Hisila by Hisila Yami

Author:Hisila Yami [Yami, Hisila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2021-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

23

When I Saw the Siberian Birds

triumph of republican agenda

Our efforts in India to bring the together different political forces of Nepal were gradually yielding results. Slowly, but steadily, leaders of various political parties came in contact with us.

Around the middle of June, we had a very important meeting with senior leaders of the NC and the UML in Delhi. Prachanda was called from Rolpa to join the high-level meeting. In the summit meeting, joined by G.P. Koirala and Prachanda, it was agreed upon that the NC and the UML would accept the republican agenda and the Maoists would enter peaceful politics. Subsequently, both sides would formalize this understanding in their respective party forums in the following months.

It was around the same time that we met Tamrat Samuel, who was representing the UN in Nepal. He had come to discuss the modality of a peaceful solution to the conflict in the country. We were also in contact with civil society members and Indian sympathizers of our cause through the People’s Solidarity Forum.

All these events took place against the backdrop of King Gyanendra’s increasing fascist tendencies. The World Trade Center attack (11 September 2001) in the USA emboldened him to take up the offensive ‘anti-terrorism’ agenda against the Maoists. From October 2002 to mid-April 2006, the country was virtually seized by King Gyanendra. Backed by the army, he sacked the elected government on 1 February 2005. He imprisoned leaders of the major political parties, curbed the media and Internet, and suspended the rights of the people to organize and assemble. 1 These activities had not only antagonized political parties inside Nepal but had also alienated the international community, particularly India. The interaction of our leaders with strategically placed Indian intellectuals and bureaucrats had also influenced the Indian authorities to abandon the ‘two-pillar theory’ (the idea that the two institutions of monarchy and parliamentary, ‘democratic’ forces were the main pillars of a stable Nepal) in favour of a ‘one-pillar theory’ (of abandoning monarchy for complete democracy).

While we had failed to convince the main parliamentary parties, in Siliguri in 2001, to accept the agenda of forming a republic, we were successful in bringing them on board the republican agenda in 2005 in Delhi. King Gyanendra actually needs to be thanked for providing us a favourable opportunity to convince the parliamentary parties after his coup d’état!

Meanwhile, Prachanda also tried to pacify us about the leaked videotape where he had spoken ill of BRB. We did not react to his explanation. By now, we were used to his double-talk.

After getting a positive response from all sectors in India, we left for Chunwang village in Rukum for the CC meeting in October 2005. Unlike our previous trip to Rolpa in August 2004, this time the body language of both leaders showed that things were amicable between them. Whenever they got tired, they rested together and wherever they were hungry, they ate together.

The atmosphere at the Chunwang CC meeting evoked positive responses from all; it was totally different from the Lawang meeting.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.