deteriorating law and order, increasing instances of violence against women, rampant corruption and ´totalitarianism´ of the current government, and expressing solidarity with the stir already launched by various civil society organizations and the media fraternity.
Opposition parties might have expected that their announcement of fresh protests would pile pressure on the ruling parties in the negotiations table, but that did not happen. Instead, ruling Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA) on January 18 decided to form district chapters of the FDRA across the country and hold ´awareness rally´ on January 30, a day after ruling alliance is scheduled to organize an ´anti-government´ rally in Kathmandu.
Though FDRA Spokesperson Prem Bahadur Singh defended that their rallies are not aimed at countering the rallies of the opposition alliance, there are apprehensions that the move could inevitably push the parties that joined hands against autocratic monarchy in Janandolan II in April, 2006 to two different poles.
However, some experts suggest not to read too much into these incidents of clashes and scheduled rallies.
"I don´t think the parties will immediately go for confrontation. I believe the protests of opposition parties are aimed at making the ruling Maoists more faceable in the negotiations table. The parties will try to reach consensus as per the eight-point informal agreement, which is said to have been reached earlier," argued political analyst Bishnu Sapkota while adding that the street protests could be a ´pressure tactic´ of the opposition parties for the formation of a new government.
But as a government change -- the main demand of the opposition parties -- does not seem likely at least until the Maoist general convention scheduled to start February 2 is over, next few weeks will be crucial to see how things unfold with both the ruling and the opposition parties coming to the streets.
Should these parties fail to make some sort of compromise before it is too late, not only the ongoing peace process will be in a jeopardy, but also the whole political process that began after the democratic movement held in April 2006. "We may need to wait till February end to see whether the parties are really headed toward fresh confrontation," added Sapkota.
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