The political landscape in Nepal is undergoing rapid and unprecedented changes. The three-week general strike in April forced King Gyanendra to restore the country’s parliament, which he had shut down in 2002. This House of Representatives then selected a prime minister and, after a few days, announced a cabinet. Unable to break with the political culture developed during their long years in office under the king, there was a tug of war over portfolios. On 18 May, this cabinet put forward a proclamation that was then approved by the House. The parliamentarian leaders termed this a glorious and historic day. The government declared the following day a national holiday, hoping that many thousands of people would come out to support the proclamation. Quite a few thousand people took to the streets across the country, but in addition to supporting this resolution, many also chanted what has by now become very popular slogan: “Leaders, beware! Don’t betray us again!” In fact, there have been demonstrations by people of various walks of life every day since the reinstatement of parliament. Among the most notable was a march by angry students armed with batons in early May. The main theatre for these protests is Singhadarbar, the office of the Prime Minister, and since the reinstatement of the House of Representatives, most days this office has remained under siege by demonstrators distrustful of what is going on there. Moreover, as the BBC put it on 19 May, “Another move quietly made by the authorities was to ban demonstrations in parts of Kathmandu around the government buildings and the royal palace, just as the authorities of the previous royal government did.”

Having tabled the proclamation in the House, Prime Minister Girija Koirala said, “Through the peaceful movement, we have been successful in returning sovereign power to the people and establishing the people as the sole source of state power.” This deceptive statement contradicted his own admission that, “Each and every word in the proclamation has been written with the martyr’s blood.”  First of all, this parliamentary party leader completely ignored the real force that made the 19-day struggle successful – and without which the general strike would not have taken place with the support of the parliamentary parties: the 10-year long People’s War led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Secondly, the reality was that these 19 days were not peaceful at all. Certainly this is incontestable on the part of the regime. King Gyanendra unleashed the police and army against the demonstrators, killing around two dozen and injuring at least 5,000 more. Thousands of people were detained. The people were also never peaceful. First of all, although the CPN(M) called a ceasefire in the Kathmandu valley, the People’s Liberation Army under its leadership kept all the country’s highways under its armed control. During these 19 days the PLA launched major assaults on government and military installations, and shot down a Royal Army helicopter in the east. Demonstrators in Kathmandu and other cities clashed with the security forces repeatedly, even if armed only with stones and other primitive weapons. They dug trenches to stop the Royal Army from entering the cities of Latitpur and Kirtipur, and staged violent resistance in Bhaktapur, Thimi and the areas surrounding Kathmandu.

In an 18 May statement from the CPN(M) Central Committee, the party’s Chairman Prachanda said, “Our party welcomes and supports the Declaration proposed by the government of the seven parties and approved by the reinstated House of Representatives today as victory of the 12-point memo of understanding [signed by the seven partiers and the CPN(M) as the basis of the April general strike] and the people’s historic movement. This Declaration has taken important political steps against the feudal autocratic monarchy. In this regard, our party is proud of the fulfilment of some of the demands, though partially and politically, which we had been raising since before the historic initiation of the People’s War.” Nevertheless, he continued, “This Declaration, on the whole, does not address the needs and aspirations of the people.” The Declaration scrapped the king’s authority over the Royal Army. There are many formal changes, such as changing the name of the Royal Nepal Army to the Nepal Army, His Majesty’s Government to the Nepal Government, and declaring the formerly Hindu kingdom of Nepal to be a secular state. But, Chairman Prachanda said, reducing the king to a ceremonial position is “incomplete” in regard to “the essence and the aspirations of the people to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic”.

Having not spoken against mounting foreign intervention in the Nepalese politics, not mentioned anything about comprehensive restructuring of the state, which mainly means, in the context of Nepal, the right of self determination for the [oppressed] nationalities, not even touched the question of national and regional autonomy and a federal state structure, not mentioned anything about necessity of land to the tiller and an independent economic policy, not mentioned anything about the need to respect the people’s fundamental rights to education, health and employment, and nothing spoken about special right for the downtrodden castes [dalits, so-called “untouchables”] and women, it appears very clear that the fundamental problems the Nepalese people encounter day-to-day will not be solved by this Declaration. The surprising silence towards solving the serious problems of Nepalese society brought to light by ten years of People’s War and the imminent dialogue has raised serious doubts about the Declaration. Every Nepali should give serious thought to whether this Declaration is part of a grave conspiracy to overshadow the dialogue, the election of a constituent assembly and a forward-going political solution, and confuse the people. Having not mentioned the historic 12-point memo of understanding, an odour of an ill intention, of conspicuously putting all the achievements of the movement into the baggage of the parliamentarian parties, is once again being given rise to by the Declaration. Whether the seven parties are attempting to avert the spirit and aspiration of the 12-point memo of understanding as per their wishes is a very serious issue.

Having expressed a commitment to take these serious issues to the table of dialogue and among the masses of people, we appeal to all the political parties, civil society, social organisations, intellectuals and prominent personalities and broad masses of people to engage in serious debate on these fundamental questions”, Prachanda concluded. In response to the reinstatement of the House of Representatives, the CPN(M) sent the parliamentary parties a proposed roadmap for Nepal’s future after the successful holding of a party Central Committee meeting. Kantipuronline (13 May) said that the 22 points include the following: the “declaration of a ceasefire; finalisation of code of conduct; formation of a talks team; release of political prisoners; starting talks; dissolution of the old parliament, constitution and government; formation of an interim guideline and government by holding a political conference with representation from the political parties, civil society and renowned personalities of different sectors; setting of electoral constituencies by ensuring the representation from people of all classes, castes, sectors and genders; holding constituent assembly elections under reliable international supervision; and restructuring of the whole state structures including the People’s Liberation Army and the Royal Nepalese Army as per the popular mandate expressed through the (constituent assembly) elections.”

The Maoist party has also announced that preparations for the talks would be conducted by a three-member team headed by Central Committee member Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who arrived in Kathmandu by plane from the western Nepal city of Nepalgung. A 13-member central party speakers’ team has also been set up to address the peaceful mass meetings across the country that the CPN(M) has begun to organise. The BBC reported that tens of thousands of people took part in a 20 May mass meeting in the city of Biratnagar, eastern Nepal, where a member of the party negotiations team spoke. One member of this team is Martrika Prasad Yadav. Yadav and Suresh Ale Magar, CPN(M) leaders who were kidnapped in India and taken to Nepal in February 2004, were released from military custody on 12 May.

In the meantime, the big powers have been continuing their political intervention. Right after the reinstatement of parliament, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, visited Nepal. The first thing he offered the Prime Minister was weapons. In a speech to an American Congressional committee, Boucher said,  “We also stand ready to provide assistance to security forces if requested by the new government; I told Prime Minister Koirala the same when I met him on May 2. AWTW