CJ-led Government-07

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

“Capitalist People’s Democratic Revolution” is the new theme the UCPN-Maoist has chosen at the general convention held in Hetauda in the first week of February 2013. The convention also accepted the proposal of Chairman Prachanda for forming a new government under the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal to break the political deadlock, and then holding elections to a new Constituent Assembly (CA). The Election Commission (EC) has already started off registering the political parties for the purposes of the elections. The 33-political parties including the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya have refused to register their political parties.

What is the “Capitalist People’s Democratic Revolution”? It is the political-cum-economic revolution. UCPN-Maoist has realized that the political revolution alone could not be sustained without the economic development. Political revolution and the economic development should go together. “Capitalist People’s Democratic Revolution” is to develop the economy of the country based on the capital, and to institutionalize the republican setup with the identity-based federal states.

Nepal has been the republic. This is the major political achievement resulted from the 10-year-long war, UCPN-Maoist believes. Now, UCPN-Maoist has been for focusing on both the economic and political development. Neither the political development alone nor the economic development in isolation could move the country to the desired destination. Both the political development and the economic development together could move the country to the right destination is the new belief of the UCPN-Maoist.

UCPN-Maoist wants the political development from now on following the democratic norms and values peacefully. Democratic norms and values mean going to the people and getting the mandate from the people through the free and independent elections.

UCPN-Maoist believes that the major foe of the people has been defeated by the 10-year-long war, and now the regressive forces represented by the political parties that have adopted the policy of status quo could be defeated by the peaceful democratic means. That is through the peaceful elections.

The EC has started off the registration of the political parties on April 30, 2013. Major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML, and UDMF have registered at the EC on the first day of the registration. The registration will be closed after May 29, 2013. The registration of political parties would be completed within a few days if all political parties have shown the same enthusiasm for party registration the political parties have shown on the first day of the registration. However, the so-called 33-politcal parties including the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya have not registered their parties at the EC. They have declared that they are not for the elections. They want the president annul the ‘Removing Constitutional Hurdles Ordinance’, dissolve the current government, and form a new an all-party government for holding the elections.

How the so-called 33-political parties including the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya could influence the elections remain to be seen. Previously, the cadres of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya had attempted to stop the updating of the voters’ lists by looting the laptops, and burning the documents. Currently, the EC has continued the updating of the voters’ lists, and the Home Ministry has run a citizenship certificate distribution campaign; no news of the cadres of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya obstructing these activities has been in the media. In addition, the cadres of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya have been facing the legal actions for forcibly capturing the property of others.

UCPN-Maoist leaders have been saying that an election alliance among the like-minded political parties would be formed. The main election issue will be the federalism, and the federal states with identity. UCPN-Maoist will go to the polls in alliance with all political parties opting for this issue. Some political leaders of other parties have charged the UCPN-Maoist with being in alliance with the UDMF that represents the feudal lords of the Terai origin. The binding point between the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF has been the common issue of the federalism and the federal states.

Other political parties particularly the NC and the CPN-UML have been for federalism without power to the federal states. They want to continue the past system of the zones, districts and so on under the new names without giving the power to these states and so on. The elections will be a referendum on choosing between the federalism with the identity-based federal states and power to the states, and the federalism without power to the states opted by the NC and the CPN-UML.

The major block of the voters has been in the Madhesh. UDMF representing the Madheshi people wants the federalism and federal states with the identity. So, the NC and the CPN-UML will have a little chance of getting any significant votes from the Madheshis in the coming elections, no matter what claims the leaders of these two parties make in the public. They will have hard time to convince the Madheshi people to vote for them.

Major ethnic people also want federalism with identity-based federal states. For them NC and CPN-UML have been the major enemies because both the NC and the CPN-UML have been deadly against the federalism with the identify-based federal states. These NC and CPN-UML leaders are ready to take their parties to the cliff and let the parties fall rather than accepting the federalism with the identity-based federal states.

UCPN-Maoist leaders say that they have fought a 10-year long war for the federalism and federal states, and they have reached the 12-point understanding with the then seven-party alliance in New Delhi to set up republic with federalism and federal states. So, they have been for federalism with the identity-based federal states. Thus, they have the common issue of federalism and federal states with the ethnic people and the Madheshi people. If the elections were held impartially and independently, the UCPN-Maoist and UDMF could easily garner the two-thirds majority required for crafting a new constitution and promulgating it.

UCPN-Maoist leaders believe that achieving the economic development is not enough without the right political system to govern the country; federalism with the identity-based federal states is the right political system for Nepal. They have seen how fast China has made economic development during the last three decades. China has been the second largest economy next to the US in the world. However, China has the problems of political development. Sustaining the one-party rule in China has been questionable. The fast economic development has relieved hundreds of millions of Chinese people from the poverty, and pushed hundreds of millions of people to a middle class. The middle class Chinese has been for political freedom, human rights, press freedom, and all the fundamental rights the democratic system provides. It won’t take long for the Chinese people to achieve these things presently denied by the one-party system of governance. So, the Chinese leaders needed to liberalize the political system, and embrace the democratic system of governance.

UCPN-Maoist leaders also have seen the political development in India without the significant economic development in comparison to China. Now, the Indian leaders have realized that they would not be able to keep the political system without the fast economic development. The fast growing middle class has been demanding the ending of the Indian governance system’s inbuilt corruption. Indian leaders have kept the majority of the Indian people in the perpetual poverty denying them the fundamental rights to live as humans. Only the guided periodic elections have been the visible democracy. Other elements of democracy have been non-existent for the last 60 years of independence. The court system has been deadly slow. Many laws of the British Raj in India have remained unchanged. Indians have got freedom from the British rule but they have not been free from the British-made rules. Thus, they still live under the British rules.

So, UCPN-Maoist leaders want both the politics and economy of the country go hand in hand with each other. To this end, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda visited first China and then India in April 2013. Chairman Prachanda has made it clear to both the Chinese and Indian leaders that poor Nepal will not be able to address their security concerns. If they were really serious about their concerns to be addressed then they needed to help Nepal in its economic and political development. Chairman Prachanda also made it clear that political development and economic betterment should go together. How much these universally true ideas Chinese and Indian leaders would assimilate remains to be seen but at least he has set the tone. Both the Chinese and Indian leaders need to appreciate the idea of the need for developing the politics and the economy together to get the balanced development of a country.

Chairman Prachanda went to India on April 27, 2013, and returned back home on April 30, 2013. He had had meetings with the prime minister, foreign minister, the opposition leaders, and the civil society members. His main contention has been that poor Nepal would not be able to address the security concerns of India, and both the political and economic development should go together. So, India should help Nepal in developing both the politics and economics of the country.

What are the security concerns of India in Nepal? Pakistan has been using Nepal as the transit area for sending the Islamist terrorists to India, and for sending fake banknotes to India to finance the terrorist acts in India. Nepal has the open order with India. Once, the terrorists are in Nepal, they could easily cross the open border to India. The border security guards could not identify the terrorists by the physical features. So, they enter India without any troubles. Similarly, the fake banknotes carriers also get through the open border. Occasionally, Nepalese police have arrested the fake banknotes carriers but it must be once a while.

So, Chairman Prachanda is right saying the poor Nepal could not address the security concerns of India. Poor Nepal certainly cannot use the most sophisticated methods of watching the criminals coming from the third countries. Only when Nepal becomes prosperous then it can use its certain resources to keep vigil on the criminals entering Nepal and crossing Nepal-India border.

Pakistan has been training the Islamist terrorists of the so-called occupied Kashmir. Muslim Kashmiris believe that Kashmir is part of Pakistan. They want to merge it with Pakistan. However, India even claims part of the Kashmir occupied by Pakistan.

In 1947 when India became independent from the British Raj, the British India was divided into current India and East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Current Bangladesh was East Pakistan. West Pakistan is the current Pakistan. At that time Kashmir was under the Hindu King, and he joined Kashmir to India but Pakistan seized the current occupied part of Kashmir.

Indian Defense Minister Balav Bhai Patel wanted to take back the portion of Kashmir seized by Pakistan militarily but Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru went to the All-India Radio and took the dispute of Kashmir to the UN for resolution. The UN resolution has been that the people of Kashmir should decide by plebiscite whether they want to stay with India or join in Pakistan. India never implemented the UN resolution. So, the issue of Kashmir has been never ending, and it has been the cause of wars between India and Pakistan.

Chairman Prachanda visited China from April 14 to April 20, 2013. He started his visit at the grassroots level rural area to familiarize with the development process that has made China the second largest economy in the world. He went on visiting urban areas and meeting with the leaders at the various level, and then to the central level leaders including the vice-president and finally the president of China.

Chairman Prachanda has made it clear to the Chinese leaders his policy on the twin political and economic development. He believes that developing only one of the two means will be unbalanced development in a country. Political development means the system of governance based on the people’s mandate received through direct elections; economic development means the development based on the capitals, according to Chairman Prachanda.

In addition, Chairman Prachanda has made it clear to the Chinese leaders that poor Nepal will not be able to address the concerns of China. Poor Nepal would not have sufficient funding to guard the Nepal-China border to stop illegal border crossings.

However, Chairman Prachanda has reiterated that Nepal strictly follows the one-China policy, which means Tibet and Taiwan are the integral parts of China. In 1947 China took over Tibet but Taiwan has remained independent so far.

Taiwan is far away from Nepal but Tibet borders with Nepal. In addition, Nepal has been the home of 20,000 Tibetan exiles since 1958. China has been concerned with the activities of those Tibetan exiles. Nepal has been one of the places for holding elections to a Tibetan parliament in exile. Most of the Tibetans going to visit their spiritual leader Dalai Lama in India passed through Nepal.

In 1947 the People Liberation Army captured Tibet, and declared it part of China. In 1958, Tibetans rose against the Chinese rule in Tibet. Dalai Lama fled to India after the failed uprising. Since then Dalai Lama has been living in Dharamshala in Northern India.

Dalai Lama has been asking the Chinese leaders for autonomy to his country under the Chinese rule. However, Chinese leaders see Dalai Lama returning to Tibet is really a threat to the Chinese rule in Tibet. The Chinese leaders know that the current Dalai Lama will not be their puppet. They want to have someone to be a Dalai Lama that strictly takes the orders from Beijing.

Tibetans have been crossing Nepal-China border risking their lives to visit the spiritual leader Dalai Lama in India. Tibetan exiles have been demanding ‘free Tibet’. These are the main concerns of the Chinese leaders. Chairman Prachanda has made it clear to the Chinese leaders that addressing these concerns means a lot of money for securing the border, and for deploying secret agents to tackle the activities of 20,000 Tibetan exiles in Nepal. Poor Nepal will not be able to address the security concerns of the Chinese leaders. Chairman Prachanda asked the Chinese leaders for their help in developing Nepalese economy and politics in other words in holding elections to a new CA, and institutionalizing federalism and federal states, and in developing hydropower and infrastructures.

The Chinese leaders have brainwashed Chairman Prachanda into believing in the possibility of disintegration of Nepal if Nepal follows the federalism based on the ethnicity. Chinese system has shown that it is not working because Chinese leaders don’t want to give any human rights to the people. They don’t want to give even autonomy to Tibet. So, the Chinese leaders have the problem of keeping Tibet in China. The problem will continue until Tibet becomes free again. So, the advice of the Chinese leaders will not be applicable to Nepal, as the Chinese leaders not only don’t know the diversity of Nepalese people but also even don’t know the real desire of the Tibetans. The Chinese leaders have hoped to keep Tibet under their thumbs. If the history is any guide such coercive rule is not sustainable for long.

Indian leaders have proposed Chairman Prachanda to follow federalism and federal state based on languages. What does it mean? Chairman Prachanda has not made it clear to the Nepalese people: what is the difference between the ethnic-based federalism and language-based federalism? Again the diversity of Nepal is unique, and not comparable to any country. Nepal needs to have its own system not the system others have advised to have. Time will soon be when China and India might need to follow the system Nepal designs and enforces; Chairman Prachanda needs to understand it.

‘Capitalist People’s Democratic Development’ model of the UCPN-Maoist is the unique in the sense that it is applicable to India and China as much as to Nepal. Political development cannot be sustained without the fast economic development and alleviating the poverty has been shown by the Indian democracy and its economic development during the last sixty years of existence as an independent country. Only the economic development without the political development will not be sustainable has been shown by the fast economic development of China without the political development during the last three decades. China needs to adopt the democratic system of governance. China has already adopted the capitalist system of the economic development. India needs to adopt the capitalist system of development to sustain its democratic system of governance. The irony is that democratic India adopted the socialist mode of development whereas the communist China followed the capitalist mode of economic development. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 because of its unsustainable system of developing only the political system ignoring the economic development. Thus, the result of the unbalanced development has been the cause of the demise of the Soviet Union.

May 2, 2013