From Kasama (Eric Ribellarsi):
“Life and Death” for Nepal’s Coup Regime
For more background of the current crisis in Nepal, read this.
For 7 years, post-monarchy Nepal has been without a unifying constitution. Its Constituent Assembly has collapsed as of 2011, and its reactionary forces have been unable to cohere a new legitimate form of rule in Nepal. It is in this context that reactionary leaders of Nepal declare that staging a coup and holding elections under this coup is a matter of “life and death.” (1)
And it is in the face of all of this political corruption on the back of the people that Nepal’s Maoists are continuing to boycott the elections which are being organized by a coup d’etat regime led by unelected Prime Minister Regmi. The Nepali Maoists have gathered a growing political coalition of 57 political parties (grown from the 33 that participated in this month’s general strike) against these coup elections. (2)
The CPN-Maoist “People’s Volunteers” have begun organizing people to refuse to take part in the elections, have fought and chased away state election officials, and have worked to defeat a new “Nepal citizenship” scheme aimed at warping the election results. The citizenship scheme is suspected of granting citizenship to Indian businessmen residing in Nepal, and making it impossible to register for indigenous people in the remote regions of Nepal. (2)
One after another, reactionary leaders of Nepal have pompously declared that they will bring the CPN-Maoist into these elections, or that CPN-Maoist will be crushed (Prachanda’s language). Baburam Bhattarai, a leading counter-revolutionary, has assured everyone that “The CPN-Maoist led by Mohan Baidya will be incorporated in the four-party political mechanism,” (1) but once again, the Maoist revolutionaries and their coalition have rejected all offers under the coup regime. Instead, they refused to even attend talks with the government: “It is meaningless to hold dialogue regarding the elections to be conducted by the unconstitutional government. We want to inform about our inability to sit for such talks,” said Mohan Baidya (Kiran). (2)
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who is part of organizing the elections, called for state repression of the Maoists: “My hope is that if he [Baidya] persists in trying to keep people from registering as voters or holding successful elections, the people who interfere should be arrested and prevented from illegal activities,” said Carter. The CPN-Maoist cannot resort to violence and intimidation, which are illegal, while raising concerns over the legitimacy of the current government, he said. (3)
Mass demonstrations and assemblies are planned for the early month of May, beginning with a mass demonstration in Kathmandu on May 1st, followed by local assemblies throughout the country.
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