Join in for peace

I went through both, Asia Briefing No. 36 and Asia Report No. 91 of International Crisis Group(www.icg.org). Both of those could not change my view on the King’s decision. I found them more principle based than on ground realities. I do not dare to disrespect the ideals of democracy, upon which the future of Nepal rests; I also do not deny that there have been strategic, operational, and tactical lapses in the past. But I can not find why we can not declare emergency to protect democracy? Why we can not reorganize things that have gone berserk? Why we can not take sterner steps to fight with the terrorists when all attempts to negotiations have failed? Why we can not conduct investigations on corruptions? Why every step is being suspected? I know there are gaps in between the stage of our democracy and yours. You have full grown, matured, cultured democratic politics. The King has rightly painted the picture of our state of politics by saying that ‘terrorist activities coupled with politics far removed from the common man gave a fillip to instability to the nation putting democracy at risk.’ You can not imagine the anarchy created by Maoists here. The emergency came only after the failure of all the possible democratic exercises as last resort. I also would like to say that there is no similarity between the King’s step and Gen. Musharaf. King’s steps are totally within the constitutional framework and time bound. Moreover it was Royal move not ‘Royal coup’ as has been termed. It is widely supported and welcomed by people in general as a relief—of course not by all politicians. Finally, I pity those political ‘leaders’ who have gone to India and declared joining the terrorist outfits-the Maoists. They have not only ruined the image but also discredited Nepal. This is a time to remove the cancer that is--the terrorism. Let us all join in for this mission. Once this is achieved then we can do some politics.
1 Mar 2005